Man With 15,000 Comics

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31238, 9 December 1966, Page 1

Man With 15,000 Comics

A man who takes an intense pleasure out of reading comics lives in Waltham. His collection now stands at between 10,000 and 15,000 and is packed in cartons in various rooms of his Humboldt street home. There are 70 different types.

“I like to laugh and comics give me considerable pleasure,” 31-year-old Mr T. E. Redden said yesterday. “Mind you, once I’ve read a comic the sting is taken out of the pleasure, so to speak.” Mr Redden began seriously collecting his comics in January, 1965. He then had 70. “I advertised, with good results mostly, and I swapped with other comic readers. "You know, it’s surprising

but children are the most tight-fisted about their comics. They build up a tidy little collection. But it's not until mum decides to have a cleanup in the house that the collection comes my way.” His comics accumulated to such an extent that Mr Redden hired premises in Waltham for use as a “swap shop.” “Business is pretty good. It’s not a full-time job for me or anything like that. I work in Christchurch and at the shop afterwards. The family helps me out through the day,” he said. Mr Redden has enjoyed reading comics as long as he can remember. “When I was 13 I had 1000, but we lived in an old house at the time. The comics got mouldy and I had to get rid of them." None of his present collection could be described as collector's pieces: Mr -Redden*

admits that all 10,000 to 15,000 were printed in the last six years. It was partly because of his excessive stock that Mr Redden decided to open his swap shop. “I thought I must not be selfish. Its’ always better to share one's pleasures. So what I have extra goes into the shop at Id and 2d each.” His collection includes comics on war, the wild west, science fiction (“You can’t get nearly enough of these”), funnies, and the classics. Except for a solitary Dutch comic, all are from America or Britain.

In spite of the cartons and piles of comics scattered around the rooms of the house, Mr Redden reckons he knows his stock. “Although it all looks higgledy-piggledy, I know exactly where they are when. I want a particular type,” he said. He admits that he has read only a fraction of his comic collection. "It spoils the pleasure if I just sit down and try to go through them all quickly. I dike to dip into

them now and again. For me comics are a lot of fun.”

When he began collecting, Mr Redden went around the town in his car, knocking on doors to seek people willing to swap comics.

The titles include “Hotspurs,” “The School Friend,” “Giant War Comics,” “Buffalo Bill,” “Smash,” “Lion,” “Valiant,” “Tiger,” “Topper,” and a wide range of Walt Disney comics. “The only thing which worries me now is when do I stop buying them,” he said. Not content with his comics, Mr Redden has begun another collection. This time it is Christmas cards, which he intends to put in scrap books. About 18 months ago he gave about 2000 hard-cover books to the Burwood Hospital because he had too many and they were cluttering up the house. In addition to his comics, Mr Redden has 2000 paperbacks. “These go mostly to the shop. I don’t read them,” he said.