Promotions in pink

As many of you will recall, decades ago D.C. Thomson always used to promote new comics and free gift issues by including four page A4 inserts in the centre pages of The Dandy and The Beano. (An idea also later used by IPC.) These inserts were printed in navy blue ink on pink paper so they always stood out. Their design was a masterclass in how to sell a comic, with dynamic layouts, exciting logos and announcements that were hand lettered to great effect.

Here's one of those inserts that would have appeared in either The Beano or The Dandy in September 1966. (I kept the ad but not the actual comic!) I can't remember if I bought The Hotspur that week. I didn't really follow that comic until 1969, but the advertised stories Test Pilot Z and The Black Hawk sound intriguing.

I understand that these four page inserts (often thrown away) are now more collectable than the issues they appeared in! I kept a stack of them for years then foolishly used them as firelighters ages ago! 

  

It's Yesterday Once More

Even though I spend most of my time writing and drawing them, I very rarely dream about comics. However there was one vivid dream a few years ago where I discovered that some cancelled comics of yesteryear were actually still being published and you'd find the latest editions if you rummaged deep enough into the displays in newsagents' shelves. 

That's sort of what happened in reality today when I found The Topper and The Hotspur in Sainsbury's. Well, strictly speaking it's The Best of The Topper Annual and The Best of The Hotspur Annual, two of the newly published reprint books I mentioned a while ago.

I'd recently acquired The Best of Whizzer and Chips Annual and The Best of 70s Girls' Comics Annual too, thanks to the kindness of someone who sent them to me. These books are all exclusive to Sainsbury's, and not every branch is stocking them. The DC Thomson books have 80 pages and the Egmont ones have 72 pages. Yep, they've lost weight over the years!

I think the DC Thomson books win in terms of print reproduction and reprint choices. The Best of The Topper Annual has some very nice 1960s and 1970s strips, including a Dudley Watkins Mickey the Monkey page and what looks like a Davey Law Beryl the Peril strip. All the old favourites are there including Figaro, Big Uggy, and The Whizzers from Ozz. There are some later strips too, such as Tricky Dicky, but I'd guess at least half of the material is from the sixties and early seventies.

The Best of The Hotspur Annual is another goodie. I'm not too familiar with the DC Thomson adventure comics but from the styles and presentation it looks like the 70s and 80s are covered here. Possibly the 60s too. The only drawback is that as they're annual strips some don't feature the artists who did the weekly adventures, so although King Cobra is here, it's not by Ron Smith. (There is a great Ron Smith contents page though.) 

The Best of 70s Girls' Comics Annual has a selection of stories from Misty, Tammy, Jinty and Sally. The reproduction isn't as good as the Thomson books but everything is legible. There's a few features too, for nostalgic reasons. The Egmont books have chosen to add a 'tanning' effect to the edges of the pages to make them look aged but it's an unnecessary addition really.

The Best of Whizzer and Chips Annual seems to be a random selection of strips. Some are reproduced better than others but overall they're sharp. Oddly, even though the back cover declares 'Chips is inside', the book does not use the 'Two comics in one' gimmick but mixes up the strips instead. There's a Chips cover, but it's on page 10. Thing is, that 'two in one' gimmick never looked convincing in the annuals anyway (and who in their right mind would tear out the middle section of a book?) so perhaps Egmont felt it wouldn't work here, especially with a book that's only 72 pages. Still, it's a pity they didn't simply make the second half of the book a Chips section. 

There are other books in these retro series from Egmont and DC Thomson that I haven't seen yet. The Best of The Beezer Annual, The Best of Bunty Annual, and apparently The Best of Battle Annual and The Best of Roy of the Rovers Annual. Good luck finding them! The books have a RRP of £7.99 but Sainsbury's are selling them for the bargain price of £3.99 each. Alternatively, if you can't find them at your local Sainsbury's, you can buy the DC Thomson books full price from the DCT website:
https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/our-brands/annuals-calendars/annuals.html

DC Thomson revive old titles

Just time for a quick news item. Thanks to members on Comics UK for spotting this. Comic titles we thought we'd never see again have been revived by DC Thomson in the form of four hardback annuals. The Best of The Hotspur, The Best of Bunty, The Best of The Topper and The Best of The Beezer are now available (in 'limited copies') from the DC Thomson shop:
https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/our-brands/annuals-calendars/annuals.html?p=1

'Best of' no doubt means they'll be all-reprint, (even the covers are from old annuals) but this is still exciting news for collectors of British comics. Let's hope they sell well so more may follow next year! 

The Comics that won The War!

Who could have believed that in 2014 we'd see an annual with a cover strip featuring Big Eggo blowing up Adolf Hitler and Hermann Goering? That's exactly what we get with The Beano and The Dandy: The Comics that won The War!, the latest collection of classic DC Thomson strips. 

These archive books have been published every year since the 50 Golden Years book in 1987 and I think this is the best one yet. Many of the previous books have often chopped up strips or overlapped pages to present a busy layout to appeal to children, but this one presents full page strips with no intrusions or redesigning. It gives the impression that this book is aimed at the older reader and the collectors so I hope it sells well in order to encourage DC Thomson to stick to this design.

The contents are marvelous, with numerous strips scanned from wartime editions of The Dandy and The Beano. My only quibble is that most of the art is uncredited, which isn't what one expects from a book aimed at collectors. 

One artist who is given his due is Dudley Watkins, and there's a fantastic pencil sketch of his in here that I've never seen before. There are also many of his Desperate Dan and Lord Snooty strips reprinted, showcasing some very bizarre and surreal stories. 

Just when you think the book is solely about The Dandy and The Beano it throws a curveball with some fantastic cover art from The Rover, The Skipper and The Hotspur story papers. 

There are also a few post-war strips that had WW2 themes, such as a complete Blitz Boy story from an early sixties Dandy Book, drawn by Paddy Brennan.

One of the weirdest strips in the book is a Wild Boy of the Woods episode which features a giant robot Hitler! That's right, - a giant robot Hitler! So bizarre it's worth the cover price alone. 

All in all, The Beano and The Dandy: The Comics that won The War is an excellent collection and deserves a place on the bookshelves of every collector of British comics. The R.R.P. is £12.99 but you'll find it cheaper than that if you shop around.