Do you remember the days of the Annuals?

[broodblik]

Here is a very nice article related to the time when we still had millions of annuals each year (I am giving away my age - the "good" old days):

https://treasuryofbritishcomics.com/its-an-annual-thing-celebrating-the-tradition-of-the-comic-book-annual/

[IndigoPrime]

Nice to see a nod to The Beano in there, given the title still putting out annuals. (Mini-IP loves the Dandy one too.)

[wedgeski]

There wasn't a Christmas were several suspiciously annual-shaped presents weren't stacked under the tree. And the 200AD annuals were the most prized of all, natch. Those things must have been good value for cash-strapped parents.

[AlexF]

Hah! A perfect and timely riposte to my claim that the old Annuals were rubbish. Have linked to the article on the Xmas Prog Rankings blog.

[IndigoPrime]

Looking back now, they were varied fare—a real mix of original gems and crappy reprint. But they were good value for parents and kept kids quiet. I'm impressed by the DC Thomson ones these days, which IIRC are all new material. (The Beano certainly is. I think the Dandy is too.)

[Colin YNWA]

Great article and look who its written by - our very own Maryanddavid of Hibernia.

The covers on these things are so good and could of course entice you in to some right ol' tosh!

[Trooper McFad]

As I've said on AlexF's blog thread I have fond memories of the 2000AD Annuals through the 80s. I'm surely not the only Squaxx who was enticed into Tharg's world (even though at the time not a subscriber to the weekly prog!)

For the hard core at the time they may not have have Thrilled enough for some but looking forward if this is the seeds that Regened sows then Tharg will have followers for the future 👍🏻

[Funt Solo]

Naturally, I applied a spreadsheet to this question when I was indexing the Dan Dare, Starlord and Tornado annuals, because they seemed to contain content that wasn't really related to the publication they were sprouting from.

I codified this as "if the content also exists in the parent publication, it's relevant".

Dan Dare Annual 1979   35% relevance
Dan Dare Annual 1980   35% relevance

Starlord Annual 1980      16% relevance   
Starlord Annual 1981      26% relevance
Starlord Annual 1982      06% relevance

Tornado Annual 1980      18%  relevance
Tornado Annual 1981      38%  relevance

[Dandontdare]

I'm sure Mike Carroll won't mind me sharing his wonderful Christmas fantasy: What if the 2000ad Annuals never stopped ...

[Richard]

I'm glad that didn't happen, they would all take up so much room!

[Swerty]

I know it won't happen but I'd love to see some way of getting 2000ad Annuals back on the agenda.

[Dark Jimbo]

I'm glad that didn't happen, they would all take up so much room!

Not a collector of the Ultimate Collection, obviously!

[IndigoPrime]

That's a nice pic of annuals that never were, but quite optimistic on the page counts for certain years! As for annuals in general, I can't imagine we'll ever see them from Rebellion. They're essentially loss leaders for those that create good ones these days, or full of junk content that costs naff-all to make for the rest. And since hardcovers in general are seemingly hard to shift at full price (look at how even The Out isn't getting one), I can't imagine Rebellion would want to commission a 100+ page annual that'd end up being on sale in WHSmith for a fiver.

[The Corinthian]

That's a nice pic of annuals that never were, but quite optimistic on the page counts for certain years!

Imagine the contents of the end of year specials but bulked out with abridged reprints of ten year old thrills and lots of grainy bw features about solar farms or the Loch Ness Monster.

[Tjm86]

As a nipper the annuals were definitely a Christmas highlight.  I think we forget how many there were at times.  Some of the ads in the progs around the 80's give some sense.

Yes the contents are a mixed bag.  You get a sense in which some of the articles were filler although it can be quite amusing skimming through those related to the Space Race especially after all these years.

The quality of the original material could also be highly variable.  Gems from the likes of McMahon and Dillon (his ABC Warriors tale is amazing).  Other pieces that skirted with painfully embarrassing.

On the reprint side I think we forget how limited the opportunities were to delve into some of the material of yesteryear.  Sometimes the annual was the only chance we had to revisit some of the strips of the first year or so of Tooth, never mind the bits culled from the likes of Valiant and so on.

I do think that for those of us who almost grew up with Tooth, reading the annuals even now works on two levels.  On the one hand we read it as adults whilst simultaneously the child that revelled in it on Christmas Day is still reading it.  Those who are coming to it as adults without that experience are likely to find their reading is quite different I would think.