Treasury of British Comics Annual 2024?

[Swerty]

Ordered. I think this is a fantastic idea and am really looking forward to getting an annual for Christmas once again.

For the record, I would devour a 2000ad or Dredd Annual.

Me too.Sorely missed

[nxylas]

Ordered. I think this is a fantastic idea and am really looking forward to getting an annual for Christmas once again.

For the record, I would devour a 2000ad or Dredd Annual.

Me too.Sorely missed

I think the hundred-page Christmas prog is supposed to fulfil that function, but it doesn't really. It's too much like a regular prog. I think they should suspend regular stories for an issue like they do with the regened progs, and make it more self-contained.

[IndigoPrime]

The end of year Prog is supposed to hook people back in again though. If it was self contained, that might result in fewer people buying the following issue.

[nxylas]

The end of year Prog is supposed to hook people back in again though. If it was self contained, that might result in fewer people buying the following issue.

Fair point.

[Richard]

Only a maximum of five stories can continue into the next prog, which is less than half the page count. The majority is still one-off stories.

[broodblik]

The covers next to each other:

[Swerty]

Only a maximum of five stories can continue into the next prog, which is less than half the page count. The majority is still one-off stories.

There's nothing to stop them releasing Annuals still and do an end of year bumper Prog.The annuals used to come out in August

[broodblik]

I would like the return of the annuals as well but not at the cost of the xmas prog.

[Tjm86]

There's nothing to stop them releasing Annuals still and do an end of year bumper Prog.The annuals used to come out in August

True.  A couple of things are worth considering though.  The quality of the contents could be highly variable at times.  Some of the artwork was incredibly poor and the stories themselves weren't much better.  Granted there were some absolute classics but both the annuals and summer specials generally suffered from that, particularly the last few.

Then there's the matter of the reprint material.  As a rule a sizeable chunk was given over to this.  Again, this was not always a bad thing and there were some real gems that we probably wouldn't have otherwise seen but there was also a lot of Tooth stuff too.  These days a lot of that is already taken up with the Megazine plus the Treasury collection.  Finding cost-effective material that hasn't been reprinted to death (is that actually possible, how many different versions of Cursed Earth / Apocalypse War do some of us have ...) might be a bit of a challenge potentially.

Times and tastes have changed.  Maybe it is worth thinking about reviving this tradition.  Annuals are still around albeit rather poorly designed these days.  It's probably fair to say that anyone haunting these parts would snap one up in an instant but the bigger challenge is likely to be enticing a wider audience.  Certainly plenty to ponder.

[IndigoPrime]

Most annuals are loss leaders. They are not profitable. If a 2000 AD one were to exist, it would likely be stuffed full of reprint and far more expensive than typical annuals, due to the target demographic and lack of mainstream appeal compared to, say, Lego or Paw Patrol.

There are some exceptions in this market. DCT's Dandy and Beano annuals remain excellent. But I also suspect the company ultimately makes naff-all from them and they're essentially a cunning way to tempt parents to subscribing their kids to The Beano. (Notably, The Phoenix does not do an annual, which says a lot about the nature of the market.)

[Funt Solo]

It's certainly possible to pick some gems out of the old annuals: the 1982 2000 AD Annual contained Bax the Burner and The Alien Zoo - but those are the chief highlights and consist of 14pp out of 128.

Compare that to a seasonal Prog - the most recent of which had 78pp of new strip content (out of 100).

(To be fair to the Annual, it did have other new strip content, for a total of 40pp out of 128 - or 31%.)

Summary: the seasonal offerings from the current HOT are superior to the past.

[JohnW]

But what about the next generation?
Don't they have a right to read Phantom Patrol?
And how will they learn about the space shuttle (which is going to change everything by the year 2000)?
Would you deny them the hours we spent trying to spot the differences between two almost identical pictures taken from a strip that ran before we started reading the prog?
And what about those out-of-continuity stories done by second-string artists and writers who weren't wholly familiar with the material?

Don't you want kids today to have Christmas stories in September?

[Funt Solo]

I have been foolish and bow my head in shame. 

[Jim_Campbell]

It's certainly possible to pick some gems out of the old annuals: the 1982 2000 AD Annual contained Bax the Burner and The Alien Zoo - but those are the chief highlights and consist of 14pp out of 128.

I always thought that the Judge Dredd annuals showed the way — they had significantly lower page counts, but from the outset had three long, full colour, high-quality Dredd strips. I mean, really top drawer stuff. Some of the page count inbetween was undoubtedly filler, but there were some gems in there, too.

(That said, when Fleetway ditched the old annuals for the yearbooks, which were (IIRC) largely original material, those didn't sell, either.)

[Tjm86]

This is my point.  There are some absolutely cracking strips in the old annuals and even the specials.  There is also a lot of material that is not up to the same standard as the prog.  The last few years of Fleetway were abysmal on pretty much every front.  Perhaps that was a response to market conditions.  Then again, given what we know about the Maxwell family, perhaps not ...

Oh and Ware ... Some of us had to wait longingly until Christmas Day for the privilege of those things ...