Guess The Comic From This Ad?

[Captain Storm]

Which begs the question....going on past trends,why don't the owners of all these past comics put out Annuals and maybe Holiday Specials instead of weeklies. I think along the lines of Birthday Book for Boys/Girls etc. Most shoppers would probably pick it up as a stocking filler. Could be a good way to weth the appetites of young readers.

The Cap.

[Digifiend]

To be honest, I do think that Egmont, who own the Fleetway archive from 1970 onwards, could quite easily make up a Toxic annual using a combination of new material of their own characters, and characters from Buster and Whizzer and Chips to pad it out since they can't use the non-comic strip material in an annual for licensing reasons (they can't advertise third party products such as TV shows and video games in an annual, like the regular comic does - it's the reason why they've never done a Toxic Annual and why the Dandy Annual never went Xtreme). The reason I mention Toxic is that that name would be recognised by today's kids, unlike the other two comics I just mentioned, so doing a new Buster Annual for example would be a non-starter.

[Lew Stringer]

Which begs the question....going on past trends,why don't the owners of all these past comics put out Annuals and maybe Holiday Specials instead of weeklies. I think along the lines of Birthday Book for Boys/Girls etc. Most shoppers would probably pick it up as a stocking filler. Could be a good way to weth the appetites of young readers.

The Cap.

It's a different market than it used to be and retailers aren't so keen on annuals now. (They definitely don't like Summer Specials any more, taking up shelf space for several months, which is why they've died out.)

At present the only way you're going to see old titles return in book form is in the shape of the recent Jackie, Look-In or Best of Victor books, pitched at the nostalgia market. If there's enough interest there, those sort of books will continue. If they don't sell, then publishers will move onto other subjects.

However it's unlikely old comic annual titles will return for children. What child today would be interested in a Topper Book, or a Lion Annual? The characters and titles would be as alien to him as those from the Funny Wonder or Picture Fun would have been to us. Egmont's Classic Comics from last year didn't seem to make much of an impact sadly

Your idea of a general "Birthday Book" type title might have more of a chance but it's a case of getting retailers interested.

[steelclaw]

Hurricane must run it pretty close, though. I think that ran for less than a year but the annuals went on for ages!

Hurricane had 63 Comic Issues, and 10 Annuals so Score is still in front.

Digi Beezer and Bunty had thousands of comics.
The least amount of comics with the most Annuals not the most Annuals when the comic ended.