An Annual for Xmas - A Xmas Annual?

[starscape]

No Rupert (or Blue Peter either) for me. Whenever I saw them, they didn't hold much interest either. Give me a Kraut getting a bayonet in the face for my childhood reading anyday.

[SID]

...

[SID]

I actually had no idea he's still going, though Sid's post tells me he is, at least in book form. Does anyone know if he still appears in the Express as a strip?

As far as I am aware and Wikipedia says it is still going.

Definitely that one of his strips in the new annual is new.

[Muffy]

Monster Fun and Dr Who annuals were the ones I looked forward to every year.

I had read an old Jon Pertwee annual at school during a wet lunch break and whenever it rained I would reread it over and over. So mum gave me the Dr Who annual 1978 for Xmas 1977. I carried on getting this every Xmas until Colin Baker's last one.

The Monster Fun annual's reminded me of my first comic from 1975.

[stevezodiac]

Yes Rupert is in the Daily Express every day but I've never read it. I noticed that modern annuals like Dr Who and Marvel books are incredibly thin. Nothing like the 144 pages of days gone by.

[SID]

Yes Rupert is in the Daily Express every day but I've never read it. I noticed that modern annuals like Dr Who and Marvel books are incredibly thin. Nothing like the 144 pages of days gone by.

But at least the quality's better as in that normally they are in full colour. Admittedly, I miss the bumper books which took a little while to read.

[abacus]

Usually after the toys were played and the excitement of christmas quietened down would I then turn to any annual I had received.Most annuals came from aunts and uncles my parents wouldn't have bought any unless I had specifically asked for them.It's quite nostagic when buying old annuals to see the date and inscription inside from relatives of those that received them ,that's another thing of the past. I must confess apart from comics i didn't do much reading until at around 15 yrs when I bought a large book about animals from Woolworths out of my own money. Books have been important to me ever since and the curiosity for knowledge continues.At christmas time you always got a few colouring books thrown in, some great covers but that is about all that could be said for them.

[big bad bri]

I remember as a kid i was gutted there was never a Nutty annual produced & that ran quite a few years.

[Kashgar]

As Lew has already mentioned Thomsons were very cautious when it came to launching new comic annual titles. I think they took the view that sales of, say, a Nutty annual would have only come about through a loss in sales somewhere else in the Thomson annuals output. A sort of 'if it ain't broke don't mend it' approach.

[Kashgar]

When it comes to our own memories of childhood Christmasses I'm fairly certain that most annuals we received then are now forever sprinkled with glitter whatever their
content. For myself the Beezer Book for 1966 and the Victor Book for 1967 both bring a warm glow of Yuletide nostalgia everytime I see their covers. Not because there is anything vaguely Christmassy about them as such but because they were on the top
of my pile of annuals when I opened my book parcels on those consecutive Christmasses nearly fifty years ago.

[Kashgar]

As for the title of most Christmassy annual I think you would go a long way to beat the Film Fun Annual for 1939.
This particular book containing no less than eight 4pg Xmas themed comic strips in its
160 pages featuring Laurel and Hardy, Harold Lloyd, Claude Dampier in one each, Joe. E. Brown in two and, quite amazingly, Wheeler and Woolsey in three.

[Lew Stringer]

When it comes to our own memories of childhood Christmasses I'm fairly certain that most annuals we received then are now forever sprinkled with glitter whatever their
content. For myself the Beezer Book for 1966 and the Victor Book for 1967 both bring a warm glow of Yuletide nostalgia everytime I see their covers. Not because there is anything vaguely Christmassy about them as such but because they were on the top
of my pile of annuals when I opened my book parcels on those consecutive Christmasses nearly fifty years ago.

Agreed. The recollections of having them on Christmas Day are so strong that any lack of seasonal content was irrelevant. It's been 50 years this Christmas since I had my first annual, The Dandy Book for 1965 (undated on the cover), and I still remember the excitement of opening it and reading the first story (entitled 'Diamond Dick'! - no sniggers at the back there).

[SID]

It's been 50 years this Christmas since I had my first annual, The Dandy Book for 1965 (undated on the cover), and I still remember the excitement of opening it and reading the first story (entitled 'Diamond Dick'! - no sniggers at the back there).

I got that book. Not as a boy as I only started getting them from 1972 onwards. But recently I had backdated so that I now have them from 1964.

I am in agreement here. As a boy, an annual was specifically for Christmas regardless whether the content was or not. Besides, particularly with the humour comics, you got that in spades in the Christmas issue.

Well, I am getting The Dandy Annual 2015 for this Christmas. The little boy in me can't wait to unwrap it Christmas day.

[Digifiend]

Yes Rupert is in the Daily Express every day but I've never read it. I noticed that modern annuals like Dr Who and Marvel books are incredibly thin. Nothing like the 144 pages of days gone by.

Yeah, even the Beano and Dandy annuals are down to 112 pages now, and they're still thicker than most of them - some are even only 64 pages, which isn't much more than a monthly kids magazine.

[Lew Stringer]

Yes Rupert is in the Daily Express every day but I've never read it. I noticed that modern annuals like Dr Who and Marvel books are incredibly thin. Nothing like the 144 pages of days gone by.

Yeah, even the Beano and Dandy annuals are down to 112 pages now, and they're still thicker than most of them - some are even only 64 pages, which isn't much more than a monthly kids magazine.

That's true, but instead of comparing them to books of years ago, if you compare them to other children's books of the present day in a similar format, the annuals still stand up well in regards to page count and price.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=sr_nr_n_0 ... id=1025612