Comics UK

Here's one to get the brainbox buzzing.My question is-has there ever been a series(original)that only ever featured in a comic's summer specials or annuals and not the weekly itself?

'Lancelot Knight - Special Investigator' and 'N.E. Spooks, Ghost Hunter' in various Boys' World Annuals. (Incidentally does anyone know who drew the latter?)

- Phil Rushton

Off hand a series of text stories in the Beezer Book in the mid 1960's springs to mind called 'The Arch of Time' and a picture strip series also in the Beezer Book in the 1960's called something like 'Our Sheriffs an Ape', although I have a feeling this may have been the title of the original text series in Skipper where they got the scripts from. The Topper book also ran a strip called Postie Knox drawn by Artie Jackson for many years which never featured in the weekly comic.

What about the Kestrel story that appeared in the 1975 Beezer annual? I'm sure that I can't remember a story like that appearing in the Beezer comic. But it's probably a reprint from somewhere...

colcool007 wrote:What about the Kestrel story that appeared in the 1975 Beezer annual? I'm sure that I can't remember a story like that appearing in the Beezer comic. But it's probably a reprint from somewhere...

Annuals often featured one-off stories that never appeared in the comics. I think they still do actually, although Captain Storm was asking specifically about a series of recurring characters isolated to annuals / specials if I read his opening post correctly.

Lew

Correct and right Lew I am aware that certain one off text stories did appear in specials and annuals as indeed did one off picture strips.Aside from reprints it's all a bit of a puzzle

The reason that annuals sometimes ran series of their own, as in the case of the Beezer's 'Our Sheriffs an Ape' ( this was the title used in the annuals in which it appeared on checking) was, I think, sometimes to do with the nature of the adventure strips being published in the paper at that time, as a lot of adventure strips didn't allow for a special annual episode because of the very linear nature of the story involved. Therefore it was often easier to include the odd strip or text series in the annuals that was complete in itself.

The early 2000AD annuals had a series of Eagle stories (one had smokeman, another were future soldiers in a Roman era - memories a bit shaky).

Chris

chrissmillie wrote:The early 2000AD annuals had a series of Eagle stories (one had smokeman, another were future soldiers in a Roman era - memories a bit shaky).

Chris

Chris, I think you mean Phantom Patrol which was a platoon of Britsh soldiers with a pile of high tech gadgetry that they had found waltzing around time in their Landing Craft!

Just been looking through some old issues of "Fun Sized" and came across one which may fit the bill - circa 1999. It was called "The Comet" about a Super hero who got powers from a Comet strangely enough - more adventure strip than humour. I remember popping up regularly around that time in Fun Size, Specials and Annuals (all Dandy) but never the weekly Dandy - of course I may well be completely wrong on this count, if he was in the weekly it can't have been frequently, but he seemed to be in specials a lot.

Can anyone provide any more info?

chrissmillie wrote:The early 2000AD annuals had a series of Eagle stories (one had smokeman, another were future soldiers in a Roman era - memories a bit shaky).

Reprints all.

'The Phantom Patrol' started in 'Swift', and was reprinted (I think) as 'The Ghost Patrol' a few years later.

'Smokeman' was, I think, an offshoot of 'UFO Agent' from the latterday 60s 'Eagle'.

Even the Rick Random digests got a look in, four old pages to one new one in a peculiar zig-zag reading fashion...