ITV Annual for Boys and Girls 1964

I borrowed a copy of this from a mate as it had a Mike Western comic strip. And, as I always do with annuals, I jotted down the contents, which I'll list below. As annuals go I actually found it rather uninspiring although there are some items of interest once you wade through the sports and various photo features. Two short stories based on American TV shows (77 Sunset Strip and Hawaiian Eye, neither of which I remember), one comic strip (based on No Hiding Place) and a feature on Fireball XL5. I don't know if this is widely known amongst Gerry Anderson fans so I've posted scans of the article below. It was a poor follow-up to an earlier annual, TV Crimebusters, from the same publisher a year earlier, which also featured some of the same elements (stories based on 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye [also written by Alan Fennell], but also including Danger Man, Dixon of Dock Green and The Avengers, all of which I watched when I was growing up. I guess you have to be in your fifties to appreciate the ITV Annual and stars like natural history filmmaker Aubrey Buxton, roving reporter Bute Hewes and guitarist Bert Weedon. As someone desperately clinging onto his forties my first guitar hero was Hank Marvin (especially after The Shadows appeared in Thunderbirds Are Go).

Incidentally, I notice that Network are releasing a special edition Fireball XL5 DVD this June. The previous (2003) release had no extras to speak of: this one has a 60-page book, a brand new documentary and various other features including a home movie by artist Bill Mevin, who drew the contemporary "Supercar" comic strip for TV Comic.

ITV Annual for Boys and Girls 1964, ed. Huw Thomas (TV Publications, 1963, 102pp, 8/6, cover by ?)
* [Misc. Material] * (front endpapers; television studio) * ms; illus. photo
4 * Thomas, Huw * (Introduction) * ed
5 * [Misc. Material] * Survival (elephant) * il; illus. photo
6 * Buxton, Aubrey * The New Ark * ar; illus. photos
14 * Anon. * Here and Now * ar; illus. photos
23 * Anon. * The Cabah Caper * ss [77 Sunset Strip]; illus. photos
31 * Hewes, Bute * News Behind the News * ar; illus. photos
36 * [Comic Strip] * No Hiding Place * cs; illus. Mike Western
44 * Williams, Gerwyn * Rugby * ar; illus. photos
48 * Weedon, Bert * My Guitar and Me * ar; illus. photos
52 * Anon. * The Lilliput World of Fireball XL5 * ar; illus. photos
56 * Anon. * Police 5 * ar; illus. photos
60 * Fennell, Alan * Hawaiian Eye: Danger in the Deep * ss [Hawaiian Eye]; illus. photos
68 * Mills, John * Painting Club * ar; illus. photos
73 * Burrell, Roger * Man Overboard * ar; illus. photos
77 * Matthew, Brian * Thank Your Lucky Stars * ar; illus. photos
83 * Anon. * Telstar * ar; illus. photos
88 * [Misc. Material] * TV Picture Quiz * qz; illus. photos
90 * [Misc. Material] * Spot the Stars * qz; illus. photos
91 * [Misc. Material] * TV Crossword * pz
91 * [Misc. Material] * Seeing Sport * qz; illus. photos
92 * Gover, Alf * Cricket * ar; illus. photos
96 * Anon. * I’m Going to be a… Television Technician * ar; illus. photos
* [Misc. Material] * (rear endpapers; mobile camera) * ms; illus. photo

Crackers Annual

Another selection of annual covers from the archive I'm trying to build up. Crackers Annual ran from 1932-40, with covers dated 1933 to 1941, so our little gallery is incomplete... if you can help with scans of the missing issues—1935, 1936—please drop me a line.

(* Crackers Annual © IPC Media.)

Noah's Ark Annual

This was a children's annual from the early- and mid-1930s containing stories for youngsters about animals and often featuring some gratuitously cute colour illustrations like the one that heads our column.

(* illustrations (c) IPC Media)

Schoolgirls Own Annual

More from my recent photoshoot of annuals covers, this time covering The Schoolgirls' Own Annual. This is a complete run of the title. The first has the Amalgamated Press's 'file copy' sticker on it, as do a couple of the scarce wartime issues so if anyone has decent scans of these sans stickers they would be welcome. Update: Thanks to Alistair McGown I've been able to tinker with the first volume and patched over the sticker.

The main artists were A. E. Bestall (better known as the illustrator of Rupert the Bear) (1923-28) and Tom Laidler (1930-35). Not sure who painted the other covers.

(* Illustrations © IPC Media.)

Funny Wonder Annual

For no reason other than I had the opportunity to photograph these, here's a little celebration of Roy Wilson's delightful covers for Funny Wonder Annual.

(* Funny Wonder Annual © IPC Media.)

Brown Watson Annual - Part 2

(* Jeremy Briggs returns to take another look at those elusive...)

BROWN WATSON ANNUALS - Part 2

From the comments both on and off line, the blog on the Brown Watson annuals has sparked quite a few memories. The piece was intended to give a flavour of the type of the live action TV tie-in annuals the Brown Watson company produced in the mid to late Seventies and of the British artists that they used to produce the artwork, artists who would become better known to us in later years. The reprinting of American and French strips in these annuals is of less interest, while we will cover the later Grandreams annuals at a different time.

As mentioned last time John Bolton art is in a surprising number of these annuals either as full comic strips, as spot illustrations for text stories, or as frontispieces. The previous post showed the copyright 1977 New Avengers annual which had colour Bolton comic strips. The copyright 1978 New Avengers annual above reprints two French comic strips by Pierre LeGoff and relegates Bolton to spot illustrations.

The previous post showed Bolton strip art from the copyright 1977 Planet of the Apes Annual. He is also in the other two Apes annuals. The copyright 1975 Apes annual above reprints American comic strips and uses Bolton spot illustrations, while the copyright 1976 annual uses him for one colour comic strip and Trigan Empire, Dan Dare and War/Battle Picture Library artist Oliver Frey for the other, as seen below.

The black covered Bionic Woman Annual copyright 1978 shown last time with colour Ian Gibson comic strips is complemented by the pink covered copyright 1977 one which also has colour Gibson strips and this nice single page origin of the character.

Last, but definitely not least, is more colour David Lloyd art. Last time it was from the Logan's Run Annual which was copyright 1978 and was based on the TV series rather than the movie or the books, while this time it is from another late Seventies TV series based on a previously created character. The Dick Barton Special Agent Annual is copyright 1978 and is based on the Southern Television series screened in early 1979 with Tony Vogel and the eponymous agent. In this annual, David Lloyd illustrated two 9 page strips which ran over three chapters each in the annual with six pages of black and white art and three of colour in each story, plus all the spot illustrations in the book.

The other annuals that were mentioned by readers last time in the comments section include The Magician and The Gemini Man. Without having these to hand I can only refer you to the excellent Tony's Trading website which has a remarkable selection of annuals covers and is always worth having a browse through, although even he does not have those two particular titles. As last time, if you can add any further titles then hit the comment button.