Pow! Annual

By various (Odhams Books)
SBN: 60039607X

This quirky item is one of my fondest childhood memories and quite inspirational in directing my career path, and as well as being still a surprisingly qualitative read I can now see it as a bizarre and desperate little experiment. By the end of the 1960s DC Thomson had finally overtaken the monolithic comics publishing giant that had been created by Alfred Harmsworth at the beginning of the twentieth century. By absorbing rivals such as Eagle‘s Hulton Press, Fleetway/Odhams/IPC had stayed at the forefront of sales and by latching onto every fad they had kept their material contemporary, if not fresh, but the writing was on the wall.

The comedy strip was on the rise and action anthologies were finding it hard to keep readers attention. By 1970 when this annual was released the trend generated by the success of the Batman TV show was dying, so why release a book of all-new superhero strips in a title very much associated with comedy features and cheap Marvel Comics reprints? A last ditch attempt to revive the genre? Perhaps a cheap means of using up inventory?

I don’t know and I don’t care. What they produced was a wonderful capsule of fanboy delight, stuffed with thrills, colourful characters and a distinctly cool, underplayed stylishness, devoid of the brash histrionics of American comic books.

Within these pages lurked ‘Magno, Man of Magnetism’, ‘Aquavenger’, ‘Mr. Tomorrow: Criminal of the Future’, The Hunter and the Hunted’, ‘Electro’ (no relation to the Marvel villain – other than the high-voltage shtick), The fascinating ‘Esper Commandos’, ‘Marksman’, ‘The Phantom’ (again no relation to the US crime-fighter), the monstrous ‘Norstad of the Deep’ and the crusading ‘Time Rider’, purportedly all created by Alan Hebden and illustrated in alternating full colour (painted) and half-colour (black and magenta) sections by IPC’s European stable of artists. I’m not sure, but I think there’s some Massimo Belardinelli, Carlos Cruz and lots from that prolific bunch at the Giolitti studio.

These are all great little adventures, beautifully illustrated and singularly British in tone, even though most of the characters are American – or aliens (and no, that’s not necessarily the same thing) that easily withstand a critical rereading today, but the most important thing was the inspiring joy of these one-off wannabes. They certainly prompted me to fill sketchbook after sketchbook and determined that I would neither be a “brain surgeon or a bloke wot goes down sewers in gumboots”. This great little tome gave me that critical push towards the fame and fortune I now enjoy!

© 1970 The Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited.