Category: British Annuals and Albums

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Look and Learn Book 1964


By many & various (Fleetway)
ISBN10: 901267-49-X – ISBN13: 978-0-90126-749-8

One the most missed of publishing traditions in this country is the educational comic. From the fact features in the legendary weekly The Eagle to the small explosion of factual and socially responsible boys and girls papers in the late 1950s to the heady go-getting heydays of the 1960s and 1970s, Britain had a healthy sub-culture of comics that informed, instructed and revealed …and don’t even get me started on sports comics!

Amongst many others, Speed & Power, World of Wonder, Tell Me Why and the greatest of them all Look and Learn spent decades making things clear and bringing the marvels of the world to our childish but avid attentions. They always did so with taste. wit, style and – thanks to the quality of the illustrators involved – astonishing beauty.

Look and Learn launched on 20th January 1962, brainchild of Fleetway Publications Director of Juvenile Publications Leonard Matthews, and executed by Editor David Stone (almost instantly replaced by John Sanders), Sub-Editor Freddie Lidstone and Art Director Jack Parker.

For twenty years and 1049 issues, the shiny beautifully printed comic delighted children by bringing the marvels of the universe to their doors, and was one of the country’s most popular children’s publications. Naturally, there were many spin-off tomes such as The Look and Learn Book of 1001 Questions and Answers, Look and Learn Book of Wonders of Nature, Look and Learn Book of Pets and Look and Learn Young Scientist, as well as the totally engrossing Christmas treat The Look and Learn Book.

This volume was released for Christmas 1971 (as with almost all UK Annuals it was forward-dated) and is a prime example of a lost form. Within this 132 heavy-stock paged hard-back are 46 fascinating features on all aspects of human endeavour, history and natural wonders.

Technology always played a growing part in proceedings and – aided and abetted by printing advances photography – the ever innovative editors subdivided this volume into themed categories: opening naturally with a Science Section that includes – in drawn and painted but mostly photo – features Beneath the Waves – the Story of Submarines, A Jet in your garage?, Cities in the Sky, Our Polluted Planet (yep they were bloody warning us way back then!), Quiet Please! and Tested for Toughness.

To keep readers on their intellectual toes there are tests at the end of each course module and a Science Quiz ushers readers into the next phase – Our Wonderful World of History…

Here – although photographs are increasingly used throughout – traditional illustrators still rule. Diagrams, cartoons, paintings and drawings were rendered by some of the world’s greatest commercial artists and might include such luminaries as Ron and Gerry Embleton, Helen Haywood, Ron Turner, Ken Evans, Angus McBride, Peter Jackson, “Pratt”, Fortunino Matania, John Millar Watt, John Worsley, Alberto “Albert” Breccia, Clive Upton, James E. McConnell, Ken Lilly, C.L. Doughty, Wilf Hardy, Dan Escott, R.B. Davis, Oliver Frey and many others, illuminating the articles and making these books (and the comics) an utter delight for hungry minds to devour whilst the Roast Beast and plum pudding slowly digested…

Right here back then that meant revealing such marvels as Conquerors of the Incas, The Heart of Sienna, When Horses Went to War, Are You Superstitious?, Signs of the Times, The First Americans, and Christmas Customs which comes with its own History Quiz and heralds a swift sojourn in the Wonderful World of Nature.

That means admiring and studying our native fauna in Their Home is the Highlands, Marine Marvels, The Grand Canyon, Winged Beauties (butterflies on stamps), Gems from the Ocean, Fish with a difference, When a Boar Goes to War, Creatures of the Night, Builders without hands, Puma – or Rumour?, Snakes Alive!, Fabulous Monsters and Birds of Prey and then taking the Nature Quiz…

Our Wonderful World of Art injects some high culture to the mix, starting with The Artist at War – enhanced by famous contemporary images from G.H. Davis, Bruce Bairnsfather, Frank Wooton, Paul Nash and Dame Laura Knight – which is followed by facts, photos and paintings of Pompeii.

An examination of silent cinema comedies in The Banana Skin Boys, The Young Road to Fame (acting and actors) and exploration of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in He Lived His Books covers more sedentary interests before Their Fathers Made Them Stars and The Revolutionary Genius (William Morris) segues into The Arts Quiz. That takes us to the end with a peek at Our Wonderful World…

Here Round-the-World Sailors take the lead after which This town was… Buried for 1,500 Years (Herculaneum this time) offers more insights in lost worlds and Australia’s original inhabitants take centre stage in Corroboree! The Silent City explores Mdina in Malta before Ballooning over the Alps, The Making of a Sea, Ellan Vannin, Land of Music and Song and Under a Spanish Sky bring the session to a close – with its attendant Quiz – and of course all the answers…

With modern digital media I suppose this kind of book is unnecessary and irrelevant now, but nostalgia aside, the glorious art in these editions make them worth the effort of acquisition, and I defy anyone of any age to not be sucked into the magic of learning that looks this lovely…

© 1971 IPC Magazines, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

 

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Superadventure Annual 1960-1961


By Jack Miller, Jack Schiff, Joe Millard, Otto Binder, Edmund Hamilton, Robert Bernstein, Gardner Fox, John Forte, Bob Brown, Ramona Fradon, Jim Mooney, Edwin J. Smalle Jr, Howard Sherman, Ruben Moreira, Henry Boltinoff & others (Atlas Publishing & distributing Co./K.G. Murray)
No ISBN:

Before 1959, when DC and other American publishers started exporting directly into the UK, our exposure to their unique brand of fantasy fun came mostly from licensed reprints. British publishers/printers like Len Miller, Alan Class and bought material from the USA – and occasionally, Canada – to fill 68-page monochrome anthologies – many of which recycled the same stories for decades. In Britain we began seeing hardcover Superman Annuals in 1950, Superboy Annuals in 1953, Superadventure Annuals in 1959 and Batman books in 1960. Since then many publishers have carried on the tradition…

Less common were the oddly coloured pamphlets produced by Australian outfit K.G. Murray and exported here in a somewhat sporadic manner. The company also produced sturdily substantial Christmas Annuals which had a huge impact on my earliest years (I strongly suspect my adoration of black-&-white artwork stems from seeing supreme stylists like Curt Swan, Carmine Infantino, Al Plastino, Wayne Boring, Gil Kane or Murphy Anderson utterly uncluttered by flat, limited colour palettes).

This particular tome comes from 1960 whilst a superhero craze was barely bubbling under, allowing us access a wide range of the transitional genre material that fell between the Golden and Silver Ages. Everything in comics was changing and this book offers a delightfully eclectic mix of material far more in keeping with the traditionally perceived interests of British boys than the caped-&-cowled masked madness soon to obsess us all…

This collection is all monochrome, soundly stiff-backed, and sublimely suspense and joyous, and begins with Space Ranger: a relatively new property seen in Showcase #16.

In America, Showcase was a try-out comic designed by DC to launch new series and concepts with minimal commitment of publishing resources. If a new character sold well initially, a regular series would follow. The process had been proved with Frogmen, The Flash, Challengers of the Unknown and Lois Lane, so Editorial Director Irwin Donenfeld urged his editors to create science fiction heroes to capitalise on the twin zeitgeists of the Space Race and the popular fascination with movie monsters and aliens.

Jack Schiff came up with a “masked” crimefighter of the future who premiered in issues #15 & 16 (1958). The hero was Rick Starr: interplanetary businessman who – thanks to incredible gadgets and the assistance of shape-shifting alien pal Cryll and capable Girl Friday Myra Mason – spent his free time battling evil and injustice from his base in a hollow asteroid.

A few months later, the State-side Space Ranger was transported to DC’s science fiction anthology Tales of the Unexpected, beginning with issue #40 (August 1959): holding the lead and cover spot for a 6-year run and enduring frequent revivals and reboots ever since…

Canonically, we start with his third published exploit as ‘The Secret of the Space Monster’ (plot by John Forte, scripted by pulp veteran Edmond Hamilton and illustrated by Bob Brown) sees Rick, Myra and Cryll investigating an impossible void creature and uncovering a band of alien revolutionaries testing novel super-weapons.

Continuity was practically unheard in these DC overseas editions – and I’m pretty sure the editorial staff never gave a monkey’s about reading cohesion. UK spellings and currency were scrupulously re-lettered, but stories were arbitrarily trimmed to fit the page count and layout, making endings unclear or uncertain. However, we loved the sheer eclectic exoticism (we didn’t call it that, though); we were just wide-eyed impressionable grateful kids, okay?

One of the few superheroes to survive the collapse at the end of the Golden Age was a rather nondescript and generally bland looking chap who solved maritime crimes, rescuing fish and people from sub-sea disaster.

Created by Mort Weisinger & Paul Norris in the wake of Timely Comics’ Sub-Mariner, Aquaman first set sail in More Fun Comics #73 (November 1941). Strictly a second stringer for most of his career, the Sea King nevertheless continued on far beyond many stronger features. He was primarily illustrated by Norris, Louis Cazeneuve and Charles Paris, until young Ramona Fradon took over the art chores in 1954, by which time the Sea King had settled into a regular back-up slot in Adventure Comics. All of the salty sagas here are illustrated by her, and limned every single adventure until 1960: indelibly stamping the hero with her unique blend of charm and sleek competence.

At the time this book was released, America’s Aquaman had been refitted. Showcase #4 (1956) rekindled the public’s taste for costumed crime-fighters. As well as re-imagining Golden Age stalwarts, DC updated its hoary survivors. The initial revamp ‘How Aquaman Got His Powers!’ (Adventure #260, May 1959) was the work of Robert Bernstein. That tale set a new origin – offspring of a lighthouse keeper/refugee from undersea Atlantis – and eventually all trappings of the modern superhero followed: themed hideout, sidekick, even super-villains! Moreover, continuity and the concept of a shared universe became paramount.

In this seasonal collection however, he’s still a charming, dedicated seagoing nomad with a tendency to find trouble as in ‘The Ocean of 1,000,000 B.C.’ (Adventure Comics #253, October 1958 by Bernstein & Fradon) where he swims through a time warp and helps a seashore-dwelling caveman against a marauding dragon.

Cartoonist Henry Boltinoff was a prolific and nigh-permanent fixture of DC titles in this period, providing a variety of 2, 1, and 1½ page gag strips to cleanse visual palates and satisfy byzantine US legal directives allowing publishers to sustain cheaper postal shipping rates. He’s here in strength: his gentle humour jibing perfectly with contemporary British tastes, in the first vignette starring space boffin Professor Eureka…

Based on Alex Raymond’s newspaper star Jungle Jim, the next feature was very much of its time. Congo Bill debuted in More Fun Comics #56 (June 1940) and adventured there for a year (#67, May 1941) before upgrading to flagship title Action Comics with #37 (June 1941). A solid and reliable B-feature, his global safaris were popular enough to make him a star of his own movie serial and win his own 7-issue series (running from August/September 1954 to August/September 1955). His exploits followed trend slavishly: he faced uprisings, criminals, contemptuous rich wastrels, wars, plagues, evil witch-doctors, mad scientists, monsters, aliens – and every permutation thereof – in his monthly vignettes; gained a sidekick in Action Comics #191 (April 1954) and even evolved into a sort of superhero in Action #224 (January 1957) when he gained the power to body swap with golden gorilla Congorilla. He/they prowled in Action until #261 (February 1960), whereupon the feature moved into Adventure Comics, running from #270-283 (March 1960-April 1961). As comics folk are painfully, incurably nostalgic, the characters have been revived many times since…

Here Congo Bill – with Janu the Jungle Boy open their innings with ‘The Mystery of the Jungle Monuments!’ (Action Comics #206, July 1955) authorially uncredited but illustrated by Edwin J. Smalle, Jr., as they uncover a cunning smuggling plot before equally long-lived space patrolman/interplanetary Coast Guard operative Tommy Tomorrow pops in from the future to solve ‘The Puzzle of the Perilous Planetoid’ – from Action Comics #206 July 1955 and crafted – as were most of his missions – by Otto Binder & Jim Mooney.

The strip was a hugely long-running back-up strip which began in Real Fact Comics #6 (January 1947). Devised by Jack Schiff, George Kashdan, Bernie Breslauer, Virgil Finlay and Howard Sherman, it was a speculative science feature that returned in #8, 13 & 16 before shifting to Action Comics (#127-251, December 1948 to April 1959). Along the way Tommy became a Colonel in the peacekeeping Planeteers organisation…

With superheroes ascending again, he then moved into World’s Finest Comics (#102- 124, June 1959 to March 1962) and endured one final reboot in Showcase #41-42, 44 & 46-47 (1962-1963) before fading from sight and memory until rediscovered and reimagined by later generations…

Here the interstellar star of 2058 (so not long now) and his patrol partner Captain Brent Wood solve a titanic taxonomical conundrum before we switch from fantasy to contemporary showbiz…

When superheroes declined in the early 1950s, Detective Comics shed its costumed cohort for more rationalistic reasoners and grounded champions. One of the most offbeat was Roy Raymond, a TV personality who hosted hit series “Impossible… But True”. Illustrated by Ruben Moreira, it launched in #153 (November 1949): its formulaic yet versatile pattern being that his researchers or members of the public would present weird or “supernatural” items or mysteries for the arch-debunker to inevitably expose as misunderstanding, mistake or, as in this case, criminal fraud…

Produced throughout this book by Jack Miller & Moreira, Roy Raymond, TV Detective introduces ‘The Man with the Magic Camera’ (Detective Comics #246 August 1957) as a tinkerer with an X-ray camera is exposed as a cunning crook after which another Boltinoff Professor Eureka treat segues into Aquaman thriller, ‘The Guinea Pig of the Sea’ (by Joe Millard & Fradon from Adventure Comics #250, July 1958) with the Sea King abducted by a well-intentioned but obsessive researcher fed up with waiting for a moment in the hero’s hectic schedule to open up…

My earlier carping about continuity is confirmed here as Congo Bill and Janu face ‘The Five from the Future’. Crafted by Miller & Sherman, it comes from Action Comics #243 (August 1958) and sees the heroes facing an alien invasion of beasts. It reads well enough as is, but is actually the second part of a continued tale, with the first chapter appearing towards the end of this tome. I pity the little kid trying to make sense of that. Actually, no I don’t: we didn’t care that much – it’s just adults that worry about that instead of great art and fantastic thrills…

If you can find this book, just read part 1 at the back then flip back here, ok?

Tommy Tomorrow then makes a rare mistake by accidentally destroying ‘The Interplanetary Scarecrow’ (Action Comics #245, October 1958) before ending the seasonal menace it was intended to frighten off and – following another Professor Eureka moment – Roy Raymond heads to Africa and encounters ‘The Man who Charmed Wild Beasts’ (Detective Comics #256 June 1958).

Space Ranger is next in his very first tale (from Showcase #15 and seen in the US with a September/October 1958 cover-date). It commenced – without fanfare or origin – the ongoing adventures of the futuristic mystery man – beginning in ‘The Great Plutonium Plot’. Plotted by Gardner Fox, scripted by Hamilton and illustrated by Brown, it begins when Jarko the Jovian space pirate targets ships carrying a trans-uranic element. Rick Starr suspects hidden motives and, as Space Ranger, lays a cunning trap, exposing a hidden mastermind and a lethal ancient device endangering the entire solar system…

Keeping up a theme of times and space ‘At Sea in the Stone Age’ is an anonymously scripted Aquaman yarn limned by Fradon (Adventure Comics #184, January 1953) which sees another watery warp propel the Sea King into the distant past. Once again primordial men need help against ravening sea monsters and the hero is happy to oblige…

Bill and Janu then confront ‘The Riddle of the Roc!’ (illustrated by Sherman from Action Comics #244 September 1958) as crooked diamond prospector Ed Vance finds a giant egg and trains the hatchling into the perfect plundering weapon …until our great white hunter employs his trapping skills…

With his job and reputation on the line, Tommy Tomorrow solves ‘The Mystery of the Three Space Rookies’ (Action #244, September 1958) who are just too good to be true, before tantalising ads and public service announcement ‘The Atom – the Servant of Man’ – by Schiff, Morris Waldinger & Tony Nicolosi? – precede Miller & Fradon’s salty tale of Aquaman’s plight as ‘The Robinson Crusoe of the Sea’ (Adventure Comics #252, September 1958). It begins when a chemical spill makes the Sea King allergic to seawater and offers a charming sequence of clever crisis management by our hero’s octopus pal Topo…

Miller & Smalle, Jr. pit Bill and Jungle Boy against ‘The Amazing Army of Apes!’ (Action #219, August 1956) as a soldier seemingly deranged by jungle fever goes on a rampage, after which Colonel Tommy Tomorrow is pressganged into a space tyrant’s retinue to stalk freedom fighters as one of ‘The Hunters of the Future!’ (Binder & Mooney from Action Comics #190 March 1954) and Boltinoff’s Moolah the Mystic has a close encounter on his flying carpet…

Roy Raymond exposes fraud and attempted murder in the case of accident-prone ‘Mr. Disaster’ (Detective #258, August 1958) before one final Space Ranger romp solves ‘The Riddle of the Lost Race’ (Fox, Hamilton & Brown from Showcase #16). The case takes Rick’s team on a whistle-stop tour of the Solar system in pursuit of a vicious criminal and hidden treasures of a long-vanished civilisation…

Aquaman scuppers ‘The Outlaw Navy’ of a modern pirate in a rip-raring romp by Millard & Fradon (Adventure Comics #194, November 1953) and the first part of Congo Bill’s alien adventure finds him and Janu the Jungle Boy facing Venusian marauder Xov on a ‘Safari from Space!’ (Miller & Sherman, Action Comics #242, July 1958). To confirm an old prospector’s bonanza claim Tommy Tomorrow assembles ‘The Strangest Crew in the Universe’ (Action Comics #241 June 1958) before the Superadventuring wraps up with Roy Raymond investigating apparently accursed timber from ‘The Fantastic Forest’ as seen in Detective Comics #260 October 1958). The festivities finish with a quick cartoon lesson in science feature Solar System Sizes!, revealing the wonders of comets and meteors.

Quirky and fun, this is a true delight for oldsters and casual consumers of comics and offers true fans their only real opportunity to see material DC doesn’t seem to care about any more…
© National Periodical Publications, Inc. Published by arrangement with the K.G. Murray Publishing Company, Pty. Ltd., Sydney.

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Lion Annual 1954


By Frank S. Pepper, Ron Forbes, Edwin Dale, Ted Cowan, Vernon Crick, & many & various (Amalgamated Press)
No ISBN: Digital edition

The 1950s ushered in a revolution in British comics. With wartime restrictions on printing and paper lifted, a steady stream of new titles emerged from many companies and when The Eagle launched from the Hulton Press in April 1950, the very idea of what weeklies could be altered forever. That kind of oversized prestige package with photogravure colour was exorbitantly expensive however, and when London-based publishing powerhouse Amalgamated Press retaliated with their own equivalent, it was an understandably more economical affair.

I’m assuming they only waited so long before the first issue of Lion launched (cover-dated February 23rd 1952) to see if their flashy rival periodical was going to last. Lion – just like The Eagle – was a mix of prose stories, features and comic strips and even offered its own cover-featured space-farer in Captain Condor – Space Ship Pilot.

Initially edited by Reg Eves, the title ran for 1156 weekly issues until 18th May 1974 when it merged with sister-title Valiant. Along the way, in the approved manner of British comics which subsumed weaker-selling titles to keep popular strips going, Lion absorbed Sun (in 1959) and Champion (1966) before going on to swallow The Eagle in April 1969 before merging with Thunder in 1971. In its capacity as one of the country’s most popular and enduring adventure comics, the last vestiges of Lion finally vanished in 1976 when Valiant was amalgamated with Battle Picture Weekly.

Despite its demise in the mid-70s, there were 30 Lion Annuals between 1953 and 1982, all targeting the lucrative Christmas market, combining a broad variety of original strips with topical and historical prose adventures; sports, science and general interest features; short humour strips and – increasingly in the 1970s – reformatted reprints from IPC/Fleetway’s vast back catalogue.

That’s certainly not the case with this particular item. Forward-dated 1954, but actually published in late 1953, it’s the first counterstrike from AP in the war to own Christmas: a delicious – but occasionally ethno-socially and culturally dated and dubious – dose of traditional comics entertainment. Big on variety, sturdily produced in a starkly potent monochrome, it offers a wide mixed bag of treats to beguile boisterous boys in a rapidly-changing world. What’s especially satisfying is that, current sensibilities notwithstanding, this volume has been digitised and can be bought and read electronically by kids of all vintages today…

I’m sure I don’t need to remind you that these entertainments were produced in good faith with the best of intentions by creators in a culture and at a time very different from ours. Very frequently attitudes and expressions are employed which we now find a little upsetting, but this book is actually one of the better examples of racial, gender and cultural tolerance. Still, even so…

The cornucopia of prose, puzzles, strips and features (all illustrated by artists as photography was too expensive) opens with a rather disturbing but truly lovely painted frontispiece ‘The Redskin Accepts the Challenge’ before a contents page promises astounding wonders to come.

We then rocket into adventure in the future where freedom fighter Captain Condor – by Frank S. Pepper and probably illustrated by original artist Ron Forbes – continues his war against despots running the solar system by solving ‘The Mystery of the Vanished Space-Ship!’ Edwin Dale then provides a prose thriller starring troubleshooter Mr. X, who discovers ‘The Tree that Stopped a Rebellion’ as he traverses the fabled African Veldt…

Presumably scripted by Ted Cowan & illustrated by Barry (R. G. Thomas) Nelson, ‘Sandy Dean’s Prize Guy’ is a comic strip wherein the schoolboy paragon and his chums deal with cheating classmates sabotaging and stealing effigies built to celebrate Guy Fawkes Night. It’s followed by Nigel Dawn’s prose thriller ‘Too Smart for the Atom Spy!’ wherein a schoolboy pigeon fancier foils a cunning espionage plot, after which we segue into a historical action strip credited to George Forrest (Cowan again).

‘The Slaves who Saved the Emperor’ follows two recently escaped British warriors who foil an imperial Roman assassination and is counterbalanced by Tom Stirling’s (E. L. Rosman) humorous text tale ‘Only a Press-Button Champ!’ This sees inventor’s nephew Jingo Jones stir up tons of trouble using his “Invisibliser” to save himself from a bully. Sadly, it also gives his headmaster and a boxing promoter the idea that the skinny runt is a fighting marvel…

‘The Weird Ways of Witch-Doctors Beat the Bush-Rangers’ (possibly by John Donnelly Jr.) shares amazing “facts” about jobbing mages in the post-war world after which John Barnes -AKA Peter O’Donnell – tells prose tale of ‘Chalu the Elephant Boy’ who clears his beloved four-legged co-worker Tooska when the big beast is framed as a murderous rogue animal…

Rex King (A.W. Henderson) delivers comic strip cowboy thrills as cavalry scout exposes a traitor and battles ‘Peril on the Tomahawk Trail’ before ‘Wiz and Lofty – Rescuers of the Kidnapped King’ (by E.L. Rosman as Victor Norman) delivers text thrills and spills as the globetrotting speed merchants stumble into a deadly plot to usurp a kingdom…

Harry Hollinson D.F.C. details and depicts some soon to be commonplace future wonders in speculative feature ‘Scientists Land on the Moon’ after which we pop back to WWII where Edward R. Home-Gall (AKA Edwin Dale) reveals in cartoon form how ‘The Lone Commandos’ scupper hidden Nazi artillery and save British soldiers in ‘Operation Gunfire’ before Vernon Crick shows in prose that ‘Rust’s the Boy for Stunts’: a rousing tale of motorcycle mayhem and skulduggery at a circus’ Wall of Death ride…

A pictorial ‘World-Wide Quiz’ tests your general knowledge before Peter O’Donnell – as Derek Knight – delivers a chilling prose vignette of Arctic endeavour as ‘Tulak Hunts the Polar Terror’, saving lost scientists, capturing murderous outlaws and stalking a killer bear…

A sea strip by A. W. Henderson as Roy Leighton sees schooner skipper Don Watson save pearl divers and solve ‘The Secret of Ju-Ju Island’ whilst Michael Fox’s prose story ‘Mike Merlin – Master of Magic’ details the greatest trick of a schoolboy conjuror before we meet one of British comics’ most enduring stars.

Robot Archie began life as ‘The Jungle Robot’ and his comic strip (by E. George Cowan & Ted/Jim Kearon) reveals how the mechanical marvel becomes the ‘Pal o’ the Pigmies’ before another prose piece by R. G. Thomas sees a western trader and his Native American pal stave off bandits and a hidden tribe of renegades in ‘Rod and the Red Arrow Raiders’…

A ‘Picture Parade of Facts from Near and Far’ precedes a text thriller by Hedley Scott (AKA Hedley O’Mant) wherein ‘The Schoolboy Treasure Hunters’ do a bit of digging and uncover presumed pirate gold with a far more modern and sinister provenance, before John Fordice (Colin Robertson) employs the comic strip form to catch ‘The Smash-and-Grab Speedster’, courtesy of consulting crimebuster Brett Marlowe, Detective as he explores the contemporary sporting phenomenon of motorcycle speedway…

Donald Dane’s prose yarn ‘Kurdo of the Strong Arm’ details the fascinating, action-packed saga of a Viking teenager – from ancient Scotland – stranded in North America hundreds of years before Columbus and leads to all those puzzle answers and final cartoon fact file ‘Fishy Tales – But They’re True!’ before a House Ad for weekly Lion – “The King of Picture Story Papers!’ brings us to the back cover and a sponsored treat: early infotainment treat ‘Cadbury’s Car Race puzzle’.

Sadly, many of the creators remain unknown and uncredited, especially the exceptional artists whose efforts adorn the prose stories, but this remains a solid box of delights for any “bloke of a certain age” seeking to recapture his so-happily uncomplicated youth. It also has the added advantage of being far less likely than other (usually unsavoury) endeavours which, although designed to rekindle the dead past, generally lead to divorce…

Before I go, let’s thank Steve Holland at Bear Alley (link please) and all the other dedicated diligent bods researching and excavating the names and other facts for everyone like me to cite and pretend we’re so clever…

A true taste of days gone by, this is a chance for the curious to test bygone tomes and times and I thoroughly recommend it to your house…
© 1955 the Amalgamated Press and latterly IPC. All rights reserved.

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The Dandy Book 1972


By many & various (D.C. Thomson & Co.)
ISBN: 978-0-85116-043-6 (HB)

For generations of British fans Christmas means The Beano Book, The Broons, Oor Wullie and making every December 25th magical. There used to be many more DC Thomson titles, but the years have gradually winnowed them away. Thankfully, time means nothing here, so this year I’m concentrating on another Thomson Christmas cracker that made me the man wot I am. As usual my knowledge of the creators involved is woefully inadequate but I’m going to hazard a few guesses anyway, in the hope that someone with better knowledge will correct me whenever I err.

The Dandy comic predated The Beano by eight months, utterly revolutionising the way children’s publications looked and – most importantly – how they were read. Over decades it produced a bevy of household names that delighted millions, with end of year celebrations being bumper bonanzas of the weekly stars in magnificent bumper hardback annuals.

Premiering on December 4th December 1937, The Dandy broke the mould of its hidebound British predecessors by utilising word balloons and captions rather than narrative blocks of text under sequential picture frames. A colossal success, it was followed on July 30th 1938 by The Beano. Together they revolutionised children’s publications. Dandy was the third longest running comic in the world (behind Italy’s Il Giornalino – launched in 1924 – and America’s Detective Comics in March 1937).

Over decades the “terrible twins” spawned countless cartoon stars of unforgettable and beloved household names who delighted generations of avid and devoted readers…

The Christmas Annuals were traditionally produced in the wonderful “half-colour” British publishers used to keep costs down whilst bringing a little spark into our drab and gloomy young lives. The process involved printing sections with only two (of potentially 4) plates, such as blue/Cyan and red/Magenta as seen in this majority of this tome. The versatility and palette range provided was astounding. Even now the technique screams “Holidays” to me and my contemporaries, and this volume uses the technique to stunning effect.

As you can see, the fun-filled action begins on the covers and continues on the reverse, with front-&-back covers and Introduction pages occupied by superstar Korky the Cat (by Charlie Grigg) setting the tone with a sequence of splendid seasonal sight gags.

D.C. Thomson were also extremely adept at combining anarchic, clownish comedy with solid fantasy/adventure tales. The eclectic menu truly opens with some topical environmentalism working as drama in Paddy Brennan’s ‘Guardian of the Red Raider’. Such picture thrillers still came in the traditional captioned format, with blocks of typeset text rather than word balloons. Here, bedridden schoolboy Freddy Gibbon “adopts” a vixen and her cubs, secretly safeguarding them from harm until they can fend for themselves.

From there we revert to the cheeky comfort of simpler times as Dirty Dick – by the incredibly engaging Eric Roberts (no, not the actor) – finds our perennially besmudged and befouled boy on his best and cleanest behaviour in anticipation of a visit from his American penfriend. However, in comics good intentions count for nothing…

Appropriately switching to black and blue plates, we next meet eternal enemies Bully Beef and Chips. Drawn by Jimmy Hughes, the thuggish big kid’s antics invariably proved that a weedy underdog’s brain always trumped brutal brawn, as here where little Chips orchestrates well-deserved payback after Bully forces little lads to play with his dangerously-rigged Christmas crackers…

Hugh Morren’s The Smasher was a lad cut from the same mould as Dennis the Menace and in the first of his contributions carves a characteristic swathe of anarchic destruction, when seeking to join a cowboy movie location shoot,

A quick switch to red & black – and all the tones between – signals the advance of hard-pressed squaddie Corporal Clott (by David Sutherland) who again bears the brunt of cruel misfortune and surly Colonel Grumbly when ordered to provide a slap-up feed for a visiting General…

The prolific Roberts always played a huge part in making these annuals work and next up his signature star Winker Watson hosts double-page picture puzzle ‘Catch the Imps!’: testing mind, eye and vocabulary before Shamus O’Doherty’s Bodger the Bookworm is seduced away from his comfortable reading to play football… with catastrophic repercussions…

Back in black & blue, traditional chaotic school hijinks get a cruel and crazy feudal spin in Ron Spencer’s Whacko! before we stay on topic but jump 500 years to the then-present and a different take on the education crisis. Whilst much comics material was based on school as seen by pupils, George Martin’s Greedy Pigg featured a voracious teacher always attempting to confiscate and scoff his pupils’ snacks. This time, he forsakes tuck boxes and extends his reach to the fodder fed to zoo animals – and gets what he deserves after masquerading as a gorilla…

Unforgivably racist but somehow painfully topical, Hughes’ Wun Tun and Too Tun the Chinese Spies traces the misadventures of badly-briefed oriental agents in old Blighty. Here they get lost in and misunderstand the point of sewers, after which Sutherland’s Desperate Dan offers a range of incidents deriving from the sagebrush superman letting his beard grow out of control.

The daftness drifts into more brilliantly entertaining eco-messaging as Peter Potter’s Otters – by Grigg employing his dramatic style – sees a gamekeeper’s son contrive to rescue a family of river-dwelling “pests” from the community seeking to eradicate them…

Jack Edward Oliver’s My Woozy Dog Snoozy proves utterly useless as a security guard, but does usher in green & black tones to welcome back Korky the Cat, whose clash with a fish farm’s “security guards” segues into a doggerel dotted Zany Zoo feature. An examination of The Smasher’s evolutionary forebears heralds a resumption of blue hues as Roberts delivers another classic Winker Watson yarn that is now sadly drenched in controversy and potential offense.

It begins when the Third Form lads of Greytowers School act on their love of the BBC’s Black and White Minstrel Show (look it up, but be prepared to be appalled before realising just how far we’ve come…): adding a blackface minstrel skit to the Christmas Concert. When chastised and rebuffed by form master Mr. Creep, schoolboy grifter Winker institutes a cunning scheme – worthy of Mission Impossible or Leverage – to make the teacher the butt of a joke and star of the show…

The green scene enjoys one last outing for a lengthy police spoof. Created by John Geering and played strictly for laughs, P.C. Big Ears was an overzealous beat copper with outrageous lugholes whose super-hearing and faithful dog Sniffer helped him crush “crime”. Here the dynamic duo are hot on the trail of a truant schoolboy, but pay a irritating price for their dutiful diligence, after which another light-hearted drama ensues, courtesy of Bill Holroyd.

With premium blue & red plates back in play home-made mechanoid Brassneck kicks off an avalanche of trouble after a service by his inventor. Uncle Sam pal warns the robot-boy’s pal Charley Brand that the automaton might be a little fragile for a while but is blithely unaware how rowdy and boisterous school can be. When a couple of unavoidable buffets trigger wild outbursts, Brassneck’s antics close the school, empty the parks and even cause animal escapes from the zoo before order is finally restored…

Desperate Dan then catches cold and almost decimates the environment in his efforts to get warm and stop sneezing before Korky the Cat suffers the downside of camping, and pint-sized hellion Dinah Mite (drawn by Ron Spencer) tests some possible careers should she ever leave school.

Another blue section opens with animal gags in Jokey Jumbo and Winker Watson puzzle feature ‘It’s as Easy as ABC’ before My Woozy Dog Snoozy compounds his worthlessness when a burglar breaks in.

A switch to red and black sees Corporal Clott suckered by a spiv and become the proud new owner of a lethally destructive vacuum cleaner after he replaces the naff motor with a leftover jet engine. Blue tones are back as George Matin’s big-footed klutz Claude Hopper learns why he’s not cut out for a job waiting tables and Korky the Cat wins a fancy dress competition by being extremely cool…

More red & blue pages picture Dirty Dick at his dustily destructive worst before a switch to yellow & black plates finds Greedy Pigg imitating a tramp to get scrumptious handouts before Wun Tun and Too Tun the Chinese Spies return in another distressingly outdated and inappropriate espionage episode.

Rendered in red and black. Sandy Calder powerfully illustrates Scruffy the Bad-Luck Doggie as ordinary kid Danny Dunlop saves a scrappy mutt from bullies trying to drown it, but takes some time and effort – and a few hard knocks – adjusting to being the owner of a semi-feral delinquent dog…

Sentiment surrenders to surreal silliness and yellow hues as Desperate Dan teaches a dog how to be fierce, before Bodger the Bookworm enflames his family by practising matchstick tricks and Korky successfully poaches a fish in more ways than one, after which black & blue tones detail a pretty Darwinian battle for survival and supremacy amongst alley cats as Boss of the Backyards (by Murray Ball – whose wonderful Footrot Flats strips are just crying out for a modern archival edition) sees a tough newcomer challenge a wild moggy in the kingdom of bins and backstreets…

Dirty Dick is tarred by own insolence – and tar – in a very early example of photobombing and My Woozy Dog Snoozy turns the tables on his longsuffering owner, before P.C. Big Ears finds his own hound complicit in apple scrumping. Corporal Clott then dumps the colonel in a frozen river and Korky again profits from his thieving ways…

Another flush of red & blue captures Bully Beef and Chips causing chaos with a doctor’s play set and Greedy Pigg outsmarted by the dog he borrowed to steal food for him, and true blue drama Bold Ben’s Boulder (by Victor Peon?) has a young boy save his uncle’s fortune and life when Burmese bandits go on a kidnapping spree before one final flush of red & black sees Desperate Dan solve a lighting crisis with a little illuminating larceny…

With Puzzle Answers and the aforementioned Korky endpapers wrapping up proceedings, let’s celebrate another tremendously fun book; with so much merriment on offer I can’t believe this book is 51 years old, and still available through second hand outlets.

The only thing better would by curated archive reissues and digital editions…
© D.C. Thomson & Co., Ltd, 1971.

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Merry Christmas Every One!

In keeping with my self-imposed Holidays tradition, here’s another pick of British Annuals selected not just for nostalgia’s sake but because it’s my wife’s house and my rules…

After decades when only American comics and memorabilia were considered collectable or worthy, a resurgence of interest in home-grown material means there’s lots more of this stuff available. So, if you’re lucky enough to stumble across a vintage volume, modern facsimile or even one of the growing number of digital reproductions increasingly cropping up, I hope my words can convince you to expand your comfort zone and try something old…

Still topping my Xmas wish-list are more collections from fans and publishers who have begun to rescue this magical material from print limbo in (affordable and annotated) new collections…

Great writing and art is rotting in boxes and attics or the archives of publishing houses, when it needs to be back in the hands of readers once again. As the tastes of the reading public have never been broader and since a selective sampling of our popular heritage will always appeal to some part of the mass consumer base, let’s all continue rewarding publishers for their efforts and prove that there’s money to be made from these glorious examples of our communal childhood.

These materials were created long ago in a different society for a very different audience. As such much material is inadvertently funny, blatantly racist and/or sexist and pretty much guaranteed to offend somebody sooner or later. Think of it as having to talk to your grandparents about “back when everything was better”…

If you don’t think you can tolerate – let alone enjoy – what’s being discussed here, maybe it’s not the book you need today. Why not look at something else or play a game instead?

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Marvel Presents The X-Men Collector’s Edition (1982 Annual)


By Roy Thomas, Neal Adams, Tom Palmer & various (Grandreams/Marvel Comics International)
ISBN: 0-86227-038-3 (HB Annual)

When Stan Lee stormed the American comic-book industry in the early 1960s, his greatest weapon wasn’t the compact and brilliant talent pool available nor even the proverbial idea whose time had come, but rather his canny hucksterism and grasp of marketing and promotion. DC, Dell/Gold Key and Charlton all had limited overseas licenses (usually in black-and-white reprint anthologies) but Lee went further, reselling Marvel’s revolutionary early efforts all over the world.

In Britain, the material appeared in Class Comics and reformatted in weeklies like Pow!, Wham!, Smash! and even the venerable Eagle. There were also two almost wholly Marvel-ised papers, Fantastic and Terrific, which ran from 1967 to 1968 with only one UK originated strip in each. These slick format comics mimicked Marvel’s US “split-books” and originally featured three key Marvel properties in each. However, appearing every seven days quickly exhausted the company’s back catalogue.

After years of guesting in other publications, Marvel secured their own UK Annuals at the end of the 1960s through the publishing arm of World Distributors and – after launching their own British-based subsidiary – began a line of hardback premium reprints which made Christmas a special treat for growing Marvelites across the Kingdom and the House of Ideas a mainstay of the Yuletide season…

This particular oddment stems from 1982: a slim, sleekly repackaged but brutally trimmed down tome abridging a classic but somewhat tale from the end of the Silver Age: specifically, X-Men volume 1, #56-59, courtesy of Roy Thomas, Neal Adams & Tom Palmer.

It begins by asking ‘What is… the Power?’ and reveals an uncanny connection between the villainous Living Pharaoh and emergent mutant Alex Summers younger brother of team leader Cyclops.

By imprisoning Alex the Egyptian mastermind transforms into a colossal Living Monolith, but when he breaks free the terrified boy’s mutant energies are unleashed with catastrophic results. Savagely edited together with issue #57 the story jumps to reveal the team’s most relentless adversaries have returned and a public witch-hunt prompts the mutant-hunting Sentinels to capture X-Men and other Homo superior across the globe.

Chapter 2, ‘Mission: Murder!’ ramps up the tension as the toll of fallen mutants increases, with Iceman, the Pharaoh, Angel and Mesmero all falling to the murderous mechanoids, but when their human controller discovers an unsuspected secret the automatons strike out on their own…

With most mutants in the Marvel universe captured, Cyclops, Marvel Girl and Beast are reduced to a suicidal frontal assault, pulling off a spectacular victory, but only at great cost…

Gone are the text stories, quizzes and game pages which traditionally padded out most British Christmas books, replaced with cover-to-cover superhero action produced by the House of Ideas at the very peak of its creativity. Moreover, it’s in full colour throughout – an almost unheard-of largesse at the time.

More a sign of changing attitudes than a celebration of good old days, this is still a quirky nostalgic treat for all concerned.
© MARVEL COMICS INTERNATIONAL LTD. All rights reserved

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Mighty Warriors Annual 1979


By Paul S. Newman, Don Glut, Dick Wood, José Delbo, Jesse Santos, Paul Norris & various (Stafford Pemberton Publishing)
ISBN: 0 86030 140 0(HB) ASIN: B001E37D7U

The comics colossus identified by fans as Dell/Gold Key/Whitman had one of the most complicated publishing set-ups in history but that didn’t matter to the kids of all ages who consumed their vastly varied product. Based in Racine, Wisconsin, Whitman was a crucial part of the monolithic Western Publishing and Lithography Company since 1915, and drew on the commercial resources and industry connections that came with editorial offices on both coasts (and even a subsidiary printing plant in Poughkeepsie, New York).

Another useful connection was with fellow Western subsidiary K.K. Publications (named for licensing legend Kay Kamen who facilitated extremely lucrative “license to print money” merchandising deals for Walt Disney Studios between 1933 and 1949).

From 1938 on, Western’s comic book output was released through a partnership deal with a “pulps” periodical publisher under the umbrella imprint Dell Comics – and again those creative staff and commercial contacts fed into the line-up of the Big Little, Little Golden and Golden Press books for children that featured in thousands of stores and newsstands. When the partnership ended in 1962 Western swiftly reinvented its comics division as Gold Key.

As previously cited, Western Publishing was a major player since comics’ earliest days, blending a huge tranche of licensed material including newspaper strips, TV and Disney titles (such as Nancy and Sluggo, Tarzan, or The Lone Ranger) with home-grown hits like Turok, Son of Stone and Space Family Robinson.

In the 1960s, during the camp/superhero boom these original adventure titles expanded to include Brain Boy, Nukla, M.A.R.S. Patrol, Total War (created by Wally Wood), Russ Manning’s Magnus, Robot Fighter and much more. There were even heroic classic monsters Dracula, Frankenstein and Werewolf which were utterly irresistible. The sheer off-the-wall lunacy of features like Neutro or Dr. Spektor I shall save for a future occasion…

Such output was a perfect source of material for British publishers whose regular audiences were profoundly addicted to TV and movie properties. For decades, Western’s comics from Frankenstein Jr. to Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Yogi Bear and the Beverly Hillbillies to Land of the Giants and Star Trek filled out Christmas Annuals, and along the way also slipped in a few original character concepts.

Despite supremely high quality material and passionate fan-bases, Western never really captured the media spotlight of DC or Marvel’s costumed cut-ups, and in 1984 – having lost or ceded their licenses to DC, Marvel and Charlton – closed the comics division.

crime-fighting iterations of classic movie

The company’s most recognisable stab at a superhero was an understated nuclear era star with the rather unwieldy codename Dr. Solar, Man of the Atom who debuted in an eponymous title dated October 1962, sporting a captivating painted cover by Richard M. Powers that made the whole deal feel like a grown up book rather than a mere comic.

Crafted by writers Paul S. Newman & Matt Murphy with art by Bob Fujitani, the 2-part origin detailed how a campaign of sabotage at research base Atom Valley culminated in the accidental transmutation of a scientist into a (no longer) human atomic pile with incredible, impossible and apparently unlimited powers and abilities. Of course, his very presence is lethal to all around him…

Here – sans any such useful background – the now well-established atomic troubleshooter battles his old cyborg enemy Nuro to prevent marauding energy beings using ‘The Ladder to Mars’ to invade Earth and solves ‘The Mystery Message’ before winning an outer space ‘Battle of the Electronic Fighters’. The done-in-one yarn originally appeared in Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom #27 (April 1969) crafted by Dick Wood & José Delbo.

During its lifetime the parent company was keenly attuned to trends, and when comic book Sword & Sorcery bloomed they had their own offering: a darkly toned barbarian blockbuster dubbed Dagar the Invincible. Reprinting the first issue origin of an orphan who became a vengeance-seeking mercenary ‘The Sword of Dagar’ is by Don Glut & Jesse Santos, providing motivating backstory, an epic quest and tragic doomed loves story culminating at the ‘Castle of the Skull’ as first witnessed in October 1972’s Tales of Sword and Sorcery – Dagar the Invincible #1.

Ending the outré adventure is a tale of Magnus Robot Fighter 4000 AD which comes from issue #25 (February 1969) of his US comic. The mighty mech masher was first seen in the UK as part of a Gold Key comic strip package deal comprising Tarzan, The Green Hornet, Lone Ranger, Phantom and Flash Gordon for weekly TV Tornado and here battles ‘The Micro-Giants’ – size-shifting alien automatons – and a nefarious human entrepreneur in a classy action-romp by an unidentified author and artists Paul Norris & Mike Royer.

Superb quality and a beguilingly off-beat feel makes these stories and this book a truly enticing prospect. Why don’t you give it a shot?
© MCMLXXVIII by Western Publishing Company, Inc. All rights reserved throughout the world.

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Pow! Annual 1971


By unknown writers & artists and Miguel Quesada Cerdán, Vicente Ibáñez Sanchis, José Ortiz Moya, Matías Alonso, Enric Badia Romero, Eustaquio Segrelles del Pilar, Leopoldo Ortiz & 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 splendid read I can now see it as a bizarre and desperately belated sales experiment…

By the end of the 1960s, DC Thomson had overtaken the monolithic comics publishing giant that had been created by Alfred Harmsworth at the beginning of the twentieth century. The company – variously named Fleetway, Odhams and IPC – had absorbed rivals such as The Eagle‘s Hulton Press, and stayed at the forefront of sales by latching onto every fad they had kept their material contemporary, if not fresh, but the writing was on the wall, but now

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 thoroughly dead, 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 that year 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.

Conceived by tragically uncredited writers – but purportedly all created by Alan Hebden – this is a visual delight illustrated in alternating full colour (painted) and half-colour (black and magenta) sections by IPC’s European stable of artists: some of the greatest artists of the era, and delivered in a thoroughly different and grittily dark take on extraordinary champions, costumed crimebusters and the uncanny unknown…

The wonderment kicked off with ‘Magno, Man of Magnetism’ drawn by Miguel Quesada Cerdán: a valiant crimecrusher who seemed a cross between Simon Templar and James Bond, who donned his mask and used his superpowers only if things got really rough…

Eerily off-kilter sea scourge ‘Aquavenger’ was an oceanic crimefighter illustrated by The Victor veteran Vicente Ibáñez Sanchis, while ‘Mr. Tomorrow: Criminal of the Future’ – illustrated by jack of all genres Matías (Air Ace, Battle Action, Commando, The Victor, Twinkle) Alonso was an outright rebel from an oppressive state in days to come.

I don’t know who wrote or drew edgy, self-contained thriller ‘The Hunter and the Hunted’, but ‘Electro’ (no relation to the Marvel villain – other than the high-voltage shtick) is gloriously rendered by the legendary José Ortiz Moya (Caroline Baker, Barrister at Law; Smokeman; UFO Agent; The Phantom Viking; Commando Picture Library; BattlePicture Library; Vampirella; The Thirteenth Floor; Rogue Trooper; Tex Willer, Judge Dredd and many more).

In the most  traditional tale of the book, Eddie Edwards defends Surf City, USA as a voltaic vigilante and as part of the hero-heavy Super Security Bureau defeating terrors such as the crystalline marauders on view here…

Limned by future Modesty Blaise and Axa illustrator Enric Badia Romero, the fascinating psionic super-squad ‘Esper Commandos’ infiltrate and eliminate the competition before urban hunter ‘Marksman’ deals with a deadly saboteur and faux vengeful spectre ‘The Phantom’ (again no relation to any US star and illustrated by watercolours specialist Eustaquio Segrelles del Pilar) hands out summary justice decked out in a spooky uniform loaded with cunning gadgets…

We dip into the mind of a monster when aquatic horror ‘Norstad of the Deep’ – illustrated by Leopoldo Ortiz – invades the upper world but revert to heroic adventure for closing yarn ‘Time Rider’. Rendered by Ibáñez, it details how a bored genius millionaire builds a time-travelling robot horse and goes in search of adventure…

These are all great little adventures, satisfactorily self-contained, beautiful and singularly British in tone, even though most of the characters are American – or aliens (and no, that’s not necessarily the same thing). This tome easily withstands a critical rereading today, but the most important thing is 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 nor 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, and could probably do it again!
© 1970 The Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited.

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Superboy Annual 1967


By Jerry Siegel, Otto Binder, Robert Bernstein, Dave Wood, Henry Boltinoff, John Broome, George Papp, Curt Swan, John Sikela, Carmine Infantino, Irwin Hasen & various (Atlas Publishing/K.G. Murray)
No ISBN:

Before 1959, when DC Comics and other American publishers began exporting directly into the UK, our exposure to their unique brand of fantasy fun came from licensed reprints. British publishers/printers like Len Miller, Alan Class and bought material from the USA – and occasionally, Canada – to fill 68-page monochrome anthologies – many of which recycled the same stories for decades.

Less common were (strangely) coloured pamphlets produced by Australian outfit K.G. Murray and exported here in a rather sporadic manner. The company also produced sturdy and substantial Christmas Annuals which had a huge impact on my earliest years (I strongly suspect my adoration of black-&-white artwork stems from seeing supreme stylists like Curt Swan, Carmine Infantino, Al Plastino, Wayne Boring, Gil Kane or Murphy Anderson uncluttered by flat, limited colour palettes).

This particular tome of was one of the last licensed DC comics compilations before the Batman TV show turned the entire planet Camp-Crazed and Bat-Manic, and therefore offers a delightfully eclectic mix of material far more in keeping with the traditionally perceived interests of British boys than the suited-&-booted masked madness that was soon to follow in the Caped Crusader’s scalloped wake.

Thankfully, this collection was still produced in the cheap and quirky mix of monochrome, dual-hued and weirdly full-coloured pages which made Christmas books such a bizarrely beloved treat.

Sturdily stiff-backed, the sublime suspense and joyous adventuring begins with ‘The Secret of Fort Smallville!’ by Otto Binder & John Sikela and first seen in Superboy Comics #56 (April 1957). When a celebratory historical re-enactment is highjacked by an unscrupulous  rogue and poses a tough test for the Boy of Steel, he needs the aid of native American classmate Swift Deer to crack the case. Despite being produced in a far less understanding era, this yarn displays degrees of taste and cultural sensitivity practically unheard of in mass entertainment of the time…

Cartoonist Henry Boltinoff was a prolific and nigh-permanent fixture of DC titles in this period, providing a variety of 2, 1, and ½ page gag strips to cleanse visual palates and satisfy byzantine US legal directives that allowed comics publishers to sustain cheaper postal shipping rates. He’s here in strength, as his gentle humour jibes perfectly with British tastes, opening with Homer who leans a big lesson while fishing at sea after which ‘Superboy’s Best Friend!’ (by Robert Bernstein & George Papp from Superboy #77, December 1959) tugs at heartstrings by playing on a favoured theme: that of the Boy of Steel’s isolation from kids his own age.

Here that manifests as a doomed friendship with new kid Freddy Shaw, who briefly shares all Clark Kent’s secrets, but inadvertently shares the biggest one with his criminal older brother. Cue tragedy and cover-up…

Boltinoff’s Peter Puptent, Explorer deals with arctic antics prior to the first outing of seminal comics lunacy in the hirsute form of Detective Chimp: a Florida-based stalwart who was an assistant sheriff. ‘The Riddle of the Riverside Raceway!’by John Broome, Irwin Hasen & Joe Giella (from Rex the Wonder Dog #11, September/October 1953) sees a mystery cracked as impressionable Bobo befriends a prize steed and stymies gangsters set on fixing a race, after which Binder, Curt Swan & John Forte revisit the theme of loneliness as a modern teen freshly arrived on Earth travels back in time to meet her cousin as a kid in ‘Superboy Meets Supergirl!’ (Superboy Comics #80, April 1960). There’s fun aplenty, but it can’t last…

Bobo is back as Detective Chimp solves ‘The Case of the Suspicious Signature!’ (Broome & Carmine Infantino from Rex the Wonder Dog #11, September/October 1954) when his new passion for autograph collecting accidentally inserts him into a Hollywood star’s kidnapping.

Jerry Siegel & Papp then reveal how baby Kal-El inadvertently thwarted ‘The Invasion of Krypton! (Superboy #83, September 1960) and Boltinoff’s Doctor Rocket makes merry at an atomic eatery before by Broome, Hasen & Bernard Sachs share their passion for sports when Detective Chimp rescues his favourite baseball star from kidnappers in ‘Crime Runs the Bases’ (Rex the Wonder Dog #9, May/June 1953).

Superboy #84, October 1960, provides a brace of tales by Siegel & Papp beginning with ‘The Rainbow Raider!’ as a mystery thief seemingly enslaves the Boy of Steel, after which the self-explanatory ‘Superboy Meets William Tell!’reveals how the time-travelling hero gives the Swiss legend a few pointers on battling injustice.

Broome & Infantino the transform Detective Chimp into ‘The Scientific Crook-Catcher!’ (Rex the Wonder Dog #29, September/October 1956) when the savvy simian sneaks into a symposium of savants and the old world charm and drama conclude with another western themed tale. Although now an incredibly inappropriate title, ‘The Super-Injun of Smallville!’ (by Dave Wood & Papp and again from Superboy #84) offers a heart-warming tale of redemption when a bully in a store-bought Superboy costume abuses the other kids on the nearby Corobee Reservation, until an undercover Clark Kent teaches him the error of his ways…

Gently thrilling and absorbingly uplifting, these yarns of yesteryear are timeless delights for properly supervised kids of all ages. If that’s not a good thing, what is?
© National Periodical Publications, Inc. Published by arrangement with the K.G. Murray Publishing Company, Pty. Ltd., Sydney.

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Happy Holidays, Earthlings!

These Christmas Chronicles are lavish and laudatory celebrations of good times and great storytelling but at least they’re not lost or forgotten, and should you care to try them out, the internet and a credit card are all you’ll need.

Greetings of the Season, a fruitful New Year and Happy Reading from Everybody at Now Read This!