STINGRAY: THE BURGLARS - FROM TV CENTURY 21 ANNUAL 1966...

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I remember it well.  The TV CENTURY 21 ANNUAL for 1966 - loads of them, filling a square, metal wire stand on the ground floor of KRAZY KUTS in my home town, in August or September of 1965.  I was living in one house when I first saw the annual, and another by the time I got it for Christmas that year.  I therefore associate it with both houses, but mainly (perhaps) with the second one, as that was the one I was living in when I actually got my grubby hands on the book.  I also remember wishing my life away for it with the careless indifference that only a child can afford.

It all seems rather tame stuff in comparison with today's comics and annuals, but, at the time, it was the annual to have in 1965, as it represented the top-selling weekly comic of the day (which sounds like a contradiction-in-terms, but you know what I mean).  THUNDERBIRDS was on TV by the time I obtained the annual, but it had been prepared for publication before the latest GERRY ANDERSON sensation had made its debut, so STINGRAY was the book's main feature, appearing in two strips and featuring prominently on the cover.

Here, then, is the first of them - if you want to see more, be sure to let me know in the comments section.  Same goes if you'd like to share with the rest of us your own personal reminiscences associated with this classic annual from yesteryear.

CAUGHT ON CAMERA - DALEK VISITATION...

I was out in the back garden the other afternoon when I heard a rustling in the undergrowth at the side of the house.  Thinking it was a fox, I froze, hoping to see Reynard in all his furry glory - but surprise, surprise, 'twas no fox but rather a DALEK peeping cautiously from the foliage.  My mistake for tossing some old iron nails into the bushes when I replaced them in the back gate last week, but I hardly expected a Dalek to be foraging for metal scraps in my back garden.  No doubt his spaceship was concealed nearby (it's a big garden) and he was looking for parts with which to effect a minor repair, so I just let him get on with it.  Luckily I was able to surreptitiously snap a few photos with my concealed lapel camera before going back inside, 'cos I know what a disbelieving lot some of you can be.  He might still be out there for all I know.

What's that you say, nurse?  Time for my medicine?  Who are you calling a little pr*ck?  Oh, you mean the injection?  Okay, fire away.

See you all again when I wake up and they take off these long-sleeved pyjamas they're fitting me with.  Flubble!