 |
| Copyright REBELLION |
Y'know, I don't think I ever had any WHAM! Annuals when they were first published way back when. I may have read the odd one in Primary school when we were allowed to bring such things into class (in the relaxed run-up to holiday periods) and temporarily swap them with our classmates ("I'll let you read my BATMAN Annual if you'll let me read your BEANO Book!" sort of thing), but I can't say with absolute certainty, so it may not have been so.
However, looking at the array of books below (especially those by ODHAMS) takes me right back to the period in which they were published and the place in which I lived at the time. I can therefore only assume that my seeming familiarity with them (and the resulting sense of association) is down to me reading the characters in the weekly comic, and perhaps even seeing the Annual covers advertised in its pages. Or maybe I was vaguely aware of them on display in shops in the run-up to Christmas, even though I never actually had one.
In light of this, I find the realisation that these Annuals represent almost the entire period of my early years at Primary school to near the end of my span at Secondary school to be immensely mind-boggling. After all, how can a mere nine books embody what once seemed like such a vast expanse of my young life?
Not that any of that is important to you, but you know how self- indulgent I can be when it comes to wallowing in personal nostalgia. However, now is the time for you to do likewise, as I pull back Time's curtain and present a portal into the past, allowing you once again, in your mind's eye, to relive the sights and sounds of happy days gone by, when now-departed loved-ones were right alongside you to share in the happiness and delights of an earlier era.
******
Coming soon: the complete SMASH Annual cover gallery.
Are those the Bash Street Kids on the 1967 cover ? I'd never actually heard of Wham! until I started reading this blog. Kid, do you have any Beezer, Topper or Beano annuals from the '70s as I'd definitely remember those. Just to say I'll be reading Crivens all through Christmas - blogs, YouTube and iplayer are now an essential part of Christmas for me, how did we exist without them.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant! Have a Merry Christmas Kid!
ReplyDeleteThat's the Tiddlers, CJ. Bax actually re-used some of the plots from the Bash Street Kids in the Tiddlers stories. I doubtless have some of the Annuals you mention, but as to where? Aye, there's the rub.
ReplyDelete******
And the exact same to you, AJ - multiplied by ten.
I never had any of these and I'd love them in my pillow case tomorrow. Speaking of which, have a brilliant Christmas, Kid.
ReplyDeleteAnd a very Merry Xmas too to all regular readers, like McScotty, Col, etc.
And have a mega-brilliant Christmas yourself, JP. By the way, eBay is a great pillow case filler. (Too late for tomorrow 'though.)
ReplyDeleteThat's a really big change in cover designs from 1971 to 1972 - it seems like a completely different annual. Merry Christmas to you as well John, and to you too, Kid.
ReplyDeleteThe 1972 Annual is more like an Odhams one, CJ - at least in style and printing if not in content, which has nothing in common with its predecessors. It bears an IPC publishing indicia in the inside pages, but curiously, there's a black strip obscuring what might originally have been an Odhams indicia. I therefore suspect that it was meant to be an Odhams Annual, but their name was removed at the last minute. The '73 and '74 books are standard IPC Annuals in the way they've been printed. (Same as Whizzer & Chips, Valiant, etc.)
ReplyDeleteAnd a very Merry Christmas to you and yours, CJ.
Excellent stuff Kid great to see all of these covers again as you may know Im a massive fan of the early Odhams books ( mostly Smash, Wham, and Pow) and those annuals are as much of a memory enhancer of the early days for me as the BEANO and Beezer ( two of my other favourites as a kid). I just love the plain white background on the early covers crammed with the characters of the relevant book . As you know the 1967 annual is a particular favourite of mine (for personal reasons as well as it being a great annual) it has some great Ken Reid "Frankie" strips. I don't recall getting any of the annuals with "adventure" covers from Odhams which is a shame as one of Odhams real oddities is the POW 1971 annual which featured a series of all new characters (super hero types) never seen before ( and probably have never been seen since) Can't wait to see the Smash annual covers again (my favourite UK type comic). Anyhoo hope you, and all your regulars have a great Christmas and I look forward to more great blogs in 2015.
ReplyDeleteAnd a Merry Christmas to your good self, McScotty. (How's the head this morning? Hic!) Y'know, if I ever did look through any Wham! Annuals in the shops at the time, perhaps I didn't buy them because they didn't feature any Marvel FF reprints, which was my main reason for buying the weekly comic. They are great Annuals 'though, and I'm glad to have a complete set of them. I think I've shown most (if not all) of them before, but perhaps not together in the same post. The original scans (which I digitally cleaned up) are scattered throughout different folders, so I've scanned them again. This time 'though, most of the dunts and imperfections are included as it takes a fair bit of time to 'process' them. (And I can't be bothered.) Yes the '71 Pow! Annual was an oddity, but a nice little book in its own right.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit I did have a couple of wee "sherry's" on Christmas Eve but I was fine this morning thanks - I was never a big fan of the Marvel reprints in Odhams books in the 60s. I think I was too young to appreciate them (although I think were about the same age so your tastes must have been more refined than mine). I remember Wham , Pow and Smash had Marvel strips in them they seemed to me to have a lot of reading on the pages in the early days ( didn't they merge more than one comic page of story in Wham etc?) or maybe I just didn't like the artwork at that time - Terrific and Fantastic were much better (a la Mighty World of Marvel) but I never got them as they were expensive by comparison. I much preferred DC when I was about 7/9 years old and Superman was my favourite by a mile. Of course by 1969/70 at 10/11 years old I was almost entirely into Super hero / adventure comics but- now in my pre dotage years in my mid 50s, I seem to be reverting back to favouring humour strips and by my 60s (God willing) I'll no doubt be reading titles like "Playhour" or " Bimbo" again ( but this time lets hope I have better bladder control than when I was a toddler).
ReplyDeleteDunno about more refined tastes, McScotty, I just fancied all the Marvel burds, especially Sue Storm. Yeah, the Power comics turned two U.S. pages into one, which maybe looked a bit too dense to some readers. Better bladder control in your '60s? You're dreaming, McScotty.
ReplyDeleteLooking to obtain the no 7 issue of Wham from August 1964. I had a cartoon published in it and was rewarded with a 10/- postal order and would love to see it again. Roy
ReplyDeleteYour best bet is eBay if you want the actual issue. If you just want to see it again, I'll dig out my bound volume in a few days and see if I can scan it for you. I can't open the book very wide, so hopefully it's not too near the spine. Check back next week.
ReplyDelete