The PUZZLING POW! ANNUAL 1971...

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The POW! ANNUAL for 1971 (on sale in August or September of 1970) is certainly a curious item in comparison to its predecessors.  Published by ODHAMS PRESS, as were the previous three Annuals for '68, '69 & '70, it bore absolutely no relation to them in terms of strip content or style.  True, the logo remained the same, but anyone buying the book having purchased earlier ones (or even the comic, which expired in '68) would surely have wondered what was going on.

What mystifies me is that the WHAM! ANNUAL for 1971 was exactly the same as in previous years and also published by Odhams - even though its former stablemate, SMASH!, was now an IPC comic, whose Annual reflected the contents of its weekly (revamped) counterpart.  I can only suppose that, as the weekly incarnations of Wham! and Pow! no longer existed, Odhams were permitted to produce one more Annual of each, although the subsequent books for 1972, plus the combined '73 & '74 releases, were all IPC publications.

Art by Miguel Quesada

As far as I'm able to determine, the 1971 Pow! Annual contains all-new strips - at least, I've never heard or seen of any of the characters before (or since, come to that) - and therefore represents good value for money, as previous Annuals had a fair amount of reprint material, making them cheaper to produce.  It's interesting to ponder whether the weekly title would've survived with regular strips of the same characters as the Annual, but I guess if SPIDER-MAN couldn't save it, then it's unlikely that unknown British substitutes would've fared any better.

Art by Victor Ibanez

Anyway, I thought you might enjoy seeing a gallery of some pages from over 40 years ago, when children regularly thrilled to the yearly hardback versions of their favourite comics.  Will such a time ever come again?  What do you think?

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Incidentally, the artists' names were sourced from the British Comics Database, after I had identified ROMERO by myself.  The BCD confirmed it for me though.

Art by Matias Alonso

Art by Jose Ortiz

Art by Enrique Badia Romero

Art by Eustaquio Segrelles

Art by Leopoldo Ortiz

Art by Victor Ibanez

SUPER DC TEXT STORIES - PART ONE...

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Back in the late 1960s or very early '70s, TOP SELLERS had a nifty little monthly comic mag on sale which reprinted (in b&w) various classic superhero tales from the stable of NATIONAL PERIODICAL PUBLICATIONS Ltd., aka DC COMICS.  It also featured U.K. produced text stories, which, I believe, were reprinted (and possibly abridged) from an earlier weekly comic entitled TV TORNADO.

There were only 14 issues of Super DC, so I thought all you 'Criv-ites' might enjoy seeing the first six double-page tales from issues 1-3 (there were two tales per issue) for you to read at your leisure.  Want to see any more?  Then be sure to let me know in the comments section.