OOR WULLIE & THE BROONS...

Copyright D.C. THOMSON & Co., Ltd

The latest volume in the Oor WULLIE & The BROONS series of books is now in shops, and unusually for me, I bought mine for a tenner from The WORKS.  (The full price should be £12.99, but even the DCT shop is selling them at a reduced price of £10.99.)  I say 'unusually' because I normally wait 'til nearer Christmas when they're going for a song, but I nearly couldn't get one last year so took the plunge today just to be sure.

The strips are reproduced better than the last couple of books, where it was obvious that they'd just been scanned from old and aged SUNDAY POST FUN SECTION pages, with no attempt at cleaning them up a bit.  Thankfully, they're nice and clean and bright this time around.

If you're a fan of either of these two Scottish icons, then you'll be sure to want to add this book to your collection.  Rush out and buy one right away!

ANOTHER ANNUAL EVENT (WITH GREAT RON EMBLETON ART)...

Images copyright relevant and respective owners

Three TV shows (among many) I remember from my childhood are CIRCUS BOY, WHIRLYBIRDS, and The ADVENTURES Of ROBIN HOOD.  Circus Boy was CORKY, played by MICKY BRADDOCK, who - when he grew up - metamorphosed into MICKY DOLENZ of The MONKEES and METAL MICKEY fame (as a producer and director in the latter's case).  Whirlybirds starred, er... helicopters, and Robin Hood starred RICHARD (Brylcreem Boy) GREENE, and had a rousing theme tune that everyone of a certain age remembers.  Forget ERROL FLYNN, Richard Greene, to me, was the real Robin Hood.

So what has all that got to do with the price of cheese?  Well, recently, in a charity shop, I managed to pick up a couple of old Annuals, namely Circus Boy and The Adventures Of Robin Hood, for next-to-nothing.  (I stole them!)  Ho ho, only joking, but I got them for far less than I'd have paid for them on eBay.  What makes the Robin Hood one in particular worth having is the fact that it's illustrated by RON EMBLETON, who drew WULF The BRITON for EXPRESS WEEKLY, and (later) the STINGRAY and CAPTAIN SCARLET strips for TV CENTURY 21. (Also WICKED WANDA for PENTHOUSE, but we won't go there.)

I don't have a Whirlybirds Annual yet, but I'll get one eventually.  (And I quite fancy having a Z-CARS Annual too.)  Until I do, here are a few pictures from the other two, along with the covers, to whet your appetite for picture-strip tie-ins to old TV shows.  I particularly like the Robin Hood ones, how about you?

As well as b&w drawings, there are also 'grey tone' illustrations
in the book, which I suspect were originally produced in colour

******

Interestingly, although this illustration is signed by A. POLLACK, the book
credits the illustrations to JOHN POLLACK on the adjoining page