SPARKY BOOKS (For Boys And Girls) MINI COVER GALLERY... (Updated)

Copyright D.C. THOMSON & Co., Ltd

You can thank (or blame) regular reader CJ for this post, Crivs, as he asked me in the comments section of The Complete Sparky #1 (back in August) whether I'd be showing the covers of my Sparky Books.  I only had three at the time, but now I have five (the first five) so here they are*.  There were 15 in all (though the last one was a combined Topper & Sparky Book), so that means I have a third of them.  Will I ever bother to track down the remaining ten?  Time will tell, Crivvies, time will tell.

Okay, so you've got the covers to look at - anyone interested in seeing any of the contents?  Let me know in the comments section.

*(Update: I've now added the Book for '72, so that's six I have.  They came out when I lived in one of my former houses between 1965 and '72 so that's that aspect of my life covered as far as Sparky books go.  I never had any of them at the time, but somehow it now feels as though I did.) 

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It's interesting to note that the weekly Sparky comic came out at the beginning of 1965, meaning it was probably prepared sometime in early or mid-'64 (unless it was a rush job to compete with TV Century 21), so DCT must've been waiting to see how well it sold, for them not to have the first Book all ready to go for Christmas '65.  The '67 Book would've been on sale in August/September of '66, but that means it was likely in preparation at the start of '66 if my own experience of when IPC Annuals were put together is any indication.  I remember working on the 2000 A.D. and Judge Dredd Annuals for 1986 not long into 1985.  As I was lettering finished art, they must have been drawn weeks or months earlier.