Coming Soon - Retro UK Annuals!

Starting next month, there will be a new series of posts about classic British annuals, featuring your favourite classic cartoon characters.

The British annual has been a long-standing Christmas tradition that dates back to the early 20th century, to tie in with a comic or magazine, a film, a TV series, toys, and yes, even classic animation. These are usually dated by next year's date, to ensure that the last remaining copies remain saleable after the new year,.

The first cartoon character to get his own annual was Felix the Cat in 1923 (dated 1924), and Mickey Mouse first got his in 193o (same again, dated the next year). However, its heyday was in the 1970s, when even a Terrytoons character got his own annual! Classic cartoon annuals are still being published today, although not on a big scale as it was then.

The vast majority of the annuals during the 60's-mid 80's (most of the featured annuals will be from this period) consisted of vintage American comic strips, mostly from Dell comics. It may be viewed as a "cheat" during that time, but it was (and still is, if you buy them on eBay) an economical and longer-lasting way of viewing these classic strips. However, there is one exception: TV Comic, a weekly magazine featuring British-drawn strips based on cartoons and other TV shows, published their own annuals, which consists of our very own Tom & Jerry, Bugs Bunny, Barney Bear, and Pink Panther cartoon strips. Examples of these will be shown in due course.

In this series, I will be posting a selection of pages from each annual featured, which will include first pages of comic strips and illustrated stories, but I will include a complete comic strip in each post. I will also include some of the activity pages and cover illustrations.

Below are some scans of what to expect very shortly.









There will be a few more R&TVP Redrawns posts before this new series starts, but I hope the above images are enough to whet you appetite!