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Going slightly Kashgar,but I saw these Rover & Wizard comics recently on eBay and the covers captivated me immediately!Were these comics Picture Papers at this stage?And also who were the brilliant artists! Cheeky,ain't I?
Raven wrote:There was some kind of peculiar and rather butch annual-style Hotspur tie-in book in the early '70s on 'how to be a super boy', or something like that; with features on boxing and athletics and keeping fit, looking like it had a British Empire public school philosophy about the importance of athletic prowess and discipline for boys.
Must have been quite dated even a quarter of a century ago.
I know there was a freebie in the Hornet in the mid 70s of a booklet with that same title, which sounds more or less like the item you mention. What I can remember of the freebie was a section on playing football, where Gordon Banks advises budding goalies not to make saves look good, but just to save goals without showing off about it.
I'm pretty sure this must be what Raven is remembering as there was never a Hotspur tie-in annual published with this premise. The book in question was a 52pg effort given away in Hornet No 420 (25/9/71) titled 'Be a Super Boy'.
I remember getting the Be a Super Boy booklet in the Hornet and looking through it page by page, and nowhere was there mention of wearing a blue costume and red cape!
Hi chaps, I'll have to leave any artist identifications for a few days as I can't get the illos to appear at the moment but even so I can still clarify a couple of points -
1) Rover & Wizard was always basically a story paper.
2) Of the cover illos in question none of them can be by Keith Shone as he never worked for R&W. If the Braddock looks like his work it is most likely by Jeff Bevan.
Once I can see the illos I'll be able to give a bit more info.
Back to the subject of spin-off books and annuals. The first AP title to really develop this idea was Modern Boy in the 1930's which published its 'Book of Aircraft' in 1932 and then, for most years up to 1940, published at least one spin-off title per year to accompany its own Modern Boys Annual.
In fact, one of its spin-off titles 'MB's Book of Pirates' bids fair to be the most sought after and expensive of all spin-off books, entirely down to the fact that it was written by Capt W E Johns of Biggle fame. I've seen copies of this go for prices up to ?200.
The 1950's nursery titles Playhour and Jack and Jill also produced a fair amount of spin-off titles over the years.
And, in many ways, the late 1950's book titles 'Billy the Kid', 'Kit Carson', Buck Jones', 'Robin Hood' etc can also be considered as spin-off publications even if their parent titles Sun/Cowboy Picture Library/Thriller Picture Library never had annuals of their own as such.
A similar situation also existed with the Thomson/Leng nursery title 'Fairyland Tales' in the 1920's and 1930's, for while never spawning an annual of its own gave rise to an awful lot of books featuring its more popular characters eg the Billy and Bunny Book, the Willie Waddle Book, Kiddies Playtime, Wendy's Story Book etc as well as providing the characters who were the subjects of most of the jigsaw puzzles in the five Jigpuz books published by Leng in the late 1930's.
Captain Storm wrote:Kashgar,thanks for the info re ADVENTURE Interesting to note that HORNET was only ever a picture paper.Mind must be going
Here is the SUN BOOK:
Also on a totally unrelated topic.Knockout Comic seems to have had 5 separate incarnations/relaunches/makeovers in its long history.Can you shed some light on this?Must say from what I've seen,it's 1961/1962 era would have rivaled VALIANT or LION.
From memory Knockout was launched in 1939 and its format, page size etc remained pretty well the same until 1960 when its page size was increased taking it from Lion, as it was then, size to Tiger, as it was then, size.
In 1961 it's title was expanded to 'Billy Bunter's Knockout' and then in July 1962 it became the proto-Valiant that is now so fondly remembered but which, at the time, only saw it granted another 7 months of life before merging with that vibrant new doppelganger, the aforementioned Valiant, in Feb 1963.
The Knockout comic launched in 1971 has absolutely nothing to do with the original other than its title.
Apart from "Shoot" & "Goal" (pictures in the Annuals/Book section) and not including Scoop Scorcher Score as they had stories in.
there must be thousands of Football only Annuals.
This "Top Soccer" Annual from Fleetway could be Shoot in disguise if it wasn't for this one off rather bizarre text story in the middle which runs for 6 pages.
I'm surprised that nobody's mentioned the king of all spin-off titles Eagle before now. These included Riders of the Range, Dan Dare's Space Book, the Eagle Sports Annual, Frank Bellamy's Happy Warrior and countless factual books on subjects such as trains, ships, aircraft, careers and model building. There were also several Eagle novels and many other spin-off items such as a range of Eagle Kits, Dan Dare Jigsaws, Pop-up Books and Space Radio Stations, not to mention Riders of the Range braces! Even Eagle's junior companion Swift lent its name to books on subjects such as military uniforms and public transport that I remember being sold in Woolworths during the 1960s. What's more, the spin-offs continued for several years after the comic itself had been swallowed by Lion with one of the last being "the Eagle Book of Amazing Stories 1974", crammed full of illustrations by the astonishing Fortunino Matania.
philcom55 wrote:I'm surprised that nobody's mentioned the king of all spin-off titles Eagle before now. These included Riders of the Range, Dan Dare's Space Book, the Eagle Sports Annual, Frank Bellamy's Happy Warrior and countless factual books on subjects such as trains, ships, aircraft, careers and model building. There were also several Eagle novels and many other spin-off items such as a range of Eagle Kits, Dan Dare Jigsaws, Pop-up Books and Space Radio Stations, not to mention Riders of the Range braces! Even Eagle's junior companion Swift lent its name to books on subjects such as military uniforms and public transport that I remember being sold in Woolworths during the 1960s. What's more, the spin-offs continued for several years after the comic itself had been swallowed by Lion with one of the last being "the Eagle Book of Amazing Stories 1974", crammed full of illustrations by the astonishing Fortunino Matania.
- Phil R.
I don't think I've ever seen any of the spin of Annuals/Books phil, that's why I started this thread, hoping someone would put some pictures up of unsual annuals.I know about the models and Jig-saws etc.
Raven wrote:There was some kind of peculiar and rather butch annual-style Hotspur tie-in book in the early '70s on 'how to be a super boy', or something like that; with features on boxing and athletics and keeping fit, looking like it had a British Empire public school philosophy about the importance of athletic prowess and discipline for boys.
Must have been quite dated even a quarter of a century ago.
I know there was a freebie in the Hornet in the mid 70s of a booklet with that same title, which sounds more or less like the item you mention. What I can remember of the freebie was a section on playing football, where Gordon Banks advises budding goalies not to make saves look good, but just to save goals without showing off about it.
I'm pretty sure this must be what Raven is remembering as there was never a Hotspur tie-in annual published with this premise. The book in question was a 52pg effort given away in Hornet No 420 (25/9/71) titled 'Be a Super Boy'.
Ah - it's something that turned up on Ebay a while back, and I did save the pic. Just checking, It was indeed The Hornet Book: Be a Super Boy. The Ebay listing seemed to be presenting it as a standalone book, rather than a freebie from the centre of a comic - but on closer inspection those do indeed look like staples on its spine!
Jump Higher Run Faster Swim Farther Box Better it promises. Did it help you do these things, Kremmen?
steelclaw wrote:This "Top Soccer" Annual from Fleetway could be Shoot in disguise if it wasn't for this one off rather bizarre text story in the middle which runs for 6 pages.
Raven wrote:The Hornet Book: Be a Super Boy. The Ebay listing seemed to be presenting it as a standalone book, rather than a freebie from the centre of a comic - but on closer inspection those do indeed look like staples on its spine!
Jump Higher Run Faster Swim Farther Box Better it promises. Did it help you do these things, Kremmen?
Raven wrote:The Hornet Book: Be a Super Boy. The Ebay listing seemed to be presenting it as a standalone book, rather than a freebie from the centre of a comic - but on closer inspection those do indeed look like staples on its spine!
Jump Higher Run Faster Swim Farther Box Better it promises. Did it help you do these things, Kremmen?
Not in the slightest, I'm afraid! :oops:
It's not too late to ask for your money back. Is the newsagent still there?
Kashgar,but I saw these Rover & Wizard comics recently on eBay and the covers captivated me immediately!Were these comics Picture Papers at this stage?And also who were the brilliant artists! Cheeky,ain't I? 
Interesting to note that HORNET was only ever a picture paper.Mind must be going 
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