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swirlythingy wrote:Nobody's seen the Summer Annual in the shops because it isn't there. Distribution has been truly dismal.
There wasn't a single one in Wimbledon. I eventually found a couple of copies in the huge two-storey WHSmith in the local mega-mall in Croydon, tucked out of the way in one corner of a large, brightly-coloured bookshelf vying for attention with a multitude of licensed products.
I suppose retailers just haven't been buying it, since it isn't an established product like the Christmas annuals.
TBH, it isn't really worth its price tag, either - it's basically a compilation of every Summer Special from the early 2000s, with nary a strip from that period unreprinted. (There are a few new stories towards the back, though.) So much has been reprinted that it'll be physically impossible to produce a similar book next year - there aren't 132 pages of summer comics left in the world.
EDIT: I've just remembered the conversation I had with the clerk in the Wimbledon Waterstones, who are usually so reliable at producing the Christmas annuals. I told him I was looking for the Beano Summer Annual, and he went and looked it up on his computer, which told him that, not only were there none in the shop, there were none in the warehouse, there were none and never had been any in any other Waterstones in the country, and no orders had ever been placed. So if anyone's looking in Waterstones, might as well give up.
swirlythingy wrote:
EDIT: I've just remembered the conversation I had with the clerk in the Wimbledon Waterstones, who are usually so reliable at producing the Christmas annuals. I told him I was looking for the Beano Summer Annual, and he went and looked it up on his computer, which told him that, not only were there none in the shop, there were none in the warehouse, there were none and never had been any in any other Waterstones in the country, and no orders had ever been placed. So if anyone's looking in Waterstones, might as well give up.
Interesting. I bought mine from Amazon but I haven't seen it (or the Broons one) in any shops either.
The Beano brand usually guarantees a good response from booksellers so it seems bizarre that a major retail company wouldn't have it. The full title is The Beano 3D Summer Annual, although I wouldn't have thought missing out the phrase '3D' in a stock search would make any difference. Strange.
I've only had the most cursory of glances for the Beano Summer Annual, but I've also been unable to find it in the shops. Disappointing. (WH Smith in Wigan isn't great for kids' comics at the moment. It's a relatively large branch with a good selection of magazines, but they don't even take one copy of The Dandy anymore. Sad.)
the dandy has also disapeared from all supermarkets & newsagents in my part of london & whs only seems to have 3 in every week,i fear the latest revamp will be the last & within 2 years will merge with beano to make a similar comic style to beezer & topper before that died,or disapear alltogether
Luckily, all the supermarkets in Wigan still seem to stock it (though in Asda it's invariably rammed at the back, completely out of sight).
The massive WHS in Manchester always have the Dandy, but not sure how many copies - by the time I get there at the weekend, there's usually one copy left at the most. Hopefully that's a good sign...
If anyone's local newsagent isn't stocking the Dandy, I urge them to ask them to buy it. It really does work. The reason the Dandy has distribution problems is because its circulation was so low (until the revamp, with good reason), and the comic-buying public are the only people who can fix the problem now.
WHSmith etc. are probably another matter, of course.
Help! Help! We're being held prisoner in a signature factory!
Yes, I'm very surprised my local WH Smith don't stock it. One week it was on a separate display stand (it was one of the more expensive issues), the next - nothing. (In fact, the previous issue was still on sale.)
i think the fact that dandy keeps going up to £2.50 when there is a gift with it(i didn't say free that time) doesn't help & going to a bigger size cover they should stick to price of £1 every week & no tat expect maybe the chrimbo issue.It is 2 & 1/2 quid again this week,i hope its not a big cover again.
big bad bri wrote:i think the fact that dandy keeps going up to £2.50 when there is a gift with it(i didn't say free that time) doesn't help & going to a bigger size cover they should stick to price of £1 every week & no tat expect maybe the chrimbo issue.It is 2 & 1/2 quid again this week,i hope its not a big cover again.
The fact they keep doing it suggests it works though Brian. They only do it for holiday issues and I believe there's a school break coming up again. As there's no Dandy Summer Special any more it serves as a replacement.
Besides, the kids probably don't see the cover mounts as tat. They may be as pleased with them as we were with free gifts 40 years ago.
I wouldn't mind the expensive issues so much if DC Thomson didn't go out of their way to make my life a misery. Why must the Dandy and the Beano synchronise? Why must the expensive issues always come in pairs - never just the odd one now and again, always another one following on from the first one? Five pounds a week for two weeks, down the drain, just like that.
I also think they're far too frequent (it's only four weeks since the last two!), and, in the Beano's case, overly reliant on the, yes, tat. At least the Dandy has extra pages to look forward to...
Help! Help! We're being held prisoner in a signature factory!
big bad bri wrote:i think the fact that dandy keeps going up to £2.50 when there is a gift with it(i didn't say free that time) doesn't help & going to a bigger size cover they should stick to price of £1 every week & no tat expect maybe the chrimbo issue.It is 2 & 1/2 quid again this week,i hope its not a big cover again.
The fact they keep doing it suggests it works though Brian. They only do it for holiday issues and I believe there's a school break coming up again. As there's no Dandy Summer Special any more it serves as a replacement.
Besides, the kids probably don't see the cover mounts as tat. They may be as pleased with them as we were with free gifts 40 years ago.
when we were kids they actually were free gifts with no price rise as far as i remember. i suppose the tat does help in a way because when my little sis was young and she went supermarket with me she went straight to the comics so i used to buy some for her but the comic was never even touched once she had the toy or make up or what ever it was off the cover.
there also seems to be a lot more school holidays now or is it im getting old and they have the same ammount
swirlythingy wrote:I wouldn't mind the expensive issues so much if DC Thomson didn't go out of their way to make my life a misery.
Woa! Must add Paranoia to the ever increasing list of attributes of your flimsy nature. However, if that is a policy of DC Thomson to personally go out of their way to make your life a misery, then I salute them.
big bad bri wrote:when we were kids they actually were free gifts with no price rise as far as i remember.
True, but they didn't have 12 extra pages either.
Last time the Beano upped the price for gifts, the first week had all the extra pages used up by advertising for Lego, and the second one didn't have any extra pages. Therefore, the extra cost that time was only for the cover mount.
