Comics UK

Very true Tin Can. I also find it is a lot easier to store the annuals than comics. I have annuals as far back as the 40's, and also a fairly large collection of other books, so not much space for my other bits and bobs!

You are right there - annuals are definitely more collectable. I'd say this is because they have more strips, longer stories with bigger panels (so there's more room for details to be added), no adverts and fewer filler pages, which have little appeal for most adults. Any filler pages included in recent Beano annuals have tended to include original art, unlike the ones in the comics which usually use stock art or photos.

As an illustration of this point, one of my relatives has a big collection of Beano annuals going back to the 1960s or 1970s (IIRC), including recent ones, but she stopped getting the weekly comic a long time ago.

Any annuals older than the 70s are just plain hard to obtain, they don't come up for sale as often as later ones and when they do they're often expensive. Which is why I was so pleased when I found the Sparky Book 1967 in a YMCA charity shop. It's the oldest annual in my collection, and the first one of it's series to boot. I have a 1968 Topper Book too, but it's in very poor condition with a few panels felt tipped or cut out.

I dont think pre-70s annuals are hard to obtain there are a lot of beano annuals from before the 70s up on ebay at the moment even some from the 40s but these a quite expensive I find as soon as you get to the 40s annuals the price shoots up into the hundreds of pounds. I have a number of Beano annuals from the 60s and 50s all of which I got off of ebay they are not all in that good a condition but they are readable and weren't that expensive either, I doubt if I bought any of them for over twenty pounds.

I notice that there are a number of 50s Beano annuals on ebay at the moment some for around 50 pounds or higher and unsurprisingly no bids. But there are some bargains on ebay at the moment Like this 1950 Magic beano annual in decent condition which is currently at only about 11 pounds (including P&p).

I DID have every single Beano and Dandy (and all the specials as well) from 1992-2000, but during a house move, around 80% of them went missing. Been SLOWLY rebuilding that collection ever since, and today it got a massive boost of around 300 issues, bringing me up to around... 500-something?

If you was living with your parents, I bet I know why those comics went missing. They went in the bin.

Yeah, the same way as my Fiendish Feet pots

Well, if that IS the case, at least I can thank them for letting me keep the annuals and comic libraries...

DCT will have all the comics from 38 to the currant issue in yearly bound volumes plus they'll have every beano book every one of em in what must be a very big archive with all that original atrwork too

I managed to find the Beano Book 1961 in Kim's Bookshop located in Chichester - it was standing proudly on the shelving unit in the shop window and my eyes glistened when I saw it.

Sure, it wasn't mint condition - in fact, it was anything but mint condition. The spine was completely gone and replaced with black masking tape, inside the pages were vandalised slightly - pink pen scribbles everywhere. But that didn't bother me - half of my annuals I got from my Nan - they used to be my mum's and they were full of scribbles and humorous comments like [My mum's name] <3 [insert name here] - stuff which I show my mum years and years later and she hides her face in embarrassment.

These little problems didn't bother me - I didn't care of its condition - the comic strips were still readable and it was still a classic. So with that, I went into the shop.

I asked if I could see the book and the woman smiled at me - I was a regular customer and she knew my love for comic annuals. She took down the old classic from the shelf and placed it in front of me. She said I could have a look through - after looking through, I began to expect the price would be out of my depth. I'd only brought £30.00 with me.

I asked for the price and she replied
"It's £25.00."
I gasped - I could afford it! I thought long and hard whether I wanted to buy the book - I was planning on buying some other stuff and I knew if I bought this book - I'd spend nearly all my money.

But of course, I took it - with it's raggedy edges and slightly-scribbled pages - I handed over the £25.00 and walked happily out of the shop after saying thank you.

Mum later asked me if I thought it was a waste of money - the condition wasn't great after all and I knew at such a poor condition, it wasn't worth a lot. But I said no - sure, it wasn't amazing but I'd never forget the day I managed to pick it up and then proudly put it in my ever-growing annual collection.

I think I bought the Beano annual 1961 in better condition and for less than £25 off ebay It's a brilliant annual might be the one with the two page spread bash street vs Crackpots circus strip and a number of similiar bash street spreads or that might be 1962 but still it's a good annual.

Now the Beano Book 1953 i got cheap, off ebay and not in very good condition the spine fell off but I still have it. It was all readable and Dennis the Menace was the only modern character in it and he lacks his black and red jersey on the cover but not inside. Still a very interesting read even if I didnt read all of it (I skipped the text stories).

You've just made me rather jealous, Tin-Can!

Im jealous that you have been able to find Beano annuals in shops. Recent visits to charity shops have only resulted in me getting Viz annuals. Car Boots and similiar jumble sales have been more succesful mind you but I still didnt find any Beano annuals just Topper and Beezer books. But I dont really expect to find a Beano annual (but an annual for a similiar comic would be nice as I dont have many of those) in any shop or car boot sale as the only ones I dont have are from the 50s and 40s.

I got the 1961 annual recently as well, in a 2nd-hand book/magazine/comic shop in Manchester. Nothing's "officially" priced in there, usually some sort of bartering is done.

I'd already got a big armful of comics which I'd taken to the till, when I noticed the Beano Book behind the counter. I asked how much it was, and they said I could have it, along with my other stuff, for £45 total. I said I only had £30 (true!), and they let me have it!

So, the annual plus around 50 other items (various Busters, Beanos, Whizzer & Chips, and a few oddities too!) for £30. Lovely stuff, good annual too.

The funny thing is, I don't bother with annuals that are priced over one digit.

At a car boot sale last year, someone was selling a copy of the 1963 Dandy annual. The condition was so-so. I opted not to buy it because it was £5, and most annuals I buy are between 0p (1982 Buster annual) and £3 (Another Buster annual, I believe) and are generally in better condition. I first saw this copy in around May or June. The seller was still trying to get rid of it in mid-August. I may have briefly considered buying it off him, but usually while I was at the said car boot, there were better buys at different stalls.

It seems that the difference in price between 60's and 70's annuals is bigger than the difference between the prices of annuals from any other two decades. Some 60s annuals can be found reasonably easily, particularly Beezer and Topper ones.

This kind of attitude I take towards buying old annuals means I have no earthly chance of getting the likes of the 1961 Beano annual but Ah, well. I prefer drawing comic strips than collecting old ones!

The 1st issue of The Beano I was bought as a child was June 5th 1993 and had Dennis playing cricket on the front cover.

As for how many issues that will take me all year to sort out.