Comics UK

The Dandy and The Beano -
Classic Christmas Comic Covers 1937-1969 looks beautiful & a much better better beano-dandy annual thatn the official efforts of the last few years ,Under licence from D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd, 1,000 copies of this delightful, 76 page, full sized, full colour hardback book with dust jacket are currently being printed and will be available from 4th November.I shall definitely be getting one from phil comics.I dont know how to put covers on here
http://www.phil-comics.com/christmas.php

That looks marvellous. Thanks for the heads-up about that, Bri. Just ordered a copy.

That looks fab! Perfect present to buy myself, wrap it up and then open Christmas day for a nice read with a cup of festive tea.

Thanks for the info. Just ordered a copy from Phil.

Andy

No problem guys as soon as i recieved the email i had to share.Only 1000 being produced i have a feeling it may have to go to a 2nd print as it really does look beautiful as i used to love the christmas issues of comics (still do),fireworks book next phil please then many more themed covers books if you are a member on here & reading this:lol:

it looks great....I agree this years Beano and Dandy book is a shame...not enough old gems and too much new stuff...

big bad bri wrote:No problem guys as soon as i recieved the email i had to share.Only 1000 being produced i have a feeling it may have to go to a 2nd print as it really does look beautiful as i used to love the christmas issues of comics (still do),fireworks book next phil please then many more themed covers books if you are a member on here & reading this:lol:

I'm wondering if a licensed book like this might be the only way we'll ever see a collected edition of Jonah stories? Hope so....

It is brilliant news as you say Lew...and it could lead to other books like the banana bunch poster book by Leo B.

A classic Beano cover they missed is from Beano 1970...when they are all christmas choir singing...any other classic Christmas cover which are very good from 1970 onwards...

Just bought it...can't wait!!!!!!!

Peter Gray wrote:It is brilliant news as you say Lew...and it could lead to other books like the banana bunch poster book by Leo B.

A classic Beano cover they missed is from Beano 1970...when they are all christmas choir singing...any other classic Christmas cover which are very good from 1970 onwards...

Just bought it...can't wait!!!!!!!

A lot of the post 1970 covers have already been shown on various blogs so it makes sense for the book to focus on the very early ones I suppose. I for one haven't seen that many Christmas Dandy/Beano covers from the thirties to the early sixties.

A reprint of the 'poster pages' as you call them would have to be a very large format book so that could work out expensive. Let's see how well this first one does before we get too excited for future releases.

Lew Stringer wrote:

big bad bri wrote:No problem guys as soon as i recieved the email i had to share.Only 1000 being produced i have a feeling it may have to go to a 2nd print as it really does look beautiful as i used to love the christmas issues of comics (still do),fireworks book next phil please then many more themed covers books if you are a member on here & reading this:lol:

I'm wondering if a licensed book like this might be the only way we'll ever see a collected edition of Jonah stories? Hope so....

Lew I saw a collection of Jonah stories on Phil Clarke's stall at the comic mart on Sunday - somebody has already mentioned it on a recent post. He also had books on Ken Reid's strips at Pow and Wham.

In case anybody from the DC Thomson legal department is watching it's worth pointing out that Phil played no part in producing the Jonah book, which appears to have been assembled and printed somewhere in Eastern Europe. In spite of excellent production values which make them seem like an answer to the prayers of any self-respecting Ken Reid fanatic I can't help regretting that the existence of such 'bootleg' volumes is likely to discourage publishers from marketing or licensing their own 'official' (and more affordable) reprints of the same material any time soon.

They are nice though...!

- Phil Rushton

For about the first 20 years, the DCT GOLDEN YEARS books were essential, quality items, and I made sure I obtained every instalment. I much preferred them to the contemporary BEANO-DANDY annuals, [incidentally, this is the first ever year I have never looked through them: must be me getting old]

However, after the change in format about 3 years ago, I have simply lost interest in them: [Golden Years Books] the material has started to look routine and not-very-special.

I can appreciate that they have already put out a lot of the best stuff, but I reckon they must easily have enough material to put out at least 100 volumes of worthwhile artwork, but at the moment the choice of strips seems really lacklustre.

Of course, maybe the more recent examples they have put out is aimed at a younger audience than me .

philcom55 wrote:In case anybody from the DC Thomson legal department is watching it's worth pointing out that Phil played no part in producing the Jonah book, which appears to have been assembled and printed somewhere in Eastern Europe. In spite of excellent production values which make them seem like an answer to the prayers of any self-respecting Ken Reid fanatic I can't help regretting that the existence of such 'bootleg' volumes is likely to discourage publishers from marketing or licensing their own 'official' (and more affordable) reprints of the same material any time soon.

They are nice though...!

- Phil Rushton

Exactly. I wasn't aware of the pirated Jonah book but I wouldn't touch bootlegs with a barge pole.

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote: Of course, maybe the more recent examples they have put out is aimed at a younger audience than me .

I think that's a big part if it, Rab. After 20 plus years the audience for nostalgia has shifted. Now, people in their thirties will be interested in reading strips from the 1980s and 1990s, so the books need to acknowledge that.

I'm sure many of us here would welcome comic history books on any period earlier than our own nostalgia but we're in the minority unfortunately. Thankfully, people like Phil-comics had the bright idea of approaching Thomsons for a licence to print a small run of a book that probably wouldn't have been in Thomson's interests to publish themselves. Hopefully this is the way forward for such collections in the future, with fans being straight with publishers rather than sneakily going off and doing their own bootleg copies.

I agree that this Christmas compendium is a step in the right direction, Lew, and I'm fairly sure the first print runs will sell out-----the 'fireworks' theme sounds an all-out winner, too.

I just wish they had gone one more year and had the Beano 1970 cover too
I think this along with the 1976 shiver and shake annual cover are my two most favourite Christmas covers of all time

Welcome, judo!

There was a really good Christmas 1970 SPARKY cover, with the cast carol-singing on the cover.