anyone seen one of these English 1960s annuals with actual comics before

[libby 1957dog]

just wondering if any silver age guys ,or anyone for that matter can shine a light on this book ,it has o cardboard cover and no publisher info ,no table of contents ,just 6 original 1966 and 1967 comics bound together, covers and all ,one is the debut of the Barbra G batgirl ,the comics look to have been factory trimmed to better fit the book cover ,i was told that american comics came to England as ballast on boats ,they then went from the distributors to the newsagents paper shop , if unsold they were returned to the distributors for pulping ,one firm had the idea of binding random comics in book form ,the normal thing was to reprint older comics on book paper ,sometimes badly recolored ,and sell them as a annual ,this cant have been a success as ive only ever seen this one in 50 years ,thanks to all or any who can help cheers chris

[johnnystorm]

That's a great find, particularly with the Batgirl book!

[Brazoo]

Wow - that's really amazing!

[cjefferys]

I've never seen something like this before. Is it possible that this kind of publication is how the tradition of British hardcover comic annuals began?

[B-Lister]

Those endpapers are incredible.

[libby 1957dog]

I've never seen something like this before. Is it possible that this kind of publication is how the tradition of British hardcover comic annuals began?

i dont think so as these comics are dated 1966 and 1967 and i have some superman annuals from the 1950s that use the traditional reprint and recolor format ,i just think this was a try out for a cheaper way to produce a low cost book and a way for disposing of unsold comics ,anyone have any idea as to what this book would be worth ,either as 6 ruined comics or a unique way to own the first silver age debut of batgirl lol

[libby 1957dog]

I've never seen something like this before. Is it possible that this kind of publication is how the tradition of British hardcover comic annuals began?

i dont think so as these comics are dated 1966 and 1967 and i have some superman annuals from the 1950s that use the traditional reprint and recolor format ,i just think this was a try out for a cheaper way to produce a low cost book and a way for disposing of unsold comics ,anyone have any idea as to what this book would be worth ,either as 6 ruined comics or a unique way to own the first silver age debut of batgirl lol

[Brazoo]

I've seen photos of collections of comics that had been bound together in hard cover books before. I guess sometimes artists, writers or editors bound together file copies for storage and quick access, but I've never seen this.

Those endpapers are incredible.

Completely incredible! And the characters they chose are fantastic!

How great would it be to line the back of a Mego display shelf with something like this?

[Brazoo]

Here's a video showing some Harvey bound file copies. Not the exact same thing, but still cool:

Go to about 1:20

[suspense39]

They do trim those bound volumes

[Emgee]

The Comic Book Price Guide For Great Britain site values this at anything between £50 and £100. I have a similar BRAVE AND THE BOLD one too

http://www.comicpriceguide.co.uk/uk_comic.php?tc=blackhann

http://www.comicpriceguide.co.uk/uk_issues.php?ic=1327

[libby 1957dog]

hi and thanks for the heads up ,would you happen to know if all annuals contained the same comics , i find this improbable ,due to the random nature of returns ,at least one of the comics in my annual has a newsagents price stamp , indicating it was for sale somewhere prior to being bound in the annual ,i view these the same as the grab bags that used to have x amount of random left over comics sold in a bag at a discount price ,id love to see pictures or a list of your comics in your annual cheers chris

[Emgee]

The one I have has different comics inside to yours. I will check but it is firstly a BRAVE AND THE BOLD hence the title, a Detective Comics, An Action Comics, SEA DEVILS, a SUPERBOY too I think. Aside from the comics bound within and the cover of course it is exactly the same style as the one you own. The publishers ATLAS did many quite high end UK annuals primarily based on TV shows such as THE BANANA SPLITS, THE AVENGERS (Steed and Mrs Peel) and even a BATMAN with an Adam West cover. I recall they were perhaps based in South London. Not as robust publications as those published by WORLD DISTRIBUTORS at the time, who did stuff like MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., THUNDERBIRDS and LAND OF THE GIANTS for example, but decent enough all the same.

[ctc]

Say....

I wonder if this was a way to get around the return policy of the day.

Don C.

[Emgee]

The annual I have comprises of Brave and the Bold 71, Sea Devils 35, Batman 191, Action Comics 350, Adventure Comics 356 and Jimmy Olsen 99 and are mostly cover dated May '67.