Addicted to Vintage Marvel UK Annuals...

[Blue Meanie]

I've been getting into the Marvel UK Comics and Annuals. I have to say if I was a kid in the UK and got these as a present I would have just about lost my mind. The quality in the UK annuals is just amazing. The covers are beautiful and the interior printing is outstanding. Marvel Masterworks could learn a thing or two from how these were printed. The pics in this thread are actually from the auction I won. I received the one with Cap in front of the other Marvel characters. I didn't want to mess with the binding because it's 44 years old. The pics don't really do the printing inside justice. Waiting on the Fantastic Four one. I wish the printing was this good here in the US...either back then or even now:



Inside front Cover and 1st page, Inside Back Cover and last page:



Spidey and Thor Pages inside the book:



I love how the stories in the book are from different eras of Marvel. The first story in the book is a 40'/50' Cap story with John Romita art. There is also 2 Submariner stories from the 40'/50's. If you are into comics and want quality these are worth hunting down. They aren't cheap after shipping from the UK...but they are worth it. I already have a couple other Marvel Hardcover Annuals under the Fantastic and Terrific titles. Soon as I can get my scanner going again I'll scan some of those covers.

[Bruce Banner]

Cool pics.
I have a few hardcover Marvel UK annuals from the mid to late 70s.
I agree, they were very nice publications.

You can generally find lots of them from assorted decades at every comic mart and memorabilia show in the UK.

[Blue Meanie]

You can generally find lots of them from assorted decades at every comic mart and memorabilia show in the UK.

Then I think I will have to schedule a vacation around a Comic Convention in the UK and bring lots of $$$. As I was going through the annuals I have it looks like the early ones that were published through World Distributors are full color from start to finish whereas the ones that are published through Granddreams and Oldhams are black and white with maybe one full color story and one, what I call, faux color story where they color the black and white with either green or red. And the mid 70's releases seem to have filler as opposed to the early World Distributors annuals...Those are all comic book material. I think what really catches the eye are the covers. I'd love to know if the covers for the 2 I posted still exist somewhere. It has a Kirby style...but I would be surprised if they were Kirby. There is one Oldham annual that has Hulk lifting a tank on the cover. I think it was published in '72. Here's a Blog if anyone is interested. I have the Fantastic Annuals that are pictured:

http://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.html

[libby 1957dog]

not sure if you saw this annual when i posted it ,it has a 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 and selling them as a annual

[Earth 2 Chris]

Those books are gorgeous. I love the covers on the Marvel books, and the interior covers of the DC one posted.

Chris