The Enid Blyton Society

I have a couple of graphic novel versions of Agatha Christie - Murder on the Orient Express, and Death on the Nile.

Courtenay wrote; "You'd think they would have had the sense to make Darcy look more like Colin Firth."

In the 1952 BBC production Darcy was played by Peter Cushing!

Dave

Ah, well, that's before my time.

I always used to look forward to the Christmas issues, of Comics, I can remember, one Christmas, in the Christmas Issue of Buster Comic, in my favourite Comic Strip, The Leopard from Lime Street, Uncle Charlie gave Aunt Joan, a present (something which surprised Aunt Joan), and the present turned out to be a Jack-in-the-Box (just a stupid joke of Uncle Charlie's), which gave Aunt Joan, a fright, something which angered Billy Farmer, very much, Billy, went up to his bedroom, changed into the Leopardman, climbed out of his window, and knocked on the front door, of the house, Uncle Charlie, went to answer the front door, only to receive a fright, despite Uncle Charlie, quickly shutting the front door, the Leopardman, crashed his way into the house, to teach Uncle Charlie, a lesson, thanks to the Leopardman, Aunt Joan, had a nice peaceful Christmas Day, the Leopardman, made Uncle Charlie, do all the cooking and washing up, and the Leopardman, enjoyed a nice cup of Tea, with Aunt Joan.

Most of the comics went eons ago as did a fair few annuals and original EB Deans Rewards books as they were in a wooden toy box that didn't last the move here.
A good number of the annuals were British such as Beano and Dandy which I kinda liked a lot for their quirky sense of humour and drawing style and actually I still get them each Christmas as I love comic strips.Very much a Minnie the Minx fan!
I do have a number of the seventies Blue Peter annuals which do have some really useful factual information in them at hand as much for understanding what life here was like for children in that era.
I have few Oor Wullie annuals too.

I have most of the Beano, Buster, Whoopee, Whizzer and Chips and Scooby-Doo annuals between 1981 - 1988, still in fine/very good condition. I used to love annuals back in those days, when they were chunky and full of great content and artwork - unlike modern annuals, which are mainly just a travesty.

I also have about 12 Blue Peter annuals - some from the early 70's through to around 2006.

I've probably got the same annuals somewhere too, Rob!

Topper was also one of my faves - I actually got a cartoon published with them when I was about 8 years old. My prize was a big cardboard box full of every conceivable joke trick known to man (whoopee cushions, packet of chewing gum with a mousetrap hidden inside, itching powder, hand shake buzzer, etc) - the greatest day in my life when that arrived in the post! Although, my mum was not best pleased when I had to go to the docs to wash the sneezing powder out of my eyes!!!!

Lex

The only prize I ever won was for Whoopee comic (I think) - where I entered a competition to win a BMX bike! Unfortunately I didn't win the bike, but won some knee pads and gloves...pretty useless without the cool bike to go with them!

Sitting on my back stairs I have a stack of Beano and Dandy Annuals which I have just counted and there are 47 of them there - I had forgotten all about them until I read this thread as the back stairs are really just for servants, so they are a good place for storing hundreds of books! I think they are mostly from the 50s to the 70s.

At one stage I had a pile of about 400 Beano and Dandy comics, but about 40 years ago I wondered what was the point of keeping them as they were just taking up space. Little did I know that they would have been worth a penny or three in years to come, so sadly Desperate Dan and Dennis the Menace went up in flames, but it was a spiffing bonfire!

It could be worse. You could think you had a rare old Beano only to discover it was a reprint. https://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/fp/b ... y-reprint/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

No reprints, as the comics were all bought when they came out, so they were all from the 1950s. I bought the annuals much more recently in the 80s and 90s, all at car boots, jumble sales and charity shops, and all for pence rather than pounds.

80s BMXing! I dreamed of a blue Raleigh Burner with yellow mags! There was the film BMX bandits - and I am sure a series of books too?

With regards to valuable comic collections, I remember the chap at work telling me that he had all the early - I think Marvel - comics, which he kept in his wardrobe. However, when he was in his late teens, he came home from work to find that his Mum (not knowing the value) had given them all away! He was absolutely gutted!

Saving old books is one thing, but the weight alone of those old annuals! I'm sure millions of copies must have fallen victim to housekeeping over the years!

Lex

"Good riddance!" From that chap's Mum point of view.

I know my Mum used to despair at the tonnes of books/annuals I had!

When I - finally - left home, I remember emptying the bottom of my wardrobe and finding that the weight had caused the bottom to collapse. And the wardrobe was a solid Victorian thing too!

Lex

I used to look forward to the Christmas Annual coming out. I had Bunty, and Diana and wish now I had kept them all, but sadly they all got thrown away!