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Sunday, May 25, 2014

2015 annuals cover previews

Click to see images larger.
Over on the unofficial Beano fan forum an anonymous source has posted advance cover images of three upcoming DC Thomson annuals. The images are low resolution but even so, the covers look great! Ken Harrison's lively Dandy Annual 2015 cover shows a host of classic characters whilst Nigel Parkinson's Beano Annual 2015 cover displays his fantastic skills as an artist. (Just look at the perspective and detail in that railway station roof.) Both covers have a really nice uplifting sense of carefree joy about them.

In recent years the classic Beano/Dandy reprint gift book has perhaps focused too much on more modern times but from the looks of things the new edition will be firmly set around the 1940s. Hopefully there'll be some wonderful examples of work by Dudley Watkins, Allan Morely and more within its pages. And a Big Eggo strip on the cover? Incredible. (Although this may be subject to change by the time the book reaches the shelves of course, but I hope not.)

9 comments:

James Spiring said...

Isn't it Allan Morley, not Morely?

I too am glad to see that they'll be using older strips in the Classic Beano and Dandy book this year. The very name Classic indicates that the material used shouldn't be modern, yet recently they've even included 21st century material.

Peter Gray said...

So glad the book will be on more older stuff...the recent books have been too much on recent annuals...

James Spiring said...

Here's the source:
http://www.bookdepository.com/Beano-Dandy/9781845355296
http://www.bookdepository.com/Beano-Annual-2015/9781845355203
http://www.bookdepository.com/Dandy-Annual-2015/9781845355210

Steven Docker said...

I too hope that the Beano/Dandy is older material. Last year was the first time since I started buying the combined annual back in the 90's that I didn't buy it - too much Dennis and Gnasher and not much Dandy (I don't like the Beano - I loved the Dandy - still do). Looks like it will be Christmas in July - Amazon has them listed as available from July 4th.

Lew Stringer said...

Yes, they've been coming out in July for a few years now. From online sellers anyway. Bookshops sometimes hold them back until September.

PhilEdBoyce said...

For me it's a bit strange the Dandy annuals never really changed with the new look of the comic in its final years, but remained more related to the classic comic. I'm not saying one would be better than the other, but was there an official reason as to why?

Lew Stringer said...

I've never asked, but I would guess it was partly due to wanting to retain the old characters for the 75th anniversary. Also, as the books are bought by parents etc, it's good to use characters they're familiar with.

I know at least one of the 2010 revamp strips will appear in the 2016 annual so perhaps we'll see more of a mixture in the future.

Anonymous said...

Actually, the train on the front is in South West train colours (EMT use less dark blue, though some SWTs also use their livery). It looks like a SWT train as well (Class 450, I googled it) so that would place Beanotown on the South Coast, most likely near Portsmouth, as that's where those trains go.

Strange. I always thought Beanotown was near Dundee.

Lew Stringer said...

I think Beanotown is South West of The Twilight Zone and anywhere the reader wants it to be. :)

By the way, I know people are trying to work out where Beanotown is based on that train livery but that's not the final cover. I recently showed the published version here:

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/annuals-on-their-way.html

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