After 12 years of continuous publication, Toxic magazine finally gets its own annual this summer! Toxic Annual 2015 is scheduled for publication on July 31st 2014, with 72 pages for a R.R.P. of £7.99.
I've known about this for a while but I kept quiet until the publishers Egmont made it public. Now that the book is advertised on Amazon, I guess it's ok to mention it. I've written/drawn a brand new 4 page Team Toxic strip for the book, with the Team encountering two of their regular bad guys plus a giant snot monster!
It's unusual for a modern comic/mag to take so long to have an annual spin off book, but I would imagine the healthy sales of the magazine over the last few years have encouraged Egmont to try it. Toxic has been around since 2002, so it's become a recognised title in its own right now.
By the way, although the logo on the cover above looks unusually pale, it'll most likely be enhanced on the actual book with a fifth ink such as dayglo green, like on the regular magazine.
Here are the details of the book from the publisher's info:
The Toxic Annual 2015 is a celebration of all the biggest and best boys brands. From Skylanders to Lego, Minions to Mario and FIFA to Nerf amongst others, it brings together great stories, activities, posters, facts and fun in one action-packed annual. As with the highly popular Toxic Magazine, the Toxic Annual features all the top news and info about gaming, films, TV shows and toys together with additional fun and engaging content to really get boys reading and laughing.
All in all, the Toxic Annual 2015 is a jam-packed end-of-year compendium of all the coolest brands. It's filled with jokes, stories, and all the top things to know, all delivered with the humorous attitude which makes Toxic so popular!
Hardcover: 72 pages
Publisher: Egmont (31 July 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1405272112
ISBN-13: 978-1405272117
Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.8 x 2.1 cm
I'm not too keen on the cover, but it's good to see they've finally released an annual.
ReplyDeleteI suppose that might not be the final version of the cover but it'll no doubt be something similar if not exactly like that. Annuals are all about brand promotion these days unfortunately so it needs to have things kids will recognise on the cover.
ReplyDelete72 pages? There should be some legal requirement for an "annual" to have at least 100, anything less is just a jumped-up monthly magazine in a hard cover XD
ReplyDelete96 pages seems the average, but over the last 15 years I've seen annuals with 64 pages, and some with as few as 48 pages! The covers were thicker than the content.
ReplyDeleteThis is good news for Toxic's loyal readers, but I'm surprised they're able to use things like the Skylanders and Lego, which have their own annuals, or the Hulk (Panini has Marvel's licence) in an annual. I'd always assumed that was why Toxic didn't have an annual - I would've expected them to have to rely on their comic strip content rather than third party material - and they don't have a vast range of characters. Hasn't it always been Team Toxic plus one or two other strips? The Dandy never carried advert content in their annual even during the Xtreme years when such content was in the comic.
ReplyDeleteI guess companies aren't going to turn down the opportunity of promoting their brands in another book, even if their properties have their own annuals. Various brands appear in Toxic magazine, so one would expect the annual to be the same.
ReplyDeleteFor example, Lego have granted Immediate Media the licence to publish a Lego Chima magazine, but that doesn't prevent Toxic, Epic, or Mega from having permission to feature Lego Chima images in their mags.
Cover has changed already.
ReplyDeleteThanks James. Well spotted.
ReplyDeleteI've updated my post with the new image added.