The 2016 dated annuals were published in July, and available from Amazon then, but it looks like High Street shops have finally decided to put them on the shelves now. WH Smith is currently doing a deal whereby if you buy one annual at full price you can have another for a pound. That works out at about the discount you'd get if you bought two annuals from online sellers.
I know many people are tempted to wait until after Christmas, hoping to get them all for a quid each but if we all did that annuals would quickly die out as it simply wouldn't be worth the bother for publishers and retailers to do them for such little return. Thankfully there do seem to be enough people who support the UK comics industry who are happy to pay a little more and get the books early.
I've illustrated this piece with a couple of panels from my strips in The Dandy Annual 2016. I'm starting work on pages for the 2017 dated Dandy Annual now, but I won't be previewing those for a good while yet.
If you have difficulty obtaining the annuals you could always get them directly from D.C. Thomson at their online shop:
https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/our-brands.html
According to Amazon, The Dandy Annual 2013 should be available today, and I understand it should be out in shops this weekend too, weather, distributors, and shop staff willing. (Or not, see update at the foot of this article.)
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| Cover by Nigel Parkinson |
Anyway, as the books are supposed to be out today I'll now reveal that one of the strips I've drawn for The Dandy Annual 2013 is... Julius Sneezer, The Sneezing Caesar! This character originally appeared in The Dandy Nos. 332 to 348, waaaay back in 1946/47! The artist was the brilliant Allan Morley.
I drew three single page Julius Sneezer strips, from scripts supplied by editor Craig Graham. Reviving a character from the golden age of comics was an engrossing but very enjoyable experience. I was free to use my own style although I tried to "ghost" the character design of Allan Morley as best I could as his original version was so perfect. I didn't have any examples of those 1940s strips but Craig (and, presumably, D.C. Thomson archivist Morris Heggie) kindly sent me scans for reference.
As mentioned on this blog two months ago, the other character I've drawn for the Dandy Annual is The Smasher. In that instance I wrote the scripts as well, and I tweaked the character design to bring my own approach to the strip. It seems to have divided opinion from the brief glimpse I showed before, but I hope the readers will warm to it.
The Dandy Annual 2013 celebrates 75 years of the world's longest running comic by bringing back loads of old characters, drawn by today's artists. I haven't seen a copy myself yet, but I'm really looking forward to seeing my fellow Dandy pals putting a new spin on such favourites as Greedy Pigg, Winker Watson and Keyhole Kate. I'll be looking out for it in the bookshops from today.
Alternatively you can order it from Amazon. (Which I've done, to make sure of a copy.)
UPDATE 7th July 2012: Unfortunately the annual wasn't released on July 6th, and Amazon are now claiming it's not in stock. Hopefully shops will have copies soon. My apologies if I wasted anyone's time. In future I'll ignore proposed publication dates and will only promote items that I physically have or those I know have definitely been published.
The front covers to some of the 2013 annuals have been revealed on the websites of online mail order companies. Amazon has a fair number of covers shown but it's Play.com that have the images to the comic annuals on display. As you can see above, The Beano Annual 2013 and The Dandy Annual 2013 (cover by Nigel Parkinson) both celebrate the 75th anniversaries of their titles.
There'll be more than a hint of nostalgia to this year's Dandy Annual as it'll be packed with old favourites given a new spin. I've done six single page strips for the book, three of one character and three of another. I'll keep one of those secret for now but today I'll reveal that one of them is... The Smasher! The original strip began in The Dandy in 1957, drawn by Hugh Morren, and had a very long run. It was later drawn by Brian Walker.
I haven't even attempted to mimic the styles of those two greats but I hope readers enjoy my version. I wrote the scripts for the three strips as well. As a nod to the past, Smasher retains his black mop of hair and the diamond pattern on his top. I've also used a couple of the 1960s logos which I scanned from the comics, cleaned up in Photoshop, and recoloured. Smashin' nostalgia, hopefully! The image shown is the opening panel to one of the stories.
The 2013 annuals will begin to arrive in bookshops from early July. As usual, the listings are dominated by licensed titles. Here's just three of them...
There's also titles for older readers, including The People's Friend and My Weekly annuals with prose stories for your mums, aunts and grandmas...
Last but not least, the Oor Wullie book, which still appears every other year alternating with The Broons...
