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ANNUALS
TV Crimebusters - Dr Keel Originally
published as bound-collections of a year's supply of both adults and children's'
magazines during the nineteenth century, these glossy hardbacked books, now containing
all-new material, are still the staple of many children's Xmas stockings.
For the benefit of non-Brits, the Annuals were roughly A4-sized books which appeared
in the shops around September in order to be ideal presents for the coming Christmas.
They generally featured the same strips which had been in a title the previous
year and were of varying quality, this was mainly due to publishers using a pool
of European based artists who had blatantly no idea who they were meant to be
drawing - a startling example are the late 70s Dr. Who Annuals which
feature almost surreal depictions of Tom Baker's Doctor. The finest examples of British Comic Annuals based around TV shows are arguably those published by Century 21 around the mid to late 60s for their TV21 supermarionation title and other related Gerry Anderson series. Filled with background detail and information supplied by the writers on the actual shows, larger than the standard A4 size, and bursting with colour, they still stand up to scrutiny. The worst examples were the aforementioned late 70s Dr. Who Annuals (although, in fairness, the 60s Dalek Annuals have the stamp of quality about them). In total, there were eight annuals published in the UK that had Avengers comic strip content (I've deliberately excluded the two TV Comic Annuals that had Avengers text stories for the time being). These were:
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 The Avengers 1967 - Mrs Peel The Avengers 1968 - Ms. King The Avengers 1969 - Ms. King |
 The New Avengers 1977 The New Avengers 1978 |
