NEW EAGLE ANNUAL COVER GALLERY...

The new EAGLE was launched on March 20th 1982 (cover-

dated 27th) and the Annual (for 1983) must have been prepared

pretty much around the same time as early issues of the weekly to be

on sale in the shops by August or September of the same year.  The

original Eagle comic had 24 Annuals (not counting numerous related

spin-offs) released throughout the '50s and into the '70s ('though the

comic was merged with LION in 1969, a mere nine issues short of

its 1000th issue), but the new version could only manage ten,

plus two DAN DARE books, four years apart.

So, that's a dozen books in all for the resurrected title, which

is enough of an excuse for me to to a cover gallery featuring them

on this 'blog.  In the 1990s, the term 'Annual' came to be regarded

as old-fashioned for a while, and various companies started to refer

to them as 'Yearbooks' in an attempt to appear up-to-date and 'with

it'.  It didn't last for long and the old name eventually reasserted

itself, much to the delight of traditionalists like myself.

Some of these cover images are a bit lacklustre in my opinion,

but the ever-dependable IAN KENNEDY produced some good

ones, and one or two of the others aren't too bad.  In its latter stages,

the new Eagle became a monthly, featuring mainly reprinted material

(with the exception of the Dan Dare strip), and limped to a sad end in

1994.  However, the Annuals had predeceased it three years earlier.

Will we ever see the like of Eagle again, or does it belong in the

past, a relic of the time in which it was produced?

I'm sure you'll let me know what you think.

Posted in: Cartoons