ANOTHER ANNUAL EVENT...

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Three TV shows (among many) I remember from my childhood are CIRCUS BOY, WHIRLYBIRDS, and The ADVENTURES Of ROBIN HOOD.  Circus Boy was CORKY, played by MICKY BRADDOCK, who later metamorphosed into MICKY DOLENZ of The MONKEES and METAL MICKEY fame (as a producer and director in the latter's case).  Whirlybirds starred, er... helicoptors, and Robin Hood starred RICHARD (Brylcreem Boy) GREENE, and had a rousing theme tune that everyone of a certain age remembers.  Forget ERROL FLYNN, Richard Greene, to me, was the real Robin Hood.

So what has all that got to do with the price of cheese?  Well, recently, in a charity shop, I managed to pick up a couple of old Annuals, namely Circus Boy and The Adventures Of Robin Hood, for next-to-nothing.  (I stole them!)  Ho ho, only joking, but I got them for far less than I'd have paid for them on ebay.  What makes the Robin Hood one in particular worth having is the fact that it's illustrated by RON EMBLETON, who drew WULF The BRITON for EXPRESS WEEKLY, and (later) the STINGRAY and CAPTAIN SCARLET strips for TV CENTURY 21. (Also WICKED WANDA for PENTHOUSE, but we won't go there.)

I don't have a Whirlybirds Annual yet, but I'll get one eventually.  (And I quite fancy having a Z-CARS Annual too.)  Until I do, here are a few pictures from the other two, along with the covers, to whet your appetite for picture-strip tie-ins to old TV shows. I particularly like the Robin Hood ones, how about you?

As well as b&w drawings, there are also 'grey tone' illustrations
in the book, which I suspect were originally produced in colour

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Interestingly, although this illustration is credited to A. POLLACK, the
book credits the illustrations to JOHN POLLACK on the very next page

Posted in: Cartoons