3 - 2 - 1... SUPERCAR ANNUALS...

Copyright relevant owner

Yes, 3 - 2 - 1, because I'm showing them in reverse order as, if I lead with the first one, having already shown it on the blog a while back, you Crivvies may skip tuning in, thinking it's a repost.  I bought the first Annual a couple of years ago and acquired the next two only recently, so now's the time to show all three together at the same time.

Above is the third Annual for 1964 (on sale towards the end of '63), below is the second for '63 (on sale in '62), and below that is the one for '62 (yes, you guessed it - on sale in '61).  As far as I recall, I never knew about these Annuals at the time, nor do I remember any of my pals ever having any of them, so it's good to return 60-odd years into the past and transplant them into my present (and future).

Some people regard the first of the trio as more of a storybook than an Annual, but it does contain picture strips, which outnumber the text stories by three to one.  The picture stories (or comic strips if you prefer) have small text pieces beneath the panels, but they also contain speech balloons, making the book, in my opinion, a true Annual.  It has only 48 pages including the covers, so I suspect it may've been a rush job as the show had only debuted on TV at the beginning of the year, but the next two books made up for that, being quite lavish productions (by the standards of the time).

Collins was responsible for all three books, and the last two are in the same style as the four Fireball XL5 books by the same publisher.  I'd say it's pretty obvious that the rocket ship, Super-R, is heavily based on Fireball, and it makes me wonder if it could've been one of several possible early designs for XL5 (or Century 21 as it was originally going to be called) before being rejected.  The Annual, as I said, went on sale around August or September '62, and Fireball didn't appear on TV until October of the same year.  As Sylvia Anderson was one of the book's two writers, she'd have been privy to such things.

Brian Lewis was responsible for the cover and interior art in the first Annual, and Eric Eden illustrated the endpapers in the second.  I'm not sure whether or not he also did its cover (any Crivs know?), but he definitely did the cover for the third one as it's got his name on it.  If any of you had (or have) any (or all) of these books, feel free to leave a comment about them.  In fact, even if you didn't (or don't) own them, you can still leave a comment anyway.

Posted in: Cartoons