A little bit of 1949 and a thank you to Mike Billington

Now I know Christmas is behind us, but in the cold bleak month of January I would still be reading the books I had been given as presents.

So for no other reason than I like the image here is the front cover of the 1949 Rupert the Bear annual.

I would be born a full ten months after this sat under a Christmas tree, but I grew up with Rupert who appeared in the Daily Express each day.

I can still remember reading the strip both at home in New Cross and on holiday in Derby with my grandparents.

In the fullness of time I got my own Rupert annuals, but this one comes courtesy of Michael Billington who shares my love of such things.

And if we should have snow during the next few weeks my thoughts will be drawn back to Rupert and his chums on the village green in the snow.

Picture; from the Rupert the Bear annual 1949, courtesy of Mike Billington.

Boxing Day 1959 with the Swift Annual Nu 4

This is the third of those comic annuals produced by the Hulton Press in the 1950s.

Swift like its companions, Eagle, Girl and Robin aimed to provide a mix of adventure stories, practical activities and a focus all things historical and scientific.

And like the others it issued an Annual at Christmas.
Swift Number 4 was published in 1957 and along with strip cartoons there were extended stories, and articles on Man 20,000 years ago, the Lighthouse, St Egwin, and a visit to Swift’s sweet factory.

Like the companion volumes there were plenty of line drawings and colour plates on Birds in the Garden, Wonderful Ants and The Story of Transport.

Now Hulton knew they were on to a winning formula and were not adverse to featuring commercial companies which appeared in the stories, so in Eagle there was Tommy Walls after the ice cream company and in Swift, Ladybird made an appearance in the Sign of The Scarlet Ladybird.

There were also DIY pages and what turned out to be my favourite Trains that run Underground.

Today, they seem a little quaint but at the time they were at the sharp end of what children wanted to know and what they wanted to read.

Looking again at my Swift Annual I have to say that the stories and pictures are pure 1950s.

I treasure the images of the trains and cars and enjoy just slipping back to what for a youngster was a carefree time.

At which point there is that danger of nostalgia creeping in so I might just sit down and make one of the many interesting things that Swift offered up.

In Number 4 these ranged from making animals from pipe cleaners to a Knight in Armour and a Cotton Reel Tank.

But Swift was aimed at both boys and girls and DIY acticities like the stories and featurs crossed what was thought at the time to be the gender divide, so for every tank there was advice on hos to make a  Raffia Girl from dusters, bamboo sticks and garden seeds.

And that is one of the charms of the book for the materials were what could be found in a 1950s house and that from memeory did include pipe cleaners, and discarded cotton bobbins.

I doubt that even then I could laugh at the jokes from page 117 of which these may be the best. Q."Why is a dog's tail like the inside of a tree? A. Because it is farthest from the bark, or Q. What is most like a horse shoe? A. His othershoes."

Now that said  I think this is the moment to close leaving me only to ponder on whether I shall explore the last of the Hulton four which was Robin, or strike off into one of the many rivals.
We shall see.

Pictures; from Swift Annual Number 4, 1959, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Robin .... A Christmas Annual from the Hulton Press, in 1953

This is another of those comic annuals which were published by Hulton Press.

Robin was aimed at very young children and while I remember getting the comic and perhaps even the first annual in 1953 sadly neither comic or book have made their way into my collection.

So I have fallen back on a wonderful site dedicated to the Eagle Annual  for this image of the first Robin Annual.*

Eagle, along with Girl and Swift were the companion comics and books which Hulton was responsible for during the 1950s, and for anyone wanting to know more or recreate their childhood the Eagle Annual site  is a wonderful starting point.

Robin contained a lot of colour strips and short stories which parents could read to their children and given the decade it came out in it included stories on Andy Pandy and the Flower Pot Men.

Number one also featured Birthday wishes to the young Prince Charles and Princess Anne.

And even with the help of the Eagle Annual site that is about the extent of my knowledge, although I can remember cutting the comic up for its comic figures.

Alas all a long time ago.

Now given that this is the end of the short series on the Hulton four I shall also mention Eagle Times, which for the last 25 years has set about keeping the Eagle comic alive with stories features and conversations with those directly involved with it during the 1950s.**

Picture; Robin Annual Nu 1, 1953, courtesy of Eagle Annual

*Eagle Annual, http://www.eagleannual.info/contents.php

**Eagle Times, http://eagle-times.blogspot.co.uk/

The Girl Annual and a take on the optimism of the 1950s

Annual number 7

Now I am fully aware that I might be accused of nostalgia but I am back with those comic annual books which were published in the 1950s.

They were a by product of the popular comics like Eagle, Girl, Swift and the Lion and came out for Christmas.

But were books I kept going back to throughout the year and now fifty years after I got them as presents I still read them with pleasure.

So, not so much a present for Christmas as a friend for life.

My favourite was the Eagle but Hulton who published it were quick to spot its success could be replicated with a companion comic called Girl and two others aimed at a younger market.

These were the Swift and Robin and in the fullness of time I shall visit them too.

Today however I shall focus on the Girl Annual.

Woman of Action Lotte Hass

Like Eagle it was a mix of popular stories from the weekly comic, with features on history, nature, science and fashion. It also contained advice on a range of subjects from “New Uses for Duffle Coat Buttons” to “Making a Picnic Basket” and rope table mats.

All of which seems a little twee but the books actively sought to show women could have careers from being doctors to competing with men in the most dangerous environment.

So the Girl Annual included pictures of Women in Action including the photographer Michaela Dennis, the deep sea diver and photographer Lotte Hass and the pilot Jacqueline Cochran.

There was also a long article on the careers open to women in the merchant navy.

Now I fully concede that all of these were the caring and sharing professions  but  it did refer to “World’s 
First Woman Radio Operator Aboard ship gets her ticket” and was confident that while this was a foreign ship where “one merchant service makes a start, others will follow.”

New foods for the 1950s's table

Along with these more challehging new careers was the story on foods in many lands, which while it did refer to them as odd foods, was still opening up new horizons to young people brought up on spam and nothing more exotic than a banana.

Both Eagle and Girl reflected that optimistic view of the world which was abroad in the 1950s and which challenges the popular misconception that it was a grey drab decade of shortages, and make and mend just waiting for the “swinging ‘60s.”

It was instead an exciting period when everything seemed possible.

Belle of the Ballet

There was television and jet travel, materials like plastic and the promise of full employment and a welfare state.

There might also be the threat of the H Bomb, countless nasty and brutish colonial wars and the legacy of many old habits and ideas but the world was changing and my Eagle and Girl annuals reflected that change.

And in the process were not afraid to reflect on what had been. So the story of Belle of the Ballet and A Midsummer Night's Dream was set in the blitzed out ruin of a church hall.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

A ladybird, a Christmas annual and an advert

We tend to think of advertising aimed at children as something new, but not so.

Here from the Swift comic annual, is a bit of science mixed up with a bit of advertising.

Pictures; from the Swift comic annual, 1958

Christmas with the Lion …………..

The comic annual has a long history.

They were produced for the Christmas market and were a mix of the favourite stories and articles drawn from the weekly comic.

For me, its golden age was in the 1950s, and the preeminent comic book was the Eagle, with its companions, Girl, Swift and Robin.

That said there were others, and of these I suppose I was most drawn to the Lion, which like its weekly comic version was a less sophisticated product than the Eagle.

The artwork was cruder, the size of the comic smaller and some of the stories lacked the detail of my Eagle.

But I never quite forgot the Lion, and yesterday three of the annuals were sent to me by Steve.

They are dated, 1954, 1955, and 1956, and of the three it is the last that struck me most because it was the one I was given.

Who gave me the book I can’t remember, but as Dad and mum always bought me the Eagle, I guess it was an uncle.

Looking through the 1956 annual, I recognize the stories and can vividly recall some of them, and more than a few of the individual pictures.

The key stories were those that would appeal to any 1950s lad, of which space, knights in armour and westerns predominated.

I must confess back then and even now I preferred the strip cartoons and avoided those stories which were all print.

Like Eagle, the Lion annual had a its share of factual material which in 1956 included “When the Romans went Chariot Racing, “Wonders of Outer Space”, and the “World Wide Quiz”.

But there was less of it than in Eagle, and the themes were far more Eurocentric.

Added to which the books felt cheaper, partly because of the poorer quality paper that was used.

There will be those who think I am being a tad unfair and flicking through the 1954 annual there was a fascinating account of what life on the Moon might be like, which makes interesting reading sixty five years after it was written and just fifteen before the first moon landing.

And the three annuals are of their time, which rather makes them history books in their own right, and so I shall close with the "Picture Parade of Facts Near and Far", with the account of robot made by a boy in the USA and the one I vividly remember when during “a football match was in progress between two fire brigade teams at Liverpool, a cry of FIRE! Rang out.  The game stopped abruptly, and everyone looked for the fire.  It was in a player’s pocket, where a box of matches had burst into flame”.

Now that has to be very 1950s.

But having renewed an old acquitance, I happily turned to my old friend the Eagle, and spent an happy half hour.

Location; the 1950s










Pictures; from the covers of the Lion Annuals, 1954-1956 and the Eagle annual, 1956 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

I have seen the future …… and its not that different from 1960 ……… stories from Dan Dare

Now I am a child of the 1950s.

Page 1

I may have grown into a teenager and left school in the 60s, but my formative years were set in the decade before, when the country was coming out of rationing, television was still for a few and bombsites vied with parks as places to play.

And for  my generation …. both boy and girl, Christmas meant a comic annual.

Page 2

Mine was and remained the Eagle.

The comic had first appeared in 1950, and its first companion annual was published in 1951.

Each annual was a mix of articles, hobby activities and stories, with a fair share of those stories turned over to picture strips featuring characters from the comic.

And foremost amongst the heroes was Dan Dare.

I can’t remember when I got my first annual, but it will have been around 1957, and from then on till I “put away such things” six years later the books were always part of my Christmas.

Dan Dare in the Vanishing Scientists was from vol 9 which was published in 1960, and told the story of Strombold “a renegade scientist” who has kidnapped a group of fellow scientists to use them to attack Earth.

Of course, he is defeated, but not before we have been given a glimpse of how the author thought the future would be like.

Page 8

And not unsurprisingly amongst all the rockets, and advanced technology, there was much that was just 1950s Britain, including a “midnight feast” by students at Astral College, and a  professor dressed in gown and hat.

But above all it was that good triumphed over bad, and criminals were defeated, prompting Sir Hubert Guest, head of Space Fleet to comment  that men like Strombold “try to make science work for their own power instead of humanity – and that will never do!”

And you can’t say fairer than that.

Location; the Future

Pictures; from Dan Dare in the Vanishing Scientists, Eagle Annual 9, 1960

Flying high with BEA ………….. in 1953

Now you have to be a certain age to remember the airline, BEA, or its companion BOAC.

British European Airways was created in 1946, and served Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, and was also the largest domestic carrier while British Overseas Airways Corporation, flew services to the rest of the world.

All of which is a lead into the Eagle Book of Aircraft written by John W.R. Taylor in 1953 which in three sections and 170 pages told the story of flight from the earliest attempts to what passed for state-of-the-art aircraft in the early 1950s.

The book was part of the Eagle series, released at Christmas, and sat alongside the Eagle Annual, and other specials featuring characters from the Eagle comic.

I was too young to be given the book as a present, and within a few years if I had been asked to choose between its successor, or others which included Ships and Boats, or Police and Detection, I would always have gone for the Eagle Annual.

So, a full 67 years after The Eagle Book of Aircraft was published I acquired a copy.

It is a little tired at the edges, but it remains a fascinating piece of history, because of course with the passage of over half a century that is what it has become.

Of course it can be read as a straight account of both civilian and military aeroplanes, but its real magic is capturing that world we have lost, when travelling by air was still very much the preserve of the rich, and when even relatively small firms could design, build and market aircraft.

And so for many of its readers the book will have exceled when it described in pictures and words the everyday work of BEA and BOAC, like the story of the flight from London to Brussels.

Back then it started with buying a ticket at the airline’s office, before boarding a bus to the airport, followed by checking in the luggage, passport control, “light refreshment – all part of the service”, and the arrival at Brussels.

In one sense there is nothing odd, about the details of the trip, other than that few people in 1953 would have experienced such a flight.

Indeed, I would be 31 before I took my first flight and dad who spent his entire working career driving across mainland Europe would be 59 before he took his one and only trip in the air.

So, that is it.  I shall go off and read some more from 1953, and in particular look closely at the cutaway pictures of aircraft, each of which offered up detailed descriptions of the parts of the plane.  These were a feature of the Eagle comic, and proved very popular.

Pictures;, all taken from the Eagle Book of Aircraft, 1953

* Eagle Book of Aircraft, 1953, John W.R. Taylor

Back with the Eagle in the 1950s

Now if you were born sometime between the early 1940s and the mid ‘50s, the chances are you were a fan of the Eagle comic.

It is a topic I keep coming back to and the reason is that back then it amounted to the best of British comics.

Its appeal crossed class lines as well gender and if my father was anything to go by attracted an older generation as well.

It came out each week and like other comics of the period had its own Christmas annual which was supplemented by books on some of the other leading characters.

But for me the Eagle Annual which first appeared in December 1950 was a must under the tree and it kept me going through the year, because here as well as comic strips were extended stories articles on sport , history science  and nature.

In between there were practical information on how to make a Kite-released parachute, sending secret messages using invisible ink and making your own printing set.

Never being particularly practical most of these DIY projects rated little more than a second glance.

For me it was the sections dealing with history and the stories which drew me in.

And of the stories it was Dan Dare Pilot of the Future who always was my first choice.

At this point I have to say this is no nostalgic trip. Instead is an exploration of how a popular comic managed at the same to introduce a whole pile of educational information which never led you to think you were back at school.

Nor were the books or comics aimed at the middle class, for there was enough here for any lad like me whose highest aspirations seemed to be a secondary modern school and a future mapped out in one of any one of a number of practical occupations.

The activities were all rooted in things any nine year could do and the stories were  in a world I understood.

And when they were based in space the Wild West or North Africa they were believable.

What is more the science of the future was our everyday life just a little different.

So Dan Dare’s spaceship used dial and buttons and levers, the command structure of Space Fleet including the uniforms which  mimicked the armed forces and of course many of the expressions used were rooted in the language of the 1950s.

None of which should surprise us but allowed every nine year old to feel that this imaginary world was not so far off from their own everyday life.

Of course the Eagle was ruthless in its use of its name which was marketed for all sorts of types and products, but again there is nothing new there.

So that said I shall this evening retreat into that world of the Eagle Annual leaving the cares of the 21st century behind.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The Eagle, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20Eagle