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CHECKLIST

Monday, 15 January 2024

When is a title not a title? When it has no date!

Undated cover
Richard Sheaf, a good friend of the blog, runs his own blog collecting together all sorts of ephemeral comics and comic art materials in one handy-dandy place, "Boy's Adventure Comics". I'm surprised how obsessive he can be - but love the fact he is!

Recently he noted that some annuals - which look to be published in Britain for the non-UK market - had no date on their covers (or spines, I might add).

So here's where Frank Bellamy comes in. For years I called the  "Daily Mirror Book of Garth" just that. That is until, to my surprise, I saw the 1975 (portrait) book was dated 1975! That sent me to correct the checklist!

For your collectors among you, here are the two covers sans date plus an unusual advert for this book showing the date.


Dated

Top Secret Picture Library #11-p.68

Undated

Undated spine - thus the gap at the end!

Undated - first page
No prizes for guessing what's missing from the end part of the scroll

Dated

And just for good measure here's the original art for the later 1976 book  which sold in May 2008 for £1089. If anyone knows who has the art for 1975 do let me know!

Original Art
If anyone has a non-dated 1975 book, could they send me a copy of the spine and also the first page - where the scroll device was again used? Thanks