Nostalgic For My Childhood - Some More Summer Specials

A couple of years ago I had a conversation with Dude where he expressed amusement over what I had to put up with when I was his age, namely (but not limited to) very few video games, cameras that were only cameras and phones that were wired to the walls in your house.  This led to me blogging about one terrific thing I had that he didn't, the Summer Special!

As I explained then (you can read the 2018 entry here, the 2020 one here and the 2021 one here), children’s comics now aren’t a patch on what they were back in the 70s and 80s (and before that, even).  Modern titles, sealed in plastic bags and littered with free gifts, have very little in the way of comic strips or stories (in fact, most seem to consist of quizzes) but back in the day the likes of IPC and DC Thomson produced a raft of weeklies that catered for most tastes (published on newsprint with a splash of colour).

Those weeklies, in turn, gave us the Summer Special to look forward to.  A one-off edition of our favourite title, it was thicker and more colourful and the perfect reading accompaniment to a long car journey or a lazy afternoon in the back garden.

Comics historian Lew Stringer suggests (on his blog) that “today’s retailers dislike them because they occupy valuable shelf space for too many months” which didn’t bother newsagents in the 70s - Summer Specials were especially popular at seaside towns because they were pretty much guaranteed sellers, with a new batch of kids every week who’d need entertaining.

Here are a few more from my golden-era of reading them (the late 70s into the early 80s) - what were your favourites?

1976

1977

1977

1978

1979

1979 - a team-up between Spidey & The Punisher sees people disintegrate in a poisonous gas.  Even read now, the imagery is cheerfully gruesome!

1979 - a real favourite of mine, I wrote a retrospective of Look-In which you can read here

1980

1980

1980

1982

1982

1983

1983

1983

see the other Summer Special posts on this link

Thanks to Lew Stringer for the history and comicvine for some of the scans.  See also David Barnett’s excellent blog piece at The Guardian.

Nostalgic For My Childhood - Even More Summer Specials

A couple of years ago I had a conversation with Dude where he expressed amusement over what I had to put up with when I was his age, namely (but not limited to) very few video games, cameras that were only cameras and phones that were wired to the walls in your house.  This led to me blogging about one terrific thing I had that he didn't, the Summer Special!

1979

As I explained then (you can read the 2018 entry here and the 2020 one here), children’s comics now aren’t a patch on what they were back in the 70s and 80s (and before that, even).  Modern titles, sealed in plastic bags and littered with free gifts, have very little in the way of comic strips or stories (in fact, most seem to consist of quizzes) but back in the day the likes of IPC and DC Thomson produced a raft of weeklies that catered for most tastes (published on newsprint with a splash of colour).

Those weeklies, in turn, gave us the Summer Special to look forward to.  A one-off, thicker and more colourful edition of our favourite title, it was the perfect reading accompaniment to a long car journey or a lazy afternoon in the back garden.

Comics historian Lew Stringer suggests (on his blog) that “today’s retailers dislike them because they occupy valuable shelf space for too many months” which didn’t bother newsagents in the 70s - Summer Specials were especially popular at seaside towns because they were pretty much guaranteed sellers, with a new batch of kids every week who’d need entertaining.

Here are a few more from my golden-era of reading them (the late 70s into the early 80s) - what were your favourites?

1976

1976

1976

1976

1977

1977

1978

1979 - the "seven-penny" nightmare, Action ceased publication in November 1977

1979 - Tornado (which I wrote about here) only lasted for 22 issues in 1979 but, luckily, that timing fell into the Summer Special period!

1979

1980

1980

1981

1981

1982

see the other Summer Special posts on this link

Thanks to Lew Stringer for the history and comicvine for some of the scans.  See also David Barnett’s excellent blog piece at The Guardian.

Nostalgic For My Childhood - More Summer Specials

A couple of years ago, having had a conversation with Dude (where he expressed amusement over the things I had to contend with when I was his age - including, but not limited to, very few available video games, cameras you had to carry separately and phones that were wired to the wall), I blogged about one great thing I had that he didn’t - the Summer Special (you can find the blog post here).

1977

As I explained then, children’s comics now aren’t a patch on what they were back in the 70s and 80s (and before that, even).  Modern titles, sealed in plastic bags and littered with free gifts, have very little in the way of comic strips or stories (in fact, most seem to consist of quizzes) but back in the day the likes of IPC and DC Thomson produced a raft of weeklies that catered for most tastes (published on newsprint with a splash of colour).

Those weeklies, in turn, gave us the Summer Special to look forward to.  A one-off edition of our favourite title, it was thicker and more colourful and the perfect reading accompaniment to a long car journey or a lazy afternoon in the back garden.

Comics historian Lew Stringer suggests (on his blog) that “today’s retailers dislike them because they occupy valuable shelf space for too many months” which didn’t bother newsagents in the 70s - Summer Specials were especially popular at seaside towns because they were pretty much guaranteed sellers, with a new batch of kids every week who’d need entertaining.

Here are a few more from my golden-era of reading them (the late 70s into the early 80s) - what were your favourites?

1977

1977

1977

1978

1978

1978 - Starlord (which I wrote about here) barely lasted long enough to justify its Summer Special!

1979

1979 - war comics were a big part of my childhood

1980

1980

1980

1980

1981

1981

1981

see my other Summer Special post on this link

Once again, thanks to Lew Stringer for the history (see also David Barnett’s excellent blog piece at The Guardian).

Nostalgic For My Childhood - Summer Specials

Sometimes, when Dude & I are talking, he asks about things I had when I was his age (ie, back in the early 80s) - it amuses him we didn’t have video games, that the Walkman hadn’t been invented, cameras were things you had to carry separately and phones were wired to the wall.  I can see why he’s amused but I still have a yearning for that time, when things were perhaps a bit simpler, because sometimes I believe they were better.  And as we drift towards summer, that presents the perfect example - the Summer Special!

1979

Children’s comics now aren’t a patch on what they were back in the 70s and 80s (and even before that, I imagine).  Back when I was an avid comics reader, DC Thomson and Fleetway published a whole raft of weeklies that catered for most tastes, presented on pulpy-paper with a splash of colour, that kept us entertained.  That’s not the case now - take a look in any newsagent and supermarket and you’ll only see a few titles, sealed in plastic bags with all manner of doohickies included, like stickers, trading cards and cheap plastic toys you just know will fall apart before the day is out.

As kids, if we were off on holiday (or a substantial car trip) or had a lazy day in the back garden to look forward to, a Summer Special was a real treat.  A one-off edition of the weekly comic that was thicker and more colourful (and generally had a glossy cover), it gave your favourite characters a new location for adventures - Roger the Dodger at the seaside, say or Billy Whizz enjoying his summer holiday - or offered up longer stories, as happened in the Marvel comics imports.

You don’t really get Summer Specials any more and comics historian Lew Stringer (on his excellent blog) suggests that “today's retailers dislike them because they occupy valuable shelf space for too many months.”  He goes on to say, “the other reason is down to how comics themselves have evolved. With regular UK comics now being full colour glossies, how can a Summer Special stand out as "special"?”

Fleetway launched a Jack And Jill Summer Special in 1961 and Odhams, in 1962, produced one for Eagle.  After publishing a combined Dandy/Beano Special filled with reprints in 1963, DC Thomson launched individual Specials for both, with brand new material, the following year.  When IPC took over Fleetway in 1968, the format of the special changed, gaining the glossy cover and more pages.  The Summer Special really took off in the 70s, with seaside towns (in particular) ordering extra copies since they were pretty much guaranteed sellers - after all, those kids (a new batch every week) needed entertaining!

I think it’s a shame Dude has missed out on the pleasure of the Summer Special and here are a few from my golden-era of reading them (the late 70s and into the early 80s).  What were your favourites?

1972 - I didn't know this existed until I started researching this blog but I really want to see it!

1976 - war comics were a staple part of my childhood

1977

1977

1977 - I wrote a retrospective blog on Bullet here

1977

1978

1978

1978

1978 - depending on how quickly we read our own, sometimes my sister & I would swap comics

1978 - I wrote a retrospective post on Look-In here and looked at the cover art here

1978

1979

1979

1979

1980

1980

1981

Thanks to Lew Stringer for the history and comicvine for some of the scans.  See also David Barnett’s excellent blog piece at The Guardian.