Okay

We have a long tradition in the UK of seeing Annuals still appearing years (or even decades) after the comic the Annual was based on ceased being published.

“Okay Comic” was a short-lived (1937 – 1938) publication from T.V Boardman Ltd that would re-appear as an Annual from 1953 to 1959 (often under the “Popular Press” imprint). The comics (which mostly consisted of reprints of american newspaper cartoon strips) must now be extremely rare. The Annuals, (usually called Okay Adventure annuals) thanks to those sturdy card covers, have survived in quite reasonable numbers and can still be picked up for £5 – £10 depending on condition. As they contain reprints of Quality Comics material such as Doll Man and Plastic Man mixed amongst the usual text stories they are certainly a cheap way for someone to acquire genuine “Golden Age” comic stuff that was actually printed back in the “Golden Age” . Also worth looking out for are the  “Ajax Adventure Annual” of 1952 and the “Spaceways Comic Annual” and “Adventure Album” from circa 1954. Perhaps even more collectable still are T. V Boardman’s “Buffalo Bill” Annuals. Once again based on the earlier comics these books appeared every Xmas from 1949 to 1961. When I was youger they also appeared in every junk shop and jumble sale I visited. Oh for the days when if something was old it was worth less than the new stuff, not more…….

Incidentally T.V Boardman had nothing to do with television but rather was the initials of the publisher, one Thomas Volney Boardman. After “Okay Comic” he would go on to publish a number of other comics with familiar tiles like “Smash” and “Feature” reprinting  Quality Comics strips such as “Blackhawk” and “The Spirit” as well as (also now very collectable) home -grown comics like “Roy Carson” and “Swift Morgan” along with crime and science fiction pulps and paperbacks through the 1940s and 1950s.

The 1953 Adventure Annual and the 1954 Spaceways Annual are the best of the bunch. Later Annuals had far fewer pages, less UK comic strips and older/less interesting Quality Comics strips. Why the same cover was used for two different books is a mystery.