EXTRACTS: The Fleetway Picture Library Index Volume 2: The Thriller Libraries © The Book Palace (284 PAGES in Full edition)

254 FLEETWAY PICTURE LIBRARY INDEX VOLUME 2 A superb spin-off from their highly successful Cowboy Comics Library , Kit Carson’s Cowboy Annual , which appeared in the shops on September 1, 1953, was the Amalgamated Press’ first all- adventure comic annual. It was also the first of its annuals since the War to contain pages printed in full colour. The new annual boasted not only full colour title pages and three long full colour picture strips but also four resplendent colour plates by the great Derek Charles Eyles. It is difficult to overestimate the impact this colourful, new-style annual had on young readers of the time. It was Eyles who stamped his style on Kit Carson’s Cowboy Annual and the very first issue was practically all his work, reminding readers of Boardman’s Buffalo Bill Annuals , which were all designed, drawn and painted by one artist, Denis McLoughlin. Unlike the latter annuals, of course, there was far less interest taken in the authenticity of its western tales, although Barry Ford’s ‘Western Scrapbook’, which appeared in each of the annuals (reprinted from Sun ), guaranteed that readers were made aware of the real, historical American West. Barry Ford (the pen name of Joan Whitford) was also almost certainly responsible for the majority of the text stories featured in the annual. The annuals are also somewhat reminiscent of the old Aldine Western annuals of the 1920s, edited by Wingrove Willson. They also contained text stories featuring those ‘Scouts of the Prairie’, Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill Hickok and Texas Jack, as well as, on occasion, Kit Carson. Each issue of the Aldine annuals also contained four colour plates (mostly painted by Robert Prowse). There, however, the comparison ends, for Kit Carson’s Cowboy Annual was mostly made up of picture strips and, it must be said, the artwork was mostly infinitely superior to anything in the Aldine books. Four years after Kit Carson’s Cowboy Annual first appeared, the other major star of the Cowboy Comics Library , Buck Jones, was given his own annual. They were not of the same quality as the Kit Carson annuals and the Buck Jones Annual did not catch on with readers and lasted for only two issues. “Welcome to the Greenwood!” In September 1956, the first spin-off from the Thriller Comics Library appeared on the scene. Designed and printed in the same style as the cowboy annuals, it was a delightful and highly enjoyable glimpse into the medieval world of Robin Hood and knightly chivalry. As with the Kit Carson annual, there were a fair number of reprints but, as they were by the likes of Patrick Nicolle, Reginald Heade and Mike Hubbard, they were most welcome – especially as some were reprinted in full colour! Nicolle, who was steeped in medieval history (he was a founder member of the world-wide Arms and Armour Society), also contributed factual features to the annual. In addition, the last two annuals featured magnificent, jewel-like colour plates (and covers) by John Millar Watt. As with the Kit Carson annuals, one cannot help thinking of these volumes as updated – and far superior – versions of the Aldine annuals of the 1920s. It is always interesting to contemplate what might have been and, in my correspondences with two major artists of the Amalgamated Press, I have come across tantalising glimpses into further annuals seemingly planned as spin-offs from the Thriller Comics Library . Shortly before he died, Hugh McNeill wrote to me that at some stage he had drawn a Jack o’Justice strip for a ‘Dick Turpin Book’. A letter from Fred Holmes’ agent dated 3 May 1955, now in my possession, states clearly that the editor would ‘like to see the Duval Annual pages fairly soon’. Yet another such letter, dated 23 November 1956, is even more precise and intriguing: ‘In addition to the pages you have in hand for the Rob Roy Annual, I would like you to take on 2 more to be used as frontispieces and will be printed in full colour’. The letter goes on to describe in detail exactly what the editor had in mind for the pictures. So, it seems obvious that, during the mid 1950s, some people at the Amalgamated Press were seriously contemplating bringing out no less than three more annuals to feature stars of the Thriller Comics Library ! Key to abbreviations In the following section, a few abbreviations have been used to identify the various features listed as follows: cs = comic strip ss = short story ar = article ia = illustrated article (not an article that is illustrated but a primarily illustrated feature with some explanatory text) il = illustration (colour plates and full page illustrations unrelated to stories) ms =miscellaneous qz = quiz