My ebay wanderings turned up another oddity a while ago (2026note: in 2011, that is!). The Boys Adventure Annual 1984!
Fantastic painting, the back cover is the same picture.
The cover promises some cowboy shootouts, WW2 air action (against Italians, no less), and hard-boiled New York cops with muscle cars... at least some of which actually appears in the book! It's pretty thin and, I imagine, was sold more cheaply than other annuals - maybe in supermarkets rather than bookshops? I'm not sure if such things happened in the 80's! It might have been in Woolies, too. Anyway, it's a fair bit thinner than a contemporary Beano Annual...
So, about as thick as a modern Beano Annual, then!
It's published by “Opal Quill Limited”, who seem (from a cursory Google search) to have published a batch of annuals in the mid 80's, and then disappeared. And, of course, the fact it was printed in Spain leaps out at you. Britain still (just about) had actual factories and industry in 1984. If it was fully made in Britain, it would have been printed there!
Anyway, the art. The title page is promising, suggesting an action-packed story of Commandos fighting across occupied Europe, trying to capture a lethal new poison which could alter the course of the war...
Pictured: What you were going to do when you grew up, at age 8.
It's just a shame there's no such story in the book! What we do get is a mystery story about a boxer. All of the strips in this annual are in colour (a rarity at the time - The Beano didn't give you that!), though, to paraphrase Orwell... "some are in more colour than others"!
Pictured: The comics you drew about what you wanted to do when you grew up. At age 8 and a half, when you’d lost half the felt tips you got for your birthday so made so with what you had.
When I first saw the bars across the top of the page (on other pages they alternate between the top and bottom) I immediately thought this was a US reprint, but I'm not so sure. American comics had more "sophisticated" layouts, not just even square panels, by this time, surely? Though I suppose not everything was Marvel and DC. Other strips in the annual fit on the pages just fine. I beleive these are actually comics culled mostly from Spain, and possibly also Italy (do Portugal have their own comics too?)
Spoilers!
Some of the sound effects put me in mind of the Franco-Belgian style, however the detail of the faces looks more like the "British adventure" style. Also most of the stories are explicitly or implicitly set in Britain or America, but it's surprising how many European comics are. France does some great Westerns, and Italy has various long-running series set in Britain or America. Things like Dylan Dog, which is set in London, but very little of it has ever been released in English!
A great western story
The colouring is pretty simple, as you can see. Focused more on contrasting characters and objects from one another, than on realism. It seems likely these comics were originally black and white, or if they were coloured, then Opal Quill only got black and white "stats" to work with, and did a new colouring job themselves.
Credits!
One of the strips is credited, as shown above. And the names sound Spanish. None of the other strips have credits, which further suggests they were collected from several sources and put together.
The final strip is the strangest. It's presented in a grid of 12 small panels, though still has a filler bar at the bottom. It was possibly originally printed on larger (or at least wider) pages. Bits of it appear American, while other parts (like the uniforms of policemen) look British. Also the art in that filler bar at the bottom is very New York. Maybe it was drawn by somebody who'd never been to Britain! It also seems to be from the fifties or sixties, all of the strips in the annual are obviously at least a decade older than 1984.
The book also contains several articles and puzzles, almost all of which are about World War 2. They're likely the only actual new content in the book.
The polish unit in question now has an emblem featuring a bear carrying a shell!
I do actually know most of those too!
Fact not included here: The first ever sea-launched air raids against a land target were from the Japanese “seaplane tender” Agaki in 1915. The planes were French designs and bombed a German colony in China, they also fought the colony's one fighter.
Whenever Commando Comics are mentioned in the media, they dredge up a comment from a German diplomat (the comment itself is probably many years/decades old and the diplomat herself has probably retired) saying Britian is “obsessed with” World War 2. Let's hope she never saw this!
There is also an article about horses in war, which of course came to an end in the mire of World War 1. And after the western strip there's also an article about the Native American tribes and the end of their traditional culture during the Wild West.
All in all this is a pretty interesting book, and the stories are pretty fun. I just wish I knew more about where it came from, and where the stories originally appeared (and in what language). The same company seems to have produced, among other things, two “Mighty Heroes” annuals for 1984 and 1985. I'll keep an eye out and see what turns up! (2026note: I remember getting one of the Mighty Heroes annuals later, it wasn't that good. I think it was the 1984 one, I also vaguely recall somebody said the 1985 annual was more consistent, and possibly even all-original content!)