Comic Cartoon Annual was published by Purnell and Sons Ltd in the United Kingdom in 1967. The hard book contains a variety of comic strips, with characters featured including the Phantom, Flash Gordon, Prince Valiant, Popeye, Secret Agent X-9, Mandrake the Magician, Little King, Henry and Beetle Bailey. The book is licensed by King Features Syndicate.
Purnell and Sons Ltd was a prominent British printing and publishing company based in Paulton, near Bristol. Established in the 19th century, the company originally focused on printing and bookbinding before evolving into a significant force in the UK’s mid-20th-century publishing scene. Its expansion during the 20th century was marked by the production of mass-market magazines, partworks, encyclopedias, and comics, which made it a household name. Purnell became particularly well-known for producing affordable educational materials and serialized publications that were sold in weekly installments, a popular format at the time.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Purnell and Sons gained widespread recognition for their partwork series, such as ‘Purnell’s History of the Second World War’, which was highly regarded for its accessible writing and extensive illustrations. The company also published titles under various imprints and collaborated with other publishers, contributing significantly to the rise of popular history and general knowledge publishing in the UK. Their use of vivid imagery and a magazine-style layout helped bridge the gap between formal academic texts and popular media, making learning more engaging for a general audience.
Eventually, Purnell became part of the larger British printing and publishing conglomerate International Publishing Corporation (IPC), which later evolved into Reed International. As the media landscape changed in the late 20th century, with increasing competition from television and digital formats, Purnell’s output and influence gradually declined. However, the legacy of Purnell and Sons Ltd remains notable for its role in democratizing access to knowledge and literature in post-war Britain, and for shaping the format of educational publishing in the latter half of the 20th century.
The Comic Cartoon Annual contains a hardcover with 64 full color pages measuring 20cm x 26.5cm. The front and back covers, which can be seen below, contain a variety of characters including the Phantom, Popeye, Little King, Prince Valiant and Henry. Not only comic strips are found within, but also pages featuring ‘Believe It or Not’ illustrated panels.
Although the book was printed and released in the UK, the copyright license utilized by the published was the Italian based company ‘Opera Mundi’, hence why the Phantom is seen in a red costume on the front and back cover. The Phantom is however published in a purple costume within the book.
The Phantom comic strip is found within the book on pages 35-38 and again on pages 54-57. The Phantom story ‘SOS Phantom: The Pirate Raiders’ is published, written by Dick Wood and illustrated by Bill Lignante. A sample of internal pages can be seen below.
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