UPDATED: Earthworm Jim comic

A long time ago (here to be precise) I looked at the solitary issue of Earthworm Jim comic that I could find...

Earthworm Jim comic, issue 1 (October 1996), DeVere Entertainment

Earthworm Jim comic, issue 2 (November 1996), DeVere Entertainment

image not to hand - can you help?

Earthworm Jim comic, issue 3 (December 1996), DeVere Entertainment

and this really bad image makes it look as though it carried on into 1997 (I think the yellow flash in the top right corner says something like "new low price no. 5 £1.XX Feb 1997"

Anyway, if you can help me with better cover scans or more info. that 'd be great,

DeVere also published a Smurfs comic - check out all their mention on the blog here

UPDATED: The reference books of Lofts & Adley

I enjoy collecting reference material relating to British comics and I've always been aware that my collection of such material by the (kings of comic referencing) Derek Adley & W.O.G. Lofts was a bit thin on the ground.

That got me wondering about precisely how many book and booklets they'd produced, so without further ado here is my guide to what I've found so far (albeit I expect there is plenty more to be discovered)...the first two publications have been added since my original post here 

Catalogue of boys and girls annual, 1982

The men behind boys' fiction, 1970

The 'Gem' index by Derek Adley and W.O.G. Lofts, 1981

The 'Rookwood stories' index by Derek Adley and W.O.G. Lofts, 1994

The 'Detective weekly' index by Derek Adley and W.O.G. Lofts, 1987

'Old boys books - a complete catalogue' by Derek Adley and W.O.G. Lofts, 1969

'The world of Frank Richards' by Derek Adley and W.O.G. Lofts, 1975

'The Hotspur' - a catalogue 1933-1959 by Derek Adley and W.O.G. Lofts

I've also seen the above book with a pink cover and an interior note that says 'first edition - September 1983 - limited edition of 200 copies'. So I'm not sure how the yellow cover version fits in to the chronology - maybe a later edition?

UPDATE: I've been reliably informed that the yellow edition was indeed the 2nd edition (published by Bryon Whitworth who took over publication from Alan Cadwallender (who published the first (pink) edition)).

Origins of the Boys Friend Library by Derek Adley and W.O.G. Lofts, 1987

The new Rupert index by Derek Adley and W.O.G. Lofts

The new Rupert index by Derek Adley and W.O.G. Lofts

Identification guide to the DC Thomson and John Leng children's annuals 1921-1964 by Derek Adley and W.O.G. Lofts, 1975

'William' - a bibliography by Derek Adley and W.O.G. Lofts

Greyfriars since the Magnet by Derek Adley and W.O.G. Lofts, 1983

The Thriller, 1983

image not to hand - can you help?

The Thriller: the paper with a thousand thrills, 1990

image not to hand - can you help?

You can check out the WOG Lofts entry on wikipedia here

UPDATED: Beano and Dandy calendars

Following on from a previous post (here) about Oor Wullie calendars I realised that there must be other DC Thomson calendars out there so I set off to google Beano calendars - so here's my guide to collecting them...

Don't forget you can review Commando calendars here and Judge Dredd calendars here

New material is highlighted in red but the summary of where I'm up to now is that I have images for calendars for 1986-2020 apart from 2013 and a 'skinny' 2005 calendar (assuming it exists). Of course there could be more out there so if I missed anything just let me know.

Interestingly the 1992 edition has a reference that says "Number 7" in the top right cover - indicating that this is the 7th edition of the calendar...

...hmmm, and the 1993 calendar says "Number 8"...

...hmmm, and the 1994 calendar says "Number 9"...

There was also a Beano and Dandy calendar for 1994

...think the 1995 one says 'number 10' in the top right corner

Finally found an image of the 1996 calendar (number 11 in the top right corner)...

Here's the 1997 calendar - you'll see from the back cover picture that this is (helpfully) number as number 12 so there must have been a calendar for 1996 (to be number 11)

The 1998 calendar

The 1999 calendar (left) and the envelope it came in (right)

The 2000 calendar (right) and the envelope it came in (left)

Finally the 2001 calendars have been identified - yay!

Here's the 2002 calendar

Here's a new on on me...another 2002 calendar

2003 calendar

Then 2004...

No 2005 calendar (I think!) so here's the 2006 edition... 

Hmmm, so for 2004 and 2006 it seems there were 2 calendars for Beano fans...

Here's a great collection of calendars...

The top row shows (in order) 2015, 2016, 2012 and 2014.

The bottom row shows (in order) Dandy Beano 2013 and then Beano 2017, 2011 and 2010.

So that's 2010-2017 in total

...a slightly better look at the 2012 calendar

The 'skinny' 2013 calendar available from Marks & Spencer...

The 2015 calendar...

The 2016 calendar

The 2017 calendar...

...And then the 2018 calendar...

...and here we are for 2019...

...and here's the offering for 2020...

and now for 2021...

In 2001 Beanobooks put out (at least) 3 calendars related to other characters...

Beano books also produced a Dandy calendar for 2002...