Dan Dare rocket for sale

Here's something for the Dan Dare fan in your life who's got deep pockets...it's the rocketship model used in the three Mobil adverts in 1981. 

Youtube has copies of these short TV adverts and the rocket is currently up for sale on ebay here. Bidding starts at £5,000 and the auction closes on Sunday evening - good luck if you bid!

Zarga - man of mystery, part 1 (of 6)

To celebrate its publication in an issue of Buster & Jet dated precisely 50 years ago today here's the first part of the final 'Zarga - man of mystery' story. Prior to this the story had been illustrated by Joe Colquhoun, this final strip was illustrated by that young tyro Dave Gibbons. So, over the next few weeks I'll revisit the strip...

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 (2024 calendar) is highlighted in red but the summary of where I'm up to now is that I have images for calendars for 1986-2024 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.

Beano calendar 1986

Beano calendar 1987

Beano calendar 1988

Beano calendar 1989

Beano calendar 1990

Beano calendar 1991

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

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

Here are some better images for that 2010 calendar

...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 Beano 2018 calendar...

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

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

and now here is the Beano calendar for 2021...

and now the Beano calendar for 2022...

and now the Beano calendar for 2023...

and now the Beano calendar for 2024...

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

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

The Minnie the Minx and Dennis the Menace calendars at the bottom of the next image are new to me...

If you're interested in comic calendars then here are the links to the other calendar themes that I've covered...

1). Beano & Dandy calendars are here
2). Commando calendars are here
3). Judge Dredd calendars are here
4). Broons calendars are above
5). Oor Wullie is here
6). Dan Dare calendar is here
7). Miscellaneous calendars are here

8). Viz calendars are here

9). Asterix calendars are here

10). Andy Capp calendars are here

11). Tintin calendars are here