As it's Christmas time it must be time to look at undated annuals, I recently picked up my second undated Eagle annual as I know they're pretty uncommon - either as a mis-print or as a deliberate act.
Care of friend of the blog Michael Carroll I can add this undated 1977 Action annual to the listing...
Now (c/o Scott Bartlett on the '77-2000AD Facebook group) I can add a 2000AD annual to this listing...
Previously I just has an undated Eagle annual for 1972 (below) - the front cover and spine are undated...
Here's what it should have looked like...
The Eagle annuals of 1971/2/3/5 all seem particularly set-up to have the date removed (if necessary) as it's a different colour to the rest of the cover...
...and now I have an undated 1971 annual too
The date has also been removed from the spine
...and now I have an undated 1975 annual too
So now I'm just after undated annuals for 1973 - if you can help me out with these just let me know...
I've read a theory that it was done so that the annuals could be shipped overseas where, because of the time taken to get them there by boat, they'd need a longer shelf-life to sell and if the annual was dated people wouldn't buy it as the year was already well under way.
Here are some other examples - anyone else got any other examples or theories about undated annuals?
Yes, I’ve always understood undated annuals to be for the overseas market, similar to how UK comics were designed in the early 70s so that they could be printed without the price on the cover while leaving a box for the overseas newsagents to write in the local price. I’ve a lot of Valiants and Busters like this in Australia. Interestingly, the comics retain the date which was also completely incorrect and a few weeks out by the time the comic went on sale. But in the absence of issue numbers, this would be the only issue identifier distributors and newsagents could use.
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