As we head toward the end of May, we move from Spring into Summer which usually in this country tends to bring warmer weather and lots of Sun, indeed you might remember from last year we kind of over did it with temperatures in the high 20 degrees C range for a long period.
Summer in the UK is marked by the start of school holidays that usually start around the third week of July and run for typically 8 weeks which makes it a highlight of your childhood years and depending on age and in some cases districts marks such milestones as graduating to Juniors or moving on to Secondary schools at 11+ and college/uni at 16 and 18 respectively.
Something else generations of britishers also looked forward to was the publication of unique Summer Specials of their comics that came in full colour on better magazine quality paper with a binding.
They were and are almost like miniature annuals, which are a staple of childhood Christmas's over here with special cartoon strips, games and things to do in them that you'd pick up before you went off on your summer holidays.
The company D C Thomson are a well known Scottish print media magnet printing magazines, comics and newspapers and two comic titles they are known for is The Beano and The Dandy.
Recently I got my copies of these two Summer Specials.
The Beano is a current comic, read by today's children as well as sizable number of adults who are continuing a enjoyable interest from childhood aimed at both girls and boys whose cartoon strips have changed by the times with some old ones discontinued for new ones and some changes within the older ones to reflect more the society around today's children.
Thus it features such long established series as Dennis the Menace with his dog, Gnasher, Minnie the Minx, my heroine and the Bash Street Kids set in a working class junior school together with newer ones such as Rubi JJ and Pie Face that feature disabled children and people of colour in an attempt to be more 'inclusive' and all are drawn especially for this years summer special.
It has stickers, games and quizzes too clearly aimed at today's children.
The Dandy's is different because it is no longer published weekly and like the Annual is aimed more at those who remember reading the Dandy as I did as a kid and so has decided to make it a compilation with illustrations of some front covers, of some vintage comic strips featured in past summer annuals.
Reading that does bring back past memories and really childhood nostalgia is where this one is aimed.
Two annuals aimed at different markets all a great summer read.
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