THE COMPLETE SMASH! ANNUAL COVER GALLERY - 1967 TO 1976...

Whose heart doesn't beat a little faster (if you're of a certain age)

at the sight of these delightful SMASH! Annual covers from back in

the 20th century?  It's scary to think that the first of them comes from

nearly 50 years ago, and the last of them a mere 9 years later.  To me,

it doesn't seem anywhere near as long as that, and if you owned these

books when you were a kid, I'm sure it's the same for you as well.

Just like the WHAM! Annuals, when first published, I never had

any of the ODHAMS Smash! Annuals either, although I did buy the

revamped IPC 1971 & '72 tomes at the time, and a friend gave me the

'74 book back in '82.  I've long-since acquired a complete set of all the

Annuals for Wham! and Smash! - and also POW! and FANTASTIC,

too.  (Lucky ol' me, eh?)  Not being the selfish type, I've decided to

share the covers with you all on this here blog thing of mine.

The Annual for '68 had a different back cover, so I've included

it so that you can read the comic strip continued from the front.  I've

included the soft-covered Smash Fun Book for 1971 (issued in '70),

which was perhaps intended as a 'transitional' stage between the old

and the new, so that readers who preferred the Odhams style could

have one last bite of the cake at the same time lovers of the 'new

direction' were being catered for in the Annual department.

I've shown these covers before of course, but not everyone can

be bothered trawling through the archives to see what they've missed,

so I hope I'll be forgiven for repeating myself.  Next time around, it'll

be a combined gallery of Pow! and Fantastic Annual covers!  So

keep these palpitating peepers of yours peeled in preparation!

The final Annual in the series was a soft-cover book