Summer Specials, Wherefore Art Thou?

The UK is still in the midst of an unlikely heatwave. Unlikely, because it has lasted more than a few days – currently we’re well into its third week, which is a big deal in the land where it rains more often than not.

But for some reason I’m shut in doors nursing a cold – which, by definition, you’d think I’d only suffer from when the weather was, say, cold? Whilst it does mean a couple of days off from my day job (like you could honestly make a living out of writing comics) it’s a bitter pill when everyone else not working is outside in the sun, surf and sand.

Still, even if I felt in top form, I can’t be arsed with a day at the beach. Too many annoying things to distract me – like people en-masse. Wearing union jack shorts. Pasty limbs splayed out in the nuclear heat. Headscarves barely covering already peeling skin. Stuffing cloying ice creams down their chops. Shudder.

So, no, I’m surprisingly not bitter at all that I’m not down Bournemouth Pier hobnobbing with the tourists.

But all of this time sat sweating in my boxers like Saddam Hussein in McDonalds has allowed me to reflect on stuff. Nothing of great note, as I am ill, you know. But stuff in general. Like, summers when I were a nipper (excuse the colloquialism but it’s essential for any Englishperson reminiscing about their childhood).

Back in those rose-tinted days, summer meant four things to me. No school for six weeks. My older brother alternating between torturing or entertaining me. Crap TV. Comic book summer specials.

Take it as read that you wouldn’t remotely be interested in points one through to three, and we’ll skip right along to point four. Now any American readers will have to bear with me here as, forgive me if I’m wrong, but the concept of a summer special never existed in the US comics market.

The nearest equivalent was the annual. But that always seemed weird to us in the UK, as annuals over here were traditionally published around Christmas time. Nice, fat hardback buggers they were too. Plumped out with reprints of older material, but still far more welcome than another pair of socks from your gran.

But I digress. The summer special was an essential part of a UK comic fans diary. DC Thomson, IPC and Marvel UK – all of ‘em dished out a lush package full of new and reprint material, that could also double up as a sun block for your face if the heat got too much (don’t try it now though, as we had an ozone layer back then).

The specials weren’t just for dedicated comic fans either. They also served as a practical way of getting new readers to sample a title (what current comic marketeers would probably refer to as a ‘jumping on point’).

They were usually printed on higher quality paper than the regular weekly comic too (yes, my American cousins, I said weekly). But then practically anything was better quality compared to the cheap bog roll tat the weeklies used to be printed on. As an aside, perhaps the crap paper wasn’t such a bad idea, since it meant the comics were pocket money priced compared to the relatively exorbitant prices on comics these days?

Back to the semblance of a point. A cursory glance at the comic stand in a local newsagent over the weekend enlightened me to the sad fact that the summer special doesn’t appear to exist anymore. And even the US market has abandoned their summer-released annuals.

Is this a sign of changing tastes, or another symbolic nail in the coffin of the comics industry?

Stu Taylor is a regular writer for Black Library Publishing’s Inferno! and Warhammer Monthly, and also Editorial Consultant for bulletproofcomics.co.uk. He’s also scouring eBay for the Scream! Summer Specials to complete his collection.