In which there is the Oh Boy! annual 1978
- Reading, books 2015, 22: Oh Boy! annual, 1978.
Oh Boy! was an especially trashy pop and romance comic aimed at teenage girls, published from 1977-84 when it merged with better remembered rival My Guy. 1978 was the first annual and probably the last to feature more comics than photo stories. I bought it because the cover depicts two boys kissing one girl… chastely on her cheeks, obv (not those cheeks you pervs!). I just assumed you’d all want to see the snowman playing cupid so I scanned a page from that (feel free to skip the wall of text for the scan, obv). Note: there was an earlier British comic called Oh Boy!, which featured superhero art by Bob Monkhouse (yes, that Bob Monkhouse), but clearly these are non-identical publications. ;-)
Spelling mistakes: [lost count]
Naked male nipple count (photos not drawings): 36! (-ish… I might have been distracted whilst counting.) On 22 blokes. In case you were wondering. ;-)
Contents
Cringeworthy photos of and intros to the staff, who might be fictional for all I know, 2pg.
Five photos of supposedly attractive male celebrities with an appreciative paragraph each, aimed at encouraging the reader to imagine them as her boyfriend, 2pg.
Unlikely reportage about the Bay City Rollers and a fangirl stalker, with a photo showing one of the famous glasses of milk. 2pg.
A made-up sounding interview with and pin-up of Paul Michael Glaser/Starsky, with boundary blurring between the actor and the character, 2pg.
Quiz: D’You Let Boys Muscle In On You? Which isn’t accurate because I failed to attain the heinous superbitch result of "Tough Cookie", lol. My favourite answer was in response to a football themed question: "a) Show him a bit of nifty footwork yourself (with a flying drop kick in the penalty area!)" and that’s not a reference to a football pitch. 2pg.
Seasonally themed self-hating beauty and lifestyle advice: spring. Unexpectedly uses a toony image of a black woman to illustrate their ideal body shape (the only black person in this village, obv, although Pink had used black models in an annual as early as 1973). The second page is entirely self-referential anecdotes about the staff. Terrible prose too, 2pg.
Another self-mythologising anecdote from the staff, 1pg
"Robinson Christine" is a comic in which our heroine has a blonde moment and is temporarily stranded at a railway station where she encounters three hot but gropey guys in quick succession before being reunited with her boyfriend, 6pg.
"The Oh Boy Casebook" appears to be a short story disguised as a first person pov anecdote. This one, "I Always Got What I Wanted", is about snogging a friend’s boyfriend and then regretting it despite there being no consequences. 1pg.
"Yesterday’s Love" is a comic in which our heroine has spherical breasts and her potential boyfriend has budgie smugglers with string side-ties! Apart from that the story’s quite sweet, although he dumps her for his ex. 6pg.
"Ever Wondered What A Guy’s Thinking Before That Great Date?" Frankly, no, but onwards…. Oh Boy’s insight into the young males of the species is as tame as you’d expect in an annual aimed at being purchased by parents as xmas pressies for their daughters. We also discover that in 1978 the peak of hotness was supposedly "flame red" Marks ’n’ Sparks Y-fronts, and the boy was expected to pay the entrance money to the disco or cinema. 2pg.
"Till You Come Back Again" is a historical short story set in 1745. Yes, it’s the dead romantic dead Romantic boyfriend plot! Poor Morag will never see her "wild Rob" again!!1!! Altogether now, "There was a faint mist over the glen […]". 2pg.
How flirty are you quiz, "Waddiya Wanna Make Those Eyes At Me For..?" With some odd answers. 2pg.
"Warm Love" is a comic, drawn by Spanish artist Rafael Busom Clua (best known for drawing the Sugar Jones series), in which a sentient snowman reunites a couple after a petty falling out. I suspect Busom drew all the comics, as he was doing this sort of work through an agency at the time, but I can’t always distinguish the Spanish artists’ styles. One scan below. 6pg.
A staffer picks the "20 Worst-Ever Jokes" supposedly sent in by readers. 1pg and a waste of space even at that length.
"Wild Boy Les No More!" is a tragically dull assertion about one of the Bay City Rollers, with a dull photo of Les in front of a car park.
Seasonally themed relatively sensible beauty and lifestyle advice: summer. The eye make-up advice is hopeless though: "Smooth a glossy eye shadow all over your eyes, ’specially under the brow bone!". 2pg.
Pin-up of the Bay City Rollers in front of a hideous pebbledash wall, lol. 2pg.
Pin-up of the band Flintlock who I only recognise because one of them was in the Tomorrow People, 2pg.
Pin-up of David Essex looking astonishingly hot, as always, even though 1977 was clearly not a good year for him in fashion terms, 2pg.
Two pin-ups: a head shot of David Soul opposite a full length of Paul Michael Glaser, who is holding a beer bottle and wearing a dodgy crop-top, 2pg.
Seasonally themed beauty and lifestyle advice: autumn. From the days when we still bought olive oil at the chemists. 2pg.
"Abba’s Love Secrets" is supposedly a series of first person anecdotes from "Anna" of Abba. 2pg.
"Eric - The Sadness He Hides…" is an interview about music and the price of fame with one of the Bay City Rollers, Eric Faulkner (who’s still a good musician now). 1pg.
"Bugzy and Bert" is a cartoon in which a male rabbit sexually harasses a female rabbit and is consequently beaten up by her and then chucked out of the disco by the bouncer, because sometimes violence IS an appropriate answer, lol. 1pg.
Quiz: "Do You Play Hard To Get?" Here’s a clue: yes means yes, no means no, and if you think sex is a competitive activity then you’re probably doing it wrong and might want to try ludo or something instead until you get over yourself. Alas, no lolarious questions or answers, although the accompanying toon is mildly amusing because kitten. 2pg.
Pop themed puzzles, 2pg.
"Since We Two Parted" is a short after-the-break-up story about moving on, set in a disco. 2pg
Celebrity trivia, and readers letters titled "GO ON be a bitch!", ew. 2pg.
"Cruel To Be Kind" is a comic in which a young woman leaves home to marry her new and mildly gender-bent boyfriend despite her mother being either off-puttingly rude or seducingly overfamiliar with our heroine’s previous boyfriends. 8pg.
"The Amazing Page 3 Pin-Ups!!" repeats 10 bare-torsoed young men, mostly celebrities, from the weekly comic, including Keith Chegwin, lol, and a photo of Paul Michael Glaser that I can only hope was taken while he was playing Houdini or something because chains. One of the models is holding a nearly empty bottle of spirits and a cigarette. 2pg.
Problem pages with six letters accompanied by photos, presumably of models, so I’m assuming the letters are made-up too, which is a shame cos one of them is from someone of the same name and location and personality type as a friend of mine, lol. 2pg.
"The Boy On The 6-15" is a short story in which a girl who commutes by train fantasises about a boy who already has a girlfriend: "But the tears were running down her cheeks, and in her heart dreams were slowly crumbling, like petals falling from a dying flower." LOL. 2pg.
"The Oh Boy Casebook" appears to be a short story disguised as a first person pov anecdote. This one, "I Made Him Steal For Me", is about falling in love with a bloke’s material goods (not a euphemism, lol) and then regretting it despite there being no consequences. 1pg.
Another staffer anecdote page: "Here comes another delivery of mail now - you can always tell by the yelps of pleasure from Nicki and Liz as the post-boy pinches their bums." Ew. So glad I don’t live in the 70s. 1pg.
Seasonally themed slightly odd beauty and lifestyle advice: winter. Although they do also suggest dressing warmly in "a Marks & Spencer vest", no rly, with woolly socks, trousers, a polo neck (USian "turtleneck"), and a jumper. 2pg.
Pin-up of and interview with Mike Holoway (an actor in Tomorrow People and in the band Flintlock), mostly about his career-related fears. 2pg.
Five photos of supposedly attractive male celebrities with an appreciative paragraph each, aimed at encouraging the reader to imagine them as her boyfriend. They were so wrong about Dennis Waterman…. 2pg.
"They’re Not Dirty Lowdown Bums Anymore" is a feature with four photos of Kurt Russell and Tim Matheson in bathtubs on the set of the 1976 Western genre series The Quest (of which there appears to be a whole episode on youtube) and another dodgy fictional write-up confusing the actors with their characters. 2pg.
"It’s A Bath A Minute!" is beauty advice illustrated with, amongst other images, a photo of one of the male staffers in the bath. It suggests that bleaching body hair is at least as normative for young women as shaving it. 2pg.
A write-up of a Child gig in Sheffield (ooo the glamour!), including a photo of all four band members naked and, erm, intertwined (possibly in imitation of this slightly more x-rated image of Sherbet). 2pg.
Six more photos of hot young men, including an especially, erm, notable image of Woody from the Bay City Rollers wearing nothing but a strategically placed tartan scarf. I’m saying nothing. 2pg.
A snowman subtly plays cupid. One scan from "Warm Love" with art by Rafael Busom Clua (y’know, the one whose heroines look as if they stuck hedgehogs on their faces instead of false eyelashes!).
This entry was originally posted at http://spiralsheep.dreamwidth.org/521686.html and has
comments Please comment there using OpenID.
Oh Boy! was an especially trashy pop and romance comic aimed at teenage girls, published from 1977-84 when it merged with better remembered rival My Guy. 1978 was the first annual and probably the last to feature more comics than photo stories. I bought it because the cover depicts two boys kissing one girl… chastely on her cheeks, obv (not those cheeks you pervs!). I just assumed you’d all want to see the snowman playing cupid so I scanned a page from that (feel free to skip the wall of text for the scan, obv). Note: there was an earlier British comic called Oh Boy!, which featured superhero art by Bob Monkhouse (yes, that Bob Monkhouse), but clearly these are non-identical publications. ;-)
Spelling mistakes: [lost count]
Naked male nipple count (photos not drawings): 36! (-ish… I might have been distracted whilst counting.) On 22 blokes. In case you were wondering. ;-)
Contents
Cringeworthy photos of and intros to the staff, who might be fictional for all I know, 2pg.
Five photos of supposedly attractive male celebrities with an appreciative paragraph each, aimed at encouraging the reader to imagine them as her boyfriend, 2pg.
Unlikely reportage about the Bay City Rollers and a fangirl stalker, with a photo showing one of the famous glasses of milk. 2pg.
A made-up sounding interview with and pin-up of Paul Michael Glaser/Starsky, with boundary blurring between the actor and the character, 2pg.
Quiz: D’You Let Boys Muscle In On You? Which isn’t accurate because I failed to attain the heinous superbitch result of "Tough Cookie", lol. My favourite answer was in response to a football themed question: "a) Show him a bit of nifty footwork yourself (with a flying drop kick in the penalty area!)" and that’s not a reference to a football pitch. 2pg.
Seasonally themed self-hating beauty and lifestyle advice: spring. Unexpectedly uses a toony image of a black woman to illustrate their ideal body shape (the only black person in this village, obv, although Pink had used black models in an annual as early as 1973). The second page is entirely self-referential anecdotes about the staff. Terrible prose too, 2pg.
Another self-mythologising anecdote from the staff, 1pg
"Robinson Christine" is a comic in which our heroine has a blonde moment and is temporarily stranded at a railway station where she encounters three hot but gropey guys in quick succession before being reunited with her boyfriend, 6pg.
"The Oh Boy Casebook" appears to be a short story disguised as a first person pov anecdote. This one, "I Always Got What I Wanted", is about snogging a friend’s boyfriend and then regretting it despite there being no consequences. 1pg.
"Yesterday’s Love" is a comic in which our heroine has spherical breasts and her potential boyfriend has budgie smugglers with string side-ties! Apart from that the story’s quite sweet, although he dumps her for his ex. 6pg.
"Ever Wondered What A Guy’s Thinking Before That Great Date?" Frankly, no, but onwards…. Oh Boy’s insight into the young males of the species is as tame as you’d expect in an annual aimed at being purchased by parents as xmas pressies for their daughters. We also discover that in 1978 the peak of hotness was supposedly "flame red" Marks ’n’ Sparks Y-fronts, and the boy was expected to pay the entrance money to the disco or cinema. 2pg.
"Till You Come Back Again" is a historical short story set in 1745. Yes, it’s the dead romantic dead Romantic boyfriend plot! Poor Morag will never see her "wild Rob" again!!1!! Altogether now, "There was a faint mist over the glen […]". 2pg.
How flirty are you quiz, "Waddiya Wanna Make Those Eyes At Me For..?" With some odd answers. 2pg.
"Warm Love" is a comic, drawn by Spanish artist Rafael Busom Clua (best known for drawing the Sugar Jones series), in which a sentient snowman reunites a couple after a petty falling out. I suspect Busom drew all the comics, as he was doing this sort of work through an agency at the time, but I can’t always distinguish the Spanish artists’ styles. One scan below. 6pg.
A staffer picks the "20 Worst-Ever Jokes" supposedly sent in by readers. 1pg and a waste of space even at that length.
"Wild Boy Les No More!" is a tragically dull assertion about one of the Bay City Rollers, with a dull photo of Les in front of a car park.
Seasonally themed relatively sensible beauty and lifestyle advice: summer. The eye make-up advice is hopeless though: "Smooth a glossy eye shadow all over your eyes, ’specially under the brow bone!". 2pg.
Pin-up of the Bay City Rollers in front of a hideous pebbledash wall, lol. 2pg.
Pin-up of the band Flintlock who I only recognise because one of them was in the Tomorrow People, 2pg.
Pin-up of David Essex looking astonishingly hot, as always, even though 1977 was clearly not a good year for him in fashion terms, 2pg.
Two pin-ups: a head shot of David Soul opposite a full length of Paul Michael Glaser, who is holding a beer bottle and wearing a dodgy crop-top, 2pg.
Seasonally themed beauty and lifestyle advice: autumn. From the days when we still bought olive oil at the chemists. 2pg.
"Abba’s Love Secrets" is supposedly a series of first person anecdotes from "Anna" of Abba. 2pg.
"Eric - The Sadness He Hides…" is an interview about music and the price of fame with one of the Bay City Rollers, Eric Faulkner (who’s still a good musician now). 1pg.
"Bugzy and Bert" is a cartoon in which a male rabbit sexually harasses a female rabbit and is consequently beaten up by her and then chucked out of the disco by the bouncer, because sometimes violence IS an appropriate answer, lol. 1pg.
Quiz: "Do You Play Hard To Get?" Here’s a clue: yes means yes, no means no, and if you think sex is a competitive activity then you’re probably doing it wrong and might want to try ludo or something instead until you get over yourself. Alas, no lolarious questions or answers, although the accompanying toon is mildly amusing because kitten. 2pg.
Pop themed puzzles, 2pg.
"Since We Two Parted" is a short after-the-break-up story about moving on, set in a disco. 2pg
Celebrity trivia, and readers letters titled "GO ON be a bitch!", ew. 2pg.
"Cruel To Be Kind" is a comic in which a young woman leaves home to marry her new and mildly gender-bent boyfriend despite her mother being either off-puttingly rude or seducingly overfamiliar with our heroine’s previous boyfriends. 8pg.
"The Amazing Page 3 Pin-Ups!!" repeats 10 bare-torsoed young men, mostly celebrities, from the weekly comic, including Keith Chegwin, lol, and a photo of Paul Michael Glaser that I can only hope was taken while he was playing Houdini or something because chains. One of the models is holding a nearly empty bottle of spirits and a cigarette. 2pg.
Problem pages with six letters accompanied by photos, presumably of models, so I’m assuming the letters are made-up too, which is a shame cos one of them is from someone of the same name and location and personality type as a friend of mine, lol. 2pg.
"The Boy On The 6-15" is a short story in which a girl who commutes by train fantasises about a boy who already has a girlfriend: "But the tears were running down her cheeks, and in her heart dreams were slowly crumbling, like petals falling from a dying flower." LOL. 2pg.
"The Oh Boy Casebook" appears to be a short story disguised as a first person pov anecdote. This one, "I Made Him Steal For Me", is about falling in love with a bloke’s material goods (not a euphemism, lol) and then regretting it despite there being no consequences. 1pg.
Another staffer anecdote page: "Here comes another delivery of mail now - you can always tell by the yelps of pleasure from Nicki and Liz as the post-boy pinches their bums." Ew. So glad I don’t live in the 70s. 1pg.
Seasonally themed slightly odd beauty and lifestyle advice: winter. Although they do also suggest dressing warmly in "a Marks & Spencer vest", no rly, with woolly socks, trousers, a polo neck (USian "turtleneck"), and a jumper. 2pg.
Pin-up of and interview with Mike Holoway (an actor in Tomorrow People and in the band Flintlock), mostly about his career-related fears. 2pg.
Five photos of supposedly attractive male celebrities with an appreciative paragraph each, aimed at encouraging the reader to imagine them as her boyfriend. They were so wrong about Dennis Waterman…. 2pg.
"They’re Not Dirty Lowdown Bums Anymore" is a feature with four photos of Kurt Russell and Tim Matheson in bathtubs on the set of the 1976 Western genre series The Quest (of which there appears to be a whole episode on youtube) and another dodgy fictional write-up confusing the actors with their characters. 2pg.
"It’s A Bath A Minute!" is beauty advice illustrated with, amongst other images, a photo of one of the male staffers in the bath. It suggests that bleaching body hair is at least as normative for young women as shaving it. 2pg.
A write-up of a Child gig in Sheffield (ooo the glamour!), including a photo of all four band members naked and, erm, intertwined (possibly in imitation of this slightly more x-rated image of Sherbet). 2pg.
Six more photos of hot young men, including an especially, erm, notable image of Woody from the Bay City Rollers wearing nothing but a strategically placed tartan scarf. I’m saying nothing. 2pg.
A snowman subtly plays cupid. One scan from "Warm Love" with art by Rafael Busom Clua (y’know, the one whose heroines look as if they stuck hedgehogs on their faces instead of false eyelashes!).
This entry was originally posted at http://spiralsheep.dreamwidth.org/521686.html and has
comments Please comment there using OpenID.