In which there is the Mates annual 1978
Selected contents of the Mates annual 1976 with four scans and three more scans.
Selected contents of the Mates annual 1977 with five scans.
- Reading, books 2015, 35: 35. Mates annual, 1978.
Mates was a pop and romance comic. The 1978 annual was the third. The cover photo is… interesting. Reading this was like being in a fat-hating teenage hell that still managed to be a huge improvement over previous years (remember what I said about feminism rolling into these comics in 1977, which is when this annual was planned and written). There are black people, including Black British people PLURAL! And the idea that women can have personal ambitions and worthwhile jobs! I’M NEVER READING ANY ROMANCE GENRE AIMED AT TEENAGE GIRLS FROM BEFORE 1977 EVER AGAIN!!1!! (That’s a lie, alas, but I can dream!)
Things I never thought I’d hear myself saying before I read this annual: "Wow, who knew Showaddywaddy would look better without their clothes?" and "Oh no, my Child pin-up is bent!" That said, however, this post was desperately short of crack. Don’t worry though because I managed to source some supplementary cracktastic images including Labelle, Showaddywaddy naked, and the Blue Peter team circa 1978.
Selected contents
Features include readers letters, astrology, sewing, skincare, personality quizzes, how to make a fried cheese sandwich (no, rly!), a Donny Osmond puff piece, obviously fictional anecdotage from the staffers, problem pages, endless Bay City Rollers puff pieces, a page about four sets of brothers in pop groups, puzzles, cute animal photos, and foot care.
Eight celebrities reveal what they’d like for Christmas. Freddie Mercury wants a year’s supply of black nail polish because "There’s nothing worse than running out of polish in the middle of a tour! I mean, you can’t go on stage with tatty fingers, can you?" While Midge Ure, back in his Slik days, wants Linda Lewis. 2pg.
"Ideal Girl" is an office romance comic. The heroine is blonde, as ALL the romance heroines in the Mates annuals have been so far (brunettes are sidekicks or victims), but this woman is the first with short hair. In fact her hair is shorter than the men. 6pg.
David Essex shares a sad anecdote. 1pg.
"A Letter to Danny" is prose fiction about an angsty love triangle. 3pg.
"Who’s a Jeanius, Then?" is a craft feature with six items of clothing that can be made from old jeans. 1pg.
Pin-ups include Flintlock (not scannable, sry, … or not cos it’s dull), the G Band (aka Glitter Band), Donny Osmond, Kenny ("TURD", see above), Rod Stewart (bare-chested, wet from the neck down but with dry hair, and wearing a ridiculous necklace), the Bay City Rollers, Buster, David Essex (inevitably), Queen (one of those rare photos in which John Deakin looks more glamorous than the other band members), Slik (boring), Showaddywaddy (with half their kit off), Child (not scannable, especially sry cos it’s a good photo). This photo, not from the annual, must be what Showaddywaddy referred to as "the moon of love", lol.
Six celebrities reveal what turns them on. The largest photo is Chris Amoo of The Real Thing (y’know, You To Me Are Everything, 3min)! 2pg.
"Apres Ski..!" is a skiing romance comic, with art by Rafael Busom Clua (including the usual hedgehog-urchin-eyelashes). 6pg.
"Pick Your Knickers From The Line - And We’ll Tell You What They Show!" is a bizarrely unrealistic personality test. One of the six possible results is a pair of knickers with two differing sides! 2pg.
"I Got Mixed Up With A Rough Crowd" is a histrionic first person story about going to a party with a stranger. 2pg.
"The Rollers’ Story" is a hyperbolic pictorial timeline of the Bay City Rollers’ first eight years in the music industry. 2pg.
"Fancy Felt Fings" is a craft feature suggesting making a pocket, finger rings, and a tie-on belt purse, from felt. 1pg.
"It’s The Old-Timers’ Parade" is a feature of six vintage photos of readers’ families. 1pg.
"How To Feel Great In ’78" is a feature that encourages readers to follow their dreams of world travel by… working hard at school and choosing a middle class career (FEEL THE FEMINIST CLASS WAR). Also suggested are classes in karate, dancing, a second language; doing a self-make-over; getting a penpal; working abroad; volunteering; and beating the teenage blues. This is a first for a Mates annual, as self-improvement that focuses on loving the world rather than hating oneself. 2pg.
"Disco Dynamite!" namechecks the Stylistics x2, the Four Tops, and The Supremes, Linda Lewis ("Linda’s been going for a while, cleverly changing her style over the years to suit the times."), The Real Thing, Barry White, Tina Charles ("five feet nothing of bouncing disco energy"), Johnny Nash, Natalie Cole, ABBA, and the Average White Band. The accompanying photos are of Barry White, Tina Charles, and the Stylistics (and there was a photo of Chris Amoo of The Real Thing earlier in the annual, and there’s one of Linda Lewis later). I like that this isn’t a "black" music ghetto page, it’s "sounds to dance to" that are mostly created by black performers, with explicitly stated credit to African American performers for making the pop/club dance music genre popular. This inclusiveness is another first for the 1978 annual (written in 1977). 1pg.
"Dreams Don’t Come True!" is a tragic historical romance in which a posh boy courts and then abandons a working class girl. 8pg.
"It’s Not So Bad Being A Girl…" is a feature giving advice on puberty, bras, periods (including towels/tampons, menstrual pain, and pms), love, and sex (including some sensible advice about positive/negative motivations, and "birth control" although nothing specific and no mention of stds, and stating the legal age of consent for het couples = 16). 2pg.
"20 Ways To Warm Him Up… When He’s Starting To Cool Down!" is a feature with 20 suggestions such as, "5 Tell 'im you love 'im. (Only if you do, of course! If you don’t what are you reading all this rubbish for?)", lol, and "14 Listen to his grotty Led Zeppelin albums without complaining for once! You can always go home and revive yourself with a quick burst of the Rollers afterwards!", lol, and 20 is "[…] go out and find yourself another fella […]". /this is probably not the place to admit I like most Zep better than most Rollers songs, is it? 2pg.
"The Love Potion" is short prose fiction. It includes yew leaves in the recipe. Yew is, of course, poisonous… so, less of a love potion and more of a murder/suicide (::sings:: "Romeo and Juliet / Are together in eternity…"). One of the illustrations is especially good. 2pg.
Four sets of fans, all young women, tell anecdotes about meeting the objects of their fan-crushes: the Bay City Rollers, Kevin Keegan, Donny Osmond, and Mud. 2pg.
"Zarina" is a weepy romance comic about a brunette heroine who chooses her career as a psychic cabaret act over her boyfriend, who goes off with a blonde. Despite the premise this is tragically lacking in crack. Art signed C. Juanola. 6pg.
Alan Longmuir, Roger Taylor, and Billy McIsaac (now of "the no.1 wedding band in Scotland"!!1!!), recount their experiences of supposed hauntings. 2pg.
"Cor, Why Can’t I Look Like Her?!" is a fashion feature based on the styles of eight sets of women pop stars. 4 of the 12 women featured are black including three African American women, the Three Degrees, and one Black British woman, Linda Lewis (OBV). The "dolls" from Guys ’n’ Dolls are given as examples of always hanging up your clothes in the wardrobe when you’re not wearing them. The Three Degrees, and Kiki Dee, are praised for their accessories. Olivia Newton-John is used as an example of wearing comfy travel clothes. Suzi Quatro’s leather jackets are admired, with her neck scarf noted for poorer readers. Lynsey de Paul’s jewellery, with a silver ring on every finger and multiple necklaces, is envied. A kimono, like the one Linda Lewis relaxes in, is suggested for practical glamour at home. And Marie Osmond’s well-fitting clothes are admired, in a dodgy way that implies the writer was indulging in Osmondcest RPF in their head. o_O 2pg.
Seven photos of male tv stars with an accompanying paragraph each: Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul (Starsky and Hutch), Richard O’Sullivan (Robin’s Nest), MICK ROBERTSON (MAGPIE), Ben Murphy (Alias Smith and Jones), Michael Crawford (Some Mothers Do Have 'Em!), and Dennis Waterman with a fag (Sweeney). 2pg.
"Always Second Best" is short prose fiction about best friends and romance at a disco. Includes a full page illustration. 3pg.
"Get A Load O’ Them!" is four photos of glam pop stars with a paragraph accompanying each: Freddie Mercury ("Is it a bird? Is it a plane?"), Elton John ("a cross between a bird of paradise and a fireworks display"), David Bowie ("David’s way out! Well, half out, anyway!" LOL!), and Labelle wearing the outfits also seen in the photo below ("extravagant" and "they make the Three Degrees look like a bunch of nuns"). 1pg. P.S. Lady Marmalade, by Labelle, live-ish, 1975, 4min.
"Gift Wrapped" is a temp-meets-boss’s-son romance comic, with art signed Guirado. 6pg.
I don’t know about you but my personal levels of Vitamin C, "C" for CRACK obv, are dangerously depleted now. Luckily here’s some crack I made earlier! Yes, in an attempt to traumatise seebrirun, it’s the cover of the Blue Peter annual 1978 featuring Peter Purves, Lesley Judd, and John Noakes!!1!!
This entry was originally posted at http://spiralsheep.dreamwidth.org/525092.html and has
comments Please comment there using OpenID.
Selected contents of the Mates annual 1977 with five scans.
- Reading, books 2015, 35: 35. Mates annual, 1978.
Mates was a pop and romance comic. The 1978 annual was the third. The cover photo is… interesting. Reading this was like being in a fat-hating teenage hell that still managed to be a huge improvement over previous years (remember what I said about feminism rolling into these comics in 1977, which is when this annual was planned and written). There are black people, including Black British people PLURAL! And the idea that women can have personal ambitions and worthwhile jobs! I’M NEVER READING ANY ROMANCE GENRE AIMED AT TEENAGE GIRLS FROM BEFORE 1977 EVER AGAIN!!1!! (That’s a lie, alas, but I can dream!)
Things I never thought I’d hear myself saying before I read this annual: "Wow, who knew Showaddywaddy would look better without their clothes?" and "Oh no, my Child pin-up is bent!" That said, however, this post was desperately short of crack. Don’t worry though because I managed to source some supplementary cracktastic images including Labelle, Showaddywaddy naked, and the Blue Peter team circa 1978.
Selected contents
Features include readers letters, astrology, sewing, skincare, personality quizzes, how to make a fried cheese sandwich (no, rly!), a Donny Osmond puff piece, obviously fictional anecdotage from the staffers, problem pages, endless Bay City Rollers puff pieces, a page about four sets of brothers in pop groups, puzzles, cute animal photos, and foot care.
Eight celebrities reveal what they’d like for Christmas. Freddie Mercury wants a year’s supply of black nail polish because "There’s nothing worse than running out of polish in the middle of a tour! I mean, you can’t go on stage with tatty fingers, can you?" While Midge Ure, back in his Slik days, wants Linda Lewis. 2pg.
"Ideal Girl" is an office romance comic. The heroine is blonde, as ALL the romance heroines in the Mates annuals have been so far (brunettes are sidekicks or victims), but this woman is the first with short hair. In fact her hair is shorter than the men. 6pg.
David Essex shares a sad anecdote. 1pg.
"A Letter to Danny" is prose fiction about an angsty love triangle. 3pg.
"Who’s a Jeanius, Then?" is a craft feature with six items of clothing that can be made from old jeans. 1pg.
Pin-ups include Flintlock (not scannable, sry, … or not cos it’s dull), the G Band (aka Glitter Band), Donny Osmond, Kenny ("TURD", see above), Rod Stewart (bare-chested, wet from the neck down but with dry hair, and wearing a ridiculous necklace), the Bay City Rollers, Buster, David Essex (inevitably), Queen (one of those rare photos in which John Deakin looks more glamorous than the other band members), Slik (boring), Showaddywaddy (with half their kit off), Child (not scannable, especially sry cos it’s a good photo). This photo, not from the annual, must be what Showaddywaddy referred to as "the moon of love", lol.
Six celebrities reveal what turns them on. The largest photo is Chris Amoo of The Real Thing (y’know, You To Me Are Everything, 3min)! 2pg.
"Apres Ski..!" is a skiing romance comic, with art by Rafael Busom Clua (including the usual hedgehog-urchin-eyelashes). 6pg.
"Pick Your Knickers From The Line - And We’ll Tell You What They Show!" is a bizarrely unrealistic personality test. One of the six possible results is a pair of knickers with two differing sides! 2pg.
"I Got Mixed Up With A Rough Crowd" is a histrionic first person story about going to a party with a stranger. 2pg.
"The Rollers’ Story" is a hyperbolic pictorial timeline of the Bay City Rollers’ first eight years in the music industry. 2pg.
"Fancy Felt Fings" is a craft feature suggesting making a pocket, finger rings, and a tie-on belt purse, from felt. 1pg.
"It’s The Old-Timers’ Parade" is a feature of six vintage photos of readers’ families. 1pg.
"How To Feel Great In ’78" is a feature that encourages readers to follow their dreams of world travel by… working hard at school and choosing a middle class career (FEEL THE FEMINIST CLASS WAR). Also suggested are classes in karate, dancing, a second language; doing a self-make-over; getting a penpal; working abroad; volunteering; and beating the teenage blues. This is a first for a Mates annual, as self-improvement that focuses on loving the world rather than hating oneself. 2pg.
"Disco Dynamite!" namechecks the Stylistics x2, the Four Tops, and The Supremes, Linda Lewis ("Linda’s been going for a while, cleverly changing her style over the years to suit the times."), The Real Thing, Barry White, Tina Charles ("five feet nothing of bouncing disco energy"), Johnny Nash, Natalie Cole, ABBA, and the Average White Band. The accompanying photos are of Barry White, Tina Charles, and the Stylistics (and there was a photo of Chris Amoo of The Real Thing earlier in the annual, and there’s one of Linda Lewis later). I like that this isn’t a "black" music ghetto page, it’s "sounds to dance to" that are mostly created by black performers, with explicitly stated credit to African American performers for making the pop/club dance music genre popular. This inclusiveness is another first for the 1978 annual (written in 1977). 1pg.
"Dreams Don’t Come True!" is a tragic historical romance in which a posh boy courts and then abandons a working class girl. 8pg.
"It’s Not So Bad Being A Girl…" is a feature giving advice on puberty, bras, periods (including towels/tampons, menstrual pain, and pms), love, and sex (including some sensible advice about positive/negative motivations, and "birth control" although nothing specific and no mention of stds, and stating the legal age of consent for het couples = 16). 2pg.
"20 Ways To Warm Him Up… When He’s Starting To Cool Down!" is a feature with 20 suggestions such as, "5 Tell 'im you love 'im. (Only if you do, of course! If you don’t what are you reading all this rubbish for?)", lol, and "14 Listen to his grotty Led Zeppelin albums without complaining for once! You can always go home and revive yourself with a quick burst of the Rollers afterwards!", lol, and 20 is "[…] go out and find yourself another fella […]". /this is probably not the place to admit I like most Zep better than most Rollers songs, is it? 2pg.
"The Love Potion" is short prose fiction. It includes yew leaves in the recipe. Yew is, of course, poisonous… so, less of a love potion and more of a murder/suicide (::sings:: "Romeo and Juliet / Are together in eternity…"). One of the illustrations is especially good. 2pg.
Four sets of fans, all young women, tell anecdotes about meeting the objects of their fan-crushes: the Bay City Rollers, Kevin Keegan, Donny Osmond, and Mud. 2pg.
"Zarina" is a weepy romance comic about a brunette heroine who chooses her career as a psychic cabaret act over her boyfriend, who goes off with a blonde. Despite the premise this is tragically lacking in crack. Art signed C. Juanola. 6pg.
Alan Longmuir, Roger Taylor, and Billy McIsaac (now of "the no.1 wedding band in Scotland"!!1!!), recount their experiences of supposed hauntings. 2pg.
"Cor, Why Can’t I Look Like Her?!" is a fashion feature based on the styles of eight sets of women pop stars. 4 of the 12 women featured are black including three African American women, the Three Degrees, and one Black British woman, Linda Lewis (OBV). The "dolls" from Guys ’n’ Dolls are given as examples of always hanging up your clothes in the wardrobe when you’re not wearing them. The Three Degrees, and Kiki Dee, are praised for their accessories. Olivia Newton-John is used as an example of wearing comfy travel clothes. Suzi Quatro’s leather jackets are admired, with her neck scarf noted for poorer readers. Lynsey de Paul’s jewellery, with a silver ring on every finger and multiple necklaces, is envied. A kimono, like the one Linda Lewis relaxes in, is suggested for practical glamour at home. And Marie Osmond’s well-fitting clothes are admired, in a dodgy way that implies the writer was indulging in Osmondcest RPF in their head. o_O 2pg.
Seven photos of male tv stars with an accompanying paragraph each: Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul (Starsky and Hutch), Richard O’Sullivan (Robin’s Nest), MICK ROBERTSON (MAGPIE), Ben Murphy (Alias Smith and Jones), Michael Crawford (Some Mothers Do Have 'Em!), and Dennis Waterman with a fag (Sweeney). 2pg.
"Always Second Best" is short prose fiction about best friends and romance at a disco. Includes a full page illustration. 3pg.
"Get A Load O’ Them!" is four photos of glam pop stars with a paragraph accompanying each: Freddie Mercury ("Is it a bird? Is it a plane?"), Elton John ("a cross between a bird of paradise and a fireworks display"), David Bowie ("David’s way out! Well, half out, anyway!" LOL!), and Labelle wearing the outfits also seen in the photo below ("extravagant" and "they make the Three Degrees look like a bunch of nuns"). 1pg. P.S. Lady Marmalade, by Labelle, live-ish, 1975, 4min.
"Gift Wrapped" is a temp-meets-boss’s-son romance comic, with art signed Guirado. 6pg.
I don’t know about you but my personal levels of Vitamin C, "C" for CRACK obv, are dangerously depleted now. Luckily here’s some crack I made earlier! Yes, in an attempt to traumatise seebrirun, it’s the cover of the Blue Peter annual 1978 featuring Peter Purves, Lesley Judd, and John Noakes!!1!!
This entry was originally posted at http://spiralsheep.dreamwidth.org/525092.html and has
comments Please comment there using OpenID.