''The Topper Book'' was a comic book published from 1954 to 1994, to tie in with the children's comic '' The Topper''. The first twelve editions were undated, and later books were published with the date of the following year on the cover, since they were traditionally published in the autumn and in time for

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

. Originally called ''The Topper Book'' with no year at the end, the book was printed in

landscape format Page orientation is the way in which a rectangular page is oriented for normal viewing. The two most common types of orientation are ''portrait'' and ''landscape''. The term "portrait orientation" comes from visual art terminology and describes ...

instead of traditional vertically shaped portrait formats like ''

The Beano Annual ''The Beano Annual'' is the current name of the book that has been published every year since 1939, to tie in with the children's comic book, comic ''The Beano''. there have been 84 editions. The annuals are traditionally published in July or A ...

'' and '' The Dandy Annual''. It changed to vertical in 1960. Although The Topper merged with

The Beezer ''The Beezer'' (called ''The Beezer and Topper'' for the last three years of publication) was a British comic that ran from (issues dates) 21 January 1956 to 21 August 1993, published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. Comic strips in ''The Beezer' ...

in 1990, the annual continued for a few years afterwards. The 1994 annual, published in 1993, was the last one.

Annuals

The books were published the autumn before with the 1955 annual published in Autumn 1954. Price in shillings and (old) pence with one shilling equal to 5p. * 1955. 23 different characters in five strips with the last being a giant panda. Price 7/- * 1956. Dartboard design with Topper characters in middle circle and birds, cars, etc. in outer circle. Price 7/- * 1957. Twenty five squares, each containing a different character or object. Price 7/- * 1958. Diamond like diagonal shapes, each containing a character or object. Price 7/- * 1959. Captain Bungle pointing rifle at four animals in distance. Elephant, giraffe, hippo and zebra. Monkey sitting on rifle about to fire catapult at him. Price 7/- * 1960. Title is diagonal with heads of Topper characters above and below it. Price 7/- * 1961. Bandit Figaro (Mexican) leaning against cactus tree and laughing while reading Topper book. Horse laughing with him. Price 7/6 * 1962. A number of heads of characters with names below them. Beryl the Peril top right and Foxy bottom right. Price 7/6 * 1963. Julius Cheeser sitting in deck chair amidst drawing pins. Tom Cat clutching his foot which has four drawing pins sticking in it. Heads of five Topper characters above title. Price 7/6 * 1964. Foxy with hands above his head. Rifle pointed at his back held by chicken and balloon. Price 7/6 * 1965. Two pictures. Figaro holding up a cowboy while another cowboy is hiding behind a rock and lighting a firework. Price 7/6 * 1966. Four pictures showing Tom Cat and Julius Cheeser and a fire-cracker. Price 7/6

Annuals

See also