This week Modern Scottish Collections has been in the news re our recent purchase of the first two Oor Wullie annuals.
Dundee-based publisher D.C. Thomson unleashed the national favourite in The Sunday Post in 1936 but Wullie’s very first annual came out in October 1940 in time for the second festive season of World War Two. A second annual was published in 1942, but then he sat out the War, due to paper shortages, and he only reappeared in book form in 1948. How many Scots unwrapped the annual that Christmas 1940? How many can lay their hands on it now? We are delighted to complete our set of annuals with these very rare volumes. Many other copies no doubt were read till they fell apart. In 1940 the first annual would have set you back 1/6, but if you try and buy it in 2010 – jings, crivvens, michty me! (Image courtesy of Lyon and Turnbull)