Even inside our sweets, Bazzoka Bubblegum came wrapped up with a small folded comic.
With limited television and many of our games requiring the prescence of either a family member or a friend which was not always available, Comics played an important part of childhood.
Although the war had been over for many years, many of the Boys comics from the late fifties onwards were still very much War related, and still pushing to young children that German's were the enemy. Teaching about history and the past is one thing, but not glorifying war in the way they did.
Comics did little to promote world peace!
Their characters were nearly always soldiers, fighter pilots that were untouchable, soldiers who defeated armies almost single-handed, everyone was a hero.
There were a few comics that leaned more towards education, teaching about a wider history than just the war, about how things were made and how they worked.
Whilst in Junior School we were encouraged to pay in our pocket money each week, accumulating enough to pay for the monthly issue of the 'Knowledge Encyclopaedia'.
Each year would have enough issues (12) to fill a specially purchased folder.
I-spy made books that informed you about nature, the sky, about cars, and about jobs.
They also made small booklets that parents would give to their children on long journeys, a book with lists of things to look out for and tick off once seen.
Christmas time was Annual time.
Most of the weekly or monthly Comics produced year annuals, so did many of the television programs, they were released around December especially to sell as christmas presents.
It took until the late 60's / early 70's before world war 2 related comics fell away, being replaced with those depicting Coldwar antics such as James Bond and The Man from Uncle.
Futuristic style comics started with comics such as TV-21 which was mostly relating to the Supermarionation programs of Thunderbirds, Stingray, Captain Scarlet and UFO.
