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Posted in: Comics, Current News | Tagged: dudley d watkins, The Broons
National Library of Scotland Finally Gets The Broons Annual from 1939
The National Library of Scotland has paid five figures for a copy of the first-ever Broons Annual, published in 1939, for its collection.
Article Summary
- National Library of Scotland acquires rare 1939 Broons Annual for a significant sum.
- First issue of the DC Thomson Scottish comic strip collectible surfaces after a decade.
- The Broons, a classic Scottish family in comics, remain unaltered since their 1936 debut.
- Scotland's public archive to showcase the Broons Annual 1940 in 2024 Edinburgh exhibit.
The National Library of Scotland has bought a copy of the first-ever Broons Annual comic strip collection, published in 1939, for its collection after looking for a copy for over ten years. Copies sell for several thousand pounds when they pop up, one went in 2014 for over £6000 and five figures are expected now. The first of the alternating Broons and Oor Wullie alternating annuals published by DC Thomson, they collected the strips from the Sunday Post.
The Broons first appeared in 1936 in the Sunday Post newspaper, depicting a large and extended family across three generations living in a Dundee townhouse and were created by Created by writer/editor R. D. Low and artist Dudley D. Watkins, who also created Oor Wullie, and Watkins also co-created Lord Snooty for the Beano and Desperate Dan for the Dandy.
The Brown Family are made up of the patriarch Paw, the matriarch Maw , parents of eight children, adults Hen, Daphne, Joe, Maggie, as well as school children Horace, the unnamed Twins, and the unnamed toddler of the family, the Bairn. They are also joined by Paw's father Granpaw Broon. And so they have stayed in stasis for almost ninety years, even as the world has changed around them.
This purchased copy is the only known copy of Broons Annual 1940 in a public collection in Scotland, and was not made part of The National Library of Scotland's extensive collection when it was first published, as it was considered ephemeral. They changed their mind a few decades later but copies were hard to come by.
The British Library in London has one, but like the British Museum and the Elgin Marbles, they are holding on to their copy.
This copy of the Broons Annual 1940 will be displayed in the Treasures of the National Library of Scotland exhibition in 2024 at George IV Bridge, Edinburgh.
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