The Magic Fun Books: 1941 - 1942

The 1941 Magic Fun Book

Magic comic was published by D.C Thomson between 1939 and 1941, and was aimed at a slightly younger audience than their other humour comics, The Beano and The Dandy. It ended quickly after publishing just 88 issues thanks to the war, yet despite that two annuals still went on sale. The Magic Fun Book first went on sale in for Christmas 1940, and is known as the 1941 book. A second annual followed it the next year. Both of these annuals are very hard to find, but I've managed to find pictures of the covers.

The 1942 Magic Fun Book

1941 back cover.

1942 Back cover.

Instead of producing a Magic Fun Book for Christmas 1942 (to be known as the 1943 Magic Fun Book), D.C Thomson sort of "merged" the Magic annuals into the much more popular Beano annuals, which would from then on be known as The Magic-Beano books. The "Magic" part of the title last appeared in 1950, and from then on the books were known as simply The Beano Book again, until the word "book" was replaced by "annual" in 2003.

The first Magic-Beano Book, dated 1943.