Roger Harris Presents
THE MODERN BOY DOT COM
New feature - All 22 Modern Boy
annuals
Now displaying all 610 covers!
I have
hundreds of spares for sale - just e-mail me with your wants
|
From 11th
Feb 1928 to 19thJan 1929 (Missing no issues) |
From 19th
Jan 1929 to 4th Jan 1930 (Missing no issues) |
From 4th
Jan 1930 to 20th Dec 1930 (Missing no issues) |
From 20th
Dec 1930 to 5th Dec 1931 (Missing no issues) |
From 5th
Dec 1931 to 19th Nov 1932 (Missing no issues) |
|
From 19th
Nov 1932 to 4th Nov 1933 (Missing no issues) |
From 4th
Nov 1933 to 20th Oct 1934 (Missing no issues) |
From 20th
Oct 1934 to 5th Oct 1935 (Missing no issues) |
From 5th
Oct 1935 to 19th Sep 1936 (Missing no issues) |
From 19th
Sep 1936 to 4th Sep 1937 (Missing no issues) |
|
Issue 324
|
ISSUES
500 – 523
(Missing just one
issue - Number 523 - but temporary image displayed) Issues 1 – 87 (of the “NEW” series) (Missing just one
issue - Number 85 - but temporary image displayed)
|
Issue
356 |
First launched on 11th February 1928 and
always costing just 2d - two old pence (click here for information about issues
costing 4d!) - the magazine ran
initially for 523 weekly issues until 12th February 1938. The following week, 19th February
1938 it was re-launched in a new size and this new “Modern Boy” was re-numbered
from issue one again. It ran until
issue 87 was published on 14th October 1939. Production then ceased
due to wartime paper shortages.
The beauty of “The Modern Boy” to W. E. Johns fans is the amount
of work he did for it.
Initially submitting artwork – Johns first painted the
cover for the 21st December 1929 issue – issue 98.
His first signed article was published in the 6th
December 1930 issue (called ‘The Plane Smashers’) – in issue 148
- but it is believed
that he wrote articles prior to that as “Our Air Expert”.
He then contributed various articles until issue
257 when his “Biggles” stories commenced publication in serialised form. Firstly, all the individual stories from
‘The Camels are Coming’ until eventually his new books were first published in
“The Modern Boy” in episodic format. The
true first editions!
It is very interesting to note the changes in the
text on publication in book form.
The Modern Boy was also the place where new and
original Biggles stories were published, later collected in the two “Boy’s
Friend Library” books –
BIGGLES LEARNS TO FLY and BIGGLES IN FRANCE. All five of the original John Hamilton first
published Biggles books were serialised in the Modern Boy
and then the first twelve Oxford published Biggles
books - up to ‘Biggles – Secret Agent’
(published in ‘The Modern Boy’ as “Castle Sinister”
- a number of these story titles were changed as books).
I have been collecting issues of Modern Boy for
some time in order to build this site and I am adding issues all the time.
If you have any issues of “The Modern Boy” you are
interested in selling – contact me at
Thanks!
VISIT
MY W.E. JOHNS WEB SITES AT
Acknowledgments to “W.E. Johns &
Modern Boy – An Index” published in 1994
By Norman
Wright – which inspired me to collect “The Modern
Boy”
THIS WEB SITE WAS
BUILT DURING APRIL, MAY AND JUNE 2010 AND COMPLETED ON 21st JUNE
2010 – THE 42nd ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH OF W.E. JOHNS
It has been visited
by this many people