Annuals
In the U.K., a large number of annuals are published shortly before the end of each year by companies such as D. C. Thomson, Egmont (formerly IPC/Fleetway), and Rebellion Developments, aimed at the Christmas market.
These annuals are generally large-sized hardcover books with over 100 pages and a high colour content. They are normally cover-dated with the following year's date to ensure that stockists do not remove them from their shelves immediately after the new year.
For many years until the near-collapse of the British children's comics market, an annual would be published each year for each of the comic titles published by Thomson and IPC/Fleetway, featuring extra adventures of the comic's current and former characters, plus additional material in the form of puzzles, text articles, etc.
Annuals were often even published for comics which had themselves ceased publication or been absorbed into other titles; for example, Scorcher annuals were still being published 10 years after the comic itself had been absorbed into Tiger. Today, this section of the market has been reduced to just a couple of surviving titles.
In addition, annuals are often published centred on sports, toys, currently-popular celebrities, recently released films, and popular TV series. In the period of the 1950s to the 1980s, companies like World Distributors, Brown Watson, and Grandreams were known for publishing annuals based on licensed characters and properties.
British annuals are also published featuring American characters such as Spider-Man, often with simplified content aimed at younger readers.
As tastes in these areas change, so does the line-up of annuals released each year. The increasing emphasis in recent years on annuals of this type (as opposed to the "classic" line-up of annuals based on comics) means that sales remain strong, and, in fact, they doubled between 1998 and 2005.
Some annuals have become extremely collectible, especially The Beano, The Dandy, Rupert and Eagle.