JEM: THE ANNUAL 1988
1988 was the second and last Jem annual - and, logically, it was
also the Glitter and Gold annual, featuring Jem in full regalia
on the front cover. There were several characters and actually
issued items featured in this year's annual - read on to
discover more :D
THE MANY FACES OF JEM (plus RIO)
Jem (or Jerrica) appear in the book wearing many of their original
outfits, but the ones that appear most are the Glitter and Gold
and Flash and Sizzle outfits. These too seem fairly accurate to
me.
Jem as 'Flash and
Sizzle' Jem. The outfit matches the Hasbro produced one, right
down to the whiteish tights and yellow shoes. You can even see the
irridescent part of the skirt and the frill around the top. The
only thing I can spot is that her shoes are not as neon yellow in
colour as they should be, and are not scalloped. Far as I can
tell, she even has her mic! Flash and Sizzle 'Jerrica' also
appears fairly often in the annual...here's a charming pic of her
with Rio, who just happens to be dressed in his first edition
outfit. He appears quite often throughout the book dressed in that
- you'd think he'd manage to change his clothes once in a while!
Ironic too, since he doesnt wear this at any point during the
first annual!
One of the odd things to note is that there is never a Glitter
and Gold Jerrica form shown anywhere in the annual. I don't know a
lot about G&G Jem, but I was led to believe that she does have
a Jerrica form. However, Flash and Sizzle Jerrica in the annual
generally 'morphs' into Glitter and Gold Jem - see below
. This is also one of Synergy's only two
appearances in the annual. One key reason I think she wasn't sold
here is because her outfit is roughly based on that of the TV show
Synergy and not the doll. And also, she's drawn so hideous!
Glitter and Gold's outfit is fairly accurate also in the book and
appears fairly often, including on the
front cover.
Flash and Sizzle Jerrica also seems to morph into Rock and Curl
Jem. Rock and Curl Jem appears once in the annual - perhaps twice.
The outfit is fairly accurate, and she WAS sold here :)
And of course, what annual would be complete without the good old
original first edition Jem, to remind kids what they asked Mum and
Dad for for Christmas last year :) Though she only appears in a
couple of places in either first edition outfit, I think it's
fairly obvious that the first edition of Jem was sold in the UK
the year before (1987 itself, in fact). I know that many first
edition Jem dolls have been found in the UK, also :) Though
Jerrica's belt has something on it which the real belt doesn't
have, both depictions seem fairly accurate to me. Jerrica is even
wearing the right shoes!
And just in case you were wondering,
yes, Glitter and Gold Rio does make an appearance in this book,
too. Not quite as liberally as his femme fatale, but he's there a
fair bit. This is a touching scene taken from one of the cartoon
strip stories where Rio uses a jet pack (!!!) to save Jem from a
blimp and Jem distracts a bunch of display planes with a
holographic UFO. Nice to see that they haven't lost their grip on
reality, then!
THE MISFITS
The Misfits are an ugly bunch in the annual, it has to be said.
Stormer becomes positively evil! There is only one vaguely
attractive shot of her throughout the whole book. Only Clash looks
halfway decent. Of course, mustn't forget that Jetta plays
absolutely NO part in this book WHATSOEVER.
Here's a nice cosy shot
of the Misfits with Eric Raymond. Stormer's hair is drawn as
extremely curly, which is another reason I think that the tiny
curled version was the one sold in the UK. The outfits are pretty
accurate too. Clash has her headset and tights and bracelets (no
cymbals) and dress and jacket, though the dress is shown as black.
Though you can't see it in this pic, she is also shown later with
her distortion modulator (in fact in one story she uses it!)
and her belt- see second picture. Stormer's top seems to have grown
claws at the back, which is a bit odd, but forgiveable ^_^. Roxy's
trousers - noone can draw Roxy's trousers, but it isnt a bad shot
at it. Pizzazz's outfit is exact and Roxy's belt is close, only
her stickers are in the wrong place.
Less said about Eric the better.
Oh, you wanna know about the dog? <grins> Eric is
remembering at this point a time when the Misfits did a dog food
commercial, and the dog howled through their song...and Pizzazz is
reminding Eric that the food tasted awful, and that the director
should know since she made him eat a whole can. Gotta love the
Misfits :)
JEM WEAR
I have only found a few examples of actual Jem/Misfit wear in the
books I have that isn't clothing sold on the dolls themselves.
First is Jem, who wears the jacket to Sophisticated Lady (there
isn't enough of the rest of her to see if she's wearing the whole
outfit, but I assume she must be) and then there is Pizzazz, who
wears Just Misbehavin'. However, though Jem's jacket matches the
one I have for that outfit, I'm kinda concerned about Pizzazz's
outfit. Somehow the jacket and skirt have gone rather purple, as
opposed to black, and she doesn't seem to have any tights, either.
Still, the outfit is recognisable. I'd guess both outfits were
almost definitely part of the UK line. Of course there is also the
Kimber=Electric Chords thing, see above.
.
This however is where things get weird. There have been no
indications in my research that second year flips came out here.
However, here we have a nice picture of arguably the rarest of all
the Flipsides - complete in both parts bar Jerrica's shades. This
is Runnin' Like The Wind, and it's inclusion in the annual makes
me really wonder about second year flips and the UK.
Does anyone have any info they can share with me on this??
And for a bit of fun...who do you
suppose this is?
Give up?
It's Zipper!
Yes, really.
Obviously noone gave the illustrators a proper pic of him to work
from :P
But wait, maybe I can explain it...according to the story he
claims his mother was a great white shark and his father was an
electric eel. Interesting ideas these books can throw up!