When I was a child back in the 1950s, Ginger Meggs was the comic we all read, the staple entertainment of many generations of Aussie kids, generations before, after and today. Along with Don Bradman and Phar Lap, Meggsy (or Ginge) remains an Aussie icon, a working class hero to the masses.

First introduced by the redoubtable James Charles Bancks in a Sydney Sunday Sun comic strip called US FELLERS on the 13th of November, 1921, 'Ginger' was thus named due to the 3-colour printing process; blue, red or yellow, red being the only choice of hair colour! US FELLERS passed into history 18 years later, the comic strip in the Sunbeams section of the paper being renamed GINGER MEGGS.

The first SUNBEAMS ANNUAL appeared in 1924 and would remain an annual event for the next 35 years. These glorious softcover books remain the most desirable of all Aussie comic books, along with those of Fatty Finn and Middy Malone.

Reference: THE GOLDEN YEARS OF GINGER MEGGS 1921-52, edited by John Horgan, introduction by John Ryan, from which the above facts have been taken. Souvenir Press/Brolga Books, 1978; ISBN 09596601 1 9

bc No.20, 1943	bc No.21, 1944
bc No.22, 1945	bc No.23, 1946

Ginger Meggs also appeared in a number of locally published Little Golden Books, two of which appear here.

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If you want to discuss these books, we suggest you join http://gingermeggs.tumblr.com/ .

Any problems or questions? Email John at chiefchook@gmail.com .

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