In the late 1980s, while the rest of the comic book world is losing their shit over things like Watchmen and Maus, my absolute favourite comic in the entire world is Zenith by Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell.
Zenith hits hard, and not just when the title character is punching holes through the chests of super-dimensional Nazis. It's the first time I really take note of who the writer is and make a vow to follow them wherever they go (literally one of the best decisions of my entire life), and I have vivid dreams I had about being a member of Cloud 9. So when I see the ads for the 1990 Annual in the weekly prog and see there is a Zenith story in there, it physically pains me that I can't get a copy.
Of all of these annuals on this list, only two are ever sold in bookstores near me so that I can buy them at the time. I come to almost all of them late, and it's almost a decade before I get the 1990 effort and finally read this lost Zenith story. And it's not really much of a story at all - Peter St John is telepathically attacked and things get very weird - and doesn't even have the glorious art of Steve Yeowell (Jim McCarthy is an excellent artist - I still have a soft spot for Bix Barton - but Yeowell is the only true Zenith artist.)
The rest of this annual is fairly mediocre, with forgettable Dredd and Moonrunners, and the reprint is a godawful Tharg-starring story, but it will always be one of my favourite annuals because of that Zenith connection, because there is always a small part of me that still thinks it is the best comic in the world.
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