[News] News of November

 Another month is over, so here are some News:

• As shown on the Commonwealth Stamps Opinion blog (#2196), New Zealand issued another philatelic item using this year's Lord of the Rings stamps. It is a souvenir sheet for a philatelic exhibition in conjunction with the Centenary of the Wellington Philatelic Society and uses the $4.30 and $4.50 designs from the set.
• Japan starts 2023 right with a sheet about the Peanuts. Issue date is the 11th January and there are all together ten stamps in this issue.
• A stamp about the Birth Centenary of Angela Giussani was issued in Italy on 10th November. It shows her together with her famous creation, Diabolik.
• The German stamp programme is here and while the themes are known for a year, there are now more information about some of the series. The stamps about the Childhood Heroes will show Pinocchio and Käpt'n Blaubär, while the Superheroes will be Captain Marvel and Iron Man. Those latter two I actually guessed correctly. They follow the same pattern as this year, one has its 60th anniversary (Spider-Man now, Iron Man next year) and the other is featured in a current MCU movie (Black Panther and Captain Marvel). No news are available for the Famous Video Games. You can find the complete list with all issue dates in the page above.
• On 12th January Sweden will issue a set of ten about the 50th anniversary of the pink elephant from the cartoon "Fem myror är fler än fyra elefanter" (Five ants are more than four elephants).

The New Issues of November were the Christmas Pantomimes from Alderney and Guernsey, Angela Giussani from Italy and Lego from Switzerland.

To my own collection I added the Aardman FDC from the United Kingdom and the Donald Duck sheet from the Netherlands. Also I finally got the Naruto stamp from France on a card, which is still not available on WOPA. The Swiss Lego stamps are still travelling. 

[News] News of September and October

Here are the collected News of the last two months, although most of these are actually from October:

• The Isle of Man Post issued on 12th September a set of eight stamps called David Bowie: Actor. One of them shows him as Jareth, The Goblin King, in the 1986 fantasy film Labyrinth. I have still not decided whether I want to add this set to my collection. I think it is a pity that they decided to show only head shots on the stamps.
• Images of the British Aardman stamps, which are already issued and which I really got, can be now found on the Internet. It is a set of eight stamps plus a souvenir sheet of four. 
• The sixth entry in the Japanese series The World of Children's Picture Books, a sheet of ten self-adhesive stamps, shows Bear's School written by Hiroyuki Aihara and illustrated by Nami Adachi. Issue date is the 6th December. 
• Unlike earlier reported the Dutch Kinderpostzegels with Donald Duck were not issued in September, but just on 10th October. 
• The Christmas stamps of Guernsey Post will show pantomimes of Robin Hood (Alderney) and Sleeping Beauty (Guernsey). According to the Commonwealth Stamps Opinion (post 2179) these will most likely be the first stamps with the new royal cypher of King Charles III in the World after the recent passing of the Queen. The issue date will be the 16th November. 
• The Polish Thorgal issue was postponed from October to December. 
• On 29th October Malta Post released a set about the 10th anniversary of the Malta Comic Convention featuring three local comics, "a departure from the more traditional choice of theme" as they write on their website. 
• For Philately Day a souvenir sheet of three stamps was issued in Italy on 28th October. It shows the cartoon characters Armadillo, Lady Cocca and Zerocalcare created by Michele Rech. 
• The next issue plans for 2023 are here. While Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Liechtenstein and Macau do not plan any thematic stamps, Czechia will issue a booklet about Poppy Doll and Butterfly Emanuel and Hungary will continue the series about Fairy Tale and Cartoon Heroes. The incomplete programmes from Finland, Hong Kong and the USA also do not include any issues about childhood heroes, the USA at least however usually adds one/some in the course of the year. 
• Unfortunately the French Naruto is still not available on WOPA.

The New Stamps of September and October were Lego from Austria, the Black Cat Detective from China, Moomins from Finland, Naruto from France, Pumuckl, the Smurfs and Black Panther from Germany, Mazsola és Tádé from Hungary, Goblin King Jareth from the Isle of Man, Philately Day from Italy, Malta Comic Convention from Malta, Donald Duck from the Netherlands, Lord of the Rings from New Zealand and Portugal, Transformers and Aardman Classics from the United Kingdom and the Peanuts from the USA. Busy months for sure!

To my own collection I have added the new issues from Austria, Finland, Germany, New Zealand, Portugal and the United Kingdom, the Aardman stamps and Black Panther are however not yet updated here on the blog. 

[News] News of August

 Here are the News of August and the first days of September:

• The Lord of the Rings set from New Zealand finally has a new release date, which will be the 7th September. Like for last year's set there will be six stamps issued both as single stamps and in souvenir sheets. In the meantime the Portuguese set was issued according to plan on 2nd September. There are four stamps in it plus an additional souvenir sheet. 
• The Slovak Post revealed its stamp programme for 2023 and there are three stamps about childhood themes planned. As every other year there will be a stamp for the Bratislava Biennial of Illustrations. The other two stamps honour authoress Krista Bendová and cartoonist Viktor Kubal for their birth centenaries.
• The British Transformers set was revealed during a thematic fan event. It comprises of eight stamps plus a souvenir sheet with five Dinobots. By now they have already been issued. Surprisingly the set is not aimed at the toys or movies, but depicts comic characters. Most of them are unknown to me, but Optimus Prime, Megatron and Bumblebee are at least among them. Those three also got special fan sheets. 
• Images of the Chinese set about Black Cat Detective can now be found on the Internet. 
• Hungary once again issued on 2nd September a souvenir sheet about Hungarian children's characters. The theme of this year is Mazsola és Tádé, a puppet series running from 1969 to 1973.

The only new issue of August were the Buzz Lightyear stamps from the USA. That however is just the calm before the September storm.

To my own collection I added in August a Sleeping Beauty postmark from Germany, but by now I also already have the new German "Helden der Kindheit".

[News] News of July

 Another month is over so here are some belated News:

• San Marino issued on 12th July a sheet of four stamps about the 60th anniversary of the Italian comic character Diabolik.
• During the French Japan Expo on 15th July it was revealed that the theme of this year's French Jeunesse issue will be Naruto. A few day earlier it was revealed on Twitter that it will be an anime-themed stamp. The issue date of the single stamp will be the 10th October. It seems like this year there will not be an additional booklet. On another note it was already announced that in 2024 there will be an issue about the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d'Angoulême.
• The image of the Austrian Lego stamp can now be seen on the Internet. It shows the Ferriswheel of Vienna as Lego model. Switzerland has now also announced a Lego issue for November consisting of two stamps. 
• On WOPA you can now buy Armenia's latest cartoon stamp. It was issued on 29th July and shows Vin the Penguin.
• Still no news about the Lord of the Rings issue from New Zealand, but as was recently made public New Zealand Post had to withdraw an issue about the Maori Language Petition before the release (see Commonwealth Stamp Opinion #2128). I doubt that there is a similar reason for the LOTR issue. As a reminder last year's set was also postponed. I guess that someone at New Zealand Post decided that it would be better to coincide the issue with the upcoming Amazon series The Rings of Powers just like Portugal's issue.

The New Issues of the month were Vin the Penguin from Armenia, Spider-Man from Germany, Toy Story from Japan, Diabolik from San Marino and by now also Buzz Lightyear from the USA was already issued.

To my own collection I added this month the new Mascots from Singapore, the two Polish issues of this year, Spider-Man (only the mint stamp is yet uploaded), a new Pokemon stamp from Japan and one of the Japanese Toy Story stamps.

[News] News of June

June brought some interesting News and I could not wait to write about them, so here they are:

• I have seen the Polish stamp programme for 2023 and it includes a stamp about Koziołek Matołek in June. This popular Polish comic was first published in 1933, so it celebrates its 90th anniversary next year.
• This year's Dutch Kinderpostzegels can be seen online. They feature Donald Duck together with other popular characters from the franchise like Scrooge McDuck, Chip, Dale, Huey, Dewey and Louie.
• The issue date of the US Peanuts stamps was announced to be the 30th September. In addition also a set of four Buzz Lightyear stamps was revealed with a release date on 3rd August.
• The Lego stamp returned to the Austrian stamp programme. Issue date is now the 16th September and it will be a single national letter rate stamp.
• The Lord of the Rings stamps that were supposed to be released by New Zealand Post on 1st June were not issued yet. Last year the set was announced for 2nd June and released on 1st September, so we might expect the same again, but there are no official news yet.

The only thematic issue of June were the Singapore Mascots.

I have not added much to my collection this month, but I finally uploaded most of the additions of the last months.

[News] News of April and May

Well, once again I have not posted in late April, so I guess every other month will be the new rhythm for my updates. These are the News I have collected since the last update:

• The Portuguese Lord of the Rings now has an issue date. It will be released on 2nd September. I guess like usual there will not be shown anything before the issue date.
• The Lego stamp that appeared in the Austrian stamp programme has now disappeared again.
• USPS will issue a sheet about the Birth Centenary of Charles M. Schulz later this year. The issue consists of a sheet of twenty stamps with ten designs of popular Peanuts characters and a big vignette of Schulz himself. No issue date is known yet.
• The second World Tales stamp from Latvia was not issued as planned on 16th May, but was already issued on 29th April. After the Rundale Castle Rose Ghost in 2021, this one shows Alice in Wonderland. A wonderful issue!
• The French stamp programme for 2023 includes a stamp about Pief le Chien, the programme for 2022 includes another Jeunesse issue, but without further details. 
• Two sheets with ten stamps each about Toy Story will be issued in Japan on 13th July.
• After changing the rhythm from odd to even years the Finnish Post announced a new Moomin set for the 7th September. There will be six stamps like usual and the theme is Moomin ABC to promote reading and writing. 
• The Post of the Isle of Man issued a set about the BBC Centenary of 19th May. There are twelve stamps in total of which Blue Peter and BBC Bitsize can be counted among the children's stamps. Nothing I will add to my collection.
• On 6th December a set of six stamps about the comic character Miss 13 Dots will a issued in Hong Kong.
• An image of the German Spider Man stamp appeared online. It shows the comic character, which actually celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, and not one of the recent movie versions.
• The Polish Kajko and Kokosz issue was released today as planned and is indeed a souvenir sheet.

As mentioned above April and May saw the stamps from Isle of Man, Latvia and Poland, but also Klára Jarunková from Slovakia and Shel Silverstein from the USA.

To my own collection I added a Lotte from Gadgetville stamp from Estonia, Shel Silverstein from the USA and Alice from Latvia. The latter two are however not yet scanned and added to the blog.

[News] News of February and March

After a two-month absence I am back with some News. February and March were busy for me, but also there was not much new information, so I decided not to post last month. Without further ado here however the few news I got:

• The issue date for the US Shel Silverstein stamp was announced to be the 8th April, so next Friday. I read that this stamp sparked a small controversy, as people said that a different book should have been chosen, because it is not said to be his best and apparently can be read as a story of selfish exploitation. I can not judge, as I do not know the book, but I like the stamp and hope to add it to my collection, although I am not very active in philately these days.
• Australian Post issued on 15th March a set of five about Australian Legends of Filmmaking. Among them is George Miller, who is best known for the Mad Max movies, but who has also directed, produced and co-written one of my favourite movies as a child, Happy Feet. 
• The German stamp about Benjamin Blümchen issued in March surprisingly includes the link to the TV show's intro if a scan the dreadful matrix code. Thus the code at least has one positive side effect beside ruining great designs and a useless tracking function.
• An updated version of the Polish stamp programme includes in October a stamp about Thorgal, a Belgian comic series co-created by Polish graphic artist Grzegorz Rosiński that celebrates its 45th anniversary this year.
• In time for the release of Fantastic Beasts 3 a thematic postmark is used in Portugal's capital Lisbon.
• Just this morning I saw that the Austrian stamp programme now includes a stamp about the 90th anniversary of Lego on 2nd September. More information is awaited.

The New Issues of February and March were George Miller from Australia, Nero and Marc Sleen from Belgium and Rumpelstiltskin and Benjamin Blümchen from Germany.

To my own collection I have added a few older stamps on cards and covers, but mainly the new issues from Germany.

[News] News of January

The year is still young, so there are still many countries announcing their stamp issue plans for 2022. January was thus a month full of news. As I am very busy the next time, I am posting already a day early, so without further ado here are the News of January:

• For 2022 two sets are planned about The Lord of the Rings. One will be from New Zealand and one from Portugal. I assume that the set from New Zealand will be similar to last year's issue. The issue date of that one is the 1st June, the Portuguese set has no issue date as of now.
• An image of the German Benjamin Blümchen stamp became available. It shows the famous elephant on a white background with flowers. Although I still do not like the matrixcode, this issue is one of my personal highlights for 2022.
• The Latvian issue plan was updated with issue dates and the second stamp in the World Tales series started in 2021 is announced for the 16th May.
• When the British programme was announced, like usual it included some TBA issues. Through other channels however it was revealed that those are the Jubilee of Queen, Transformers (1st September) and Aardman (10th October). Not sure what we should think about the Transformers issue, but Aardman is surely something to look forward to.
• USPS announced some more stamps for the year. Among them is a single stamp about Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree. No issue date was announced yet.
• The Slovenian stamp about Ela Peroci was issued a few days ago and the image was shown some days earlier. Next to a portrait of the authoress it shows an illustration from her most famous book, Muca Copatarica (Slipper Keeper Kitty) illustrated by Ančka Gošnik Godec.
• Singapore announced another set about Singapore Mascots. Planned issue date is in June, but let's see if it will be issued on time this year (as a reminder: the first set in 2020 was postponed from April to August due to Covid-19).
• The Armenian programme includes a single stamp about Cartoons in the second quarter. In recent years always two stamps about this theme were issued, so I assume that another one will be announced (or rather issued without announcement) later.
• Images of the first EUROPA stamps of 2022 became available. I like the stamps from Liechtenstein, but of the ones shown yet I would only consider the Russian stamp for this part of my thematic collection. As I said before, I will not mention all of them here and will also not try to collect all. The EUROPA Stamp Blog however does a great job in also including short summaries of the depicted tales. Go check it out!

The only new issue of the month is the Ela Peroci stamp from Slovenia.

I did not got any new stamps for my collection this month, but I have uploaded the LOTR stamps from New Zealand that I got in late December.

[News] 2021 in Review, Outlook of 2022 and the News of December

2021 is over soon and I am not sad about it. The year went by so quick, but had many annoying aspects. Strange to realize that this is already the second time that I write a post like this here on the blog. It seems so long ago that I started this blog back in March 2020. Nonetheless let's look back at the last year and forward to the next.

On the page above I still try to list all new issues about childhood heroes. According to my list 26 postal administrations issued 244 of these stamps in 44 issues in 2021. Last year 27 postal administrations issued 199 stamps in 41 issues. Once again I already got nearly all of the stamps I was hoping to get. Only Mafalda from Italy and the Little Prince from Serbia I am still missing. Among the featured childhood heroes were many that had already appeared on other stamps before this year, but the year also saw some first philatelic appearances. The Secret Garden, Goldorak, Bibi & Tina and many Star Wars Droids, DC characters and Pokemon were among these. 

Also I have once again created my list of favourite stamps of the year and these thematic stamps were able to take places among them:

1. Pokemon (Japan)

2. Star Wars Droids (USA)

4. Mother Hulda (Germany)

9. 400th Birth Anniversary of Jean de La Fontaine (France)

17. Goldorak (France)

19. Sendung mit der Maus (Germany)

You can see the complete list here.

For 2022 eleven countries already announced 15 issues about Childhood Heroes on Stamps, which is roughly the same amount as last year at this time, so I am sure that many more will follow in the course of the year. In the next year the theme of the EUROPA stamps will be Stories and Myths. Some of them might include children's characters, but the ones I have seen so far do not. Of the already announced issues I am especially looking forward to Rumpelstilskin and Benjamin Blümchen from Germany. The complete list you can find above. If you know of any other issue please post a comment.

The New Stamps of December were a Comic Book souvenir sheet from Bosnia and Herzegovina - Republic of Srpska, Bibi & Tina and Die drei ??? from the German series Helden der Kindheit and Demon Slayer and Peter Rabbit from Japan.

During this last month of 2021 I added some more stamps to my collection. These were the new set from Germany, a Demon Slayer stamp, the US Simpsons on covers and two postal cards about Classic Comic Strips.

Wishing all readers here A Happy New Year!

[News] News of November

November did not give us much news, but information for stamps from three years, 2021, 2022 and 2023. These are the news of the month:

• On 9th November Spain issued a sheet of six-times the same stamp about the popular video game League of Legends. I am rather sure that this is the first time that the game appears on a stamp.
• The Czech Post issued on 10th November a single stamp about Kája Saudek's comic Muriel and Angels. 
• The Slovenian stamp programme for 2022 includes a single stamp about Ela Peroci on 28th January. According to Wikipedia her book Muca Copatarica (Slipper Keeper Kitty) was still among the ten most popular children's books in Slovenia in 2019. It can easily be bought in a German translation and so I guess in English as well.
• China continues its series of cartoon stamps with five stamps about Black Cat Detective. The planned issue date is the 3rd September 2022.
• After the themes became already available last months, now you can also find images of the Belgian stamps of 2022 online. The issue of Marc Sleen and Nero unfortunately has a very strange format. Unlike recent issues there will not be five different stamps twice in a sheet, but two different stamps five times in the sheet. The image on the sheet shows many characters from the comics having a banquet and the two stamps reuse Nero and Marc Sleen from this larger image.
• The German Ministry of Finance published both the programme for 2022 with issue dates and face values (which however are all wrong, as they are not updated to an upcoming increase) as well as the themes for 2023. The Rumpelstiltskin Welfare stamps and Benjamin Blümchen will be issued, as expected, in February and March respectively. Spider Man will follow in July, the "Helden der Kindheit" (Pumuckl and Smurfs) will already be issued in September and Black Panther will be issued in Oktober. The issue of Video Games disappered from the programme. As was already known, the theme of the Welfare stamps in 2023 will be Hans in Luck. There will also be single stamps about the Centenaries of the author Ottfried Preußler and the Walt Disney Company and new additions to the series "Helden der Kindheit" (two), Video Games (one) and Super Heroes (two). More information about these can be expected later, especially whether the Video Games will be issued at all. The series "Sagenhaftes Deutschland" is not continued. Finally the three Youth Stamps will show the Mainzelmännchen.
• More countries recently published their stamp programmes for the next year, but do not include any stamps about Childhood Heroes. These include Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the USA. The USA however will, I guess, add an issue later on as they been done in the last years. The programme from the UK is still awaited, but they usually include one, two or three thematic sets. Finland should issue a new Moomin set next year, but no news from there, and Guernsey and Hong Kong might issue thematic set in the second half of 2022. From New Zealand might come a set about the 20th anniversary of The Two Towers, but also here I have seen no programme yet. France included a "Jeunesse" in its programme, but no concrete theme is known. All in all it will for sure be another interesting year.

The New Issues of the month are Kája Saudek's Muriel and Angels from the Czech Republic, Shirokuma-chan no hotto kaki from Japan and League of Legends from Spain.

This has been a good month for my collection. It began with the Nibelungs and the US Simpsons stamps on matching cards, the recent Goldorak and Fairy Tale issues from France followed and also I got two more Star Wars covers. The biggest batch of new stamps however comes from a stamp order from an online stamp dealer. I bought the Japanese Pokemon sheets in mint condition and also some older stamps I had been looking for. The stamps are all included here in the blog, but you can see them better on my stamp blog.

[News] News of October

Another month is over, so here are the News of October:

• The English version of the Korean stamp website I usually use was updated and the names of the four children's books in the Philately Week set are given as The Story of Baekdu Mountain by Ryu Jae-su, Half Past Four by Yun Seok-jung, Manhee's Home by Kwon Yoon-duck and Children of the Dong River by Kim Jae-hong.
• The Dutch stamps about Tom Poes that I first mentioned in August were issued this month. The issue date was the 11th October.
• Compared to earlier years Japan Post issued rather few stamps about childhood characters in 2020 (only two issues) and it seemed at first as 2021 would not be much better, but after I already mentioned the Shirokuma-chan no hotto kaki stamps planned for the 26th November, two more issues were now announced for December. For the 10th December a sheet of ten stamps about Peter Rabbit is planned. The issue is said to celebrate the 120th anniversary of the first publication of the story in 2022. Not sure why they could not wait a month to issue the set in the right year of the jubilee. The other issue was announced later, but will already be issued on 6th December. This one will honour the anime-adapted manga Demon Slayer and will consist of a rather uncommon sheet of 15 stamps.
• Just announced this month, but already issued a few days ago, was the Christmas stamp set of the Isle of Man which shows Thomas the Tank. There are six stamps in the issue, available as single stamps, in a souvenir sheet and as variable value stamps (I think the values are variable, but online you can only get them with fixed value). There had been other better Thomas the Tank stamp issues before, but as I do not have any of those, I might buy this set. The issue date was the 27th October.
• I love this time of the year when all the countries start to publish their stamp programmes for the next year. In the programmes from Belgium, Hungary and Ukraine I found some thematic stamps. Hopefully some announcements will follow soon.
• Belgium plans for the 21st March an issue about the 100th birthday of Marc Sleen and the 75th anniversary of his character Nero. I guess this will again be a sheet of ten with twice five different stamps.
• Again for the 2nd September Hungary announced the fourth issue in the Cartoon and Fairy Tale Character series. Maybe it will this year be something also known outside of Hungary.
• Ukraine announced an issue called "A fairy-tale world in illustrations by Ukrainian artists". No issue date was yet mentioned, but there will be two stamps.

The issues of the month are Goldorak from France, Heinzelmännchen and Nibelungen from Germany, Thomas the Tank from the Isle of Man, World Tales from Latvia, Tom Poes from the Netherlands and the Philately Week issue from South Korea.

This was a good month for my collection. In mint condition I got the Jean de la Fontaine stamp from Monaco, the Strong Women of Comics from Belgium, the DC Comics from the UK and already the new issues from Germany, Latvia and the Netherlands. The new stamps from Germany I already got on matching cards as well and also new special postmarks about Mother Hulda and Die Sendung mit der Maus. From Japan I got yet another Pokemon card with matching stamp.

[News] News of September

Another month is over, so it is time to collect the News of September. I was busy this month and thus not sure if I have seen everything, but here is what I found:

• Hungary issued on 2nd September its annual cartoon souvenir sheet and this year they only revealed the name of the cartoon on issue date. It is called Kukori and Kotkoda, but I doubt that anyone outside Hungary knows this one.
• Double News from Latvia: Tomorrow the stamp about World Tales will be issued and yesterday it was finally revealed which tale will be honoured. It will be the Rundale Castle Rose Ghost, a picture book by Andrejs Viksna and illustrated by Anita Paegle, who had earlier already designed some stamps for Latvia Post. I was not able yet to find out whether this is an actual fairy tale or one invented for the book, but although it find it strange to call a Latvian story a World Tale, this is definitely a cute little issue. Earlier this month the issue plan for 2022 was published and it includes another issue about World Tales. It will be interesting to see whether that one will be a truely worldwide story or another Latvian one.
• Like last year South Korea will honour four picture books for Philately Week on 25th October. The translated names of the books do not lead to any Google results, so I will have to wait until next month when hopefully the English website was updated.
• Also Japan will honour another picture book in its annual series The World of Children's Picture Books. This will already be the fifth issue in the series, which earlier honoured such famous characters as The Little Prince or the Very Hungry Caterpillar. This year's character looks oddly familiar, but it seems that the book was not yet translated. The book is Shirokuma-chan no hotto kaki by Ken Wakayama and deals with a bear and pancakes. The issue date is the 26th November.
• Yesterday the Italian Post finally confirmed (by issuing it) that the Mafalda stamp actually shows the comic by Quino. In addition to the single stamp the issue also includes two labels and honestly the images on the labels are better than the one on the stamp, but nontheless this is a very nice issue. 
• Today on the last day of September the Portuguese Post issued the next edition of its series Figuras Mundiais da História e da Cultura (Global Figures of History and Culture). Two stamps were issued showing Jean de La Fontaine and Marcel Proust. 
• Also today the images of the German December stamps were revealed, so those of Bibi and Tina and The Three Question Marks. Unfortunately both will get the awful matrixcode like all stamps will get it next year.
• I was just going to write that the Bulgarian issue about Jean de La Fontaine was most likely cancelled, but checked again and saw that it was indeed issued on 23rd September. Like planned and originally announced for July it is a souvenir sheet with one stamp.

This was a month full of New Issues: the Secret Garden from Alderney, Ginger Meggs from Australia, Jean de La Fontaine from Bulgaria, Fairy Tales from France, Feel 100% from Hong Kong, Kukori and Kotkoda from Hungary, Mafalda from Italy, Lord of the Rings from New Zealand, Jean de La Fontaine from Portugal, the Bratislava Biennial of Illustrations from Slovakia and the DC Comics from the United Kingdom. I think that makes September the month with the highest number of issues this year.

To my own collection I have not added so much. Of the New Issues so far I only have the Secret Garden from Alderney and when ordering from Alderney I also bought the Peter Pan souvenir sheet of 2010. I have also ordered and received the Strong Women of Comics from Belgium and Jean de La Fontaine from Monaco, but have not scanned and uploaded those yet. Also I got another Pokemon stamp from Japan on a matching card. I really need to find those in mint condition soon.

[News] News of August

Another month is over, so it is time for the News of August. Here they are in the order in which I got them:

• The images of the new Lord of the Rings stamps from New Zealand are now available. There will be six stamps with scenes from the first movie, which will be issued as single stamps and in souvenir sheets. Issue date is tomorrow.
• In Germany a new special postmark about Die Sendung mit der Maus will be used in Herford in mid-September. Apart from the official First Day Special Postmarks this will be the first postmark for this issue. Usually there is a postmark nearer to the issue date, but probably due to Covid-19 there was none in March.
• A special postmark and a set of official personalised stamps about Game of Thrones were issued in Portugal this month. I do not collect personalised stamps, but such an issue had hinted at a real issue coming soon in similar cases in the past.
• Apart from a deluge of official personalised stamp packs (Animalia, Mr Men and Little Miss, Monsters, Flintstones, Peanuts, Top Gun, Batman), which I usually not even mention, Australia Post announced a set of three stamps plus souvenir sheet about the Centenary of Ginger Meggs on 7th September. Additionally there will also be available a "limited edition book" with a "cover design exclusive to Australia Post, with perforation effect" (the book with normal cover can be bought from usual book sellers) that also includes a "limited-edition cover with stamp and gold-foiled postmark and exclusive block of four stamps". For everyone who likes the character this is not such a bad deal. This special version of the book is not more expensive than the usual one if you subtract the cover and mint stamps. 
• The images of the Legendary Germany stamps planned for October are now online. Also the stamp programme of 2022 was updated. The issue about Pettson and Findus was cancelled and instead there will now be a stamp about Pumuckl. Black Panther and Spiderman were revealed to be the first issues in the new sereies about Superheroes. However there are still no news about the Famous Videogames stamp.
• At first I heard the rumour that there will be DC Comic stamps from Royal Mail next month and yesterday Commonwealth Stamps Opinion showed the images. The issue however is rather a disappointment. There will be a souvenir sheet of six stamps showing Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Flash, Cyborg, Aquaman, Supergirl and Shazam and additional twelve stamps showing characters from the Batman comics in particular (Nightwing, Alfred, Batgirl, Batwoman, The Penguin, Catwoman, Harley Quinn, The Joker, Batman again, Robin, The Riddler, Poison Ivy). Not sure who decided to crowd all the good characters on the souvenir sheet, while all those often lesser known characters are featured on the single stamps. Also there seems to be no reason to issue this set now.
• An image of the French Goldorak issue is now online. It will be a souvenir sheet of two stamps and so far it seems like there will not be an additional booklet.
• This year's Kinderpostzegels from the Netherlands will feature characters from the Tom Poes comics. This is a nice issue
• Another month has passed and there are still no news about the La Fontaine issue from Bulgaria. I believe that it was cancelled, but on the other hand no stamps were issued in Bulgaria since early July, so maybe there is a different problem.

As far as I know only the Chinese Nezha stamps and the expensive Japanese Pokemon box were issued this month. September will be a much better month.

Also to my own collection I have not added much in August. I only got the German special postmark about Max and Moritz on two covers and another Pokemon stamp from Japan.

[News] News of July

July was a month full of news. Here is what I have collected:

• San Marino published a glimpse of its stamp programme for 2022 and it includes an issue about the 60th anniversary of the popular Italian comic Diabolik. An Italian issue about this theme can maybe expected as well.
• The images of the French Fairy Tale stamps planned for September can now be seen online. It will be a booklet of twelve stamps and the featured fairy tales are Little Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots, Hop-o'-My-Thumb, the Town Musicians of Bremen, Thumbelina, the Ugly Duckling, Aladdin, Donkeyskin, Bluebeard, Sleeping Beauty, The Princess and the Pea and Cinderella. The issue will thus include fairy tales by Charles Perrault, Hans Christian Andersen and the Grimm Brothers.
• Images of Alderney's Secret Garden issue can be found as well online. 
• Serbia surprisingly issued a new Childhood Hero stamp. An issue about the Francophonie shows the Little Prince. 
• Japan announced a new Posukuma issue for September, but like usual I do not include this character in my listings.
• In Germany a new special postmark about the 150th anniversary of the publication Max und Moritz in the USA was announced. The postmark date is the 1st August and I really hope that the postmark will not be cancelled like so many German postmarks recently. 
• From China come the images of the upcoming Nezha issue. Like with the Monkey King and Calabash Brothers this will be a set of six. I do not know Nezha, but I am tempted to get this set.
• New Zealand Post finally updated its issue programme and the new issue date for the Lord of the Rings stamps, now called The Fellowship of the Ring 20th Anniversary, is the 1st September. 
• July has passed and there are no news of Bulgaria's La Fontaine stamps, so this was either cancelled or postponed.
• Last but not least, the image of the stamp for the Bratislava Biennial of Illustrations can now be seen on the Slovakian Post website. It shows an illustration of Hassan Moosavi's Boxer, which won the Grand Prix in 2019.

The new issues of July were Dennis and Gnasher from the UK, Pokemon from Japan, Jean de La Fontaine from France and the Little Prince from Serbia.

For me July was philatelically under the banner of the new Pokemon stamps from Japan and I already got some great pieces. Such a wonderful issue! From the new issues I also already got the La Fontaine sheet from France and also bought two older German stamps I was missing, Faust and Astrid Lindgren. From the USA I got a spectacular special postmark about Conan the Barbarian.

If you know anything else please post a comment!

[News] News of June

Another month is over, so it is time for the next update about Childhood Heroes on Stamps. Can you believe that the first half of 2021 is already over? Here are the news collected this month:

• On 1st June Armenia issued another cartoon stamp, which like usual you can buy on WOPA. The theme is Lazy Huri.
• So far there are still no news about the Lord of the Rings issue from New Zealand. It was originally announced for the 2nd June, but it was not issued then, although the stamp issue calendar on the New Zealand Post website still lists it there. Not sure if it was cancelled or just postponed.
• Tomorrow Royal Mail will issue a set about Dennis and Gnasher, which will consist of six stamps and a souvenir sheet of four. At this moment you can still not buy the stamps in the online shop, but you can easily find the images online (e.g. on the Commonwealth Stamps Opinion blog).
• The July/August issue of the French Philinfo includes the stamp programme for the rest of the year and lists the Goldorak issue for the 8th October, but adds a disclaimer that the issue date might change. No information about the format of the issue was given, but it seems like there will not be an additional booklet. The programme also includes another thematic issue. A Carnet "Contes merveilleux" (Booklet "Fairy Tales") is planned for the 3rd September.
• Italy also updated its stamp programme and finally the Mafalda stamp got an issue date. It is planned for the 29th September.

The New Issues of the month are the Armenian cartoon stamp mentioned above, the Czech souvenir sheet about Kater Mikesch and the French Booklet about the Little Prince.

Earlier this month I finally added all the Star Wars Droids collectibles I already got to this blog. Check them out! I have already got all the stamps mint, on FDCs and on covers. Now I am trying to get them on Star Wars cards as well. Two such cards I already got this month. Also this month I got the French Raving Rabbids stamp of the last year on a matching postcard.

If you know of anything else not listed here or above in the complete list please post a comment!

[News] News of May

 Another month is over, so here are the News of May:

• The most important news first: Japan will issue Pokemon stamps in July! This is something I had been waiting for for years. On 7th July two sheets will be issued with ten stamps each. One sheet reproduces cards of the Trading Card Game, while the other uses great illustrations of various Pokemon. On 25th August another collector's item will be issued. This will be a box including a third sheet of ten stamps as well as real trading cards. Especially the box also generated an interest beyond the stamp collector community in the Pokemon fan community. I am not really sure whether these stamps commemorate the recent 25th anniversary of Pokemon or are a way to catch in the current hype of trading cards. Maybe it is both. More than 50 different Pokemon will appear on the three sheets and for most it will be the first time on a stamp. By far the most featured Pokemon are from the first generation followed by the eight and the fourth. Five Pokemon from the second generation will appear on the stamps, three from the fifth, two each from the third and the seventh and none from the sixth. I am really looking forward to these!
• An image of the upcoming Jean de la Fontaine stamps from France became available as well. The issue will take the form of a souvenir sheet with two stamps. The main part of the sheet as well as one of the stamps shows a view near Fontaine's home where a few of his fables can be discovered. The second stamp shows an illustration of the fable "The Frog and the Ox". Another great issue from France!
• In the meantime the Exupery sheet I already mentioned twice was shown. It is one of those many French issues reproducing old stamp issues, so in this case one of Exupery. This I doubt is of real interest for collectors of children's book stamps.
• The rest of Hong Kong's stamp programme is here and an issue in September honours Feel 100%, "an original Hong Kong comic, [which] acquired international fame for winning the Second International Manga Award by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan in 2008 [and which] had been adapted into movies and television drama that were popular among the younger generation of the time". Six stamps and two souvenir sheets will be issued.
• The Slovakian programme for 2022 includes a stamp about children's book author Klára Jarunková.
• Jersey issued its next set about decades, the 1990s this time, and the sheet includes the text "First Harry Potter Book is Published" for 1997. Worth a mention, but not worth a buy.
• As of today there are still no news about the Lord of the Rings stamps announced by New Zealand Post for the 2nd June, the day after tomorrow.
• And finally the whole sheet about Kater Mikesch from Czechia can now be seen on the website of the Czech Post. The stamp itself is cute, but the rest of the sheet is a bit boring. Issue date is the 23rd June.

The new issues of May were the Star Wars Droids from the USA and Jean de la Fontaine from Monaco.

The Star Wars Droids I already added to my collection mint, on FDCs, on covers and four already on postcards, but so far I did not managed to upload them here. I will however do so soon. Also I got some older US comic stamps together with the droids on covers. Also those I will upload later.

[News] News of April

Unlike the last months April was a month full of news. Here they are:

• This week finally the new Star Wars Droids stamps of USPS will be issued. Perfectly in time for Star Wars Day you can join the virtual dedication cerenomy on Facebook and Twitter. It will take place on Tuesday, May the 4th, 11 am EST. More information you can find here.
• Armenia issued a stamp about the Cartoon Kikos on 21st April. You can buy it on WOPA.
• On 25th May Monaco will issue four single stamps about author anniversaries. One of them deals with the 400th birth anniversary of Jean de la Fontaine and shows a portrait of the author next to an illustration of the fable The Fox and the Crow.
• The first image of the Czech stamp about Kater Mikesch became available. However it is just an image of a single stamp, while a souvenir sheet was promised. The image of the whole sheet will most likely be available by the end of May. 
• In last month's news I mentioned the "Bloc Saint-Exupéry (spécial salon)" and a "Carnet 'Le Petit Prince 75 ans'" planned in France in June. The images of the Carnet are now available and it is indeed a booklet of twelve stamps. Issue date is the 21st June.
• In January I wrote about an issue from Alderney that was listed as TBC online, but as Lorax in the printed bulletin. The issue was apparently changed and is now listed as Secret Garden online.
• Finland revealed its stamp programme of the rest of the year and unfortunately it does not include a new Moomin set. 
• Poland already revealed its stamp programme for 2022, which includes an issue about Kajko and Kokosz.
• The German stamp programme for 2022 was revealed months ago and now there is the first update. Originally it included Benjamin Blümchen and the Smurfs as Helden der Kindheit and Pettson and Findus as single stamp. Now Benjamin Blümchen is listed as single stamp and Pettson and Findus are now probably included in the Helden der Kindheit. I like this change, as the single stamp is usually issued in March, while the Helden der Kindheit are just issued in December, so nine months less to wait for Benjamin Blümchen, my most anticipated stamp for 2022 at this point.

The News Issues of April 2021 were Kikos from Armenia, the single stamp about The Little Prince from France and Classic Science Fiction from the United Kingdom.

My only New Addition in my collection of Childhood Heroes on Stamps this month was The Little Prince in mint condition. I also got the Classic Science Fiction, but decided to include them in my general collection and not in this topical collection.

[News] News of March

What happened to March? I can not believe that the month flew by so fast, but again this was a month without much news. Here they are:

• The issue date for the Star Wars Droids stamps from USPS was revealed to be the 4th May, Star Wars Day. Really looking forward to this issue!
• Just shown this month, but already issued were the King Arthur stamps from the United Kingdom. Ten stamps were issued that all show different scenes from the Arthurian Legend. The designs are nice and modern, but I am not sure yet if I want to add the whole set to my collection.
• You can now also find the images of Royal Mail's Classic Science Fiction set online (e.g. Commonwealth Stamps Opinion or British First Day Covers). The featured works are Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham, Brave New World by Aldous Huyley, Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke and Shikasta by Doris Lessing. Again the stamps are nicely designed, but in my opinion there should have been more stamps in this set, as some famous works are unfortunately missing. Unfortunately also due to high face values the set is rather expensive.
• Spain's most recent issue in the series Graphic Humour shows an illustration of Little Red Riding Hood by Mikel Urmeneta. It is a souvenir sheet and was already issued.
• The April edition of the French Philinfo includes a slightly updated issue programme for the first half of 2021. Beside the single issue about the Little Prince planned for April, it now also includes a "Bloc Saint-Exupéry (spécial salon)" and a "Carnet 'Le Petit Prince 75 ans'" in June. The "carnet" should be such a booklet of twelve stamps like it had been issued for Asterix in 2019 and the Raving Rabbids in 2020. About the other issue I am not sure what it will be. I will add both to the list above as soon as I have seen images.

The new issues of March 2021 are the Sendung mit der Maus from Germany, Jean de la Fontaine from Hungary, Little Red Riding Hood from Spain and King Arthur from the United Kingdom.

To my own collection I only added during this month the new issue from Germany in mint condition, as First Day Sheet and Erinnerungsblatt and on matching cards with special postmarks.

[News] News of February

During February I did not see much news. Maybe it was because I was too busy and overlooked something or because not much was published. This is everything I found:

• The image of the French stamp about the Little Prince that will be issued in April became available. It is a single stamp and as far as I can see it is the first time that this particular illustration appears on a stamp. But I might be wrong. Just recently I actually discovered that there was a Little Prince stamp in Israel in the 1990s.
• The popular German children's TV show Die Sendung mit der Maus turns 50 this year and is honoured with a stamp. This stamp was actually featured in yesterday's episode. If you speak German this is interesting to see, as it is shown how the stamp is produced. Also this is one of so far five stamps with the new Matrixcode, which enables a rudimentary tracking function and also gives information about the motive.
• I am now on Twitter (@dustin15collect). So far I have not posted much, but you can see the upcoming Little Prince and Star Wars stamps there. Also if you did not know, I am on Instagram as well (@dustin15_collections), where I often show things from my collection.

Only new issue of February were the Mother Hulda stamps from Germany.

To my own collection I added this month Mother Hulda in mint condition and on matching cards as well as the Open-air Bath stamp of last year on a matching Spongebob postcard. As today is already the 1st March, I was able to buy the stamp about the Sendung mit der Maus in mint condition, on a First Day Sheet and in an Erinnerungsblatt. Matching cards I will prepare tomorrow to get the special postmarks. I like this stamp and I guess it will be popular also among non-collectors.

[News] News of January

I love that time of the year, when the postal administrations publish their stamp plans for the next/new year. One month ago I wrote that for 2021 nine countries already announced 15 issues about Childhood Heroes on Stamps. Now we are at 22 issues from 14 countries. I am sure many more will follow, but for the moment these are the news for January:

• The first new information still regards 2020. Like it was common in recent years Armenia issued many new stamps in the last days of the year. Among them issued on 24th December was one about the cartoon "In blue sea, in white foam...". Personally I am not interested, but for everyone who is it become available on WOPA early this year for €0.30.
• On 5th January Royal Mail published its stamp plan for 2021. While I was not really interested in the stamps of 2020, this year includes some interesting issues. For a collection of chilhood hero stamps the most interesting issues should be King Arthur in March and Dennis and Gnasher in July, but personally I am most looking forward to Classic Science Fiction in April. I wonder which stories they will choose.
• Bulgaria will join France and Hungary with a stamp about Jean de la Fontaine for his 400th birth anniversary. A souvenir sheet is planned for July.
• The programme of New Zealand Post just became available on Friday, but it includes a very interesting issue. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the first Lord of the Rings movie, which will be honoured with an issue in June. After four sets about the original movies, three about the Hobbit and one souvenir sheet showing the Ring, this will be New Zealand's ninth philatelic trip to Middle Earth (if I did not overlook an issue).
• The German stamp themes for 2021 were published in December 2019 (yes, 2019), the plan with issue dates and face values is available since December and early this year the images for the January to March issues became available. These include Mother Hulda and Die Sendung mit der Maus. I really like both issues, although the Maus will get a "Matrixcode". I will write more about that on either with the News of February or March.
• The stamp programme of Guernsey Post on their website still has an TBC issue for Alderney in June. The printed version however reveals that this issue with commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Lorax. Sounds interesting, but I am still not sure about the connection between Dr Seuss and Guernsey.
• The biggest announcement of the month comes from the USA. Surprisingly they will issue a set of ten stamps about Star Wars Droids in spring to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Lucasfilm and their commitment to STEM learning. Well, I love that issue! Currently this might actually be my favourite issue to look forward to this year. I think the selection the wonderful and it is great to see newer characters like Solo's L3-37, Rebels' Chopper and Mandalorian's IG-11 beside obvious choices like R2-D2, C-3PO and BB-8. The only thing that might have been even better in my opinion, would have benn to have either R2-D2 or C-3PO in Clone Wars style.
• Italy plans for this year a stamp about "Mafalda". I really hope that they mean the comic, although I first did not saw a connection between Quino and Italy. Although a bit of research revealed that there is one. During the time of the military dictatorship in Argentina, Quino left his homeland and lived in exile in Milan. This exile began 45 years ago in 1976 and as Quino died last year, I think there are enough reasons for a Mafalda stamp.

Many news this month, but not many new issues. January 2021 only saw the issuance of the Strong Women in Comics from Belgium and the Moomins from Japan.

Two of the twenty Moomin stamps I have already added to my collection with special postmarks on matching stamps. Also this month I got the last two US Harry Potter stamps on a cover and the Portuguese Justice League stamps in mint condition.