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!
