UK G1 comics question

Okay, so I recently purchased some eComics of the original UK comic run. I have a few questions, that once answered, I'll put in this post to make it easy for anyone else with the same questions to find them.

First, is it normal to have some black and white pages mixed with color pages? For example, I was looking at issue #10 "Man of Iron". Some pages would be b&w, then the next page color. It was so random. Is this the way the original comic was or do I have defective scans?

Second, where do the annuals and other non-numbered stories and such go in the run? I'd like to read everything in order, but I'm not sure which issues to read the annuals or action force crossovers after. Plus, are there any other non-numbered stories besides annuals and action force that I need to work in?

Thanks ahead of time for any and all answers.

Click My Sig For My Sales Thread! Updated 10/14/2012!

Can of worms for sure.
Firstly, don't pay for scans, they're only the same electronic copies available for free on the webz.
Secondly, the UK annual stories may or may not sit within a given continuity, either UK or US, depending on which story you're referring to.
It is normal for the comic issues to be in black and white. There are recoloured versions from some of the annuals and collected comics.

the tpb idw uk reprints (i have #1 and 2 now) have put everything in order and explained their overall relevance etc. id say unless you have a thing against tpb, just go that route.

It's normal. They were cutting the production cost that way.

It was easier to pay $20 for the scans than try to gather them all myself and worry about viruses and stuff piggybacking torrents. As for annuals, I do know that at least one of them had the final chapter of one of the story arcs ( target 2006 maybe? ).

It may put the extra stuff in order with the UK stuff, but it doesn't put the UK stuff in order with the US stuff that was also available in the UK. It'd be easier to work in the extra stuff to the UK comics than to try to go back and forth between US and UK issues in trades. I want to read stuff in order, so this way is less of a chore.

Click My Sig For My Sales Thread! Updated 10/14/2012!

I have nearly all the UK comics, (see sig) and all the annuals and most of the text stories I can find. They're not all that difficult to acquire. I also have a load of TPB's for quick reads.
However, I also spent 5 minutes on google and located a single download containing all 332 uk issues + annuals, so it's not difficult.

Not that i'm advocating you do so, as that is not allowed around here. I don't feel bad because I already own all the content anyway.

Thanks, but I'm not looking to get them. I have them. I was just wanting to know where the annuals fall into the main story so I can read those in order also.

Click My Sig For My Sales Thread! Updated 10/14/2012!

Yes it was normal. I think they went back and colored some later.

I have refered to this link and have posted a few times on other threads. RabidYak did a great job. Remember, sticky's are your friend. Just kinding with you.

A guide to reading Transformers via Titan reprints

I have been reading them in order too but got stuck in issue #102 or something, the prey story.

Some uk annual stories are in order but not sure if all are on that link.

The simple way is to look at the year the Annual is published. It would then normally match up with that years comic run.

Though saying that, after the 4th or so annual the remainder tended to have a lot of reprints directly from the comic rather than new or completed story lines.

A lot of annual stories were stand-alone anyway, such as the Swoop/Divebomb strip. Only one annual (87?) finished a story that had begun in the comics, but as I recall the backlash on that was so fierce that it wasn't repeated.

Some of the annual stories aren't even canon, especially the text stories - the first UK annual had a story that placed Twin Twist on Earth for example.

It's a bit messy all in