In the previous post I showed an issue of TV Comic from 1952. This one is from 1977 and it's significantly different to the one from 25 years earlier. There are obvious changes in the content of course, as the nature of TV Comic was to reflect children's television of the day, but other changes, such as it no longer being a nursery comic, are also evident.
The biggest change in this period was its format. Although outwardly it looked like an A4 size comic, it actually folded out to a 16 page tabloid-sized A3 comic. This format had been instigated the year before (along with a temporary name change to Mighty TV Comic) and perhaps this was the publisher's way of trying to compete with Thomson's Beezer and Topper. If so, it was an odd, and perhaps misguided, notion. Tabloid comics were very much on their way out by this time and this experiment didn't last.
The cover of this issue isn't particularly Christmassy unfortunately, although the Basil Brush story gets a bit more festive when it continues onto the back page...
Opening the comic to its full A3 size, the first strip inside is Rod Hull and Emu, drawn by Bill Titcombe...
Mighty Moth, by Dick Millington, was never a TV character of course, but he still proved to be a favourite with the readers and ran in TV Comic for many years...
This issue featured various strips, such as Barney Bear, Popeye, Pink Panther, and more. Some new, some reprint from earlier issues. In the centre pages was Star Trek, not exactly using the massive format to its best advantage. By only reprinting two pages from the American Gold Key Star Trek comic every week it would have taken about three months to tell the full story. Art by the brilliant Alberto Giolitti.
The other adventure strip in this issue was Doctor Who, with art by John Canning. It'd be another two years before Marvel UK launched Doctor Who Weekly with a strip more in tune with the TV show...
On the inside back page; Tom and Jerry, one of TV Comic's most popular and long-running strips. Art by Bill Titcombe...
Any thoughts on this issue or Christmas comics in general? Post your opinions below!
I'm sorry to hear that the cartoonist Dick Millington passed away on Wednesday 4th February after an illness. He was 81. Mr.Millington's work will be known to many of us because of his long running Mighty Moth strip in TV Comic. The man vs moth premise of the strip was simple but highly entertaining as every week 'Dad' would concoct a new scheme to get rid of Mighty Moth which would invariably backfire. Yet the heart of the strip was that the characters had a love/hate relationship. Dad needed Moth. Moth needed Dad.
One of the earliest Mighty Moth strips, from 1959, is shown above. Mr.Millington was also the writer of the popular strip which ran until the end of TV Comic in 1984.
In 1966 Dick Millington became the editor of TV Comic, overseeing a very fondly remembered period for the weekly. He later worked for the Daily Mail on their Guiness Book of Records feature and the I Don't Believe It strip.
My sincere condolences to the family and friends of Mr.Millington for their sad loss. His distinctive artwork and charmingly funny scripts were truly a joy to read.
More at the Daily Mail website:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2943513/Daily-Mail-cartoonist-Dick-Millington-dies-aged-81.html
His entry at Lambiek:
http://www.lambiek.net/artists/m/millington_dick.htm
Published on the very same day as the issue of Tiger I showed in the previous post, here's TV Comic No.993, being the Christmas issue for 1970. Tom and Jerry had taken over the cover position in the previous year and remained there for a long run. Artwork by Bill Titcombe, with the story continuing on page 2...
TV Comic featured several strips that were not TV shows and which were created specially for the comic. Mighty Moth was one such strip, enjoying a very long run drawn by Dick Millington...
Catweazle was a popular children's tv show at the time, starring Geoffrey Bayldon. The strip version in TV Comic was illustrated by Bill Lacey, father of humour artist Mike Lacey...
Texas Ted was another strip originated just for TV Comic, and was stylishly drawn by Frank McDiarmid...
Running across the top half of the centre pages at this time was Basil Brush, the popular TV puppet. The strip expanded the theme, setting Basil in his stately home and giving him a butler. Artwork by Chas Sinclair...
The comic often featured newly drawn strips of American cartoon characters. Here's The Bugs Bunny Show, again with art by Bill Titcombe I believe...
This doesn't have a festive theme to the story but I thought you might like to see that week's episode of Doctor Who, drawn by John Canning. Within a few weeks the strip would transfer over to Polystyle's new weekly, Countdown, who would give the Doctor a more sympathetic and sophisticated treatment...
On the back page, Popeye, drawn by Bill Mevin. It could have been easy for TV Comic to reprint the American Popeye strips (and they did, in the Popeye Holiday Specials) but to their credit they originated brand new pages for the weekly.
The final festive flashback is tomorrow! See you then.
