Mighty Moth and Barney Bear

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Muffy
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Mighty Moth and Barney Bear

Post by Muffy »

Used to always wonder if these were TV comics creations or if they were based on old telly characters.

It was always good when Mighty Moth and Dad were friends - they missed each other when separated. The Xmas issues featured them at Xmas dinner, usually Mothy had a nice bit of tweed.

Basil Brush (& unpaid Butler, Chummers) were good. Started reading Dr Who when it was reprints, but still loved these. :) :!:

Anyone else have any fond memories of this comic :?:

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Shaqui
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Mighty Moth and Barney Bear

Post by Shaqui »

Pretty sure Mighty Moth was an original creation, and there (like 'TV Terrors') to up the page count from licensed names and shows...

I had an inkling Barney Bear may have been an animated character from the old shorts that used to get shown on TV in the post-war years:

Image

8)

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ISPYSHHHGUY
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Mighty Moth and Barney Bear

Post by ISPYSHHHGUY »

'T.V. COMIC'S' 'T.V.T ERRORS' was definately the most formulaic and repetitive U.K. strip i ever endured......it made I.P.C.'S most one-note strip idea seem innovative and fresh.........the 'T.V. TERRORS' strip almost always seemed to start with the same frame of doorman 'Hoppit' booting the kids out of the T.V. studios. 'MIGHTY MOTH' by the same artist was a much more appealing strip..........they also done a colour 'POPEYE' strip, and a 'KEYSTONE KOPS' STRIP.........the paper quality was akin to 'T.V. 21', much better than the bog-standard d.c.thomson newsprint. [sorry, folks- i LOVE the 'BEANO', but at one time the quality of paper was awful...........

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Peter Gray
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Mighty Moth and Barney Bear

Post by Peter Gray »

Mighty Moth sounds a bit based on the name of Mighty Mouse
Never got on with TV Comic though my friend Sharon did...
Buzby from BT was in the comic looked fun...

Lew Stringer
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Re: Mighty Moth and Barney Bear

Post by Lew Stringer »

Shaqui wrote:Pretty sure Mighty Moth was an original creation, and there (like 'TV Terrors') to up the page count from licensed names and shows...

I had an inkling Barney Bear may have been an animated character from the old shorts that used to get shown on TV in the post-war years:

[img:360:301]http://www.animationartgallery.com/imag ... MDPBU2.jpg[/img]

8)
Yes, Barney Bear was an old MGM animated character from the 1940s. I remember some of the cartoons being shown on tv too in the 1970s, hence their inclusion in TV Comic.

As a kid I really liked TV Comic. It was never as funny as The Dandy etc, and always seemed aimed at a slightly younger readership but it had some good stuff in there.

Lew

Kashgar
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Re: Mighty Moth and Barney Bear

Post by Kashgar »

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote:'T.V. COMIC'S' 'T.V.T ERRORS' was definately the most formulaic and repetitive U.K. strip i ever endured......it made I.P.C.'S most one-note strip idea seem innovative and fresh.........the 'T.V. TERRORS' strip almost always seemed to start with the same frame of doorman 'Hoppit' booting the kids out of the T.V. studios. 'MIGHTY MOTH' by the same artist was a much more appealing strip..........they also done a colour 'POPEYE' strip, and a 'KEYSTONE KOPS' STRIP.........the paper quality was akin to 'T.V. 21', much better than the bog-standard d.c.thomson newsprint. [sorry, folks- i LOVE the 'BEANO', but at one time the quality of paper was awful...........
The 'Mighty Moth' artist was Dick Millington. The T.V Terrors reminds that Bill Ritchie drew a strip with a very similar theme for Thomson's tabloid comic Buzz called 'The Twitz of the Ritz' in which the basic premise was how this hotel doorman prevented a gang of kids getting into his hotel every week.

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Shaqui
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Mighty Moth and Barney Bear

Post by Shaqui »

At its height (early to mid 1960s), 'TV Terrors' was doing some awesome spoofs of other TV shows, in the same way 'Charlie's Choice' did later for 'Smash!'. Whether the dropping of this was due to legal issues, or changes in author/editorship, I couldn't say...

:?

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Peter Gray
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Re: Mighty Moth and Barney Bear

Post by Peter Gray »

Image

See Basil Brush.....Moonbeams at my blog.the work of Dick Millington
http://petergraycartoonsandcomics.blogs ... ngton.html

Raven
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Re: Mighty Moth and Barney Bear

Post by Raven »

The BBC often used to show Barney Bear cartoons; they were usually in the Tom and Jerry/Droopy style; mostly very good. They were made from the late 30s to the mid 50s.

I think TV Comic was especially a really nice comic from the early to mid 70s. Tom and Jerry, TV Terrors, Mighty Moth, Barney Bear, Animal Magic, Tich and Quackers, Frank McDiarmid's Texas Ted, Beep Beep the Roadrunner, Basil Brush colour double-pagers, Tarzan, Wacko!,Nelly and her Telly, Bugs Bunny, Pink Panther (always loved these colour one-pagers), Laurel and Hardy, Skippy, Popeye; it's a fine line-up.

It's worth getting the issues where Doctor Who wasn't featured as its place was filled with adaptations of old ITV childrens' adventure series like The Flaxton Boys and Grasshopper Island. The Doctor Who strip itself was good circa mid-Seventies.

TV Comic seriously went off the boil toward the late 70s, though - becoming Mighty TV Comic, then reverting back to regular size; it started to fill with reprints and less good material at this time.

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stevezodiac
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Re: Mighty Moth and Barney Bear

Post by stevezodiac »

Who drew the Popeye strips on the back page? Barry Glennard? It's unusual to have new/original UK strips based on a US cartoon character, usually copyright prevents this. I always wonder if there are Popeye collectors in the States who are unaware of the hundreds of strips they are missing from TV Comic as well as the Summer Specials they produced.

Sweeny Toddler
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Re: Mighty Moth and Barney Bear

Post by Sweeny Toddler »

I Remember getting the Mighty Moth summer special to read on the journey for my summer holiday, loved it but could not remember what comic it was from. Thanks for bringing back some happy childhood memories, and did Mighty Moths dad later find a home as the dad in Happy Families in Whizzer and Chips?

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suebutcher
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Re: Mighty Moth and Barney Bear

Post by suebutcher »

TV Comic in the mid-Sixties was one of my favourites, being a combination of the funny and the bizarre. For me the best of all are the the issues with Bill Mevin's "Space Patrol" and Bill Titcombe's "Telegoons". As for the other glossy big sellers of the day, I could admire Eagle and TV21 from a distance for their beautiful art, but they just weren't funny enough. Eagle didn't try that hard, and TV21's attempts at jokery were abysmal, "Get Smart" excepted. With some pocket money in hand the choice was really down to a Sparky, a Wham, or a TV Comic.
Last edited by suebutcher on 17 Dec 2015, 23:36, edited 1 time in total.

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philcom55
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Re: Mighty Moth and Barney Bear

Post by philcom55 »

TV Comic was the first comic I had a standing order for. I can still remember hopefully complaining to my Mum that she had her Woman's Weekly and Dad had his newspaper while I had nothing. I couldn't believe my luck when she agreed that I could have my own comic every week! Back then TV Comic was a real contender with bright, vibrant colours and a stellar lineup of the most popular TV shows of the day.

David Gerstein
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Re: Mighty Moth and Barney Bear

Post by David Gerstein »

Lew Stringer wrote:Yes, Barney Bear was an old MGM animated character from the 1940s. I remember some of the cartoons being shown on tv too in the 1970s, hence their inclusion in TV Comic.
As a longtime part of the Tom and Jerry package, they were run on American TV until only about ten years ago. Occasional Barney comics featured the bratty neighbor kid Willie Wildcat, and more than half included Barney's long-suffering pal Benny Burro.

In the 1940s, the early Barney comics were drawn by Donald Duck's own Carl Barks!

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suebutcher
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Re: Mighty Moth and Barney Bear

Post by suebutcher »

This Barney Bear is not to be confused with the syrupy "Barney Bear" Christian comics by Al Hartley. No relation.

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