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felneymike wrote:I also got issue 1 of Fitness and Sun from 1947! I beleive the strange title came about because the publishers were allocated a paper ration to revive two pre-war publications. Except there was way more money in comics than in fitness magazines so they "merged" Fitness with Sun Comic to create Fitness and Sun... though there's absolutely nothing about keeping fit in it! And it's still only 8 pages.
The family tree explains that title's history a little differently...
Fitness And Sun
(11/11/1947 - 23/12/1947)
Sun
(6/1/1948 - 17/10/1959)
Formerly called Fitness And Sun and retitled in issue #5. A publication of many names and one of the successful publications produced by an independent company. J.B.Allen revived a pre-war health magazine called Fitness And Sun. The comic started as a fortnightly publication and after just 4 issues, it dropped the 'Fitness and' part of the title to become 'Sun'. On the 24th May 1949 (issue #41) Amalgamated Press took over the publishing reigns and on the 20th May 1950, Sun became a weekly publication. On the 10th September 1955 it became all-pictures.
I'm not sure of the dates of the name changes, but here are the title names:-
Fitness And Sun
Sun
Sun Comic
Sun Adventure Weekly
The Cowboy Sun
Sun Weekly
It never incorporated any publications during its life and then on the 24th October 1959 and after 558 issues, the Sun Weekly was incorporated into Lion.
No merger, just a case of getting the paper quota allocated then using the name for a completely different type of publication.
2000AD
Comicolour Album 1949 - A Gerald G Swan publication, it's pretty thin but the strips are packed in and it's all in "colour", red/blue/brown or green/blue/grey
The Last Tiger - the "final" Sexton Blake library from 1963... until the actual final series of paperbacks came out.
Expelled! The W. Howard Baker second book of reprints of the Nelson Lee Library.
I received three copies of the Sunday Post from March 1946 (all the same date unfortunately) for £9.99/ As well as Oor Wullie and the Broons the Fun Section also featured Nero and Zero and Nosey Parker by Alan Morley. I've promised one copy to a friend who also collects comics (and is also called Steve) and the other I will put on ebay. I found them in the vintage Newspapers section of ebay. I was the only bidder so grateful the seller didn't put them in the comics section even though he included scans of the Fun Section.
I'm very pleased to have won an excellent condition 1970 issue of Tesco Fun 'n' Games, the Tesco comic,so soon I'll be thrilling to the adventures of lots of early '70s supermarket products.
I wonder what Captain Birdseye, The Happy Sunblest Family and The Milky Bar Kid will be up to.
philcom55 wrote:...Of course the Kid already had his own strip a decade earlier in TV Comic!
- Phil R.
I don't think I've seen that. I do have one TV Comic from early 1960 but there's no MBK in it; did it run earlier or later? Was it a blatant ad for the product with small slabs of white chocolate confectionery playing a large part in the success of his Wild West escapades?
Of course they'd probably have gone through another few Milky Bar Kids before Tesco Fun 'n' Games came out - though I think they got ones who looked as alike as possible.
"Nes-lay's Milky Bar" doesn't quite fit right in the TV ad jingle, does it?
From memory I think the Milky Bar Kid was on the back cover in full colour. Last year I bought a 1960s book at the flea market - I didn't want the book but someone had used a 1960s Milky Bar wrapper as a bookmark so I couldn't resist.
Today i got the Slick Fun Album 1953 and a book called "Friend or Foe", which is also an annual-like publication with several text stories, probably from between the wars.
My Tesco Fun 'n' Games has come and there are a few characters I've not seen before in this only-on-sale-at-Tesco comic, including Shreddie Boy, Albert and Sidney and the Kennomeat Men, Ruff and Reddy - but not the Hanna-Barbera characters; Reddy is a red haired boy who eats Ready Brek, and The Weeny Walls Family.
Magic Jack is connected with Heinz Beans - he eats a mugful (yes, cold, from a mug) and can then "do anything." Sugar Puffs's Jeremy Bear has his own comic strip, too - though he's just a regular young bear in it, not a talking character as in his 3D comic book which Lew blogged about.
The comic is credited as by Roberta Leigh, who was Writer/Producer of TV's Twizzle, Sarah & Hoppity, Torchy, Wonder Boy and Tiger, and Space Patrol;' she also edited Esso's comic: Wonder Comic.
