Great news inside for all readers

[philcom55]

Apparently it's the reason Ken Mennell's Spitfire was suddenly cancelled just four weeks before press day with a TV and newspaper advertising campaign already booked and over £1,000 spent on art and script. As the name implies the intention was to take on DC Thomson's Victor, Hornet and Hotspur in the way that the original Wham! had challenged Beano and Dandy; unfortunately Fleetway was the major player within IPC by that time and the powers-that-be didn't want anybody stealing readers from Lion, Valiant and Tiger.

According to Steve Moore, who saw it happen: "After that, all projected Odhams projects had to be proved not to compete with Fleetway which was why no more Odhams comics came out. About this time also, the contract with Marvel Comics ran out and was not renewed."

When the editorial team were finally moved into Fleetway House in Spring 1969 only nine people remained of the thirty-odd staff who'd once been employed by Odhams Juvenile department. Within a year the Longacre Building itself had burned to the ground...!

- Phil Rushton

[Digifiend]

Burned down? Crikey, it's lucky they'd already moved out, or the Odhams archives would've probably been destroyed.

[kiwijohn]

Sorry I haven't added more to this thread yet, its been a busy month...however I will let powerfan know what I thought was strange about the Jinty and Lindy merger announcement in the pre-merger Jinty issue: although the announcement mentioned two completely new stories, it didn't actually mention which existing Jinty or Lindy stories would be in the new comic. The only way to work out what Jinty stories would be in the merged issue was to read the 'next week' blurbs on the last page of each story.

[stevezodiac]

Getting back on topic here is the last issue of Illustrated Chips together with the inside page advertising its replacement.

[stevezodiac]

Getting back to those Weekend covers I just sold a few on ebay including this one with the delightful Luan Peters on the cover.