Mighty Moth and Barney Bear

[AndyB]

Dick Millington was not the original artist of Happy Families - that was the same as Dads as Lads, and may have been Bill Titcombe.

[jim244]

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.

Generally agree;just two points:
1)Yes,Mighty TV Comic had many faults but did feature reprints of classic Gold Key Star Trek and was nice to see art in larger panels.
2)I think TV Comic greatest age was 64 - 74,so not disagreeing with you,just believe that those early Dr Who,Fireball XL5 and Space Patrol issues were also classic.

[stevezodiac]

I missed the last issue of TV comic but wrote to Polystyle and received a copy together with a letter from the editor which I still have.

[jim244]

I missed the last issue of TV comic but wrote to Polystyle and received a copy together with a letter from the editor which I still have.

That's a nice story and very kind of Polystyle.
In the mid 70s',the breakfast cereal Weetabix was giving fantastic card figures away from the "DR Who" television series.
My Brother and I kept getting the same ones.
My Mum wrote to complain,received a lovely letter back plus 2 full sets !!!
Was corporate business simply more human back then???

[stevezodiac]

Since I started indexing comics onto Grand Comics Database I've noticed that the Tom and Jerry strips had a conclusion on the cover but then carried on for a second page making me wonder if a single page version was syndicated out elsewhere.

[Shiner]

TV Comic was always a penny more than its competitors but always very entertaining. I never understood the inclusion of Mighty Moth but what a great 5 minute cartoon it would have made. Again I never understood the inclusion of TWO Roobarb strips. In the end I lost interest with the format change (never a fan of a couple of panels on the front) but a great idea to at least launch the revamp with two free comics - Doctor Who, then Star Trek.

[DavidKW]

Barney Bear was a cartoon made by MGM and produced by Fred Quimby I think, most famous for Tom and Jerry. About 50 cartoons of his were made from about 1939 to 1954.

I do remember his cartoons being shown on BBC, often as a schedule filler. On one edition of Swap Shop I can remember Noel Edmonds encouraging viewers to phone in and pick a cartoon to show. One lucky viewer got through and requested barney Bear - Noel then shouted "it's the plug marked BB" to a background member of staff. Shows he was still popular in the UK during the 70s.

A BB cartoon was later during the 90s featured on an edition of "Stay Tooned" with (Sir) Tony Robinson. In it Tony was asking why Barney never got the recognition or success like his stablemates Tom and Jerry; he reckoned that his cartoons and character were ""too slow moving".

One of the major differences the TV Comic strip had with the cartoon itself is that it featured a recurring character called Mooseface McElk, who is Barney's temperamental and obnoxious neighbour. I can remember in a TV comic annual one strip where Barney and Mooseface visit London where a salesman keeps popping up everywhere trying to sell them souvenir tat, irritating them both. Moose then messes up a royal guardsman's busby, expecting to find the salesman in it and to confront him. The pair them get sent to the dungeon where the salesman is also being held for trading without a licence!

Mighty Moth was one of the non TV strips that filled TV Comic. I must admit I never liked MM not understood his appeal.
Other non-TV show strips included the mentioned Terrors, Lochie The Funny Wee Monster (full of un-PC Scottish stereotypes. Really dire effort), World Cup Willie in 1966 (World cup mascot, clearly a cash-in), plus Texas Ted and Nellie and Her Telly. I think that the latter 2 strips would've made good tv shows/cartoons, especially Nellie, given how much TV there is about with its violence and product placements, could make good adult humour. I do think that Nellie suffered from a change of artist during its run.

[jim244]

Barney Bear was a cartoon made by MGM and produced by Fred Quimby I think, most famous for Tom and Jerry. About 50 cartoons of his were made from about 1939 to 1954.

I do remember his cartoons being shown on BBC, often as a schedule filler. On one edition of Swap Shop I can remember Noel Edmonds encouraging viewers to phone in and pick a cartoon to show. One lucky viewer got through and requested barney Bear - Noel then shouted "it's the plug marked BB" to a background member of staff. Shows he was still popular in the UK during the 70s.

A BB cartoon was later during the 90s featured on an edition of "Stay Tooned" with (Sir) Tony Robinson. In it Tony was asking why Barney never got the recognition or success like his stablemates Tom and Jerry; he reckoned that his cartoons and character were ""too slow moving".

One of the major differences the TV Comic strip had with the cartoon itself is that it featured a recurring character called Mooseface McElk, who is Barney's temperamental and obnoxious neighbour. I can remember in a TV comic annual one strip where Barney and Mooseface visit London where a salesman keeps popping up everywhere trying to sell them souvenir tat, irritating them both. Moose then messes up a royal guardsman's busby, expecting to find the salesman in it and to confront him. The pair them get sent to the dungeon where the salesman is also being held for trading without a licence!

Mighty Moth was one of the non TV strips that filled TV Comic. I must admit I never liked MM not understood his appeal.
Other non-TV show strips included the mentioned Terrors, Lochie The Funny Wee Monster (full of un-PC Scottish stereotypes. Really dire effort), World Cup Willie in 1966 (World cup mascot, clearly a cash-in), plus Texas Ted and Nellie and Her Telly. I think that the latter 2 strips would've made good tv shows/cartoons, especially Nellie, given how much TV there is about with its violence and product placements, could make good adult humour. I do think that Nellie suffered from a change of artist during its run.

OMG I remember that TV comic annual BB strip!!!
Must have been late 70s?
I loved Texas Ted.
Personally was also a fan of Mighty Moth.
Do you remember the Hager the Horrible strips??

[DavidKW]

Yeah, I remember Hagar The Horrible, read some of the strips when I got "The Sun" from 1988 in my late teens, Used to get it for that, sport and scandal, and mostly to annoy my parents, who once read The Daily Mirror", but now read "The Daily Mail" which my mother still does. Totally forgot about their roots, they remind me of a Hyacinth Bucket and Jeffrey Fourmile (George and Mildred).

Texas Ted would make a great adult cartoon too; Ted as Trump loving big mouthed American annoying the British but getting his humiliation. Could show it as a double bill with an adult Nellie and her Telly, where it daydreams involve copying the dross - from violent miserable soaps to reality freak shows and "comedy" that uses shocks for laughs, and always gets her arrested or in trouble (even if she watched the better offerings on TPTV she copes and daydreams - or is made to watch TPTV as punishments as she disses the station perhaps).

I BB Tv Comic Annual strip would have been from one of the editions from either 74, 75, or 76 - so mid-70s, as these 3 were the ones around our house, given as an Xmas gift for either me or my older sister. The parents likely eventually gave these away to jumble sales or charity shops or to other kid relations (distant), when I was much older and didn't notice until too late.

Comic hating parents made great villains to us collectors!