Good whatever-time-of-day-it-is-for-you, comics fans!
My recent discovery that the long-running British nursery comics Playhour and Jack and Jill had joined forces at the end of the latter’s life naturally triggered a sizeable update/revamp of the appropriate timeline, and that has reminded me that perhaps some readers haven’t yet taken advantage of all the awesome material I provide on this blog (completely free, I hope I don’t need to remind you!)
In order of no particular order in particular, let’s have a quick look at all the timelines, shall we? Let those folks who’ve been missing out see exactly what it is they’ve been missing out on!
Playhour, Jack and Jill, Puck, The Chick’s Own, The Robin, Tiger Tim… These are the nursery-age comics, or, the “animals wearing waistcoats and carrying watering-cans” genre:
Eagle, Battle Picture Weekly, Action. Champion, Lion, Valiant, Triumph, The Gem, The Magnet, Comic Cuts, TV 21, Scream… Thrilling adventures of plucky empires bravely conquering much weaker but resource-heavy countries, daring Dans in space, a billion stories set in WWII and/or boarding schools.
Buster, Illustrated Chips, Whizzer and Chips, Oink, Krazy Comic, et al. Madcap fun and ripping yarns!
And if it’s the ripping of yarns you enjoy, especially those of a vintage variety, here’s a closer and more detailed look at the way-too-complicated Funny Wonder section of the Buster timeline… (This one took me forever to unravel so please do take a look!)
Beano, Bunty, Dandy, Mandy, Victor, Hotspur, Twinkle, Commando, Starblazer, Warlord, Jackie, Sparky… Every DC Thomson comic ever published, except the ones I’ve accidentally omitted, if there are any, which wouldn’t surprise me.
My Guy, Girl, Oh Boy!, Tammy, Misty, Jinty, Glamour, Mirabelle, Valentine, Comic Life, Merry & Bright, Schoolgirls’ Weekly… and many more. True-love photostories and kidnapped orphan ponies abound.
From The Mighty World of Marvel all the way up to the Dead Kid Comic, here’s the timeline of every Marvel UK comic published in the 1970s, ’80s and 90s!
In total, these timelines cover somewhere in the region of 165,000 issues over 500ish different titles… which is probably not even twenty percent of all the British comics ever published.
(You’ll also find timelines of some individual comics on this blog’s Branding features: Spider-Man Comics Weekly, Battle Picture Weekly, Doctor Who Weekly/Monthly/Magazine.)
There are many other timelines / family trees still to cover, but I’m reasonably sure that none are anywhere as complicated as this bunch. I’ll possibly get around to them one day.
Bonus!
With no apologies, I bravely present Rusty’s infamously notorious “Approximate Number of Comics Published Each Year” timeline!
Rusty Staples 
Love your Comic time lines, especially the Marvel UK ones, I wouldn’t want to sounds like a horrible troll but where are the entries for Havoc, Strip, Overkill and Meltdown? Or even the Doctor Who spin offs like Classic Comics, Poster Mags and special editions. Could I be really greedy and ask for the Marvel Summer/Winter/Autumn Specials that started back in 1979. Keep up the fantastic work.
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Hi Tony,
Glad you like the timelines! When I was compiling the Marvel UK stuff there were some pretty huge gaps in my knowledge of the post-1980s comics (especially after Panini took over int he mid-90s and they kept rebooting and renaming the comics every year!) so I decided to focus instead on the era I knew best. Overkill and the other comics you mention were launched *after* the 1980s, which is they they don’t appear on the “Leftovers” timeline.
I’m still gathering the data for the rest of the Marvel UK publications (every couple of months I stumble across a Marvel UK comic I’ve never even heard of before) but one day I hope to be able to present a 90s-onwards timeline, or maybe even combine them all for a *complete* Marvel UK timeline… even though that would be pretty enormous!
As for Summer Specials and the like… I’ve no plans right now to cover anything like that (I’m much more interested in regular comics) but I’m not ruling them out completely!
Cheers,
Mike
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