It’s another strange month, commemorating the anniversaries of seventeen cancelled comics but only eight launches. Coming after last month’s very sparse episode of Hatch, Match & Dispatch, that might be a tad worrying…
But take comfort, dear readers, for these figures are all somewhat arbitrary because (as outlined in the Standard Disclaimer below), I’m only selecting the comics from particular years: that way, we don’t get the same titles coming up every January.
I mean, since we’re skipping the anniversaries from 55 years ago, we’re omitting such notable titles as Pow!, Mandy and TV Tornado, And looking to more recently-launched comics, The Phoenix is approaching its milestone tenth anniversary — its first issue is cover-dated January 7th, 2012 — and it’s still going strong (as is only right and proper: it’s a great comic!), so there’s no need to worry: those left out this time will show up in a year or two.
(Update: The always helpful and utterly awesome Lew Stringer has reminded me that The Phoenix actually began with an undated Issue Zero, which he reviewed on his blog on 2 December 2011!)
I have actually been a little tempted to expand the scope of this feature so that more recently-launched publications such as The Phoenix are included, but the truth is that over the past couple of decades it’s become harder to determine which kid-targeted publications are comics and which are magazines, so I’m going to continue playing it safe for now and only consider comics that are over a quarter of a century old. Except in special circumstances, or when I feel like it.
Standard disclaimer: unless I decide otherwise, these are only the “big” anniversaries (25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 60, 70, 75, 80, 90 & 100+ years); dates are cover-dates where known; monthly comics with no confirmed day of launch default to the start of the month; and this list is accurate only to the best of my knowledge, so do please let me know of any important errors or omissions!
Previous episodes of Hatch, Match & Dispatch:
2019: Oct, Nov, Dec
2020: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2021: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
25 years ago:
January – Classic 2000AD final issue.
Publisher: Egmont
From: Sep 1995
To: Jan 1997
Duration: 1 year, 4 months
Issues: 15
Monthly reprint title that replaced the long-running The Best of 2000AD.
January – Classic Judge Dredd final issue.
Publisher: Egmont
From: Aug 1995
To: Jan 1997
Duration: 1 year, 5 months
Issues: 18
Monthly reprint title that took over from The Complete Judge Dredd (see this site’s related Pocket-Money Comics feature).
30 years ago:
01 January – Meltdown final issue.
Publisher: Marvel UK
From: 01 Aug 1991
To: 01 Jan 1992
Duration: 5 months
Issues: 6
04 January – Star Trek: The Next Generation (1990) final issue.
Publisher: Marvel UK
From: 17 Nov 1990
To: 04 Jan 1992
Duration: 1 year, 2 months
Issues: 24
Fortnightly until #19, monthly thereafter.
18 January – The Transformers final issue.
Publisher: Marvel UK
From: 20 Sep 1984
To: 18 Jan 1992
Duration: 7 years, 4 months
Issues: 332
A great example of an adaptation that surpassed its source material: some of the Transformers strips were pure gold! That said, this comic went through a lot of identity crises. Here’s a useless but perhaps marginally interesting history of all of its different titles:
#1: The Transformers
#153: The Transformers and Action Force
#183: The Transformers and Visionaries
#191: The Transformers and Action Force
#200: Transformers
#201: Transformers and Action Force
#213: Transformers and Visionaries
#220: Transformers and Action Force
#232: Transformers
#248: Transformers and Action Force
#249: Transformers and G.I. Joe
#250: Transformers
#251: Transformers and G.I. Joe
#306: The Transformers
35 years ago:
01 January – !Gag! launched.
Publisher: Harrier Comics
From: 01 Jan 1987
To: 01 Mar 1989
Duration: 2 years, 2 months
Issues: 7
10 January – Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars final issue.
Publisher: Marvel UK
From: 27 Apr 1985
To: 10 Jan 1987
Duration: 1 year, 9 months
Issues: 80
This reprint title was initially fortnightly, but switched to weekly from issue #10. From issue #32, the title was changed to Secret Wars II, which it retained for the rest of its days.
24 January – Get Along Gang final issue.
Publisher: Marvel UK
From: 20 Apr 1985
To: 24 Jan 1987
Duration: 1 year, 9 months
Issues: 93
Absorbed into Care Bears.
30 January – Thunder Action final issue.
Publisher: Savoy
From: 30 Oct 1986
To: 30 Jan 1987
Duration: 3 months
Issues: 4
31 January – Nipper launched.
Publisher: IPC
From: 31 Jan 1987
To: 29 Aug 1987
Duration: 7 months
Issues: 16
Originally an A5-sized, 48-page comic, Nipper reverted to a more standard size from issue #6. 16 regular issues preceded by an issue 0. Mostly fairly tame contents as appropriate for the targeted age-range: by far the stand-out strip was Tom Paterson’s absolutely superb Felix the Pussycat — which has at last apparently been reprinted in the recent Treasury of British Comics Tom Paterson Collection. (I can’t yet confirm this because I’m still waiting for my copy to arrive — I was hoping it’d be here by Christmas. Alas, not so.)
40 years ago:
01 January – Future Tense final issue.
Publisher: Marvel UK
From: 05 Nov 1980
To: 01 Jan 1982
Duration: 1 year, 2 months
Issues: 41
Switching from a weekly schedule to monthly — from issue #36 — wasn’t enough to save Marvel UK’s SF-themed reprint title. Shame, really. Great contents for the most part, but the strips suffered greatly from being chopped up into four-to-five-page chunks.
01 January – Savage Action Monthly final issue.
Publisher: Marvel UK
From: 01 Nov 1980
To: 01 Jan 1982
Duration: 1 year, 2 months
Issues: 15
Absorbed into The Mighty World of Marvel (1972).
30 January – Jackpot final issue.
Publisher: IPC
From: 05 May 1979
To: 30 Jan 1982
Duration: 2 years, 8 months
Issues: 141
Absorbed into Buster.
This was a great comic but sadly not so well remembered now.
30 January – Photo Secret Love final issue.
Publisher: IPC
From: 15 Mar 1980
To: 30 Jan 1982
Duration: 1 year, 10 months
Issues: 99
Absorbed into Photo-Love Weekly.
45 years ago:
01 January – Ally Sloper final issue.
Publisher: Alan Class/Creative Comics
From: 01 Oct 1976
To: 01 Jan 1977
Duration: 3 months
Issues: 4
17 January – Read to Me launched.
Publisher: Polystyle Publications
From: 17 Jan 1977
To: 04 Aug 1977
Duration: 7 months
Issues: 28
22 January – Blue Jeans launched.
Publisher: DC Thomson
From: 22 Jan 1977
To: 16 Mar 1991
Duration: 14 years, 2 months
Issues: 740
29 January – Disney Time launched.
Publisher: IPC
From: 29 Jan 1977
To: 18 Jun 1977
Duration: 5 months
Issues: 21
50 years ago:
01 January – Golden Hours launched.
Publisher: Shelbourne/Williams Publishing
From: 01 Jan 1972
To: 29 Jul 1972
Duration: 6 months
Issues: 31
22 January – Bimbo final issue.
Publisher: DC Thomson
From: 18 Mar 1961
To: 22 Jan 1972
Duration: 10 years, 10 months
Issues: 567
29 January – Little Star launched.
Publisher: DC Thomson
From: 29 Jan 1972
To: 24 Jan 1976
Duration: 4 years
Issues: 209
Hmm… Bimbo is cancelled and then a week later Little Star is launched. They’re both nursery-age comics from the same publisher. I wonder if the latter is actually a relaunch/rebranding of the former? I shall endeavour to investigate!
30 January – Esmeralda final issue.
Publisher: IPC
From: 12 Jun 1971
To: 30 Jan 1972
Duration: 7 months
Issues: 33
Absorbed into Bobo Bunny.
60 years ago:
06 January – Junior Express final issue.
Publisher: Beaverbrook Newspapers
From: 04 Sep 1954
To: 06 Jan 1962
Duration: 7 years, 4 months
Issues: 375
Absorbed into TV Comic.
Renamed Junior Express Weekly from #39 (18 Jun 1955), Express Weekly from #74 (18 Feb 1956), TV Express Weekly from #286 (23 April 1960, TV Express from #347 (24 June 1961).
13 January – TV Land final issue.
Publisher: TV Publications
From: 01 Oct 1960
To: 13 Jan 1962
Duration: 1 year, 3 months
Issues: 68
Absorbed into TV Comic.
29 January – Look and Learn launched.
Publisher: Fleetway/IPC
From: 29 Jan 1962
To: 17 May 1982
Duration: 20 years, 4 months
Issues: 1049
Not really a comic, but Look and Learn earns a place here because it did contain some comic-strip material, most notably The Trigan Empire, which it inherited from Ranger.
90 years ago:
23 January – Merry Midget final issue.
Publisher: Provincial
From: 12 Sep 1931
To: 23 Jan 1932
Duration: 4 months
Issues: 20
100 years ago:
28 January – The Champion (1922) launched.
Publisher: Amalgamated Press
From: 28 Jan 1922
To: 19 Mar 1955
Duration: 33 years, 2 months
Issues: 1729
Rusty Staples 