TV Comic - first Sooty appearance?

[koollectablz]

Does anyone know when Sooty first appeared in TV Comic?

The actual issue number and date? I know when he started on the cover, but he'd been inside on and off for a while before.

[Digifiend]

Issue 124 advertises "Sooty & Mr Turnip on page 3" on the cover, so it's in or before that issue.

[koollectablz]

Cheers! That sounds like he was in it before then...

I do like the artwork on the early Sootys, actually looks like him!

[Raven]

By Morph's chum Tony Hart, aren't they?

[koollectablz]

Indeedy!

Amazing how long Sooty has been going, not bad for a glove puppet with a water pistol...

[Ginger]

I used to read TV Comic, it was my favourite for a long time, I had it delivered. But I don't recall Sooty being in it at all. What's the date on that issue, Digi? I suspect it's after I stopped reading it (which I'd say was near the end of the 70s)

I stopped reading TV Comic soon after it became the Mighty TV Comic, doubling up in size but to no great effect, and using reprints:-- that was the killer blow for me, made me feel I must've been reading it too long if I was recognising strips I'd read before. Thinking I must be too old, I reluctantly gave up comics at that point.

...And moved on to Mad magazine!

[Raven]

I used to read TV Comic, it was my favourite for a long time, I had it delivered. But I don't recall Sooty being in it at all. What's the date on that issue, Digi? I suspect it's after I stopped reading it (which I'd say was near the end of the 70s)

Sooty was in TV Comic in the 1950s.

[Ginger]

Ha! Before my time. That was my other theory!
I'd forgotten TV Comic had been going that long, to be honest.

Thanks, Raven.

[philcom55]

Sooty also made early appearances in some Whirligig annuals (as did Hank and Mr. Turnip).

[Phoenix]

Sooty was in TV Comic in the 1950s.

He was also a regular on TV itself. Younger members will find it difficult to believe but at that time there was only one channel available, that being BBC. After watching the 1953 Cup Final on a 12'' screen at my uncle Reg's house in Chorley my parents rented a television principally so that my mother could watch the coronation. Personally I was delighted to be able to watch the test matches against Australia. At the time the shops' technicians would come to the house, set up and tune your TV of choice, and then leave it with you while you got used to it, but in those early days they would allow you to change it for a different one several times so that you could make up your mind carefully which model you wanted to buy or rent. The technicians would mainly come out in the mornings because then the programme was the same every day. You could watch Randolph Turpin knocking out Tiberio Mitri every morning if that's what floated your boat. To be fair, there were lots of different items for the technicians to use, including a panel known as Test Card C.

We watched pretty well everything on offer at first, but it was just the novelty factor at work. The soaps were The Appleyards and The Grove Family, whose matriarch, Grandma Grove, was forever saying ''I'm faint for lack of nourishment.'' I'm not sure whether The Grove Family spawned any spinoffs or not but there were two novels about The Appleyards written by David Edwards in 1955 and 1956 respectively. The author was a cast member, playing John Appleyard.

[Digifiend]

I used to read TV Comic, it was my favourite for a long time, I had it delivered. But I don't recall Sooty being in it at all. What's the date on that issue, Digi? I suspect it's after I stopped reading it (which I'd say was near the end of the 70s)

March 1954 - I can't make out the exact date - Comic Vine could use a better scan.
http://comicvine.gamespot.com/tv-comic-124/4000-171443/

[philcom55]

Here's a Sooty strip from TV Comic #108, so he goes back to 1953 at least.

[koollectablz]

Cheers! That's most helpful!

[jamesjohnson5551]

Hi, superb thread...