The Space Kids and my kid in tears

[meherenow]

Well, my 4 year old son (I'm starting him early!) was in tears tonight as I explained the abrupt end to The Space Kids - despite of course warning him beforehand that the story would not have a conclusion.

Has this story been reprinted elsewhere? I had a quick look on ebay but don't see too many Beezers from that era.

He didn't take kindly to my interpretation of what happened next and told me I should "go onto the Classics of the Comics (he likes to call it this) internet and download the next one..."

Anybody able to help? I hope theres not 20 episodes left in that arc!


edit: oh and hello everyone, long time lurker here!

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

The Space Kids appeared in BEEZER of 1965, meherenow, but I only have a few issues from this year.....sorry to hear about the plight of your 4-year-old son! Great that such an old strip can still have an impact, though......

[meherenow]

The Space Kids appeared in BEEZER of 1965, meherenow, but I only have a few issues from this year.....sorry to hear about the plight of your 4-year-old son! Great that such an old strip can still have an impact, though......

Ah thats good to know, the little date code in the last CLASSICS is 4th December 1976, so does this mean that this was a reprint then, or did the series run that long?

[philcom55]

According to Kashgar's Beezer index The Space Kids reprints ran from no.1044 (17th Jan 1976) to no.1099 (5th Feb 1977), while there were exactly a hundred and one episodes in the original series which began with no.457 (17th Oct 1964) and ended with no.557 (17th Sep 1966). As far as the storyline in Classics From the Comics goes, could somebody say what happened in the last installment they featured?

- Phil R.

[Kashgar]

Hi meherenow,
No the series didn't run that long. The 1976 version was simply a reprint of the one a decade earlier. Without having my 'Beezer Index' to hand I think the original series ran for about 100 issues. If you give me a little time I'll try and track down where in the run the Classics reprints appeared in both the original and reprint series.
As you can see Phil has kindly supplied the details without me having to look of when the strip actually appeared in the Beezer. Now we only need to track down which actual strips were republished in Classics and if it would be an easy matter to supply a conclusion that will help dry the tears of your very discerning four year old.

[Digifiend]

As pointed out already, the Space Kids story in 175 was from Beezer dated 4th December 1976 - that strip has the gang explore a hermit's cave, and into a tunnel with snake paintings, finding a sword in a stone carved snake's head. Going to retrieve the sword, they get trapped in there by the hermit. After Freckles is almost crushed, they notice a breeze blowing the flame on a torch, and decide that might lead to an exit.

174's Space Kids story was the 27th November 1976 one.
173's are from 13th and 20th November 1976.
172's are from 14th February (Tubby had been captured and ends up fighting a giant beetle in a gladiatorial arena), 30th October (they lose a tennis ball and find it in a pelican's nest) and 6th November 1976.
171's are from 31st January and 7th February 1976.
And 170, their first appearance in Classics, was the stories from 17th and 24th January 1976.

From the info philcom55 provided, it seems there were nine episodes left in Classics run.

[meherenow]

Thanks guys, my boy was just starting to get into the adventure stories as well! He liked King Cobra too (me too, I'm a child of the late 70s/80s so this was before my time as well - I'm currently in my big Eagle re-read and am at #320 now, probably nearing the time my 13 year old self lost interest from what I remember from the stories (my son also likes the look of Doomlord too!) - I've penciled myself in for re-reading DCT's Spike and then Champ afterwards, though I have been dabbling with some 60s stuff after picking up Albion Origins; love Janus Stark!).

As I said I'm afraid my rather blase interpretation of what happened next in the Space Kids after they noticed the breeze blowing did not go down well - he wanted to see and know for sure what happens next, and who can blame him - he's only recently taken an interest in the adventure strips and I was hesitant to go down that route for this very reason! More self contained stories are what I need - Danny Long Legs went down a storm last month!

I started weaning him (literally, I'm talking 2 1/2 -3 years old) on some early Judge Dredd from the TPB's - I think this is where he might get his love of dinosaurs from - of course he doesn't remember me reading them to him now, so I have that to look forward to again as he reaches an age where he might understand it more.

We get The Beano of course (tried the new Dandy but he's still a bit young for the overload of cultural references), and I think of all my old comics I've shown him Whoopee! comes up trumps there. I think I'll try to stick to the funnies for the moment though it is hard when he sees a few of the pics and he likes what he sees - it's funny to hear what he thinks is going on sometimes as he can't read the speech bubbles yet! Ooer, just had a thought that my comic reading skills may be made redundant when he goes to school, and me being so much better at the voices than mummy as well . Oh well, theres also a two year old who may need some Cursed Earth style comics induction!

Be nice to catch the end of that Space Kids saga though!

[Kashgar]

Managed to have a look and here is the full run down of 'The Space Kids' strip as it appeared in the Beezer.
As already mentioned the original series ran from No 457(17/10/64) (the issue when Beezer had its major 1960's overhaul and leapt from 12 to 16pgs) to No 557 (17/9/66).
Then in 1976/1977 this 101 issue series was partially reprinted in a run of 56 issues in issues 1044(17/7/76) to 1099(5/2/77).
The issues that were reprinted were as follows -
1044-1086 reprinted 457-499
1087-1092 reprinted 502-507
1093-1094 reprinted 518-519 (the 1965 Xmas story)
1095-1099 reprinted 553-557
Digi is correct in his reprint history as it applied to the 1976 reprint series. The full reprint history being as follows
Classics 170 reprinted 1044/1045 (457/458)
Classics 171 reprinted 1046/1047 (459/460)
Classics 172 reprinted 1048/1085/1086 (461/498/499)
Classics 173 reprinted 1087/1088 (502/503)
Classics 174 reprinted 1089 (504)
Classics 175 reprinted 1090 (505)
Now while it is true that, after the strip published in the final issue of Classics, the series still had nine issues to run in 1976/1977 this doesn't mean that you would need to collect all nine instalments to see how the particular story left unfinished with the closure of Classics ended. This particular Space Kids adventure having reached its denouement in issue No 1092(18/12/76) only two issues after the final Classics episode.
I've checked a number of the obvious sources to see if they have copies of the two Beezers in question (1091/1092) available and 30th Century Comics does have issue 1091 for sale but sadly not 1092. However someone on ebay is selling the Beezer issues where the strips both originally appeared (506/507) with a starting bid of £2.99 each.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

I have about 17 1965 BEEZERS, meherenow: I will check and see if I have any of the later episodes you haven't seen.....if I do I will try and put something on here over thw weekend.

[Peter Gray]

I've put up a 1966 story..sadly it will wind you up and your child even more..what a ending to end on..

http://petergraycartoonsandcomics.blogs ... -10th.html

and thanks for the info Kashgar..

[meherenow]

Excellent work everybody! I will keep my eye on the ebay auctions in case no one has any scans.

Cheers again for all the info!

[Niblet]

Just for the sake of completeness - Space Kids reprints also appeared in at least two issues of The Best of The Beezer, but I don't think either of these are the story that was brought to an untimely conclusion in Classics...

The Best of The Beezer No 21 (1993) gathered together 5 instalments of a story set under the sea on planet Lezar (seems to be a complete story).

The Best of The Beezer No 26 (1994) featured a 3 part story about Tubby being rescued from giant spiders (again, looks to be a complete story).

I've no idea of the original publication dates for either of these stories.

My collection of TBoTBs ends at issue 29, not sure if that was the final issue or if there were more.

[Digifiend]

There was more. Cover from issue 31.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

I missed the required issues by a measly ONE number, meherenow........believe me, I was praying for the required numbers 506/507 to turn up......I have 508! [which, by the way, has the first instalment of a story that has already appeared in Classics, about the 'turtlemen'.

However, I can at least offer up this one-off Christmas 1965 BEEZER 'Space Kids' tale in compensation: [I"m sure you will agree that the addition of limited colour adds a lot to the finished artwork: artwork by future JUDGE DREDD stalwart Ron Smith: as if you ever doubted that!] The Christmas 1965 issue is numbered 519 :[DEC 25 th, appropriately enough.]Hope your son likes it.......sorry it isn't the missing two chapters.

These comics are really brittle and have to be handled like museum exhibits! Still, I got 16 issues for a measly 6 quid including postage, so I can't complain.......

[philcom55]

In honour of the festive season I'll try to put up the story's conclusion a page at a time over the coming week - somewhat in the manner of an advent calendar. Here to begin with is the beginning of the Space Kids episode from Beezer no.506 (Sep.25th 1965).



(...to be continued! )

- Phil Rushton