Another look at publications that were launched on the same date…
(As always, of course, we’re going by cover-dates, not the days on which the comics appeared on the shelves, which is data that we almost never know.)
Roy of the Rovers (IPC)
First issue: 25 September 1976
Last issue: 20 March 1993
Issues: 851
This was a spin-off from the sports-themed Tiger, which meant that footballer Roy Race already had a twenty-two year career before he got his own title. Six months after its demise, Roy of the Rovers was revived as a monthly title. That version only lasted for nineteen issues (Sep 1993 to Mar 1995), but it all adds up to forty-and-a-half years.
I don’t know much about football but I did see Jerry Maguire from which I learned that athletes don’t expect to have very long careers, so well done Roy.
The character was subsequently rebooted in 2018 after Rebellion acquired the rights.
Spellbound (1976) (DC Thomson)
First issue: 25 September 1976
Last issue: 14 January 1978
Issues: 69
Absorbed into: Debbie
Ah, Spellbound! A spooky comic for girls that predated IPC’s similarly-themed Misty by a couple of years… In fact, Misty landed on the shelves only a few weeks after Spellbound was cancelled, which means that Misty was already in production at the same time as the Spellbound staff were looking around for other work.
Sadly — a few titles aside — DC Thomson never seems to have really grasped the value of reprinting their older material. To the best of my knowledge there’s been only one Spellbound reprint volume published so far.
See: DC Thomson Comics Timeline
Cancelled on the same date:
The Union Jack (1880) — Sampson Low/Cecil Brooks, 1 Jan 1880 to 25 Sep 1883, 193 issues, relaunched as The Union Jack Library
Sunday Companion — Amalgamated Press/Fleetway, 14 Jul 1894 to 25 Sep 1971, 4029 issues (estimated)
TV 21 & Joe 90 — City Magazines/IPC, 27 Sep 1969 to 25 Sep 1971, 105 issues, absorbed into Valiant
Jet — IPC, 1 May 1971 to 25 Sep 1971, 22 issues, absorbed into Buster
