Tim Traveller was a British comic strip created by

Vic Neill Vic Neill (24 November 1941 - 24 December 1999) was a British cartoonist who drew for D.C. Thomson and I.P.C.'s comics. His first notable comic work was on Sparky strip Peter Piper. In 1969, he replaced Dudley Dexter Watkins on Topper cover s ...

and published in the British comics magazine ''

The Beano ''The Beano'' (formerly ''The Beano Comic'', also known as ''Beano'') is a British anthology comic magazine created by Scottish publishing company DC Thomson. Its first issue was published on 30 July 1938, and it became the world's longest-run ...

''. He first appeared in issue 2862, dated 24 May 1997, as part of a continuing set of six new comic strips where the one with the most votes would be voted into the comic by readers.

Concept

The first strip featured Tim looking for a bicycle in the town dump, and finding an unusual one. Pulling a dial at the front he was transported to

caveman The caveman is a stock character representative of primitive humans in the Paleolithic. The popularization of the type dates to the early 20th century, when Neanderthals were influentially described as "simian" or " ape-like" by Marcellin Bo ...

times, at which point he realised the bike could travel through time. He and

Crazy for Daisy Crazy for Daisy was a British comic strip published in the magazine ''The Beano ''The Beano'' (formerly ''The Beano Comic'', also known as ''Beano'') is a British anthology comic magazine created by Scottish publishing company DC Thomso ...

were the joint winners of the poll, beating Camp Cosmos, Have a Go Jo, Sydd and Trash Can Ally. It was drawn by

until his death in 2000. However, Neill strips continued to run for some time in the comic as they had been stockpiled. Once these had run out,

Keith Reynolds Keith Reynolds (born 25 December 1963) is a British former cyclist. Following national success as a junior where he won the season long National Junior Road Series in 1981, he competed in the team time trial event at the 1984 Summer Olympics. ...

drew it up to 2004 when the strip was dropped. Only 5 strips appeared in the character's final twelve months in the comic. In the 2003

Beano annual ''The Beano Annual'' is the current name of the book that has been published every year since 1939, to tie in with the children's comic ''The Beano''. there have been 84 editions. The annuals are traditionally published in July or August, in t ...

, his strip was drawn by

Richard Elson Richard Elson (born 1962) is a British people, British comic book artist best known for his work on ''Sonic the Comic'', ''2000 AD (comics), 2000 AD'' and ''Thor (Marvel comics), Thor''. Biography Richard Elson is a fine art graduate with over ...

. Tim Traveller would use his bicycle to travel back and forth in time, encountering all sorts of crazy mishaps, occasionally getting in so much trouble he had to rush back to the present day to avoid it. Some of his trips resulted in him causing or learning the truth about various historical mysteries, such as why the

Leaning Tower of Pisa The Leaning Tower of Pisa ( it, torre pendente di Pisa), or simply, the Tower of Pisa (''torre di Pisa'' ), is the ''campanile'', or freestanding bell tower, of Pisa Cathedral. It is known for its nearly four-degree lean, the result of an unst ...

leaned (it fell over in an earthquake and Tim only managed to partly pull it back into position) or what happened to the crew of the ''

Mary Celeste ''Mary Celeste'' (; often erroneously referred to as Marie Celeste) was an American-registered merchant brigantine, best known for being discovered adrift and deserted in the Atlantic Ocean off the Azores Islands on December 4, 1872. The Cana ...

'' (Tim visited the ship and fell into a large fish, appearing to the crew as a sea monster, causing them to dive overboard).

Sources

Beano strips British comic strips British comics characters 1997 comics debuts Comics characters introduced in 1997 Child characters in comics Gag-a-day comics Comics about time travel Cycling comics {{UK-comics-stub