''Tin-Can Tommy'' (The Clockwork Boy) was a

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

in the UK

comic a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

'' The Beano'', featuring Tommy, the clockwork 'son' of Professor Lee and his wife. It first appeared on the back page of issue 1, dated 30 July 1938, where we learn that it was built due to the death of their own son a year earlier (a concept which predates '' Astro Boy''). A few years later came the addition of a clockwork sister called Babe, a pet cat called Clanky, and a horse called Ironsides. The strip was created by the Italian Dinelli brothers, but they disappeared in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

at the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The strip was taken over by one of DC Thomson's own artists after issue 69 with new strips being drawn by Sam Fair, Charles Gordon and

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. The strip continued until issue No 303 in 1947. In issue 3185 (dated August 2003) Tin Can Tommy met Bea, Dennis the Menace's baby sister for the comic's 65th anniversary.Beano issue 3185 a special 65th anniversary issue, dated 2 August 2003

References

External links

* http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article4333923.ece The fate of Tin-Can Tommy's original artist/writers British comic strips Beano strips 1938 comics debuts 1947 comics endings Child characters in comics Male characters in comics Fictional androids Gag-a-day comics British comics characters Comics characters introduced in 1935 {{UK-comics-stub