Agro, Moonie's Magic Mate

Real Name: Mohammed Ben Gulam Al Zarik Chuprassi

Identity/Class: Genie

Occupation: Genie

Affiliations: Barry Moon

Enemies: Khan

Known Relatives: None.

Aliases: None.

Base of Operations: U.K.

First Appearance: Smash! ("Moonie's Magic Mate", 27 June 1970 - 3 April 1971, Smash! Annual 1972)

Powers/Abilities: Agro can grant wishes, but can only act when commanded (for example there is one instance where he is being attacked by another genie, and is unable to retaliate at all until Barry commands him. Among the things we see him do is transform people into giants, turn a carpet into a flying one, change the shape of others, and so on. If the neck of his bottle is blocked while he is inside, then he is trapped.

History: Barry Moon came across an old bottle, which turned out to contain a genie. Barry called the genie "Agro" because he lost his temper easily.

(Untitled, Smash! Annual 1972.) A chance comment Barry makes while out shopping has Agro whisking him off on a flying carpet to ancient Persia. There he runs into another lad with a genie, and Agro and Khan (the other genie) engage in a magical battle. It ends in stalemate, but the two boys part as friends. Agro returns Barry to his own time and place, without anyone noticing his absence.

Comments: At first I believed this to be a modernised version of My Pal Baggy Pants, with Agro being Baggy Pants, and Barry Moon being Johnny Grant. The previous strip in the Dandy was a humour strip, while Moonie's Magic Mate was played as being half humour, half adventure strip. However the creator of this strip, Angus Allen, has been in touch to say "No, not a copy of any DC Thomson stuff - although the idea was hardly blindingly original. I dreamed up the whole thing after a suggestion from Gil Page, the editor. Barry Moon was in fact an in-joke. The real-life Barry was one of the sons of the famous Moon family, publicans in the Fleet Street area. They originally ran the Falcon, a press pub known to all journalists as Number Ten, that stood in Fetter Lane. At the time of Moonie's Magic Mate (with which the Moon family were delighted), they were running the Falstaff Dive Bar in Fleet Street itself. I wrote all the stories, both strip and text, comic and annuals."

In the 1972 Smash Annual he fought another genie called Khan, who was under the command of an Arab boy.

CLARIFICATIONS: Not to be confused with

Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.

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