Wizard
Wizard
a.k.a.: Wizard and Rover
Publisher: D.C. Thomson
Format: Weekly anthology
First Issue: Wizard#1 (14th February 1970)
Last Issue: 24th June 1978 (#437, unnumbered)
Absorbed: The Rover (as of 20th January 1973 - unnumbered #154; reverted to just being The Wizard from 10th March 1973 - unnumbered #161)
Absorbed into: Victor
Strips:
The Ace of Space; The
Amazing P.C. Starr; Ambling
Archie; Arny's Army; Away
Went Kelly; Baker's
Battling Bulldozer; The
Bang Boys; Barnaby Bear;
The Barrow Boy from Mars; Battle
Drive; The Battling Torpedo
Boats; Big-River Bill;
The Big Tree; Big
V Rules - OK; Billy Blunder;
Billy Cinders; Blackbeard;
The Black Eagles; The
Black Jaguar; The Black
Wings of Terror; Blade
of the Falcon; Blake's
Blenheim; Blast Out For
Crete!; Bomb Squad!; Bound for Botany Bay; Boyd's
Delivery Boys; The Boy from
Winter Island; The Boyhood
of Bernard Briggs; Braddock
VC; Bradley's Bowmen; Breakneck Bradshaw; Buffalo
Brave; The Busiest Bee in
Football; Cannonball
Kelly; Carter's War;
Cast-Iron Bill; Cast-Iron
Cribb; The
Castlebreakers; Cat and
Mouse; Chained to his
Sword; Chesil Charlie; Chopper Ace;
The Clutching Hand (comic strip); The
Clutching Hand (text story); Coach
Carson; Cocks of the Common;
El Condor - He Fights for Freedom!;
Cool Callaghan; Cool
Kragg, the Team-Maker; Coote's
Crocks; Cope's Crusaders; The Coral Island; Corn
Cob; Craven's Colours; The Crimson Claw; The
Crimson Crocodile; Danger
Divers; Dan Hollick Dog
Handler; Daroc of the Grey
Woods; Dawson's Deadbeats;
The Demon Dogs of Dartmoor; Dexter of D-Squad; Digby's
Deadbeats; Ding-Dong Bell;
Dixon of Disaster Squad; Doc
Croc; Dolphin of the Space
Patrol; Down the
Thunderhoof Trail; The Early
Days of...; The Egg; Eleven
Little Soccer Boys; Escape
from Crete; Explosives
Express; The Fiery Man at
Number Six; The Fighting
Fishboat; Fight or Burn;
Find the Forty Thieves; First
Top Hat in the West; Fists
of Vengeance; Five Bullets for
Idris the Cruel; Flash Harry;
Flint of the Fighting Fifth; Flipper Feet; The
Flying Cauldrons; The Flying
Tripehound; Follow That Man;
Frail Johnny Frail; Frankie
and Johnny; Freddy
Foster's Fighting Flops; Fred
the Frightener; The
Frightened Champion; From
Under the Sea They Came; The
Frozen Footballers; The
Frozen Man; The Gas-Bag
Grenadiers; Goals from Nowhere;
Grappler from Great Tor; Green
Lightning; The Green
Lizard; The Grey Ghosts;
The Grudge Fights of Clutcher Kane;
Here Comes Whack!; He
Was Only a Private Soldier; Hoodoo
on the Rangers; The
Hot-Rodders; The Hounds of
Hangman's Peak; Huck McFee;
Humpy Bumpy, the Fighting Camel;
Hunter's War; I
Hunted Hitler!; Inspector
Bonehead; Inspector
Jellicoe's Casebook; Ironfist;
The Iron Three; It's
Only Zeke; Jaguar Jones;
Jake Jeffords; The
Jinx on Big Joe; Joe for
Champ; Johnny Modesty; Johnny Winchester; The
Jungle Fox; Jungle Joe;
Jungle-Trail Jansen; Kari
- Lord of the Swords; Keep
'em Moving!; Keeper of the
Sword; The Killers of Kima;
King Solomon's Mines; Kronk - King of the Emus; The
Lancers from the Lost Valley; Larsen;
Last Bus from Brussels; Last
Bus from Burma; The Last Dog
Out of Dunkirk; Lawman Logan;
Len, Ben and a Bren; The
Line of the Fox; Lockmaster
Locke; Logan of the Lancers;
Lonely Woods; The
Loner; Longlegs, the Desert
Wild Boy; The Lost Boy of
Redman's Rock; The Lost 47
Minutes; The Lost Years of
Lonely Martin; Mac of the
Lion Men; Madoc
of the Mountains; Malaky;
The Man from No-Man's Land; The Man from USH; The
Man Who Shot the West; March
of the Mammoths; The Mask of
Goorah; Mendoza the Great;
Mississippi Mickey; Mister
Meek - The Tombstone Terror; The
Monsters from Wave Rock; Morgyn
the Mighty; The Motorbike
Mountie; Muggins; Mulligan
and his Mules; Mulligan's
Misfits; Mulligan's Mule; The Murdoch Challenge; My
Number is Nine!; The
Mystery Man in Joe's Team; The
Mystery Striker; News -
Hunter Hunt; O'Hara the Para;
Old Smokey - The Ten Ton Goldmine;
Out of the Ice He Came; Ossie
the Wizard; Outback Billy;
The Outcast; Outcast
of Botany Bay; ... Patrol;
Paul of the Tall Pines; Payne's
Pioneers; Perfect Parker;
Phantom of the Stadium; The
Place of the Fights; Poor Young
Joe; Power the Danger
Ranger; Private Noah's Ark;
Raiders of the Shifting Sands;
The Raven Talks; The
Red Rangers; The Red Reiver;
Return of the Clutching Hand;
The River Raiders; Romsey
the Rope Man; Run for
Your Life; Run Paul, - Run;
The Saddle Tramps; Sapper
Samson; The Scarlet
Scorpions; Scrappy, A Boy
All Alone; The Secret War of
Deep 16; Seek the Seven
Snakes; Send for the
Equaliser; Sheriff of
Rockabye County; Shinguard
Smith; The Shiny Ninth; Sign of the Shark; The
Silver Horse; Simon Gaunt;
Simpson; Simple
Simons; Skipper Willie;
Slave of the Ring; Sling-Shot
Sam; Slocum of the Six Knives;
Soldiers of the Jet Age; Son
of a Gun; Son of the Lost
Champion; South of
Cataract 5; Spearmen of the
Night; Spywatcher; Stories of Stanton Town; The
Strange Case of Corporal Kite; Target
Big Top; Striker Bell; Strongbow; Survival;
Sweeper Swann; Table
Tennis Tough; The Team That
Lost At Home; Terror in
the Tall Tower; The Terrors
of Iceberg Bay; There
Was a Soldier; The 13
Quests of John Landon; Tich the
Mighty; Tiger McTaggart;
Tiger of the Big Tank; Tin-Can
Tommy; Trained to Ruin the
Rangers; Trainer MacReddy
and his Wee Black Bag; Trooper
Bo-Peep; Typhoon Tennyson;
Valley of Fear and Fists; Valley of Silence; Vengeance
With a Smile; The Voice That
Ran the Rangers; Waif of the
Speedway; Wandering Walter;
Wanklyn of the Upholder; War
Bow!; The War Dogs of Kwang;
War March of the Ants; The
Warrior Breed; Was It The
Gorilla?; Wayland Smith;
When the Green Mists Came; The White Hand; Whizz
Kid; The Wide-Awake Wanderers;
Wild McFee, Willie's
Woolly Warrior, The
Winged Warriors of Flame Island; Wiz
the Whizz; Wolf Boy ;
Wolf of Kabul; Wonder
Man; The Wriggling Wrecker;
Year of the Shark Men.
Comments: D.C. Thomson's original Wizard had been a long-running story paper that launched in 1923 and ended with a merger into The Rover in 1963. In 1970 D.C. Thomson decided to reuse the name and launched a comic version of Wizard. Despite having (imho) no real stand out stories, it lasted a respectable eight years and 437 issues, during which run it ironically absorbed The Rover, the title that had previously devoured Wizard's namesake predecessor; in the end, the 1970s Wizard was itself absorbed into Victor.
At the start of its run The Wizard included a thirteen page interior section entitled The Wizard Football Special, with strips and features focused on the game in question, and it frequently proclaimed this feature as a selling point for the title. Whether because someone eventually decided it wasn't shifting any extra issues, or because it was felt to restrict storytelling options, the last issue to identify any pages as part of the Football Special was #101; football strips would continue to appear, but they were no longer promoted as being their own subsection of the comic. Additionally, while predominately a comic strip title, The Wizard included short text stories throughout its early run.
Because there were so many strips over the course of Wizard's run, rather than feature them all below I've had to break them into groups by year. So click on the links to see what strips debuted each year:
First Posted: 06/11/2023
Last updated: 01/05/2024
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