MIGHTY MOTH'S WINTER & HOLIDAY SPECIALS... ~ Comics Live Updates

MIGHTY MOTH is probably one of the earliest comic strip characters I remember from childhood, maybe even the earliest. I first saw him in the 1962 or '63 TV COMIC Holiday Special while either holidaying (aptly enough) in Ayr (I think), or perhaps only on a day trip. The title of the comic didn't register with me, nor did the name of the character (though I was aware he was a moth) - it was artist DICK MILLINGTON's style which made an impression. A year or two later, while thumbing through a weekly issue of TV Comic in a newsagent's, that style jumped out at me and, although I didn't become a regular reader of the periodical until the late '70s, I did buy the occasional issue over the years up until then.

It was because ol' Mighty reconnected me to an earlier time in my life that I bought the Winter Special bearing his name towards the end of 1980. That's it above, the very same one which I've now owned for just over 38 years - wow! I only found out that there was also a 1981 Holiday Special a few short years ago and have been trying to obtain one ever since. (I featured an image of it in a couple of posts some years back, but it was 'borrowed' from eBay.) I'm now glad to be able to say that my very own copy arrived yesterday, thereby completing my two-issue set. At least, I only know of two, so if anyone has any info about other issues, I'd appreciate you letting me know.

I've just read (or re-read in the case of the first one) both comics over the last couple of days, and my already huge regard for Dick Millington's talent and appreciation of Mighty Moth has increased to even greater proportions in the process. I derived a goodly portion of laugh-out-loud moments from the strips, and Dick's deceptively simple style possesses a really funny visual quality that is quite impressive. To get a laugh from just looking at a picture suggests that it must be good, and there are quite a few of them in these two publications. It's possible that I never knew Dick's name until I saw it on his HAPPY FAMILIES newspaper strip, which means I was an adult (allegedly) before I could put a name to the artist.

Mighty Moth had the same basic premise as the FRANKIE STEIN strip in WHAM! (and later comics), in that 'dad' was always trying to get rid of the one who inadvertently plagued (but loved) him. In Mighty's case, he sometimes deliberately tried to annoy dad (usually in revenge for dad's hostility), but this was merely in service to a story, and, in fact, he often seemed to regard dad and his wife as actual parents. Anyway, in celebration of me finally having both Mighty Moth Specials, below are a handful of strips to hopefully provide you all with a few chuckles. I wish REBELLION would acquire the rights to the character and issue a series of collected editions - The COMPLETE MIGHTY MOTH. Sounds good to me.

Look at the third panel in the third tier - little Mighty sits like a happy kid next to
his 'dad' on the way to the seaside. That pic of Mighty made me laugh out loud