Free Gifts in Comics!

In the period I read comics (1960-73) I can recall some interesting Free gifts. I think it was `Pow` that you got that `gun` that fired cardboard (Circular) discs via elastic- that was good!

In about 1965 `TV Comic` gave away a booklet with which you could stick in six sets of TV & Pop star photos (As given free over the next six weeks) into. The photos of the Beatles were by far the most sought after of these!

Most of the free gifts I got were via `Sparky` comic which was the comic I got most regular! Two gifts stand out: firstly, the Sept 1967 `Target Tiddle-Winks` which, when turned over and lain flat had a Ludo game on the reverse side. Secondly, the Feb 1971 `Flicker Pics` a truly original device with which you could put either Hungry Horace, Puss N' Boots or I. Spy on to and whizz them around to produce a moving picture!

Of the IPC titles all I recall is Football phots and cards and being I wasn't a massive footie fan- not really interesting! I used to swap mine!

Anyone else recall innovative comic free gifts?

One that always puzzled me were the small mo0del aeroplane kits given away with the first couple of issues of Marvel UK's 'Complete Fantasti Four'. They seemed to have no relevance at all to the comic itself and were more the kind of gift I'd associate with Warlord or Victor!

I think my favourite gifts were the free rub-down transfers in issues #1-3 of Doctor Who Weekly (I used to love Letraset transfers) and the free 'Abslom Daak: Dalek Killer' flexidisc given away with Doctor Who Monthly.

Ah! You jogged my memory Tony! I did have some Victor comics in the 1960s (I was a big Alf Tupper fan) and recall one of those Balsa planes! They broke very easily-but were fun.

alanultron5 wrote:Ah! You jogged my memory Tony! I did have some Victor comics in the 1960s (I was a big Alf Tupper fan) and recall one of those Balsa planes! They broke very easily-but were fun.

The ones in Complete FF were plastic, but equally fragile.

I could never work out how Alf Tupper stayed in shape. His diet seemed to consist solely of fish and chips!

Alf was pretty unrealistic really, but fun! I never did find out if he ever did beat the one opponent who always pipped him to the finishing line - an east european fellow called Zandor! Alf's stumbling block in so many big races!

I vaguely recall Alf later teaming up with another Victor character- called Barry Biggs I think! Barry rode a motor bike and sidecar! Can't recall what they got up to!

Sounds like one of those unlikely pairings like Tiger's wrestling Red Indian Johnny Cougar and his swimming star sidekick Splash Gorton...

I remember the `Flip` Kangaroo and the `Bat` gifts in the first two issues of `Thunder` That comic was a big favourite of mine! It Spawned `Adam Eterno` perhaps its most famous creation!

I remember Adam Eterno, but not Thunder. did he appear somewhere else in the 70's? Valiant maybe, or Vulcan?

"Thunder" The comic Tony! Lasted from Oct 1970 to March 1971, was then incorporated into "Lion & Thunder"

The only confectionary I ever got as a free gift was one of those `fizz` bars given away when `Jet` began in May 1971.

I suppose from today's collectibility viewpoint I should have kept the bar - but in a moment of weakness back in `71` . . . . I scoffed it!!

`I suspect it would have been stale by now, anyway...