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The Adventures of Twizzle: TV Land - 1960-61
 The Adventures of Twizzle was already close to being three years old when it made its debut as a comic strip. Its follow-up series Torchy the Battery Boy had already been run in the North and Midlands in 1959, and made its debut on the London-based Associated-Rediffusion early the following year. But it was Gerry Anderson and Arthur Provis' production company A.P.Films' Four Feather Falls, which stole the strip limelight from Roberta Leigh by being the first of the three to appear, in TV Comic, scant weeks after its television debut.
It would not seem unfair speculation to suggest that Roberta Leigh perhaps saw the Four Feather Falls strip, and set about getting her own published fairly quickly. TV Comic already possessed a glut of puppet adventures, a pedigree going back to Muffin the Mule, so it was Fleetway and Harold Hare's Own Paper which provided a home for Torchy the Battery Boy. But TV Publications obviously relented and saw merit enough in The Adventures of Twizzle to make it the main cover strip for a new comic launched that autumn.
TV Comic, along with the recently renamed TV Express, covered a broad range of strips based on successful television series but TV Comic was rapidly becoming outgrowing some of its readers. As adverts for the new TV Land pointed out (see advert below), it was aimed at 'under sevens'. Larry the Lamb and Tony Hart's Packi the White Elephant were moved to the new comic, and strips based on other television series such as Brock and Bruin, Tum and Yogi Bear were all brought under the editorship of Small Time's Pussy Cat Willum.
For all bar the first and last strips of its 26 week run. Twizzle occupied the front and back pages in full colour. The artist enigmatically signed the work with a stylised 'TR' but when Twizzle ended its run to be replaced by Chippy, (based on another puppet series), the same artist was retained. The strips were now occasionally signed by 'R. Tyndall', full name Robert Tyndall, an illustrator well known for working on the Enid Blyton books, and who would later draw the Larry the Lamb comic strip.
The Adventures of Twizzle strip guide
Written by Roberta Leigh. Artist: Robert Tyndall. Colour*.
Issue 1, 01 October 1960
Footso gets stuck up a tree while picking apples, and Twizzle has to get him down.
Notes: For this first issue, the strip is on the back page only.
Issue 2, 08 October 1960
Jiffy the broomstick man doesn't have a house so Twizzle and Footso build him one.
Notes: From this issue onwards, the strip occupies the front and back pages, and remain so until the last but one instalment.
Issue 3, 15 October 1960
Twizzle. Footso and Jiffy visit a toy factory and rescue Candy Floss, a Mama Doll who can't say 'Mama' from the basement.
Notes: This strip would appear to adapted from the episode 'Twizzle and the Broken Down Toy', which was also loosely adapted as 'Twizzle Saves A Doll' in the book Twizzle's Adventure Stories by Roberta Leigh, and published by Birn Brothers in 1958.
Issue 4, 22 October 1960
Golliwog is skating on the ice and falls in, but when Twizzle pulls him out and dries him, he has turned white so they name him 'Chawky'.
Notes: This strip would appear to adapted from the episode 'Twizzle and the Golliwog', which was also loosely adapted as 'The White Faced Golly' in the book Twizzle's Adventure Stories by Roberta Leigh.
Issue 5, 29 October 1960
Candy Floss makes toffee but Chawky falls in the bowl and gets covered in it. So the other toys eat it off of him.
Notes: This strip would appear to adapted from the episode 'Twizzle and Candy Floss Open A Cake Shop'.
Issue 6, 05 November 1960
Footso wants a fish and gets stuck in the freezer at the fish shop.
Notes: This strip would appear to adapted from the episode 'Footso Disappears'.
Issue 7, 12 November 1960
Jiffy helps Twizzle to clean his breakdown van but mischievous Chawky puts glue in the back. Jiffy's bristle hair gets stuck in it, and is pulled out.
Reprinted: TV Playland Annual 1966
Issue 8, 19 November 1960
An old man sees Twizzle stretching his arms to get an apple from a tree, and takes him to do tricks which people pay to see.
Issue 9, 26 November 1960
Jiffy is lonely, and goes to live with Twizzle and Footso, but he is too tall for the furniture and bed.
Issue 10, 03 December 1960
Twizzle buys Candy Floss a new watch for her birthday but it ticks so loudly it disturbs Footso, who breaks it in anger.
Reprinted: TV Playland Annual 1966
Issue 11, 10 December 1960
It is hot so Jiffy flies off to get ice cream for his friends.
 Issue 12, 17 December 1960
The toys are playing see-saw but Chawky jumps on one end, flinging Candy Floss into a tree (right).
Issue 13, 24 December 1960
Chawky eats the Christmas pudding Candy Floss is preparing, and puts snow in the cloth to hide the fact but when it melts he is found out.
Issue 14, 31 December 1960
Twizzle, Footso, Jiffy and Chawky set up a tree for Christmas but when Footso tries to decorate it he gets stuck on top.
Notes: From this issue, TV Land is promoted on the masthead as 'Companion to TV Comic and TV Express'.
Issue 15, 07 January 1961
Twizzle builds a boat, and he and Jiffy go sailing on a lake.
Issue 16, 14 January 1961
Twizzle and Footso decide Stray Town should have a flag. But when Candy Floss makes it she unwittingly sews her skirt into it and is hoisted up the flagpole.
Issue 17, 21 January 1961
Twizzle and Footso decide Stray Town should have a library but when Footso reads about fish in one, he borrows ALL the books to find out more!
Issue 18, 28 January 1961
When it snows, Twizzle's breakdown truck gets buried so a garage is built to protect it.
Reprinted: TV Playland Annual 1966
Notes: Robert Tyndall draws Twizzle's van without its characteristic boxing glove.
Issue 19, 04 February 1961
The toys enjoy sledging in the snow but when Jiffy flies to pull them up the hill again Chawky is carried into a tree.
Issue 20, 11 February 1961
Jiffy offers to fly Twizzle and Footso back to the shops but when the wind blows thay are all blown down Twizzle's cabin chimney!
Issue 21, 18 February 1961
Chawky takes an egg from a bird's nest, which Candy Floss thinks is naughty so Twizzle and Candy Floss play a trick to stop him from doing it again.
Issue 22, 25 February 1961
When Chawky tells Jiffy he is skinny, he tries muscle building to make himself bigger.
Issue 23, 04 March 1961
When soot falls down Twizzle's chimney, he gets Jiffy to help him clean it. But then Jiffy gets stuck...
Reprinted: TV Playland Annual 1966
Issue 24, 11 March 1961
The Mayor of Tweedle town gives a fancy dress ball for the toys of stray town, but Jiffy's smart suit is ruined in a puddle so Twizzle suggests he go as a scarecrow.
Issue 25, 18 March 1961
Chawky is given a paintbox for his birthday but when he runs out of paper he starts to draw and paint all over Stray Town, so Twizzle makes him clean it all up.
Issue 26, 25 March 1961
Mrs Fudge has run out of Easter Eggs so Twizzle buys cardboard eggshells, and melts his own chocolate into them to make eggs for all the other toys.
Notes: For this last strip, the strip is on the back page only.
*The cost of obtaining colour reproductions from archives has meant we are only able to show images from issue 1, and the reprints from the TV Playland Annual 1966, in colour. If anyone can assist with images of any of the other strips, please contact us.
Like the Torchy strip, it was assumed the young readers were sufficiently familiar with the series not to have to introduce the main characters. But secondary characters such as Chawky the white-faced Golliwog and Candy Floss made their debut in strips which were brief reworkings of actual episodes, something Roberta Leigh had already done successfully for the book Twizzle's Adventure Stories a couple of years previously.
In addition to its prime position as cover strip, Twizzle also featured as part of the free gift that ran in the first issues. As this advert from sister publication TV Comic shows (above), a colour television show with cut-out and stand-up figures of Twizzle, Footso and other characters from the series was included, and the next three issues came with similar figures from Packi, Brock and Bruin, and Tum.
A TV Land Annual appeared in the autumn of 1961, but as the Twizzle strip was drawing to a close at the time of production, no further strips were included in the edition. Four of the Twizzle strips were reprinted in the TV Playland Annual 1966 (the title having been changed from TV Land from the 1964 edition to reflect its younger readership), with Twizzle himself on the cover with all the other characters from the annual having a ride in his breakdown van.
Version 1.2 - 15.09.05
Any comments or notes about any of the strips, please contact technodelic@blueyonder.co.uk.
All text © The Gerry Anderson Complete Comic History, and its respective writers, and may not be reproduced without permission.
All images © their respective copyright holders
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