Tim Traveller was a British comic strip created by
Vic Neill and published in the British comics magazine ''
The Beano''. He first appeared in issue 2862, dated 24 May 1997, as part of a continuing set of six new comic strips where the one with the most votes would be voted into the comic by readers.
Concept
The first strip featured Tim looking for a
bicycle
A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike, push-bike or cycle, is a human-powered transport, human-powered or motorized bicycle, motor-assisted, bicycle pedal, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, with two bicycle wheel, wheels attached to a ...
in the town dump, and finding an unusual one. Pulling a dial at the front he was transported to
caveman times, at which point he realised the bike could travel through time. He and
Crazy for Daisy were the joint winners of the poll, beating
Camp Cosmos,
Have a Go Jo,
Sydd and
Trash Can Ally. It was drawn by
Vic Neill until his death in 2000. However, Neill strips continued to run for some time in the comic as they had been stockpiled. Once these had run out,
Keith Reynolds drew it up to 2004 when the strip was dropped. Only 5 strips appeared in the character's final twelve months in the comic. In the 2003
Beano annual, his strip was drawn by
Richard Elson.
Tim Traveller would use his bicycle to travel back and forth in time, encountering all sorts of crazy mishaps, occasionally getting in so much trouble he had to rush back to the present day to avoid it. Some of his trips resulted in him causing or learning the truth about various historical mysteries, such as why the
Leaning Tower of Pisa leaned (it fell over in an earthquake and Tim only managed to partly pull it back into position) or what happened to the crew of the ''
Mary Celeste'' (Tim visited the ship and fell into a large fish, appearing to the crew as a sea monster, causing them to dive overboard).
The character was revived briefly in 2019 this time written by
Tommy Donbavand.
Sources
Beano strips
British comic strips
British comics characters
1997 comics debuts
Comics characters introduced in 1997
Child characters in comics
Comics about children
Gag-a-day comics
Comics about time travel
Cycling comics
Comics set in the United Kingdom
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