''Tin-Can Tommy'' (The Clockwork Boy) was a

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

in the UK comic '' The Beano'', featuring Tommy, the clockwork 'son' of Professor Lee and his wife. He first appeared on the back page of issue 1, dated 30 July 1938, where we learn that he was built due to the death of their own son a year earlier (a concept which predates ''

Astro Boy ''Astro Boy'', known in Japan as , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Osamu Tezuka. It was serialized in Kobunsha's ''Shōnen'' from 1952 to 1968. The 112 chapters were collected into 23 volumes by Akita Shoten. Da ...

''). A few years later came the addition of a clockwork sister called Babe, a pet cat called Clanky, and a horse called Ironsides. The strip was created by the Italian Dinelli brothers, but they disappeared in France at the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The strip was taken over by one of DC Thomson's own artists after issue 69 with new strips being drawn by Sam Fair, Charles Gordon and George Drysdale. The strip continued until issue No 303 in 1947. In issue 3185 (dated August 2003) Tin Can Tommy met Bea, Dennis the Menace's baby sister for the comic's 65th anniversary.Beano issue 3185 a special 65th anniversary issue, dated 2 August 2003

References

External links

The Times
The fate of Tin-Can Tommy's original artist/writers British comic strips Beano strips 1938 comics debuts 1947 comics endings Comics about children Child characters in comics Male characters in comics Robot characters in comics Fictional androids Gag-a-day comics British comics characters Comics characters introduced in 1935 {{UK-comics-stub