The Magic Comic was the ill fated third comic to The Beano and The Dandy. It was aimed at a younger audience, with more emphasis on picture stories. The first issue was published on 22 July 1939. The comic ran for only 80 issues until 25 January 1941.[1] Paper rationing due to the outbreak of World War II was to blame for its demise.
Two annuals, named The Magic Fun Book, were also published in 1941 and 1942. From 1942 to 1949, The Magic Comic would share its annual with The Beano, under the title, The Magic-Beano Book. The cover star was Koko the Pup who would later team up with Big Eggo in the Magic-Beano Books between 1943 and 1950 in the story named Eggo and Koko.
A first issue of The Magic comic was sold on eBay in February 2006 for £1,250 to a collector, and it was one of only 6 copies known to exist. A 'Very Fine' copy was also sold in 1997 for £2,975.
On 31 January 1976 DC Thomson revived the comic.[2] This comic would go onto last until 1979. [3] This new comic was aimed at younger audience than The Beano and Dandy and was more of a pre-school comic than the earlier Magic comic. The comic was loosely concerned with magic of all kinds. Even though this new comic is considered a revival it contained none of the characters that appeared in the earlier Magic comic. However it did contain characters from The Beano with a spinoff of Biffo the Bear involving his two nephews named Cuddly and Dudley appearing in the new comic.