The wrath of the Jelly Men …….. comic terrors no.1 …… 1960

In truth I wasn’t frightened of the Jelly Men ….. more just fascinated.

They appeared one day in the Beezer sometime in 1960 as an invading force.

They came out of the sea and had the power to trap people, animals, vehicles and even buildings in giant bubbles which were blown from their tentacles.

Just where they originally came from, their real purpose and their eventual fate are now lost in time.

And here I have a confession which D.C Thompson who published the comic may well shudder at, but the Beezer and its comic pal the Topper were not my first choice. 

That fell to the Beano and Dandy, and years later when our own children came along, our Ben got the Beano and Josh the Dandy.

Almost thirty-nine years later Ben still gets the Beano annual in his Christmas stocking.

And as I am in to confession in that great league table of comics I have to admit that the Eagle triumphed over all of them.

But this is about the Jelly Men and the heroic struggle by a group of school children to defeat them, and what a titanic struggle it became.

The Beezer reported that “Edinburgh! London! North, South, East, West – Britain is overrun by The Jelly Men”, filling the page with images of a television broadcaster describing scenes of horror as they wade ashore in Scotland, are fished up by trawler men, derail trains and imprison news vendors, as well as soldiers guarding Buckingham Palace, and interrupting a football match by encasing the goalkeeper in a bubble. 

I should have spotted the clue in a trailer the comic ran on January 22nd, which took the reader deep into the ocean,  offering up that “There are few places on this Earth where Man has not set foot. 

The highest mountain, the deepest jungle and the frozen wasteland.  

All have been explored, their mysteries laid bare.  But one area remains unconquered.  

It is the mysterious floor of the World’s deepest oceans. 

Wearing special diving suits man has invaded the home of the shark, the swordfish and lower still the giant ray. 

In enormously strong steel chambers, he has penetrated even farther into the bark depths.  But beyond in the inky blackness undisturbed for centuries who know what form of life may exist.  Perhaps strange creatures like THE JELLY MEN?”

So I now know what happened to them but as yet not their fate.

But here the kind archivist at D.C Thompson may take pity and trawl the old copies of the Beezer for the answer.

He was kind enough to help me get permission to use images of The Jelly Men and I rather think on a cold December day he might enjoy finding out for me.

That said the strip first appeared in 1960, ran to five series of which the fourth in 1985 was a reprint.*

Location; Britain in 1960

Pictures; The Jelly Men, 1960, courtesy of DC Thomson & Co Ltd"

* List of Beezer comic strips, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Beezer_comic_strips