When I was young lad in the early 1980’s I would avidly read my Nana’s women’s magazines for those three panels of Mandrake the Magician in The Australian Woman’s Weekly and the Star Wars newspaper strip in the New Zealand Women’s Weekly. By the mid nineties I was a fully grown adult and had discarded childish pursuits such as comics and skateboarding and thus missed the Channel Eleven comic that featured in New Idea magazine for several months during 1995. I’m not too familiar with Australian television but I believe it is a soap opera based around fictitious characters who interact with Australian celebrities of the time. I can find no mention of this comic online but Google tells me scripter Adrian S. Tame is a veteran reporter and author whilst artist Vasja Koman is a Slovenian educated Illustrator and Melbourne resident.

I suspect there is a largely undocumented history of Australasian comics featured in magazines and newspapers published during the 20th century. Australia in particular had many comic serials created by comics professionals that appeared solely in magazines and newspapers. Many of these strips were collected in comics form but I am constantly discovering many were not. Mike Manly was serialised in Women’s Day during 1954. Written by Ivan Southall (1921 - 2008) and illustrated by Peter James, Mike Manly involved a young Australian scientist who creates a ray that enables him to do anthing he wishes, this leads to conflict with evil government powers. Ivan Southall was a prolific and popular writer of young adult fiction and as far as I know this was his only contribution to Australian comics.