TARGET MISSED THE BULLSEYE...

Copyright relevant owner

TARGET, launched by NEW ENGLISH LIBRARY in April of 1972, was an odd periodical that didn't quite hit the target (spot the deliberate pun) with its intended audience - whoever they were meant to be.  Not quite a comic, not quite a magazine (aside from the format), it was neither one thing or the other and, at 10 pence, was ridiculously expensive compared to other weekly periodicals aimed at kids or teens.

I bought the mag for a while, but no longer recall exactly for how long or, indeed, how many issues there were.  (Just noticed that #50 is currently on sale on eBay.)  I remember a novel being given away over several issues in part form, and eventually I combined them into the finished 'book', but I couldn't now tell you what it was called or who it was by.  The free gift in the first issue was a sachet of the 'powder of life', which I suspect was the same as the 'Sea Monkeys' advertised in American comics.

In fact, I emptied it into a beer tumbler full of water, and after a few days (or was it weeks?  I can no longer recall), little, almost microscopic creatures could be seen swimming around.  Sadly, I had to pour them down the sink when we went on holiday that year, as there was no way I could let them starve while I was away for a fortnight.  I like to think that they survived and made their way to freedom.

The mag had some comic strip content (two humour and two action/adventure strips), probably the most notable being BOVVER BOY, perhaps the inspiration for a similar character that appeared in OINK! then BUSTER almost 15 years later, but the artwork never really grabbed me.  Then there was L'S ANGELS, which confirmed my suspicion that the mag's publishers were trying just a little too hard to be different and also (to use a far later expression) 'down wiv the kids'.  What with fashion and 'problem' pages, it seemed to be borrowing a leaf out of mags for girls, like JACKIE, etc.  Were boys into fashion back then?  I know I wasn't.  (Nor am I today.)

Anyway, having recently acquired this replacement for my original, long-discarded first issue, I though I'd show you some of the contents.  Did you buy this mag in your youth, and if so, what are your memories of it?  Tell all in the comments section.

Looks like this page may originally have been in colour.  A reprint from somewhere?

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On a personal level, this particular issue causes problems for me, memory-wise, because we moved house just a couple of months after I bought my original copy, but had I not seen the date of 1972 inside this replacement mag, I'd have assumed it came out in '70 or '71, as it feels like there was a much longer period of time between me buying it and us flitting.  I also can't remember where we went on holiday that year, though as I said, I recall reluctantly pouring my powder of life creatures down the sink in advance of our departure.  Could it be that we holidayed in Largs in '72 instead of '71?  But if so, where then did we holiday in '71?

Or perhaps we may have gone away somewhere earlier, in May, instead of June or July.  Another possible explanation is that, as we flitted houses halfway through June of '72, my parents might have cancelled our holiday at the last minute, as the cost of moving on top of a holiday would probably have made a dent in their finances, especially if the opportunity and decision to flit was a sudden one.  Will I ever really know?  Will you ever really care?  (I think we all know the answer to that one.)

Another thing that strikes me as curious is that, although I was probably still buying at least the odd issue of VALIANT & TV21, LION & THUNDER, and TV ACTION (the latter on a weekly basis) at the same time as Target, it seems to stand in isolation in my memory, with no association in my mind to any other comics I was then getting.  Maybe it came out on a different day to the others and, because I purchased it by itself, that's why it occupies its own compartment in my recollections?  Or perhaps because it wasn't really the same kind of publication as other comics, I just don't think of it as belonging with them?  Again, who knows or cares, apart from myself?  And perhaps that's how it should be.