Jimmy and his Magic Patch

Jimmy and his Magic Patch
Comic strip character(s) from The Beano
Publication information
Creator(s)	Dudley D. Watkins
First appearance	Issue 222 (January 1, 1944)
Last appearance	1959
Also appeared in	The Beano Annual
Current status	Discontinued
Main Character
Name	Jimmy Watson

Jimmy and His Magic Patch was a British comic strip published in the British comics magazine The Beano in 1944. It was drawn by Dudley D. Watkins and later continued by Paddy Brennan until 1959. The comics were drawn in a realistic style and were published in a text comics format, with the text and dialogues below the images.

Concept

The comics series focused on a boy named Jimmy, who had a magic patch on the seat of his trousers that transported him to wherever he wished to go. He mostly used it for time travel. Jimmy earned this patch for rescuing an old gypsy lady's cat from a dog. Due to this action the bottom off his trousers was ripped and the lady fixed them with a piece of material cut from a magic carpet. In the first story Jimmy discovers the magical powers of the patch when he wished he had lived during the time of Sir Francis Drake and his battle against the Spanish Armada. During his time travels Jimmy met historical characters such as Odysseus, Alfred the Great, Florence Nightingale, George Stephenson, as well as more legendary and/or fantastical characters such as Robin Hood, Sinbad the Sailor and William Tell.

Reprints

The story was reprinted in Dandy Beano: 50 Golden Years in 1988, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the two comics. It has also appeared in subsequent sequels to the book, and in Classics from the Comics.

In popular culture

In post-war Britain some British school children referred to patches on their pants as "our jimmy and his magic patch".