Tim Traveller was a fictional character

Fictional character

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 and comic strip

Comic strip

A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....

 in the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 comic

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 The Beano

The Beano

The Beano is a British children's comic, published by D.C. Thomson & Co and is arguably their most successful.The comic first appeared on 30 July 1938, and was published weekly. During the Second World War,The Beano and The Dandy were published on alternating weeks because of paper and ink...

. He first appeared in issue 2862, dated 24 May 1997, as part of a continuing set of six new comic strips where the one with the most votes would be voted into the comic by readers.

The first strip featured Tim looking for a bicycle

Bicycle

A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....

 in the town dump, and finding an unusual one. Pulling a dial at the front he was transported to caveman

Caveman

A caveman or troglodyte is a stock character based upon widespread concepts of the way in which early prehistoric humans may have looked and behaved...

 times, at which point he realised the bike could travel through time. He and Crazy for Daisy

Crazy for Daisy

Crazy for Daisy was a comic strip in the UK comic The Beano. First appearing in issue 2865, dated 14 June 1997, it was part of an ongoing selection of six comic strips that were to be voted into the comic by readers. This strip was the winner, beating Camp Cosmos, Have a Go Jo, Sydd and Trash Can...

 were the joint winners of the poll, beating Camp Cosmos

Camp Cosmos

Camp Cosmos was a comic strip for a short time in the UK comic The Beano. It made its first appearance in issue 2859, dated 3 May 1997. In that first strip, Bert Spontlin, scrap merchant and sausage knotter, got his wife to fire a lorry into the sky with him in it to collect the space debris...

, Have a Go Jo, Sydd and Trash Can Ally. It was drawn by Vic Neill

Vic Neill

Vic Neill was a British cartoonist who drew for D.C. Thomson and I.P.C.'s comics. His first notable comic work was on Sparky strip Peter Piper. In 1969, he replaced Dudley Dexter Watkins on Topper cover star Mickey the Monkey after Watkins' sudden death. Neill was a big admirer of Watkins' artwork....

 until his death in 2000. However, Neill strips continued to run for some time in the comic as they had been stockpiled. Once these had run out, Keith Reynolds drew it up to 2004 when the strip was dropped. Only 5 strips appeared in the character's final twelve months in the comic. In the 2003 Beano annual

The Beano Annual

The Beano Annual is the current name of the book that has been published every year since 1939, to tie in with the children's comic The Beano. there have been 73 editions They are traditionally published in August, in time for Christmas, and since 1965 they have had the date of the following year...

, his strip was drawn by Richard Elson

Richard Elson

Richard Elson is a British comic book artist best known for his work on Sonic the Comic, 2000 AD and Thor.-Biography:Richard Elson is a fine art graduate with over sixteen years experience as a cartoonist and illustrator....

.

The plot of the strip was simple, but had proved so popular with readers that it is now considered a classic. Tim Traveller would use his bicycle to travel back and forth between time, encountering all sorts of crazy mishaps, occasionally getting in so much trouble he had to rush back to the present day to avoid it. Some of his trips resulted in him causing or learning the truth about various historical mysteries, such as why the Leaning Tower of Pisa

Leaning Tower of Pisa

The Leaning Tower of Pisa or simply the Tower of Pisa is the campanile, or freestanding bell tower, of the cathedral of the Italian city of Pisa...

 leaned (It fell over in an earthquake and Tim only managed to partly pull it back into position) or what happened to the crew of the Mary Celeste

Mary Celeste

The Mary Celeste was an American brigantine merchant ship famous for having been discovered on 4 December 1872, in the Atlantic Ocean unmanned and apparently abandoned , despite the fact that the weather was fine and her crew had been experienced and able...

(Tim visited the ship and fell into a large fish, appearing to the crew as a sea monster, causing them to dive overboard).