Rainbow Special No. 1

A review of the very first comic featuring Thames' finest

A few weeks ago, I spotted the Rainbow Special No.1 comic on Ebay. It had been published in 1987 and was a precursor to the regular Rainbow comic which would launch in 1988 and run until the programme’s demise in 1992. This was interesting enough in it’s own right, but it was the cover which really struck me. As I commented on Twitter, where the image drew a lot of interest, it looked very much “like an advert for a cult who promise to take you to the afterlife on a spaceship”

But what would it be like within? I had started infant school by the time the Rainbow comic launched in 1988, and my relationship with Rainbow was mostly over. As a result, I can’t ever remember reading the Rainbow comic, and I’ve only briefly glimpsed a few snatches of the comic online since. So, seeing as the Rainbow Special No.1 comic was far from expensive, I snapped up a copy on Ebay to take a closer look.