turnerround comic

The Spellbinder - but who is Spellbinder?

The lightening pierced the night sky as young Tom Turville arrived at the spooky, derelict mansion of Turville Hall. Tom was there to take over his inheritance, but he was aware that local residents would not go near because of ghostly haunting.

As he opened the creaking door, a cold shiver ran down his spine. He could hear sounds above and flashed his torch skywards to see bats flying around the rafters. He suddenly tripped, dropping the torch thinking a hand from below had grabbed him. Finding the flashlight, he saw a giant ring in a flagstone. He pulled with all his might, even though he was freezing cold, beads of perspiration were evident on his brow.

A fantastic sight met his eyes. Down the creepy wooden steps in the room below was a man, motionless, sitting in a chair, cobwebs all around. He was dressed in old fashioned clothes; he looked like a magician.

Tom slowly descended below into the darkened room, and there in the left hand palm of the sleeping old man was a flashing stone next to a large cobwebbed spell book with the name Sylvester Turville on the leather cover.

Tom realised how his grandfather had told him of the legend from centuries ago, there had been an ancestor called Sylvester, an alchemist, who discovered the magical, Philosopher's Stone. Could this be him! As Tom touched the old mans hand, the glittering stone fell to the table.Tom Turville stepped back aghast. He had felt a cold breath on his face, he saw the old man raise his arms and give a 200 year old yawn......

Sylvester, known as, The Spellbinder was in fact nearly 400 years old. He was able to cast a wide variety of spells, including shrinking himself and Tom to the size of small puppets, entering the world's within a painting, animating objects to move at will and sending people back in time. This was the beginning of a long association for the Turville's, as they were to have many adventures and fight the forces of evil from their cellar laboratory.

Appeared in Lion comic from 1969 to 1974. Stories mainly by Frank Pepper, Jack Adrian and Hal Wilton. Drawn by Geoff Campion, Fred Holmes and John Burns. One of the best characters you will ever read. The stories had lots of thrills with great humour between Sylvester and Tom. The Valiant Book of Mystery and Magic produced in 1976 has many of Spellbinders early adventures.

spellbinder, tom turville, lion comic, valiant book of mystery and magic.