Comics

Ronald Kroon

most Anderson series have appeared as comic strips. Many of those have been reissued in the past years by the British Fleetway Magazines and others. Since so much material has appeared in print by now, I thought it would be high time to assemble an inventory of what originates where, which comics are old and which are new and who drew what. While I was busy making the inventory, the UK magazine Time Screen had the same idea and published an overview of English tv comics. I will start with a historic overview of the most important English and Dutch Anderson related magazines and then I will give a survey of specific Thunderbirds comics.

1965 – TV21 and Lady Penelope

Alan Fennell, the man who also wrote scenarios for Thunderbirds, Stingray and Fireball XL5, stood at the cradle of TV21. At first he was employed by another magazine, TV Comic, in which appeared Four Feather Falls, Supercar and Fireball XL5 stories. But things had to be different, flashier. And so, a new newspaperlike magazine appears on January 23^d. The pictures on the frontpage are often specially shot for the occasion in the APF studios. The premiere issue contains comics of Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray and Lady Penelope. The last is all the more remarkable since Thunderbirds wouldn't appear on UK television any earlier than October of that same year. A year later, on January 15^th, 1966, our favourite rescue team appears on the centre pages for the first time. With the exception of a four week holiday, Frank Bellamy will draw this comic throughout the complete run of TV21.

By this time, Penelope gets centerfold ambitions as well and decides she wants her own magazine. A week after that, on January 22^d, she gets her way: TV21 begets a sister, Lady Penelope. The TV21 run lasts until september 1969 and in the meantime another magazine, TV Tornado, has been incorprated: TV21/TV Tornado.

From issue 242 onwards there is another name change after merging with the Joe 90 magazine which had lasted for 34 issues. Thunderbirds is now drawn by John Cooper. The TV21/Joe 90 combination lasts until september 1971. The real Anderson die hards have left the sinking ship a year earlier, due to the absence of their favourite series. Lady Penelope runs out of steam by december 1969, the last issue being #203.

1966 – TV2000

On September 3^d, 1966, following on the heels of the Albert Heyn folders, appears the premiere issue of TV2000, published by the Leiden based Nederlandse Rotogravure Pers. It is a continuation of the German based Fix & Fox magazine which, between issues 35 and 36, changes into TV2000. This transition causes the first few issues to contain wrap ups of Fix & Fox stories. Layout and content are an exact copy of TV21 and Lady Penelope but from the April 1^st, 1967 dated issue 13 onwards, the format changes and it starts looking more and more like an average magazine. Halfway through the next year, printing is taken over by Italian printers Fratelli Spada in Rome. The comics appear to be roughly traced and coloured by the editor's four year old son. The disastrous results will be familiar to most Dutch readers. The Italian printer manages to steadily extend its share of comics of dubious quality (such as Mr. Magoo and Bewitched), causing contents and standing to take a nose dive. The last Thunderbirds story ends in issue 21 of 1969 and with issue 52 of that year, TV2000 dies a silent death.

1971 – Countdown and TV Action

In the spring of 1971, a new comic magazine appears, Countdown, which, after 45 issues, is renamed Countdown for TV Action. Starting from issue 59, it is known as TV Action + Countdown while, due to yet another name change, issue 101 through 132 appear under the header of TV Action. The last issue appears on August 25^th, 1973. This magazine sports some new Thunderbirds comics, drawn by Don Harley and supplemented by a few Frank Bellamy reprints. An extensive description of Countdown can be found in issue 20 of FAB (july 1995).

1980-1990 – Fan attempts

The 80s decade knows a few shortlived attempts at publishing TV21 comics anew. Back issues are feverishly hunted for and this causes David Nightingale to try to reproduce some of the comics as best as possible in Action 21 and later still in his Anderson fanzine Century 21 – Worlds of Anderson. Due to limited printing runs and poor distribution, efforts are regretfully suspended. It would take the next decade for a new magazine to be more or less put on a level with TV21.

1991 – Thunderbirds the Comic

Thanks to a BBC employee, in 1991 Thunderbirds gets broadcast again on nationwide television instead of the regional commercial stations and a new generation discovers Thunderbirds. Alan Fennell remembers having had something to do with a Thunderbirds related magazine in earlier days and he starts all over again: Thunderbirds the Comic is born. It has a two week frequency and features a combination of reprints and new comics. Later, Thunderbirds is joined by Stingray, Captain Scarlet and Joe 90 comics that will eventually merge into yet another new magazine, The NEW Thunderbirds. Many of the new stories are written by Fennell and are drawn by Keith Page. Specifically for this new comic, Martin Bower builds and photographs all the wellknown vehicles. Graham Bleathman does cutaway drawings of most vehicles and buildings. The old sources start to run dry by the end of 1994 and in march 1995, due to dissappointing sales figures, the last issue, issue 89, appears. The Ravette publishing company also wets its whistle on the renewed popularity of magazine and tv series and publishes six comic albums, mainly bundling Frank Bellamy's œuvre. In the middle of 1995, a new magazine called Thunderbirds Are Go! appears, obviously published by Alan Fennell. He simply picks up where the previous magazine left off. New items are a photo series, using mediocre television pictures, and a Famous Artists series where assorted Anderson artists can publish their unused front page spreads.

1994 – Semic Press: Thunderbirds

In the interests of completeness, the Dutch Thunderbirds magazine deserves a mention. This mag could have grown out to be a second TV2000. In February 1994, interest in Thunderbirds is such that a new magazine stands a chance. In the meantime, the Leidse Rotogravure has long ago died a silent death and, as usual, there are others more than willing to step into its place. In this case Semic Press, a Naarden based publishing company. The magazine is largely limited to reprints from newer stories from Thunderbirds the Comic. Early june 1995, the last issue of this none to creatively manufactured magazine appears; the curtain falls after 18 issues. Whereas Thunderbirds the Comic concentrated on new comics, Big Balloon publishers took the gamble of reissuing the old Bellamy comics. In all, they published four of the six Ravette albums for the Dutch market.

Thunderbirds, the comics

Since some stories are known under different titles, I started coding them. In all instances I departed from the firstknown (mostly British) publication, such as TV21 and Lady Penelope. If a Dutch title is known, it is noted. The list is incomplete and probably contains mistakes. Stories from the British annuals will be treated later.

Anderson annuals

Fireball XL5, Stingray, Captain Scarlet, Thunderbirds, UFO, Space:1999: almost every Anderson series had its own annual (only The Secret Service and Dick Spanner had to make do without one). The contens of the first few annuals, like the Fireball XL5 one, were equally divided between text and comics whereas the later ones put more emphasis on the comic strips. They did have their stories though, so the characters could be given more depth. For the most part, the annuals were published by City Magazines, the publisher of the Lady Penelope and TV21 magazines. Apart from annuals dedicated to these magazines, between 1966 and 1971 a number of books appeared which were dedicated to our brave rescue team. From 1972 onwards, other publishers (e.g. Polystyle Publications) sometimes produced annuals but it would not be until 1992 before Grandreams produced another two.

British quickies: the extras and holiday specials

Apart from the annuals, City Magazines published a number of other comics anthologies, usually during the holiday season. Specials from other publishers mostly contained reprints of old material and were sold as Holiday Specials. The Fleetway Holiday Special, for example, contained a complete story, the wellknown 'Build your own Thunderbird 1' and a number of pictures from Martin Bower's Thunderbirds models. Most of the comics from these publications are mentioned below in the survey of TV21 and other magazines.

The artists who drew the comics in the annuals are considerably harder to determine than those who did the magazines. Most of them were too busy drawing their weekly pages and left the work to other, often unknown, artists. Some of them copied the style of their better known counterparts almost to the letter. Brian Lewis' drawings of Thunderbird 3 (story TB046) for example, are almost literally copied from Frank Bellamy (TB001). Often, no name could be found on the drawings. For most of the artists who filled the annuals this is probably for the best since the quality of their work is often below par. Thus, the list contains a number of question marks in place of artist names.

Dutch annuals

The Dutch would have to make do with only three Thunderbirds Extra albums and a Captain Scarlet album even though a number of British annuals were printed on the presses of the Nederlandse Rotogravure Mij. which also published TV2000. As was the case with this magazine, a lot of material from the Dutch annuals had appeared earlier in their British counterparts. The original plates remained with the Rotogravure Mij. and surfaced in a Utrecht comics shop in the late 90s.

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