Fifty Year Flashback: TV21 goes back to basics

Fifty years ago this week, TV21 had one of its revamps, returning to the newspaper-style cover designs that made it so unique in its first three years. In January 1968 it had switched to using comic strips on the covers, but presumably sales had suffered, so now, in March 1969, after dabbling with a few news-style covers over a few weeks, it was going back to basics full time.

With a beautifully designed masthead echoing the Century 21 TV company ident (which itself had been based on the original TV21 logo) the cover gave us tasters of what to expect inside, told in the form of newspaper reports. 

Inside, the previous "editorials" by Colonel White were gone, replaced by Agent Twenty One's message to the readers alongside the Secret Agent 21 strip itself. (Strip art by Rab Hamilton. No idea who drew the cartoon.)

Captain Scarlet, which had previously been the cover strip for a year, was now inside, illustrated in grey wash by Jim Watson...

Reflecting its new "First with the Space and Spy News" sub-title, Department S was based on the ITC series starring Peter Wyngarde, Joel Fabini, and Rosemary Nichols. Not the most flattering photo of Wyngarde for the title header...

The strip did feature good likenesses of the three stars though, with art by Carlos Pino and Vincente Alcazar...

It's easy to see why TV21 was so highly regarded by its readers during the 1960s when the centre pages featured Thunderbirds illustrated by Frank Bellamy. It was a real coup for Century 21 to have this artist on the payroll...

My favourite artist on the comic was always Mike Noble. His Zero X strip had such dynamic power...

I think most of us were probably buying TV21 at this stage for those colour strips, but the black and white strips were entertaining. The Saint and Tarzan were very popular TV shows, and their strips (which had joined the comic the previous year from TV Tornado) had the right tone but were not the main selling point of the comic. 

The back page of this issue of TV21 was part of a series depicting man's journey to Saturn. Yes, by this time, the comic's attempts at connected continuity with its stories was out of whack. How could man only just be landing on Saturn in 2069 when Fireball XL5 had been regularly roaming the galaxy four years previously in 2065? Best not to think too deeply about it. Nice painting though.

This issue also featured two adverts related to Joe 90, who had his own comic at that stage. Ah, Sugar Smacks and Sutherlands spreads. All part of the wonderful 1960s....

It was around this time, a month later, when I started buying TV21 regularly again, so the revamp definitely hooked me. Sadly it wasn't to last. I suspect the change was too late and didn't boost sales enough, so this first series of TV21 ended in September 1969, replaced by TV21 and Joe 90, starting with a new first issue, and unfortunately losing most of what had made it so unique. 

My post on TV21 and Joe 90 No.1:
https://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2007/11/flashback-1969-tv21-joe-90-no1.html

Joe 90 Top Secret No.1:
https://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2015/05/joe-90-top-secret-1969.html

TV Tornado:
https://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2014/08/tv-tornado-1967.html

TV Century 21 No.1:
https://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2015/01/50-years-ago-today-tv-century-21-no1.html

A selection of comics from one week in 1965:
https://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2008/07/flashback-this-week-in-july-1965.html

This week in 1968: TV21 No.163

To take our minds off the oncoming snow storm, let's go back to 1968 to see which issue of TV21 was out exactly 50 years ago this week. It was issue 163, and by this time the newspaper-style covers had been replaced with comic strip and Captain Scarlet dominated the comic.

The Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons TV series had debuted on TV a few months earlier so it made sense to make him the star of TV21. It was easier than producing a spin-off Captain Scarlet comic and it gave TV21 a boost. I do wonder though if revamping the comic so much was counter-productive to sales? I presume they must have been sliding anyway, so it was worth a shot.

What's notable about comics of the 1960s is how lively they were; full of movement and action, and no one did it better than Mike Noble...

The newspaper-style cover that TV21 had for its first 154 issues was now an interior feature as TV21 Stop Press. Perhaps for the best, with alarmist headlines like this. Ha! 

The centre pages featured Frank Bellamy's stunning work on Thunderbirds, and this was the week where this memorable panel of the Hood first appeared...

Full colour printing was still a luxury for most British comics in the 1960s. Adventure comics such as Valiant and Victor only carried one or two pages of full colour for example and were printed on newsprint. TV21 had top class glossy photogravure printing, allowing for painted artwork (as opposed to the flat colours of Lion or Buster). Artist Jim Watson used it to its best advantage with his vibrant colour work on Zero X. (Incidentally, the cliffhanger of this episode must be one of the strangest ever!)

There you have it. Just a few pages from this issue of TV21 from this week in 1968 (or 2068 as they preferred). Don't forget that you can click on the images to see them much larger to study the artwork. 

Snow's a'comin'. Wishing you all a safe week!

The Christmas BOYS' WORLD (1963)

Boys' World was published by Odhams from 1963 to 1964, the company that also brought us Wham!, Smash! and Pow! I'll show some more strips from it next year, but for today let's look at the few pages it contained relative to Christmas from this festive 1963 issue.

The cover featured the regular What Would YOU Do? brain teaser, and this time it had an appropriate Christmas aspect to it. Art by Eric Kincaid.

On page two, the editor's message wished the compliments of the season to his readers, alongside a short Mini-Mystery...

On page 4, a funny festive Did You Know? by Reg Parlett...

Billy Binns and His Wonderful Specs on page 6 kicked off with a Christmas party, drawn by Bill Mainwaring. As some of you know, a Billy Binns strip also ran in Wham! comic for a while, with a different storyline to those appearing in Boys' World at the same time.

The Lucky Dip activity page packed a lot in. These days, each activity might take up a double page spread in kids' mags. Not that you'd have tricks requiring matches in comics today. 

Private Proon the Barrack Square (drawn by Leslie Harding) was kind of Odhams' version of The Dandy's Corporal Clott, and also inspired by the TV series The Army Game I would imagine. The page also contains the solutions to the puzzles and mysteries shown above.

The other strips in Boys' World didn't have a Christmas theme but they're so good that I couldn't resist showing a couple of them. Here's the cenrespread strip, Wrath of the Gods, illustrated by John M. Burns...

..and this was the back page strip, The Ghost World, by Frank Bellamy! Boys' World certainly delivered a top quality comic for 6d!

There'll be another festive flashback tomorrow! 

Frank Bellamy's GHOST WORLD (1963)

I recently bought a near-complete run of Odhams' Boys' World, which was a fine comic/magazine that deserved to run longer than the 89 issues it managed over 1963 to 1964. Some of Britain's top comics creators worked on the title, including Frank Bellamy. 

I know some of you are big fans of Bellamy so today I thought I'd show the first three episodes of Ghost World, a strip that ran on the back page of Boys' World from Vol.1 No.46 (7th December 1963) to Vol.2 No.17 (25th April 1964). Ghost World was a sequel to The Angry Planet that had run in the comic previously by another artist. (I'll show some of those at a later date.)

It must be said that from Mickey Mouse Weekly and Modern Wonder in the 1930s to Boys' World, Wham!, Smash!, etc in the 1960s, Odhams produced some great comics/magazines. Admittedly they turned the original Eagle into a shadow of its former self, but even then it still featured some top artists. I'll show some more strips from Boys' World in the future.

Wall's WONDERMAN by Frank Bellamy (1970)

Frank Bellamy is well known in comics circles for his work on strips such as Heros the Spartan for Eagle, Thunderbirds for TV21, and Garth for the Daily Mirror, but (as some of you also know) he also worked in advertising. Some of those adverts appeared in the weekly comics too. In 1970, Bellamy produced two full page comic strips featuring Wall's Wonderman; a bespoke British superhero promoting Wall's Wonder Woppas ice cream lollies. 

The strip shown above is one I scanned from my edition of Tiger dated 30th May 1970. 

Another Wonderman adventure, Martian Inferno, appeared in Valiant dated 18th April 1970. I don't have that issue, but you can see it on Norman Boyd's blog here:
http://www.frankbellamy.co.uk/notes/wallswonder.htm

Review: Spaceship Away No.39

Every issue of Spaceship Away is always a worthwhile read and this edition is spectacular. Published three times a year, the latest issue is packed with material that's sure to appeal to fans of classic Dan Dare and 'space' comics in general. 

The all-new adventures of the original Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future continue with new episodes of Parsecular Tales and Mercury Revenant, both written and illustrated by Tim Booth. Fantastically detailed work capturing the spirit and look of the old Eagle strips. However, as I've said before, with a three month gap between issues the serials really need a 'Story so far' box, on page two if not on the strips themselves. I'm afraid I've lost track of the plot and don't have time to re-read the previous 23 episodes. 

A 'new' Jet Morgan serial begins in this issue by Charles Chilton and Ferdinado Tacconi; edited and re-lettered reprints from the 1950s. 

There's also episode five of Nick Hazard and the Planet of Doom; a classic by Ron Turner, newly coloured by Martin Baines. Plus the return of the humour strip Davy Rocket. (Sadly uncredited. Why?)

Spaceship Away also has a generous number of superbly illustrated features and this issue really spoils us with an interview with Ian Kennedy on his 1980s Dan Dare work. There's also Eagle's coverage of the space race, and classic Dan Dare artist Greta Tomlinson talking about her life and work. There's a few other bits and bobs too, such as a new back page illustration by Don Harley and a wonderful brand new centrespread painting by Ian Kennedy (easily worth the cover price alone).

Spaceship Away is an essential read for anyone interested in Dan Dare, classic UK comics, and aficionados of great comic art. So that's everyone reading this blog then! You can order a copy directly from the publisher at this link:
http://spaceshipaway.org.uk/

50 year flashback: Thunderbirds arrive in TV Century 21

Fifty years ago today, on Wednesday 12th January 1966, the first Thunderbirds comic strip began in TV Century 21 No.52. The comic had been a huge publishing success for a year and this was a fantastic start for its first anniversary. Thunderbirds had been on TV for several months by then of course but only in black and white for UK viewers. Here they were in full colour, illustrated by the great Frank Bellamy. Admittedly, page three was in grey wash but that didn't matter. Thunderbirds had arrived in comic form! 

The strip has been reprinted several times since, in TV Action in the early seventies, in Thunderbirds the Comic in the 1990s, and in Volume 2 of the recent Thunderbirds: The Comic Collection hardback, but here's the original printing from TV21, photographed from my collection. 

Another Thunderbirds collection on its way

I noticed this ad in the latest Previews catalogue. It looks like Egmont are releasing a second volume of sixties Thunderbirds comic strips reprinted from TV21. (The first volume was published in 2013 and I reviewed it here.) The promo says it will feature "the first twelve comic strips" by Frank Bellamy. Those early three page strips originally appeared as a double page spread and a black and white page, so it'll be interesting to see how they paginate those. The spread will obviously have to be reprinted as a spread but what will appear on every fourth page opposite the black and white page? A classic TV21 cover perhaps? Time will tell, as the book is due in October.

Other Thunderbirds news today on the Down The Tubes website, regarding Bellamy art being used as prints on clothes! See here:
http://downthetubes.net/?p=24397

TV21 goes football!

Early 1969 was a period of change for readers of British comics, and not for the better in the opinion of some. Eagle was merged into Lion, Smash! was changed beyond recognition into a traditional adventure comic and then on May 7th 1969 there was this cover. "TV21 goes football...in a big way!" 

Football United starts today! I remember my heart sinking at the sight of this headline. I'd only recently started buying TV21 again and found it to be great escapism compared to most other British comics, partly due to the absence of football. Sport was something you expected to see in Tiger or Lion, but the whole point of TV21 was that it was mostly set 100 years in the future, focused around the universe of Gerry Anderson shows. Admittedly that theme had been compromised considerably several months earlier with the absorption of TV Tornado, but its reinvention as a 'space and spy' comic was acceptable.

I've never been a fan of football so the inclusion of a football feature in TV21 was not only out of place but something I actually disliked and I soon dropped the comic. I suspect I wasn't the only one, as sales on the comic continued to fall, leading to a relaunch as TV21 and Joe 90 a few months later. (See here.)

In retrospect, despite the cover and the new footie feature, it was still business as usual inside so perhaps I over reacted when I stopped buying the comic. Let's take a look at the contents...

Pages 2 and 3 gave us Secret Agent 21, one of the mainstays of TV21. Not based on a TV show but part of the Anderson universe. I always liked Rab Hamilton's art on this...

Captain Scarlet, which at one time had been the cover feature of TV21 for months, had by now been demoted to a three page black and white strip. This week, - seagulls turned into Mysteron agents! Art by Jim Watson...

The Munsters, usually drawn by Paul Trevillion, was this week ghosted by Graham Allen...

Department S was a kind of 1960s X-Files but with rational explanations to the mysteries. Artwork by Carlos Pino...

Thunderbirds still dominated the centre pages with fantastic artwork by Frank Bellamy...

The Saint had two pages, with art by Carlos Pino I think...

Zero X was the only other full colour strip. Stunning artwork by the great Mike Noble, - and what a memorable cliffhanger!

Of course, the ever-present Corgi Model Club News was there on page 19...

The back page had an ad for a new ice lolly plus a half page feature on the fictitious mission to Saturn.  

All in all, it was still a great comic, but I still think the inclusion of football was a mistake and another nail in TV21's coffin that set it on a decline it never recovered from. The following year, TV21 and Joe 90 would big up the sport even more, with regular centrespread football team photos. Presumably they thought that was what the readers wanted, and admittedly kids were losing interest in space exploration so the publishers had to try something. However it didn't seem to halt the fall in sales. Eventually budget cuts would bring in reprints, poorer paper, and with TV21 a pale shadow of its former self it merged into Valiant in 1971.