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
That revamp certainly divided opinion. One reader panned the arrival of "Department S" (letter in Issue 226) and another pointed out the Saturn probe mission was a bit off in that Zero X had been there before, to which Colonel White had no real answer. I think for me the arrival of the "Football United" pages were the first point where faith began to be lost...
ReplyDeleteI'd stuck with TV21 from issue 4 onwards so although I liked the Captain Scarlet stories on the front page in 1968 (especially the Mike Noble ines) I was glad to see the newspaper style return. The later change to TV21&Joe90 (delayed due to a strike) made the heart sink though, with it's newspaper style cover featuring a real 1969 football match. Groan. I even stuck with TV21 for another year or so, even when the only strip worth my while was Star Trek (Mike Noble again). When they started reprinting Spiderman it all felt a very long way from Adventure in the 21st Century.
ReplyDeleteThe `Zero X` series was very inventive this period. That one with `living skeletons` and the `Eye- Leaves` were fantastic.
ReplyDeleteAdmittedly I didn't like the Dept S strip at the time, but appreciate the art now.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on the football pages, Nigel. For me, TV21 was an escape from football (which I never liked) and it was great that, unlike most other boys' comics, it didn't feature any football stuff.... until it did. As for TV21 and Joe 90; I wanted to like it, I really did, and the Land of the Giants strip was fun, but I gave up on it after a few weeks and didn't buy it again until towards the end. Actually the Marvel reprints were one thing that brought me back, but they were so badly edited and rewritten. In the end, TV21's merger with Valiant was a mercy killing.
A little off topic, but I got one of those Joe 90 Dossiers from a school jumble sale (Remember them? Sort of like charity shops, but cheaper!) when I was a kid... and still have it! I always wondered where it came from!
ReplyDeleteI bought one last year. I'd seen it advertised 50 years ago and although I wasn't too fussed to get one, I did wonder what it was like. Finally decided to buy one on eBay and it was more impressive than I imagined it would be. I always presumed it was a cheap rush job not a proper Century 21 publication. A nice item.
ReplyDelete