It's been a while since I did one of these flashback features so here's a few pages from the issue of a comic that went on sale this weekend 44 years ago. It's Countdown No.32, dated September 25th 1971, which would have been published on Saturday Sept.18th 1971. (Click on images to see them larger.)
Countdown was a glossy 24 page weekly published by Polystyle, which featured strips based on the sci-fi adventure TV shows of the day. The comic tried to be a replacement for the glory days of TV21, to the extent that it had gained the licence to do strips of Gerry Anderson shows after TV21 had dropped them. (By the time this issue of Countdown was published, the ailing TV21 had merged into Valiant.)
The cover of this issue kicks off a new UFO serial illustrated by Gerry Haylock. One of the great things about Countdown was that it credited the artists; something most British comics didn't do back then.
The centrespread of the comic featured Doctor Who. The fantastic artist Harry Lindfield does a fine job of illustrating a very busy script but there's a lot going on to pack into two pages and it does feel like it would have benefited from spreading it over another page or two.
Eight of Countdown's 24 pages were in full colour, and although the content would vary over the comic's run, the Countdown strip itself had its two pages of
colour every week. This was an originated strip not based on any TV show but it
did feature spacecraft designs from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. (No spacecraft in this episode though.) Artwork by the always-astounding John Burns.
Countdown ran a different complete 7 page story every week, and this week it was the turn of Captain Scarlet. Connecting with continuity with the movie Thunderbirds Are Go, the strip saw the return of the Martian Rock Snakes, - this time on Earth as part of a Mysteron plot. A daft story but great art by Keith Watson...
Having the licence for Gerry Anderson strips meant that Polystyle could reprint old strips from TV21, which came in handy when the budget was reduced. Although originally published in full colour, some Stingray and Fireball XL5 strips were reprinted in greyscale. Furthermore, the Fireball strips were reduced and turned at 90 degrees. However, personally speaking this didn't bother me one bit and as a 12 year old I was only too glad to revisit those classic strips I'd read when I was six.
As you might have guessed from the competition to win a weather station, Countdown liked to mix science alongside science fiction. The back page of this issue featured a cutaway of the Apollo Lunar Module (reprinted from a book called Manned Spacecraft).
I thought Countdown was an excellent comic, just up my street. No sports or war stories; just science fiction and fact (plus the occasional feature about UFO sightings). Sadly it seems most kids didn't take to it and with issue 59 it changed its title to TV Action, expanding its content to include TV shows such as Hawaii Five-O, and Cannon. Later, it'd incorporate pop pin-ups to compete with Look-In, but it still remained a good TV adventure comic up until its merger with TV Comic in 1973.
Unless you've been living on Mars (with those pesky Rock Snakes) you probably know there's a brand new Thunderbirds series coming to TV this Spring, entitled Thunderbirds Are Go. A mixture of CGI and models it promises to put a new spin on the old favourites but remaining true to the basics.
What you may also know is that last October it was announced that DC Thomson will be publishing a monthly Thunderbirds Are Go magazine this year, plus an annual. Thomsons are being very hush-hush about it so there's no news on contents or publication date as yet but I'll post info as soon as I get the go ahead. (Although you'll probably hear of it elsewhere first.)
This isn't the first time there's been a Thunderbirds magazine of course. The series has a long association with comics, dating back to TV Century 21 No.52 in early 1966 (cover above) which featured the first Thunderbirds comic strip illustrated by the great Frank Bellamy...
The Thunderbirds strip replaced the Lady Penelope strip (which had been running in TV21 since issue 1 in January 1965). However this heralded a promotion, with Lady Penelope gaining her own weekly publication.
Thunderbirds became a major part of TV21 but never had its own ongoing comic at that time, although in 1966 there was the Thunderbirds Extra, a 48 page glossy one-off which effectively was the first Thunderbirds solo comic...
The special featured several long complete Thunderbirds strips by a variety of top 1960s artists including Brian Lewis...
Don Harley...
...and Ron Turner...
There were other Thunderbirds specials and annuals of course, but I'm mainly focusing on the regular comics for this post.
TV21's Thunderbirds strip ended in 1970. A year later, Polystyle gained the licence to publish strips based on Gerry Anderson shows and launched Countdown (see blog post here)...
A brand new Thunderbirds strip began in Countdown No.1, illustrated by Don Harley...
Countdown became TV Action in 1972 and its falling fortunes led to some reprint in its pages including Frank Bellamy Thunderbirds strips from TV21. TV Action later dropped the Thunderbirds strips before the comic ended in 1973 but nine years later in 1982 Polystyle published the Thunderbirds Special. This 48 page comic was all-reprint, gathering strips from various annuals and specials.
Presumably it sold well enough for Polystyle to publish two more Thunderbirds Specials in 1983 and 1984. Again, all reprint.
A few years later, in 1988, Action 21 was launched, published by David Nightingale of Engale Marketing in Blackpool (based at Lytham Road's excellent Thunderbooks comic shop). Superbly designed by Graham Bleathman, Action 21 was a 20 page A4 comic on quality paper, containing sharply reproduced reprints of TV21 strips including Bellamy's Thunderbirds. Sadly the limited distribution comic didn't last too long but it was a worthy exercise. (Back issues are still available from the publisher. Click here to see.)
In 1991, with Thunderbirds enjoying a revived surge of popularity for a new generation (due to repeats on TV), Fleetway launched Thunderbirds the Comic, a 24 page fortnightly edited by Alan Fennell who had been the original editor of TV21, as well as a writer on the TV series.
For its first three issues Thunderbirds the Comic only contained reprints of TV21 strips (plus great new cutaways by Graham Bleathman) but from issue 4 it began to include new material in the form of strip adaptations of TV episodes featuring fantastic artwork by people such as Steve Kyte and Keith Watson...
Thunderbirds the Comic was initially a massive success for Fleetway and ran for 89 issues, concluding in March 1995. Convinced there was still potential in the comic, Alan Fennell gained the licence to publish it himself as Thunderbirds Are Go!
For a few issues it was cheaper than its predecessor but Thunderbirds Are Go! didn't survive for long. (I think it lasted 8 issues.) Its contents were once again TV21 reprints plus photo-strips using screen grabs from the TV series. (Unfortunately the quality of the photos wasn't too good in issue one, with some looking like they'd simply been photographed from the TV screen.)
In 1999 Redan launched their own Thunderbirds monthly magazine, with a slick design in tune with other Thunderbirds merchandise of the time.
The direction of Redan's Thunderbirds mag was distinctly younger than previous publications featuring the property. Its emphasis was on simply told photo-stories and activity pages (and new cutaways by Graham Bleathman)...
Undoubtedly this was a disappointment for older fans but it proved to be the right decision by Redan as the publication ran for several years.
So... what will DC Thomson's new Thunderbirds Are Go magazine be like when it arrives on our shelves? The last 49 years of Thunderbirds comics (and indeed British comics in general) have shown a gradual simplification in tone. TV21 was very sophisticated compared to today's comics, but that didn't deter readers back in 1965. (I was five years old when TV21 No.1 was published. Loved it!)
The old attitude in publishing used to be that if your comic was aimed at 5 to 11 year olds, you'd write it for the older end of the target audience and the younger ones would catch up (and feel 'big' that they were reading something that wasn't 'babyish') - because children will drop a comic like a stone if they think it's infantile. Publishers could take risks like that when sales were half a million or so. Today it's a different scene, with many children struggling with their reading, a culture with more emphasis on visuals, and publishers not wanting to risk alienating the ones who do pick up their mags. It's possible that Thunderbirds Are Go will follow the direction of Doctor Who Adventures and suchlike and have a focus on 'activity pages' and pull-out posters - and inevitably be bagged with gifts. We'll know soon enough. The good thing is that once again there'll be a Thunderbirds magazine in newsagents (hopefully with some comic strip).
For a more detailed history of Thunderbirds comic strips see the excellently researched Technodelic website:
http://www.technodelic.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Upload01/Thunderbirds01.htm
UPDATE: I've just received this first image of the new character designs for the new series. What do you think, folks?
