The Christmas DOCTOR WHO CLASSIC COMICS (1993)

The early 1990's saw Marvel UK publish a monthly Doctor Who Classic Comics title. The 52 page comic reprinted Doctor Who strips from TV Comic, Countdown, and TV Action, plus The Daleks strip from TV21. 

This issue (No.15) was published in December 1993 and featured an exclusive new cover by veteran artist Bill Mevin, one of the early illustrators of the 1960s Doctor Who strips.

Inside was a reprint of a Christmas adventure by Bill Mevin featuring the first Doctor that had originally been serialised across the centre pages of TV Comic Nos.732 to 735 in December 1965. You'll notice the tone is more childlike and 'magical' than the TV version. The Doctor's grandchildren John and Gillian only appeared in the comic of course, and the Doctor refers to himself as "Dr.Who", not "The Doctor". My apologies for the awkward alignment of the two pages but unfortunately this is how they appeared in Classic Comics, with a little bit of detail lost in the gutter. 

The rest of the issue didn't have a festive theme. It reprinted a 1972 third Doctor serial from TV Action Nos.94 to 97...

...began The Telesnap Archive as a kind of photostrip with images from the 1968 Doctor Who TV serial Fury from the Deep...

...and continued the adventures of The Daleks, drawn by Ron Turner, from  TV21 Nos.76 to 80...

Doctor Who Classic Comics was an enjoyable publication reviving nostalgic memories for older readers and introducing newer ones to the long comics history of the character. I don't know if there'd be enough interest to sustain such a monthly title today but it'd be nice to see the slightly more sophisticated strips from Countdown and TV Action reprinted in book form.


Where will our journey to Christmas past take us next? Come back tomorrow to find out!

This week in 1971: COUNTDOWN No.32

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. 

Countdown to TV Action: review

I've been a sucker for books on the history of comics ever since I had The Penguin Book of Comics for Christmas 1971. Any book that provides more insight into the background of comics is usually an essential purchase for me, and Countdown to TV Action by Steve Holland definitely delivers the goods.

As most of you will know, Countdown was a weekly comic published by Polystyle in 1971 which featured licensed TV strips such as Doctor Who and various Gerry Anderson strips, along with features on science, space exploration, and Unidentified Flying Objects. A year after its launch it metamorphosed into TV Action, continuing the numbering and broadening its remit to incorporate strips based on other TV adventure shows of the time. (Here's a blog post I wrote several years ago about Countdown No.1:
http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/40-year-flashback-countdown-no1.html)

It took quite a while for Steve Holland to compile this book because he always diligently researches his projects. At times you may feel there's a bit too much background career information on the staff of the comics Steve writes about, but it's actually good to have such thoroughly researched information. After all, why not give the staff and creators their due, when they've often worked in relative obscurity for years? 

The 202 page book not only covers the history of Countdown / TV Action but also puts it into context by giving us the brief history of the comics that preceded it (such as TV Century 21 and TV Comic) and the background to the publishers. Steve has unearthed many interesting facts about the behind-the-scenes story of the comic, and that, plus brief story synopsis', information on creators, and a substantial strip index at the back makes this book the definitive history of the title. 

That index takes up over 50 pages in itself, providing every story title and the issues they ran in, creator credits, feature titles, etc. Even information on the Holiday Specials and Annuals are included, and related titles such as the Doctor Who Holiday Special of 1973. 

The book is extremely well illustrated too, with many crisp clear reproductions of covers, artwork, and features. Some strips are even reprinted full size, taking up the whole page. I'm sure some would prefer it if they'd been shown in full colour, but this is a self-published venture with a smallish print run so the costs of colour would be prohibitive. The absence of colour is irrelevant anyway, as the focus of this book is on the history of the comic, and it certainly does its job.

Countdown to TV Action is a fine publication, carefully researched and handsomely presented in a very informative and enjoyable volume. If you read the comics as a kid you'll love it. If it's new to you, you'll discover the story behind one of the best British comics of the 1970s and marvel at the quality of its artwork. 

You can buy a copy directly from the publisher at Bear Alley Books by following this link:
http://bearalleybooks.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/countdown-to-tv-action.html

Counting down the days...

Bear Alley Books' new publication Countdown to TV Action is due to be published in just over a week's time on July 4th 2014. The 200 page book covers the history of the fondly remembered 1970s comic Countdown (which became TV Action with its 59th issue), and will also include an index of all the strips. 

Written by Steve Holland, who knows his stuff when it comics to British adventure comics, Countdown to TV Action is now available to pre-order from his website here:
http://bearalleybooks.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/countdown-to-tv-action.html

One I'm definitely looking forward to, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that!

(I've blogged about Countdown comic several times in the past. To find those posts, simply type Countdown or TV Action into the search bar at the top left of this blog.)

Countdown to the publication of this great new book

Cover to the forthcoming book.

Before 2000AD was launched in 1977, the best British comic of the 1970s was, for me, Polystyle's Countdown comic, launched in 1971 and retitled TV Action a year later. You can read more about it in some of my previous posts here:
http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=Countdown

The comic is still fondly remembered to this day for its high production values (in its Countdown incarnation) and quality of artwork (John M. Burns, Brian Lewis, Harry Lindfield, etc). Now comics historian Steve Holland is to publish a book covering the history and background of the comic, including an index to the strips. Keep an eye on Steve's Bear Alley Books website for ordering information coming soon:
http://bearalleybooks.blogspot.co.uk/    

Doctor Who cover gallery

I'm sure a billion other blogs will be posting about Doctor Who today on this 50th anniversary of the show so I thought I'd join in the celebrations. Here's a brief look at just a few of the comic covers that The Doctor appeared on during the first ten years, starting with Walt Howarth's painting of William Hartnell as the first Doctor for the first Doctor Who Annual above.

Next up, here's one of John Canning's TV Comic covers featuring the second Doctor, Patrick Troughton (issue 796, March 18th 1967). You may notice that Canning managed to get his name on the cover by blatantly making it part of the shop front.

By 1971 the Doctor Who comic strip had moved to TV Comic's new sister publication Countdown. Here's a Harry Lindfield cover to issue 27 featuring Jon Pertwee as the third Doctor.

Countdown's falling sales led to a big revamp in 1972 and a title change to TV Action, but the Dr.Who strip continued, now with a regular cover spot. The artist by now was Gerry Haylock who captured Jon Pertwee's likeness perfectly.

Using the Daleks as the foes in the strip during the revamp was a good idea to retain the readers interest. Here's another Gerry Haylock cover from a few weeks later.

TV Action had run a competition in its first issue for readers to create a new monster for the Doctor to battle. The winning entry, The Ugrakks, was announced in issue 72, chosen by a team of judges including the comic's editor Dennis Hooper, Doctor Who producer Barry Letts and Jon Pertwee himself. The monster then appeared in issue 79 (August 19th 1972) with the lucky winner himself also appearing on the cover...

Another revamp for the comic with issue 101 led to cover strips being dropped in favour of full page illustrations representing that week's 'Big Story' (the strips took turns to feature in one seven page complete story inside). Doctor Who had a few turns, including these two striking images. 

TV Action's fortunes sadly continued to fall and it was merged into TV Comic, taking Doctor Who with it. In 1979, Marvel UK acquired the strip rights and have been publishing Doctor Who Weekly (or Doctor Who Magazine as it soon became) ever since. Happy 50th, Doctor Who!

Gallifrey in TV Action

This week's issue of Radio Times is, as you'd expect, dedicated to mostly celebrating the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. Amongst its 26 pages of features about the series there's a mention that The Doctor's home planet of Gallifrey was first named in the comic TV Action months before it was mentioned in the TV series. 

I looked it up and, sure enough, there it was in TV Action No.126 (dated July 14th 1973). Not in the Doctor Who strip, but in an answer to a reader's letter. You can see the scan of the page above. 

How could this be? Well, the editor of TV Action (and the comic's previous title as Countdown) was Dennis Hooper, who was a big fan of Doctor Who. He had a close association with the BBC and the producers of Doctor Who, having previously being allowed to attend the filming of the serial The Daemons for a Countdown photo-feature. Hooper had also used several exclusive publicity photos in the comic, so he was clearly on good terms with the BBC. My guess is he simply asked the producers for the answer to the reader's question and they obliged, even though Gallifrey wouldn't be mentioned on TV until five months later in The Time Warrior serial. Today, the comic's revelation would break the Internet, but back in 1973 it passed without fanfare.

In case you're curious, here's the Dr. Who strip that appeared in that issue.  Artwork by Gerry Haylock, who always managed to draw a superb likeness of Jon Pertwee. Click images to see them larger.

This week in 1978: TARGET

  
In newsagents this week in 1978 was the first issue of Polystyle's new adventure weekly, Target. Unlike the company's previous titles Countdown and TV Action, this comic was far from a slick publication. Printed on newsprint with only 20 pages, Target looked cheap but was quite expensive at 10p, when most other adventure titles were no more than 8p.

Clearly, Polystyle were hoping to attract readers of its defunct TV Action title as Target carried the topline "Your NEW TV Action paper". Perhaps this was a misstep because drawing comparisons between the two comics only highlighted how poor the new comic was. The production was low budget and its use of flat solid colours was limiting and made things even worse. The comic looked very shoddy on the stands next to 2000AD, Tiger, Look-In and the like.

There had been a boy's magazine called Target just a few years earlier published by the New English Library. (See here for my blog post about it.) However in the case of this new venture, the comic took its name from a British TV detective show of the time starring Patrick Mower, and the Target strip itself appeared inside. Unfortunately the basic artwork wasn't very dynamic and the heavy colours did it no favours.

Kojak starred in the centre pages in a black and white strip drawn by Jon Davis. You'll notice that the strip is quite brutal in places for a British comic and I think Polystyle were trying to reflect both the changing tastes of television and hoping that Target could be their version of IPC's Action or DC Thomson's Bullet. I don't think it really succeeded.

Cannon was a reprint from TV Action and featured artwork by Martin Asbury...

The Charlie's Angels strip was quite odd. With the T&A on display it seemed to be trying to be a cheesecake strip but the artwork was so sketchy and loose that it didn't work. 

The free gift in issue one was a motorbike poster...

The strip that worked best for me was Hazell, drawn by Harry North. Amongst other things North had been the artist for the On The Buses strip in Look-In but with Hazell, North was indulging in gritty crime drama. As usual he turned in a superb job. Here's the three pages of episode one...

Judging from the skimpy outfits worn by the women in the strip I'm guessing that Polystyle were aiming Target at a slightly older reader than other adventure comics of the time. Sadly it seemed that Target didn't catch on with any age group and after just 18 or 19 weeks it merged into TV Comic.  

40 Year Flashback: TV ACTION takes over

On this day in 1972 Polystyle's Countdown comic had a complete makeover and was re-titled TV Action.

Countdown had launched in 1971 with high production values and top class strips based on sci-fi TV shows and features about science and technology. Ironically, for a comic that dealt in science fiction strips, it was a bit behind the times because by 1971 the space race was over and many kids had diverted their interest elsewhere. During the course of its run, Countdown gradually broadened its focus, running a cover strip based on light adventure thriller The Persuaders TV series and tweaking its title logo to become 'TV Action in Countdown' and 'Coundown for TV Action'. Finally, with issue 59 came the major revamp into TV Action (or TV Action + Countdown as it was for the next 40 issues or so).

With the license to publish Doctor Who strips being its greatest asset since Countdown No.1, TV Action put the strip on the cover with superb artwork by Gerry Haylock. Inside, readers could win a 17" colour TV if they won the Draw Your Enemy competition. As you can see, I designed my monster but never sent it off. therefore The Clawhawk remained in limbo... until today! (Somehow I don't think I'd have won anyway.)

Interestingly, this competition is currently at the root of one Doctor Who fan's legal claim that he created Davros, which he alleges the BBC imitated right down to every switch and shoulder pad. Considering competition entries were sent to Polystyle and not the BBC, and that Terry Nation wasn't a judge, I have my doubts (to put it mildly).

If new readers picked up TV Action thinking it was a new comic they may have been a bit disappointed to find that so many of the strips continued from Countdown. The sophistication and space politics of the Countdown strip could go over the heads of regular readers sometimes so new readers must have been particularly confused. Nice artwork by John M. Burns though.


One of the new strips debuting this week was Hawaii Five-O, based on the highly popular Friday night TV series. One of the good things that TV Action carried over from its previous incarnation were the use of artist's credits. This was highly unusual for the period, when most artists for rival comics were still prohibited from signing their work. (Polystyle also allowed artists to sign their pages on companion title TV Comic.)

Relegated from the front cover, The Persuaders still had two pages inside the comic, and with Harry Lindfield on the art it was still impressive stuff.

One of the best artists of the time was Brian Lewis, who had contributed many pages for Fleetway and Odhams in the 1960s. Drawing the latest UFO serial Let The Aliens Land, Lewis was able to take advantage of the high production values and embellish his work in a grey wash.

Other Gerry Anderson strips included new Thunderbirds adventures drawn by Don Harley and a Stingray reprint from TV21. There were also several intelligently written articles including one on the then-proposed Thames flood barrier. Like Countdown, TV Action tried not to dumb down to its readers. I doubt an article this in-depth would appear in a children's comic today.

On the back page, the comic's token humour strip Hanna-Barbera's Autocat and Motormouse drawn by Peter Ford.

Of the comic's 24 pages, 17 featured strips, two of which were reprint. The rest were taken up with articles and "filler" as some might call it today. Yep, it wasn't 100% comic but we didn't care. Like Countdown before it, TV Action was an excellent comic but, outside of fan circles, it never really caught on in a big way. Nevertheless, the revamp as TV Action gave it a good boost and it carried on for over another two years, finally ending with issue 132.

My earlier blog post on Countdown No.1:
http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/40-year-flashback-countdown-no1.html