Comic Oddities: CANDY (1967)

The last in my occasional series of Comic Oddities brings us to the weirdest one ever. It's hard to believe that the company that gave us the greatest comic of the 1960s in TV Century 21 also gave us the weirdest in Candy in 1967. Like TV21, Candy was a co-production between City Magazines and Gerry Anderson's Century 21 Publishing company. The concept was that as Anderson's puppet series had proved to be so incredibly popular then perhaps a comic featuring life-size mannequin children would also work. Er... maybe not.

Gerry Anderson's puppet series worked because they operated within their own universe, and frankly it was the hi-tech craft, dramatic storylines, and explosions that thrilled all ages, and the puppets had personalities too, thanks to expert modellers and scriptwriters.  With Candy, all that was removed, putting the "puppets" (or in this case life-size dolls) in the real world, in twee stories for the very young. 

If that wasn't creepy enough, Candy (and her brother Andy) were looked after by Mr and Mrs Bearanda... two adult-sized panda dummies.

The results ended up looking very odd, unintentionally disturbing, and more like a comic created by David Lynch than Gerry Anderson. Adding to the weirdness, the comic was printed landscape rather than portrait sized. 

The Candy and Andy photo-strip only took up a few pages in the 20 page comic (thankfully). Other strips were illustrated, and featured popular TV characters of the day such as Tingha and Tucker. art by Eric Kincaid...

...and Topo Gigo...

...and characters from children's literature such as Winnie the Pooh...

...and Bengo, by Tim...

There was even a Thunderbirds comic strip! But... unlike any Thunderbirds strip we were familiar with. Aimed at nursery age children, and with it almost implying that the crafts were alive rather than being piloted. art by Gerry Embleton...

On the back page was Snap, Crackle, and Pop, a strip based on the characters from the boxes of Kellogg's Rice Krispies. This was the only strip in the comic that interested me when I was a child, and I remember being fascinated by the idea of those little characters secretly running around the breakfast table. The art on this is possibly by Eric Kincaid too, according to the ever-reliable Century 21 expert Shaqui Le Vesconte.

There were a few Candy and Andy Annuals. This one is from 1968 for the year 1969. Somehow the lighting and print quality on the annuals made Candy and Andy look more sinister than ever, like plastic versions of Children of the Damned...

Presumably the idea of life-size dolls in photo-strips must have sounded good at some stage but I'm staggered it got past the suggestion phase. There's something very grimy and unpleasant about Candy and Andy's world, from the greasy looking dolls to the grubby looking house they live in. 

I think the publishers must have realised their mistake as later issues of Candy saw it dispense with the dolls and photo-strips and replace them with artwork and friendlier-looking characters. The format became more standard too, getting rid of the landscape shape. Some readers must have liked it though because it ran for 154 issues in total before merging into Jack and Jill in 1969. 

Today, early copies of Candy fetch high prices on eBay, so this weird comic oddity has some interest out there! 

Update: Thanks to Shaqui Le Vesconte for identifying some of the artists.

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Thunderbirds Are Gone

Down the Tubes has reported today that, sadly, D.C. Thomson's Thunderbirds Are Go magazine has been cancelled. The title was launched in October 2015 with a massive push in supermarkets (my local Tesco had several shelves dedicated to the first issue) but unfortunately the latest issue is the last. 

You can read more about it on the Down the Tubes website here:
http://downthetubes.net/?p=35308  

Just arrived in newsagents...

Here's a quick look at some of the British comics that were published this week. There are of course more titles than this, but in this post I'm only focusing on the ones available in newsagents and supermarkets, not the numerous independent comics available in comic shops or at conventions...

We start with Count Duckula (cover above), in which... hang on! There's a Count Duckula comic now? No, it's just a trick flip cover to the latest issue of Danger Mouse (see below). Issue 4 contains an all-new Danger Mouse strip written by Alex Collier, plus loads of fun features. Well worth any kid's £3.99.

Danger Mouse is published every four weeks by D.C. Thomson, who also publish Thunderbirds Are Go! which is up to No.13 this week. It contains a comic strip adaptation of the episode Legacy drawn by Martin Baines. All good stuff, although 8 pages is too cramped for adapting a full episode and I'd prefer to either see more pages of strip or each episode split across two issues (ie: 16 pages) to give the story more breathing space.  

This issue of Thunderbirds Are Go! comes with a free mask of The Hood. It could be said that some of us don't need it...

Also from D.C. Thomson this week is Beano No.3856 which leads with an extra-length Roger the Dodger story, and is packed with comic strips. All new material too! Don't miss it!

The Beano Christmas Special is also out now, with 68 full colour pages of all-new material and a free set of stickers inside. I'm very proud to say I drew the four page Bash Street Kids story in this issue, which was written by Andy Fanton. 

For older readers there's 2000AD No.2002, which continues the new stories that began in the previous issue. 2000AD has consistently been a great comic for nearly 40 years now and shows no sign of weakening. A must-buy!

Marvel Legends No.3, from Panini UK, has 76 pages reprinting recent Marvel material of Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America. Big changes have happened to the Marvel Universe over the last few years and this is the place to keep up with it. 

Last but not least, Viz No.260 is another 52 pages of adult satire with loads of strips from top UK cartoonists. You'll find it on the top shelves of the finest newsagents in the country. 

Also out now, although you might struggle to find it in newsagents, is Comic Heroes No.29, with 132 pages of comics news and views. I bought mine from Nostalgia and Comics in Birmingham yesterday, as WH Smiths still don't have it in stock. 

That's just the comics that have arrived in newsagents this week. They join the titles from previous weeks that are still on display such as Toxic, Doctor Who Adventures, Commando, and more of course. Support UK comics, and Never Be Without A Beano - or any of the others!

Thunderbirds Are Go mag revamped

The current issue of Thunderbirds Are Go magazine sees a significant change. The screen-grab photostrip adaptations of TV episodes are gone, replaced by artwork, with the episode Tunnels of Time recreated as an (uncredited) 8 page comic strip.

There's also the regular features and activity pages, and the mag comes bagged with two exclusive good quality gifts; a Top Secret Mission Log Book (a hardback notebook with a combination lock) and a Tag Badge made of fabric. 

Thunderbirds Are Go No.10, published by D.C. Thomson, is in the shops now. £3.99.

This week's UK comics (Updated)

Another bunch of comics have arrived in newsagents this week. First up is Thunderbirds Are Go No.5 from DC Thomson. Admittedly some people don't consider this a comic as it's mostly photo strips from screen grabs of the episodes. However in that case it's closer to the Italian fumetti, which they consider to be comics so that's good enough for me. I only wish they'd create new stories by using screen grabs from different episodes, as I did for Egmont's CiTV Tellytots magazine years ago.

This month's issue continues its line of free Thunderbirds models and this time it's the new Thunderbird 5 which comes as a little four section kit to clip together. Next month presents a free Thunderbird S model, which I'm sure will be very collectable. 

Also from DC Thomson of course is the latest Beano, No.3820, with 36 pages packed with all-new fun from top creators such as Nigel Parkinson, Laura Howell, Hunt Emerson, Paul Palmer, David Sutherland, and many more. 

2000AD Prog 1966 continues its line up of strips that began in the Christmas issue. A striking cover by Neil Roberts this week. There's some fantastic work on view in this comic these days proving that today's artists can easily hold their own against the veteran greats of the past. Richard Elson's artwork on Kingdom continues to impress me more every week.

Doctor Who Magazine No.496 should please fans of brilliant cartoonist Roger Langridge as it contains a new 12 page strip, Theatre of the Mind, written and drawn by him. (There's also my regular Daft Dimension strip in there too.) 

There's also a new issue of Doctor Who Adventures (No.11) out now, with more brilliant artwork by Russ Leach.

The Phoenix No.214 is also out now. You'll find issues in WH Smith and selected branches of Waitrose and Waterstones. There's some cracking talent in its pages including Jamie Smart, James Turner, and Long Gone Don by the Etherington Brothers.

On the reprint front, there's Marvel Legends No.18 from Panini, The Flash No.5,  Batman Gotham Central No.1, and Batman/Superman No.14 (now monthly) from Titan Comics. 

Also available is the latest volume of the DC Comics Graphic Novel Collection from Eaglemoss. This time it's a nice hardback of JLA: Earth 2 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, originally published in the USA 16 years ago.

The back up in the book is a reprint of The Flash of Two Worlds; the first meeting of The Flash with his Golden Age Earth 2 counterpart from way back in 1961. There's also a few bonus features, making this a very nice collection indeed. I picked up my copy from WH Smith but you'll also find it in Asda and elsewhere. 

All the above are available in newsagents (limited to WH Smith in the case of The Phoenix). However, on sale in comic shops right now is the 4th issue of Johnny Red from Titan Comics. Another splendid issue by Garth Ennis and Keith Burns, with a guest cover by Kev Walker. 

As far as digital comics go, this week's Aces Weekly awaits you in cyberspace. Visit http://www.acesweekly.co.uk and subscribe at only £6.99 for 7 weekly issues!

There may even be more British comics out now but the above are the ones that I bought or that sprang to mind. Most comics are monthly or 4-weekly now of course, which means there'll be several different titles out next week, the week after and so on. And this doesn't even cover any new independent comics and graphic novels that may have been published this month. Are British comics dead? Not on your nellie! 

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.