TV Tornado whirls into the ’60s
TV Tornado launched New Year 1967, coming from TV21’s publishers City Magazines and produced by World Distributors, utilising the TV licensing connections of the Christmas annuals giant. Crime-fighter the Saint featured in a comic strip alongside stodgy text stories for The Man from UNCLE, Superman and Batman. Relatively little fantasy TV content included a shortlived Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea strip, but a clutch of cover paintings by the comic’s editor Mick Anglo featured The Avengers, Patrick Troughton’s Doctor Who, The Prisoner and The Invaders – this despite no related strips and often no feature content inside. Worra swizz!
chauffeur parker. the series they hailed from – Thunderbirds, of course – wouldn’t reach tv until autumn 1965. When Thunderbirds finally made it to TV Century 21 in January 1966 it helped the title become Britain’s best-selling comic, with trailblazing ex-Eagle artist Frank Bellamy providing stunning strip centrespreads.
a canny addition to the anderson line-up were national craze The Daleks, a back-page fixture for the first two years. storylines came from dalek creator terry Nation, worked up by former Doctor Who script editor david Whitaker. original artist richard Jennings was replaced in 1966 by ron turner, who used vivid colours and stark graphic shadows.
a year after launch, January 1966 brought girl-focused new sister title Lady Penelope. at their peak, the two boasted a combined weekly circulation of 1.3 million copies. the aristo spy was chief draw and Stingray’s mute mermaid marina had her own solo strip, the mag also going big on spy-fi hit The Man From UNCLE, including picture strips and endless pin-ups of blond bombshell illya Kuryakin. this strip was later logically replaced with sister show The Girl From UNCLE.
ady Penelope’s fantasy content waned under fascinations with music and fashion, spending 1967 obsessing over tv popsters the monkees. in 1968 the title became just Penelope, its strip heroine soon unrecognisable as she transmogrified into an enid Blyton-style boarding school gal, then a swinging London boho chick, before the comic folded at christmas 1969.
a Lady penelope strip The Angels, featuring female fighter pilots, was a cryptic tease to anderson’s next tv series Captain Scarlet &
The Mysterons, which aired from autumn 1967. this series was also trailed via two strips in inferior sister titles SOLO and TV Tornado (see panel), both introducing martian menaces the mysterons, before a Captain Scarlet strip finally launched in issue 141 of TV Century 21 in september 1967. the stunning art was initially by ron embleton, the same artist who created the tv series’ end credits paintings of scarlet in mortal danger.
a January 1968 revamp saw Scarlet strips claim the cover, with newspaperstyle headlines dropped and the title shortened to plain TV21. the slow decline that followed mirrored the anderson empire’s post-Thunderbirds waning fortunes. TV Tornado was absorbed into
TV21 in september 1968, bringing across terrestrial fare from The Saint and Tarzan, the sF quotient further diluted by a rush job strip for Department S, chronicling the investigations of camp crime writer Jason King from march 1969.
the fateful decision was made not to place anderson’s latest puppet hero, bespectacled schoolboy agent Joe 90, into TV21 after his screen debut in autumn 1968, with spin-off title
Joe 90: Top Secret launched instead in January 1969. Joe was accompanied by super-powered secret agent trio the champions and two colour strips featuring Us imports; irwin allen’s little people saga Land Of The Giants and, six months ahead of its delayed BBc tv debut, Star Trek, which assumed the centrespread. despite the initial gaffe of referring to captain Kurt for the first two issues, this strip, brilliantly drawn by Harry Lindfield, soon claimed the cover from its titular hero.
he jam had been spread too thinly – the speccy spy should perhaps have boosted TV21’s flagging sales rather than split the audience – and somewhat inevitably Joe 90: Top Secret folded into its parent title after 34 issues. anderson’s merchandising empire crumbled and century 21 publishing closed in June 1969, no-frills firm martspress now handling production for publisher city magazines.
TV21 closed after 242 issues in september 1969, before relaunching a few weeks later as
TV21 & Joe 90 #1. Star Trek, Land Of The Giants and Joe 90 all continued but after a handful of issues Frank Bellamy jumped ship from Thunderbirds, as budgets dwindled.
When Joe 90 and Thunderbirds bowed out in may/June 1970 it was the end of an era. TV21 carried on without its founding anderson content but the next decade would see exciting new titles rise from the ashes…