TV Century 21 weekly was launched in January 1965, primarily to promote Gerry Anderson's futuristic puppet TV series, namely
Supercar, Fireball XL5 and
Stingray, but also featuring other TV series, including
Burke's Law, The Munsters and
The Daleks from
Doctor Who. Gerry Anderson's greatest success,
Thunderbirds, would follow a year later and subsequently there would be
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons in 1967 and
Joe 90 in 1969, who would initially appear in his own comic, before it merged into
TV Century 21. Other
TV programmes which were featured later as strips included
The Saint and
Star Trek, which joined from other comics.
TV Century 21 was heavily influenced by
EAGLE, which is hardly surprising as
EAGLE had been a great success in the preceding decade and its lead strip,
Dan Dare was easily Britain's
best and
most popular space adventure strip. Like
Dan Dare, TV Century 21 was about adventure in the future and its editor Alan Fennell was keen to emulate
EAGLE's success. He persuaded many of
EAGLE's former artists
to join
the new weekly and his efforts proved fruitful as
TV Century 21 outsold the sixties
EAGLE and its other adventure strip rivals in its first few years of publication. The steadily declining popularity of Gerry Anderson's series which followed
Thunderbirds, coupled with a change of publisher and the loss of rights to Anderson's programmes led to declining sales and
TV 21 was absorbed into
Valiant in 1971. During its years of success it spawned several companion papers, just as
EAGLE had in the 1950s. There was
Lady Penelope, for girls,
Solo and
Joe 90 for boys and
Candy for younger children.
Lady Penelope was named after the popular character from
Thunderbirds, who was introduced in her own strip in the first issues of
TV Century 21, before the arrival of
Thunderbirds on TV.
In its early years,
TV Century 21's size, paper quality, printer and layout were the same as
EAGLE's. Eric Bemrose Ltd. of Liverpool printed both papers using the
Photogravure process and during the mid sixties, both ran to twenty or sometimes twenty four pages, with six in colour. The front page of
TV Century 21 was set out as a newspaper, which was a device first used by
EAGLE in two
episodes of
Dan Dare. Like
EAGLE, TV 21 also carried some informative and educational features, with three in the first issue, covering outer space, the oceans and wildlife. No less than six former
Dan Dare artists illustrated strips in
TV Century 21 while two more contributed to related publications. In addition to these, ten others who had previously contributed to
EAGLE, illustrated strips in
TV Century 21 at various times during its six and a half year run and another four drew strips for annuals and specials. Of the
Dan Dare artists, Eric Eden drew
Lady Penelope and a
Daleks story
, having
contributed to pre-
TV 21 Supercar and
Fireball XL5 Annuals. He
also filled in on the
Fireball XL5 and Zero X strips and produced early cutaways and feature art.
Zero X was a spaceship featured in Gerry Anderson's cinema film
Thunderbirds Are Go. Don Harley drew
Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and
Lady Penelope. He also drew
Mark of the Mysterons in
Solo comic and the subsequent
Mysterons strip
in
TV Tornado and Solo, when the titles merged
. He would later draw
Thunderbirds strips for a comic called
Countdown in 1971, after it acquired the publication rights. Frank Bellamy, who had also drawn back page strips about Churchill, King David and Marco Polo as well as
Fraser of Africa and
Heros the Spartan for
EAGLE, drew
Thunderbirds. Harold Johns drew
Star Trek and Keith Watson drew
Captain Scarlet and
Joe 90. Keith originally drew
Joe 90 for the
Joe 90:Top Secret comic before it was merged into
TV 21 and he wrote several stories himself.
Dan Dare's creator, Frank Hampson drew a few episodes of
Fireball XL5 for the weekly and a
Lady Penelope story for a
TV Century 21 Summer Extra in 1965. The two
Dan Dare artists who drew for related publications, were Eric Kincaid, who drew a
Fireball XL5 strip for a
TV Century 21 Annual and
Daktari for
Lady Penelope weekly, as well as
Tingha and Tucker and
Snap, Crackle and Pop for
Candy comic and Desmond Walduck who drew several
Fireball XL5 strips for the pre-
TV Century 21 Fireball XL5 Annuals. Two writers
with links to
Dan Dare also worked on
TV 21. David Motton, who wrote the
Dan Dare strip from 1962 until 1966, wrote some
Burke's Law stories and Angus P. Allan, who novelised the original
Dan Dare story for the
New English Library in 1977 was script editor on
TV Century 21 and wrote many strips for the paper, including
Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Zero X and
Star Trek. He also wrote for the companion papers and a novelisation of the feature film
Thunderbirds Are Go. In the
1970s he wrote several
Space 1999 Annuals, based on Gerry Anderson's live action TV series and the
Space 1999 strip for
Look In weekly.
Of the other former
EAGLE artists, Paul Trevillion, who drew
Can You Catch a Crook? and
U.F.O. Agent for
EAGLE, drew
Burke's Law and
The Munsters for
TV 21. He also drew
The Beverly Hillbillies for
Lady Penelope weekly and
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. for
Solo comic. Richard Jennings, who drew
Tommy Walls, Storm Nelson, Earthquake Island and
U.F.O. Agent for
EAGLE, drew
The Daleks for
TV 21. Harry Lindfield
, who drew
Mark Question for
EAGLE, drew
Star Trek. for
TV 21 and
The Monkees for
Lady Penelope weekly.
Ron Embleton, who drew
Johnny Frog for
EAGLE, produced illustrations
for the credits sequence on the
Captain Scarlet TV series and drew
Stingray, Captain Scarlet and some
Project Sword illustrations for
TV 21. He also drew
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. for
Lady Penelope weekly, while his brother Gerry, who had drawn a few episodes of
Riders of the Range and some factual strips for
EAGLE, as well as a one off adventure strip for the 1963
EAGLE Annual, drew
Stingray and
Catch or Kill for
TV 21. Gerry also drew the early issues of
The Perils of Parker for
Lady Penelope weekly and a
Thunderbirds strip for younger readers in
Candy comic. In 1982 he would be the first artist to work on
Dan Dare for the 1980s
EAGLE. Colin Andrew
, who drew
Home of the Wanderers and
The Guinea Pig for
EAGLE, drew
Tomorrow West for
Solo comic, before stints on
Fireball XL5 and
Stingray for
TV 21. John M.
Burns, who drew
Wrath of the Gods and some factual strips
for
EAGLE, also drew
Catch or Kill and
Front Page for
TV 21, a Lady Penelope strip and
Space Family Robinson for
Lady Penelope weekly and Gerry Anderson's
UFO for
TV Action and Countdown. Later he drew
Gerry Anderson's
Space 1999 for
Look In. The
Space 1999 strips were written by Angus P. Allan.
John would also go on to draw
Dan Dare for the 1980s
EAGLE as well as
The Fists of Danny Pike and
Dolebusters.
Although he only drew a short
Blackbow the Cheyenne strip for
EAGLE and some story illustrations for annuals, Don Lawrence nevertheless qualifies as an
EAGLE contributor and he drew
Fireball XL5 and
The Adventures of Tarzan for
TV 21. He also drew a newspaper strip adaptation of the film
Thunderbirds Are Go for the
Daily Mail and six episodes of a proposed newspaper strip version of
Joe 90 which was never published at the time, but appeared in
Century 21, a magazine for fans in the early 1990s. The other two former
EAGLE artists to work on
TV 21 were Carlos Pino and Vicente Alcazar, who worked together, using the name 'Carvic'. They drew the final
Guinea Pig adventure for
EAGLE in 1969 and the same year worked on
Department S and
The Saint for
TV 21, later producing the
Star Trek strip for the paper. Working alone, Carlos Pino would later draw many episodes
of the second series of
Bloodfang and some
MASK strips for the 1980s
EAGLE, which also reprinted his
M.A.C.H. 1 strips from
2000 A.D. weekly.
Four former
EAGLE artists
drew strips for
TV 21 related publications: Pat Williams drew a
Fireball XL5 strip for
TV 21's 1965
Summer Extra, having drawn
Cavendish Brown M.S. and many factual strips for
EAGLE. Gerald Haylock, who drew
Knights of the Road and
The Guinea Pig for
EAGLE, drew
Land of the Giants for
TV 21's companion paper
Joe 90 and Gerry Anderson's
UFO for
Countdown, while Brian Lewis, who had also drawn
The Guinea Pig, as well as
Home of the Wanderers and
Mann of Battle for
EAGLE, drew a
Thunderbirds strip for a one-off
Thunderbirds Extra in 1966, having previously illustrated a
Supercar Storybook. He also drew the humorous
Blunderbirds strip for
EAGLE, which parodied
Thunderbirds! Brian would later draw a
Dan Dare strip for the
2000 A.D. version of the character for that weekly. Reg Parlett, who drew the humorous
Fidosaurus and
XYZ Cars for
EAGLE, drew
Run Buddy Run for
Solo comic. Another former
EAGLE employee also worked for
TV 21, as
Art Editor for the
Annuals and other related books
. This was Roger Perry, who had been a layout artist on
EAGLE in the early sixties and the 'face' of
EAGLE's Roving Reporter.
Between the original
EAGLE and the arrival of a new version of
Dan Dare in
2000 A.D. weekly in 1977,
Jim Baikie drew a
Dan Dare strip for the 1974
EAGLE Annual. Prior to this, he had taken over
The Monkees strip from Harry Lindfield in
Lady Penelope weekly, had a brief stint drawing
The Adventures of Tarzan for
TV 21 and drew
Star Trek for
TV 21 and its annuals. Between 1983 and '84 he drew Gerry Anderson's
Terrahawks for
Look In weekly and in 1984 drew the first series of
Bloodfang for the 1980s
EAGLE. He also drew a
Doomlord strip for the 1985
EAGLE Annual.
Another artist who contributed to
TV 21 and its associated publications
would later work on the 1980s version of
EAGLE. This was
John Cooper, who produced
Johnny Red, The Amstor Computer and
Computer Warrior strips for the 1980s
EAGLE, which also reprinted
his
One Eyed Jack work from
Valiant. He drew
Secret Agent 21, Thunderbirds, Stingray, Joe 90 and
Captain Scarlet for
TV 21 annuals and
Thunderbirds and
Captain Scarlet for the weekly. Later he drew
Captain Scarlet for
Countdown and
Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and
Stingray for
Fleetway's comics based on the characters in the 1990s. He drew
Captain Scarlet for
Sunday, the
News of the World's magazine section and
Joe 90 for the
Funday Times, which was the
Sunday Times' children's section. One writer from the 1980s
EAGLE had earlier worked on
TV 21. This was Scott Goodall, who wrote some
Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Zero X and
Lady Penelope among other strips for
TV 21 and its companions. Scott wrote
Walk or Die, Invisible Boy, Rat Trap and some
Manix strips for
EAGLE.
Repeats of Gerry Anderson's
Thunderbirds TV series on
BBC 2 in 1991, prompted
Fleetway Publications to launch a
Thunderbirds comic the same year, which published reprints of many
TV 21 strips. New contents were also produced and Keith Watson drew some new strips for this publication. Five more artists with
Dan Dare connections also contributed to it. Graham Bleathman, who would later produce cutaways of
Dan Dare spacecraft for both
Spaceship Away magazine and a
Haynes Manual, drew covers and cutaways of the
Thunderbirds and associated craft for this and the subsequent Gerry Anderson related comics published by
Fleetway. He also drew cutaways for a later
Thunderbirds comic produced by
Redan in 2000, a
Haynes Thunderbirds Manual and other collections. Keith Page, who drew some
Dan Dare strips for the 1980s
EAGLE and a strip about the early career of Dan's boss, Sir Hubert Guest, for
Spaceship Away, drew several new
Thunderbirds strips and covers for the
Thunderbirds comic and covers for
Fleetway's Stingray comic. He also drew
Thunderbirds for the
Funday Times. Rod Vass, who drew the
Dan Dare strip for the 1980
2000 A.D. Annual, also drew a
Thunderbirds strip for the
Fleetway comic and designed the 1993
Thunderbirds and the World of Gerry Anderson Exhibition in Blackpool
. Jon Haward, who drew several
Dan Dare strips for the 1980s
EAGLE, drew two
Thunderbirds strips and some illustrations for
Fleetway's Stingray comic and Andrew Skilleter, who, as a boy co-founded the very first
Dan Dare Club in the 1960s and later worked with Keith Watson on two
Dan Dare stories for the 1980s
EAGLE, drew an epic 32 part strip telling the whole story of how the
Thunderbirds Organisation
International Rescue was founded. He also
drew
some covers
for the
Thunderbirds comic and produced artwork for
Fleetway's Stingray, Captain Scarlet and
Joe 90 comics. He illustrated covers and 'Mission Activity' pages for the later
Redan Thunderbirds comic and also produced pictures for a
Captain Scarlet Sticker Album. He currently supplies the Gerry Anderson Online Store (run by Gerry's son Jamie), with licensed Limited Edition signed prints of his Anderson related work.
In 2014 a brand new single edition of
TV Century 21 was produced by
Network. It included a new
Stingray strip drawn by Gerry Embleton, a
Lady Penelope strip by John M. Burns and a
Thunderbirds strip drawn by Martin Baines, who had drawn some
Dan Dare strips and illustrations for the early editions of
Spaceship Away! This led to further
Thunderbirds and Gerry Anderson related work for Martin. He drew episodes of
Space 1999 and
Captain Scarlet for some DVD releases and after a new C.G.I. television series
Thunderbirds Are Go! was launched on
ITV in 2015, a comic of the same name appeared and he drew some of the
Thunderbirds Are Go! strips. This time
D.C. Thomson were the publishers. Martin has recently completed a
Dan Dare cover for
Comic Scene magazine to mark Dan's seventieth anniversary.
Collated and written by Jim Duckett and Steve Winders. We are most grateful to Shaqui Le Vesconte who provided much information and corrected our mistakes and to Martin Baines, Graham Bleathman, Steve Holland, Andrew Skilleter and Rod Vass for clarifying and providing information.
