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At first I wasn't going to bother with this Annual, mainly because it wasn't quite a CAPTAIN SCARLET book or a THUNDERBIRDS one, but it was going dirt cheap on eBay so I decided to let the moths out of my wallet and grab it. It arrived yesterday, and, as you can see, like all of the original GERRY ANDERSON based Annuals, there's no year on the cover. This was no doubt to maintain the 21st century illusion (can't have a 20th century date on a book supposed to be from a hundred years in the future), but it also probably allowed newsagents and booksellers to keep it on sale for longer than normal. It was published in 1969 for 1970, just as interest in the SUPERMARIONATION programmes was on the wane, which is perhaps why the decision was taken to issue a combination Annual rather than one for each programme.
Anyway, to give you a little taste of it, here's a titanic Thunderbirds tale illustrated by RON TURNER. If you all behave yourselves, I may feature a Captain Scarlet story from the same book in a future post. Wouldn't that be nice? Speak up - I can't hear you.
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I have just discovered the glory of the Thunderbolts TV show. I grew up on Stingray and loved Captain Scarlet. But Thunderbirds I didn't get to see. I finally popped for the A&E set and am in the middle of the season. I can see why the show was so very successful. It has a better range than I expected.
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I saw it in the '60s, Rip, and also have the DVD boxed set of the series. One day I might even get around to watching it. In fact, I also have Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray, Captain Scarlet and Joe 90 - but I've only watched Fireball and Stingray so far. (Had them for years, too. How lazy is that?)
ReplyDeleteKid, of all those you mentioned it's only Joe 90 that I remember watching - I have fond memories of watching it on my Gran's colour TV in about 1972. It's curious to me that you've got all those box sets but don't watch them - I suppose the collector just likes to physically own a series but I'm happy enough to watch Joe 90 episodes on Youtube. At the moment I'm watching Gerry Anderson's live show "Space:1999" on Youtube (or the ones that are on there) - did you like that show ? In my ITV region only Season 1 was shown but the second year was totally re-vamped and is much inferior as I am now seeing !
ReplyDeleteI just couldn't get into Space 1999 for some reason, CJ. In fact, the only things I liked about Joe 90 were the theme tune and the car.
ReplyDeleteI never got into space 1999, mostly cos it weren't shown in my region. When they did get round to it, it seemed kinda slow. I revisited it a year or so ago and I kinda got into the vibe, even the second series has a few bright moments, if you can stand the tosh. I quite liked Joe 90, even if a lot of it looked like warmed over Captain Scarlet.
ReplyDeleteIf I recall correctly, it was shown on a Saturday or Sunday morning (or around midday?), which categorised it in my mind as a 'kids programme'. I wonder if that had anything to do with my opinion of the show? It also looked to sterile and clean looking for my tastes - as if it was shot in my local health centre or some place like that. Just didn't grab me.
ReplyDeleteFor me these days the weirdest thing about Space:1999 is the dates - the show begins on September 9th 1999 and the moon blasts out of Earth's orbit on September 13th and that date flashes up at the start of every episode of Season 1. Well, in real life my father died on September 2nd 1999 and it's really strange to think that when he and I were watching the show back in 1975 he was seeing a date flash up on the screen every week that was only 11 days after his own death. By the way, in my ITV region it was shown on Friday evenings. I am now off to watch another episode on Youtube.
ReplyDeleteIn a strange kind of way, CJ, your father got to see what the future might be like after he died - even if it was only a fictional, possible future. I find myself thinking that I deserve to be alive in 2065, because that's the year TV21 is supposed to have been published. Happy viewing.
ReplyDeleteYou can't go wrong with a Ron Turner strip. Who drew the CS strip? I am speaking up, so you can hear me - I didn't have this annual, so I'd like to see a strip.
ReplyDeleteLike everyone else, I wasn't too keen on the post Joe 90 programmes. Perhaps if I watched them now I may well enjoy them more?
I'm not sure who drew the CS strips, JP - some faces look like John Cooper's work, but the rest of the art isn't typical of the style with which I associate him. There are 7 (I think) strips in all - 3 CS and 4 TB - two of the latter by Turner, of which you've seen one.
ReplyDeleteOops - in one of my above comments I typed 'to sterile' when, of course, it should've been 'too sterile'. Probably never hit the 'o' key hard enough the second time. Why do these age-old typos bother me so much?
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