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Arrived today at Castel Crivens, the final issue I needed to complete the first full year's worth of TV Century 21 - #47. I have quite a few subsequent issues of the comic in its various later incarnations, but I doubt I'll bother trying for a full set of year two's batch as I felt the comic was going off-the-boil with the arrival of Thunderbirds in 1966.
There's no denying Frank Bellamy could draw, but I get the impression he was rushing the pages for TV21, and he wasn't as dynamic a storyteller on the strip as Mike Noble on Fireball XL5, or Ron Embleton on Stingray. I might've gone for year two for The Daleks (which ended in #104), but Marvel/Panini's Dalek Special made that redundant - and the first year was the comic at his best.
So - full first year of TV Century 21 - result!
I agree that TV21 lost something after issue 52. I kept going until the Daleks finished and decided I was too old at about issue 110.
ReplyDeleteI also preferred the masthead from issues 1 to 51, and wasn't so keen on the smaller one which started on 52. Once The Daleks ended in 104, the comic was definitely past its best.
ReplyDelete"...he wasn't as dynamic a storyteller on the strip ..."
ReplyDeleteTo quote Odin, I say thee phooey!
That's good you've completed your collection. I don't really collect comics from a particular year etc mostly only individual comics or maybe a specific artist or storyline so that's much easier- saying that I have ended up with the odd full year collection but that was mostly by accident (Scorcher, Wham and Smash looking for Jen Reid and or Ton Kerr art). How long have you been after that specific issue
ReplyDeleteI was speaking to Odin only the other day and he actually agrees with me, BS. Nah, Bellamy was 'phoning it in with Thunderbirds and the strip wasn't as well drawn or composed as Noble's and Embleton's. Drawings with figures or faces half-consisting of colour and no detail just don't impress me, Bellamy or not.
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Over the last few months, McS, I made it a point to fill in the gaps in my TV21s and have been doing so steadily since then. So not long at all, really (as regards #47), only several weeks at the most once I decided to complete the first years worth. Having said that, I only had the first 7 issues in a row, then 18, 19, 22, and maybe one or two others within that first year, so that's perhaps around 40-odd issues in all.
Did you know that Bellamy was asked to be on board from issue 1 drawing Stingray but was contracted to Eagle which is why he didn't appear till much later. Bellamy on Stingray and Embleton on Thunderbirds? Would've loved to see it. BTW IMHO Bellamy's art did suffer after a while on TBirds - maybe he got bored or maybe he had other jobs on the go - but I felt that didn't start till around issue 150.
ReplyDeleteI can't recall whether I'd heard that before or not, but I'm bound to say thank goodness he didn't draw Stingray. Ron Embleton was definitely the right man for that job and the comic would've been the poorer for his absence.
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