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| What a boring cover. Copyright relevant owner |
I recently purchased the last issue of the first series of a comic which had started its publishing life as TV Century 21 and ended its second series as just TV21. Not that I needed it, as, truth to tell, I have every ish of the celebrated periodical on data disc (for easy access to images for the blog, rather than having to dig out individual issues), but I also own numerous original numbers of its various formats, including the first full year's worth, when it was still a title to be reckoned with. However, with the passing of time, how the mighty fell - and then some!
The last issue (242) is pretty dire, to say nothing of dull, as it no longer contained as many colour strip pages as in its heyday. (Only Thunderbirds is in colour [2 pages], other colour pages being used for features and ads.) When artists of the calibre of Mike Noble, Ron Embleton, Eric Eden, and Richard Jennings were drawing full-colour strips for the comic in its early days, it was hard to beat and had real impact, but with their departure, it went into decline. True, Frank Bellamy was still drawing Thunderbirds right up to the end, but though his art remained competent and professional, it was now uninspired and wasn't enough on its own to maintain the comic's popularity (in my humble opinion).
I've seen it stated that TV21 eventually 'lost' the rights to do strips based on Anderson shows (which suggests that permission was withdrawn from them), but that's probably just a shorthand way of saying that it relinquished the license as, with the waning interest in Gerry and Sylvia's TV shows, the publishers (now IPC instead of City Magazines) simply thought it no longer warranted the expense of paying for something that failed to attract readers in large enough numbers to make it worthwhile. This would perhaps explain why the disappearance of GA strips in the comic was a gradual and not a sudden one.
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| Never has Captain Scarlet looked so dull - bring back Embleton or Noble |
It had started with a bang, but finished with nary a whimper. A sad end to a once-fine comic, but the 'real' TV21 had died long before its final issue went on sale. Just look at the unimpressive headline font and underwhelming photo-illustration on the cover. Pretty disappointing, eh? Comments welcome.
Incidentally, despite what I said in the first paragraph, these pages are scanned from my newly acquired issue of the comic, not sourced from my data disc. (Can't remember where it is for the moment.)
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| At least it's in colour, but it's hardly Bellamy's best work |
12 comments:
I never picked up any TV21 comics in its hey-day as I never really liked comics based on TV shows ( daft I know) but from those early issues I have seen it looked spectacular. I do remember picking up TV21 when it moved to the the traditional UK weekly format and it wasnt a great read so I stopped buying it until it merged with Valiant, one of my regular comics at the time. Sadly most classic comics seem to lose their way after a few years.
Yeah, once the novelty wears off and readers start assuming that a comic is going to be around forever, they become less fervent in their devotion to it. That's not helped, of course, by bringing in lesser artists and less compelling strips, but I guess shortcuts have to be taken somewhere once circulation starts declining. Trouble is, such changes tend to accelerate the decline.
I can't see the second image as it won't download for some reason.
Try clicking on the image, CJ, that usually does the trick when I have that problem on other blogs.
It's OK, Kid - I can see it now (I didn't need to click on it but I'll remember that in future).
Nae bother, CJ. When you click on a blank image, it usually enlarges the image that's meant to be there, then all you do is backspace to get it at normal size.
I was never a regular reader of TV21, although I did like the Summer Specials in the mid-60s.
I suspect the demise of TV21's popularity started when Gerry Anderson stopped producing Joe 90 and made the Secret Service instead. I understand that Anderson had always wanted to succeed in live action, but the Secret Service was an abject failure in terms of audience appreciation, and even some ITV regions declined to show it, as well as the US TV networks not understanding Stanley Unwin. In those days, there was limited opportunity to watch repeats of Thunderbirds or Stingray or Captain Scarlet, so TV21 had no content that tapped into current TV.
I think that one of the major mistakes Lew Grade made was not commissioning further series of the favourites after the first one or two - he always seemed to want to try something else. And even though Fireball XL5 and Stingray were mere repeats at the time, I think TV21 would've been wise to continue their comic strip adventures after 1967. I've still never seen an episode of Secret Service (won't be buying the box set).
I stayed to the end of the first series and totally agree with your comment on Bellamy. The original art is better colour-wise but still poor compared to his earlier work. I got all the Joe 90s and followed the new series until c. 30 and then picked up Mike Noble's Star Trek when he was doing it and then dropped TV21 completely. Sad, sad end
Yes, you're right, S4A - a terribly sad end when compared to what it had once been. However, as an 'ordinary' comic just before it was merged into Valiant, it was probably no better or worse than some others of or near the time. (TV Tornado had been pretty duff from day one.) At least in its final throes, TV21 had Mike Noble's Star Trek to recommend it, which readers like you and me were discerning enough to appreciate.
How'd you like your Fireball XL5 60th Anniversary Comics Anthology?
I still haven't seen a copy of the Anderson Entertainment collection. Even with some of the criticisms of reproduction it'd be good to have them all in one easily accessible place!
The main problem, NB, is that some of the pages scanned for reproduction in the book were slightly out-of-register to begin with, meaning that any faults were in the original printed editions of TV21. There's not really much that can be done in those situations, unless Anderson Entertainment had recourse to more than one copy of the original issues. However, like you say, it's good to have them all in one collection, and the reproduction for the most part is pretty good. A few of the later b&w TV21 pages are a little washed-out, but again, this could be how they were originally, though I can't say for sure without seeing them. Personally, I love the book and want to have its babies.
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