This week in 1971: COUNTDOWN No.32

It's been a while since I did one of these flashback features so here's a few pages from the issue of a comic that went on sale this weekend 44 years ago. It's Countdown No.32, dated September 25th 1971, which would have been published on Saturday Sept.18th 1971. (Click on images to see them larger.)

Countdown was a glossy 24 page weekly published by Polystyle, which featured strips based on the sci-fi adventure TV shows of the day. The comic tried to be a replacement for the glory days of TV21, to the extent that it had gained the licence to do strips of Gerry Anderson shows after TV21 had dropped them. (By the time this issue of Countdown was published, the ailing TV21 had merged into Valiant.)

The cover of this issue kicks off a new UFO serial illustrated by Gerry Haylock. One of the great things about Countdown was that it credited the artists; something most British comics didn't do back then.

The centrespread of the comic featured Doctor Who. The fantastic artist Harry Lindfield does a fine job of illustrating a very busy script but there's a lot going on to pack into two pages and it does feel like it would have benefited from spreading it over another page or two.

Eight of Countdown's 24 pages were in full colour, and although the content would vary over the comic's run, the Countdown strip itself had its two pages of 
colour every week. This was an originated strip not based on any TV show but it 
did feature spacecraft designs from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. (No spacecraft in this episode though.) Artwork by the always-astounding John Burns. 

Countdown ran a different complete 7 page story every week, and this week it was the turn of Captain Scarlet. Connecting with continuity with the movie Thunderbirds Are Go, the strip saw the return of the Martian Rock Snakes, - this time on Earth as part of a Mysteron plot. A daft story but great art by Keith Watson...

Having the licence for Gerry Anderson strips meant that Polystyle could reprint old strips from TV21, which came in handy when the budget was reduced. Although originally published in full colour, some Stingray and Fireball XL5 strips were reprinted in greyscale. Furthermore, the Fireball strips were reduced and turned at 90 degrees. However, personally speaking this didn't bother me one bit and as a 12 year old I was only too glad to revisit those classic strips I'd read when I was six. 

As you might have guessed from the competition to win a weather station, Countdown liked to mix science alongside science fiction. The back page of this issue featured a cutaway of the Apollo Lunar Module (reprinted from a book called Manned Spacecraft). 

I thought Countdown was an excellent comic, just up my street. No sports or war stories; just science fiction and fact (plus the occasional feature about UFO sightings). Sadly it seems most kids didn't take to it and with issue 59 it changed its title to TV Action, expanding its content to include TV shows such as Hawaii Five-O, and Cannon. Later, it'd incorporate pop pin-ups to compete with Look-In, but it still remained a good TV adventure comic up until its merger with TV Comic in 1973. 

DWM Special Edition preview

Thanks to TARDIS technology (and the generosity of Panini UK) here's a quick preview of the Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition: The Art of Doctor Who that will be in the shops tomorrow! 

Even better than expected, the summer special features a wealth of information and artwork of the history of Doctor Who in comics, annuals, sweet cigarette cards, Target novelizations and more.

There's even a few images shot directly from the artwork which show off the brush strokes as well as the margin notes. Naturally the Doctor's more predominant appearances in titles such as TV Comic and Countdown are covered but it also shows covers to publications such as TV Tornado and Judy which featured the Time Lord. 

Where possible, quotes from the artists involved have been included and there's a new interview with Dave Gibbons on his time drawing the strip for the early issues of Doctor Who Weekly.

Editor Marcus Hearn and his team of writers have been very thorough in researching their subjects. As well as covering the history of the comic strips over the last 51 years there are also features on the DVD sleeve design, fanzine artwork, concept art of the series and much more. 

The 100 page special is an excellent publication packed with information. Essential summer reading for any Doctor Who fan and/or fan of British comics history. 

Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition No.40 - The Art of Doctor Who published Thursday 16th April 2015. £5.99.

Comic oddities: ZERO-G

Back in 1989 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the moon landing, Polystyle Publications gave us a comic themed around science fact and fiction. Its name was Zero-G. 

Of course Polystyle were famous for publishing TV Comic, Pippin and Countdown / TV Action but Zero-G may be new to you. It'd be understandable if you missed it as there was only this one issue published as a Holiday Special. After the summer of 1989 it vanished from the shelves as though it had never existed.

The contents of this 48 page special contained a mixture of factual articles on space exploration and a good selection of complete adventure strips. However, the strips were all reprints from the 1971 comic Countdown. 

Although most of Countdown's strips had been based on TV shows it also sometimes featured all-new complete sci-fi stories with no connection to any television series. It was these strips which were collected into the Zero-G Holiday Special. Great material too, with artwork by Brian Lewis and Martin Asbury. 

There was also a four page text story Dangerous Friend reprinted from the Countdown Annual 1972 that had been laid out differently. This Martin Asbury illustrated tale featured the cast of the Countdown ship, the originated strip from the comic of that name. 

Talking of layouts, the strip Murder on Ice bizarrely broke its continuity halfway through to feature a few joke cartoons, which seemed a bit foolish and unnecessary.

Was Zero-G intended to spin off into a regular comic? Possibly not, as there wouldn't be enough non-TV reprint left to fill the pages of an ongoing title, unless Polystyle would be willing to finance new material. That seemed unlikely, given that the Holiday Special was obviously done on a limited budget. Even the rocket icon on the cover had been lifted from the old Countdown logo. Times must have been hard not to afford a one inch drawing of a new rocket.  

So the Zero-G Holiday Special was a here today, gone tomorrow publication, passing like a comety candle in the wind burning up on re-entry lost in splashdown, add your own metaphorical analogy thing. Like Polystyle's parrot it had ceased to be. 

Short-lived comics: ROCKET (1956)

In 1956 News of the World publications launched Rocket, a new 16 page tabloid weekly as a companion to their TV Comic and Express Weekly titles. Dubbed 'The First Space-Age Weekly' its contents were mostly science-fiction and fact. It proudly proclaimed it was 'Edited by Douglas Bader', and perhaps the famous airman had some input but he wasn't the actual day to day editor. From its format it was obviously intended to be a rival to Hulton's Eagle, but Rocket spluttered and crashed after just 32 weeks.

What went wrong? Rocket certainly looked eye-catching enough with its dynamic logo, as can be seen from the cover to No.10 above. The contents were of a good quality, but perhaps Britain just wasn't ready for a comic solely based around science-fiction in 1956. 

More likely the readers simply saw it for what it was; an inferior knock-off of Eagle. Why buy second-best? The cover strip was Captain Falcon, a Dan Dare type which although expertly drawn by Basil Blackaller wasn't quite in the same league as the pages produced by Frank Hampson's studio. 

Rocket's budget was evidently lower than Eagle's too. Despite its slick printing and half of its pages in full colour, Rocket contained quite a few reprints from overseas. I'm not sure if Escape from Earth was one of them but I don't recognize the artwork and it certainly reads like an awkward translation...

On page four, John Storm was a reprint of the Dutch comic strip Piloot Storm, with nice solid artwork by Henk Sprenger. (You can read more about the strip at the well researched International Hero site here: http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/p/pilootstorm.htm) 

Across the centre pages of Rocket were two more reprints, this time from American Sunday newspapers. Flash Gordon by Mac Raboy, and Johnny Hazard by the often underrated Frank Robbins. Another US reprint, Brick Bradford appeared elsewhere in the comic. 

The only humour strip in the comic was the half-page Space for Laughter. (Perhaps Rocket might have been more successful of they'd found more space for humour.) Again, I don't recognize the artwork but the upside-down signature in the final panel is 'Kim'.

Rocket contained a few text stories and features. Here's one predicting Farming on the Moon! Ah, how optimistic Britain was 60 years ago...

On the back cover was an excellently illustrated strip. The Seabed Citadel was apparently written and drawn by Ley Kenyon the famous diver and artist. (You can read more about him at this excellent blog:
http://robertmoubert.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/the-art-of-ley-kenyon.html) 

After just 32 weeks, Rocket was cancelled, merging into Express Weekly. Several years later Express (now titled TV Express) merged into TV Comic. Yet that wasn't the end of Rocket! If you have copies of Polystyle's 1971 spin-off from TV Comic, Countdown, take a look at the indicia. From issue 7 onwards (3rd April 1971) the official name of the comic suddenly became Countdown and Rocket even though Rocket wasn't named on the cover. 

Perhaps Polystyle just wanted to hang onto that name to prevent rivals from using it? Or perhaps, as Steve Holland ventures in his book Countdown to TV Action, that they wanted to hold onto it in case they ever relaunched the title? They certainly held on tight. Even when Countdown changed its title to TV Action in 1972 the indicia still included Rocket...

Rocket was an interesting addition to comics of the 1950s, even though it wasn't as spectacular as might have been hoped. 

This week in 1971: Dr.Who

Yes, 'Dr.Who', not 'Doctor Who'. That was often how licensed BBC merchandise and comics had it back then. Even the Doctor Who TV series itself listed the character as 'Dr.Who' in the end credits for a while in the early days. And no one cared. 

Here's the Dr.Who strip that appeared on the covers of Countdown comic this week in 1971. Part of The Celluloid Midas serial illustrated by Harry Lindfield. Very nice artwork by one of the top comic artists of the day.

This of course was back in the days when The Doctor was a tall middle-aged grey-haired chap dressed in black with a red lining to the outfit. Wouldn't it be great to have a Doctor looking like that now? Oh, hang on...

Doctor Who returns to our TV screens on Saturday August 23rd! Don't miss it! 

Countdown to TV Action: review

I've been a sucker for books on the history of comics ever since I had The Penguin Book of Comics for Christmas 1971. Any book that provides more insight into the background of comics is usually an essential purchase for me, and Countdown to TV Action by Steve Holland definitely delivers the goods.

As most of you will know, Countdown was a weekly comic published by Polystyle in 1971 which featured licensed TV strips such as Doctor Who and various Gerry Anderson strips, along with features on science, space exploration, and Unidentified Flying Objects. A year after its launch it metamorphosed into TV Action, continuing the numbering and broadening its remit to incorporate strips based on other TV adventure shows of the time. (Here's a blog post I wrote several years ago about Countdown No.1:
http://comiconline24h.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/40-year-flashback-countdown-no1.html)

It took quite a while for Steve Holland to compile this book because he always diligently researches his projects. At times you may feel there's a bit too much background career information on the staff of the comics Steve writes about, but it's actually good to have such thoroughly researched information. After all, why not give the staff and creators their due, when they've often worked in relative obscurity for years? 

The 202 page book not only covers the history of Countdown / TV Action but also puts it into context by giving us the brief history of the comics that preceded it (such as TV Century 21 and TV Comic) and the background to the publishers. Steve has unearthed many interesting facts about the behind-the-scenes story of the comic, and that, plus brief story synopsis', information on creators, and a substantial strip index at the back makes this book the definitive history of the title. 

That index takes up over 50 pages in itself, providing every story title and the issues they ran in, creator credits, feature titles, etc. Even information on the Holiday Specials and Annuals are included, and related titles such as the Doctor Who Holiday Special of 1973. 

The book is extremely well illustrated too, with many crisp clear reproductions of covers, artwork, and features. Some strips are even reprinted full size, taking up the whole page. I'm sure some would prefer it if they'd been shown in full colour, but this is a self-published venture with a smallish print run so the costs of colour would be prohibitive. The absence of colour is irrelevant anyway, as the focus of this book is on the history of the comic, and it certainly does its job.

Countdown to TV Action is a fine publication, carefully researched and handsomely presented in a very informative and enjoyable volume. If you read the comics as a kid you'll love it. If it's new to you, you'll discover the story behind one of the best British comics of the 1970s and marvel at the quality of its artwork. 

You can buy a copy directly from the publisher at Bear Alley Books by following this link:
http://bearalleybooks.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/countdown-to-tv-action.html

Counting down the days...

Bear Alley Books' new publication Countdown to TV Action is due to be published in just over a week's time on July 4th 2014. The 200 page book covers the history of the fondly remembered 1970s comic Countdown (which became TV Action with its 59th issue), and will also include an index of all the strips. 

Written by Steve Holland, who knows his stuff when it comics to British adventure comics, Countdown to TV Action is now available to pre-order from his website here:
http://bearalleybooks.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/countdown-to-tv-action.html

One I'm definitely looking forward to, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that!

(I've blogged about Countdown comic several times in the past. To find those posts, simply type Countdown or TV Action into the search bar at the top left of this blog.)

Countdown to the publication of this great new book

Cover to the forthcoming book.

Before 2000AD was launched in 1977, the best British comic of the 1970s was, for me, Polystyle's Countdown comic, launched in 1971 and retitled TV Action a year later. You can read more about it in some of my previous posts here:
http://comiconline24h.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=Countdown

The comic is still fondly remembered to this day for its high production values (in its Countdown incarnation) and quality of artwork (John M. Burns, Brian Lewis, Harry Lindfield, etc). Now comics historian Steve Holland is to publish a book covering the history and background of the comic, including an index to the strips. Keep an eye on Steve's Bear Alley Books website for ordering information coming soon:
http://bearalleybooks.blogspot.co.uk/