Review: Spaceship Away No.36

The latest issue of Spaceship Away has arrived, and it's a cracking issue! Published three times a year, issue 36 has 40 full colour pages with a solid content of top material. 

There's a brand new cover by the great Don Harley, who also contributes a back page illustration of Dan Dare. In the centrespread this issue there's a new illustration of Dan and Digby vs The Mekon, drawn by veteran illustrator Gerry Embleton. You may remember Gerry drew the initial new Dan Dare strip for the revived Eagle in 1982, but this time he tackles the original Dan, and it's a great illustration. (No, I'm not showing it here. Buy the issue to see it for yourselves.)

The all-new adventures of Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future continue in the serials Parsecular Tales and Mercury Revenant, both by Tim Booth. Incredibly detailed artwork. I still think these strips need a resumé box to bring readers up to speed. Four months is a long time to wait between issues and with all that people have going on in their lives it's difficult to remember the story so far without help. I appreciate that space is tight but perhaps by the use of a smaller font size a resumé could appear on page two every issue, beside the editorial?

There are two main articles in this issue and they're both excellent. I'm sure all fans of the classic Eagle will enjoy The Bruce Cornwell Story, a ten page feature  written by Bruce's son Anthony, with quotes from his father. A fascinating account of the artist's life and career.

The other article is a four page resumé by Jeremy Briggs of the strips that Dave Gibbons illustrated for The Hotspur and The Wizard in the mid 1970s. This is invaluable information for the many fans of Dave's work. I wasn't aware of most of the strips myself, not being a follower of those comics at the time. (Although I did cover The Year of the Shark Men recently. See here for that post.)

Other strips in this issue are 1950s reprints Jet Morgan in The World Next Door, humour strip Davy Rocket, and part 2 of Ron Turner's Nick Hazard and the Planet of Doom, coloured by Martin Baines.

There's also a free 20 page mini book featuring Chapter One of the prose story Operation Tau Ceti by Denis Steeper. 

As I said, all in all it's a great issue! It'll be available to order soon from the Spaceship Away website:
http://spaceshipaway.org.uk/

Space Ace No.4 just published

Ron Turner's Space Ace volume 4 turned up today and it's another great issue. Where the previous edition had featured several short stories, this one contains a long 24 page strip plus an 8 page back up. 

The longer story, The Island Universe, was originally a six part serial in Lone Star comic in 1954 and was Turner's first Space Ace story. For this collection, John Ridgway has carefully edited out the title banners and recap captions of each episode so the story flows better as one uninterrupted strip. John has also colourised the strip and re-lettered it. A controversial move perhaps, as hardcore Turner fans might prefer to see the strips exactly as they were originally presented as black and white chapters. On the other hand, the colouring is excellent, so I can see the argument for both sides really. 

The back up strip is The Raiders from Space, which originally appeared in Lone Star Volume 3 No.1 in 1957. The first short Space Ace story.  

The stories are good standard SF tales typical of the period. The sort of yarn where our heroes think the obliteration of an entire alien "heathen" planet is justified because some of its inhabitants pose a deadly threat to Earth. "They asked for it!" says Ace. I suppose we're expected to believe the whole alien species was evil, but to modern eyes it's a bit like destroying the Earth because of Nazis. Of course it's all just lighthearted fun really and we're not expected to think too deeply about it. The selling point of the book is the artwork and light entertainment. 

Publisher John Lawrence tells me that although copies of the original editions of Space Ace and Lone Star frequently turn up on eBay, the copies that feature The Island Earth are very rare. Therefore I'm sure this modern edition will be very collectible! 

This beautifully produced edition also includes a two page interview with Ron Turner about the story within, plus a three page letters section. It really is a must-buy for fans of Ron Turner's work and of classic UK comics. 

Ron Turner's Space Ace Vol.4 is available for £8.95 (UK) or £14.00 (overseas) including postage via PayPal to spaceace.54@virginmedia.com or cheque or postal order to John Lawrence, 39 Carterweys, Dunstable, Beds. LU5 4RB. 

Thunderbirds in the comics

Unless you've been living on Mars (with those pesky Rock Snakes) you probably know there's a brand new Thunderbirds series coming to TV this Spring, entitled Thunderbirds Are Go. A mixture of CGI and models it promises to put a new spin on the old favourites but remaining true to the basics. 

What you may also know is that last October it was announced that DC Thomson will be publishing a monthly Thunderbirds Are Go magazine this year, plus an annual. Thomsons are being very hush-hush about it so there's no news on contents or publication date as yet but I'll post info as soon as I get the go ahead. (Although you'll probably hear of it elsewhere first.)

This isn't the first time there's been a Thunderbirds magazine of course. The series has a long association with comics, dating back to TV Century 21 No.52 in early 1966 (cover above) which featured the first Thunderbirds comic strip illustrated by the great Frank Bellamy...

The Thunderbirds strip replaced the Lady Penelope strip (which had been running in TV21 since issue 1 in January 1965). However this heralded a promotion, with Lady Penelope gaining her own weekly publication. 

Thunderbirds became a major part of TV21 but never had its own ongoing comic at that time, although in 1966 there was the Thunderbirds Extra, a 48 page glossy one-off which effectively was the first Thunderbirds solo comic...

The special featured several long complete Thunderbirds strips by a variety of top 1960s artists including Brian Lewis...

Don Harley...

...and Ron Turner...

There were other Thunderbirds specials and annuals of course, but I'm mainly focusing on the regular comics for this post. 

TV21's Thunderbirds strip ended in 1970. A year later, Polystyle gained the licence to publish strips based on Gerry Anderson shows and launched Countdown (see blog post here)...

A brand new Thunderbirds strip began in Countdown No.1, illustrated by Don Harley...

Countdown became TV Action in 1972 and its falling fortunes led to some reprint in its pages including Frank Bellamy Thunderbirds strips from TV21. TV Action later dropped the Thunderbirds strips before the comic ended in 1973 but nine years later in 1982 Polystyle published the Thunderbirds Special. This 48 page comic was all-reprint, gathering strips from various annuals and specials.

Presumably it sold well enough for Polystyle to publish two more Thunderbirds Specials in 1983 and 1984. Again, all reprint.

A few years later, in 1988, Action 21 was launched, published by David Nightingale of Engale Marketing in Blackpool (based at Lytham Road's excellent Thunderbooks comic shop). Superbly designed by Graham Bleathman, Action 21 was a 20 page A4 comic on quality paper, containing sharply reproduced reprints of TV21 strips including Bellamy's Thunderbirds. Sadly the limited distribution comic didn't last too long but it was a worthy exercise. (Back issues are still available from the publisher. Click here to see.)

In 1991, with Thunderbirds enjoying a revived surge of popularity for a new generation (due to repeats on TV), Fleetway launched Thunderbirds the Comic, a 24 page fortnightly edited by Alan Fennell who had been the original editor of TV21, as well as a writer on the TV series.

For its first three issues Thunderbirds the Comic only contained reprints of TV21 strips (plus great new cutaways by Graham Bleathman) but from issue 4 it began to include new material in the form of strip adaptations of TV episodes featuring fantastic artwork by people such as Steve Kyte and Keith Watson...

Thunderbirds the Comic was initially a massive success for Fleetway and ran for 89 issues, concluding in March 1995. Convinced there was still potential in the comic, Alan Fennell gained the licence to publish it himself as Thunderbirds Are Go! 

For a few issues it was cheaper than its predecessor but Thunderbirds Are Go! didn't survive for long. (I think it lasted 8 issues.) Its contents were once again TV21 reprints plus photo-strips using screen grabs from the TV series. (Unfortunately the quality of the photos wasn't too good in issue one, with some looking like they'd simply been photographed from the TV screen.)

In 1999 Redan launched their own Thunderbirds monthly magazine, with a slick design in tune with other Thunderbirds merchandise of the time.

The direction of Redan's Thunderbirds mag was distinctly younger than previous publications featuring the property. Its emphasis was on simply told photo-stories and activity pages (and new cutaways by Graham Bleathman)...

Undoubtedly this was a disappointment for older fans but it proved to be the right decision by Redan as the publication ran for several years. 

So... what will DC Thomson's new Thunderbirds Are Go magazine be like when it arrives on our shelves? The last 49 years of Thunderbirds comics (and indeed British comics in general) have shown a gradual simplification in tone. TV21 was very sophisticated compared to today's comics, but that didn't deter readers back in 1965. (I was five years old when TV21 No.1 was published. Loved it!) 

The old attitude in publishing used to be that if your comic was aimed at 5 to 11 year olds, you'd write it for the older end of the target audience and the younger ones would catch up (and feel 'big' that they were reading something that wasn't 'babyish') - because children will drop a comic like a stone if they think it's infantile. Publishers could take risks like that when sales were half a million or so. Today it's a different scene, with many children struggling with their reading, a culture with more emphasis on visuals, and publishers not wanting to risk alienating the ones who do pick up their mags. It's possible that Thunderbirds Are Go will follow the direction of Doctor Who Adventures and suchlike and have a focus on 'activity pages' and pull-out posters - and inevitably be bagged with gifts. We'll know soon enough. The good thing is that once again there'll be a Thunderbirds magazine in newsagents (hopefully with some comic strip). 

For a more detailed history of Thunderbirds comic strips see the excellently researched Technodelic website:
http://www.technodelic.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Upload01/Thunderbirds01.htm

UPDATE: I've just received this first image of the new character designs for the new series. What do you think, folks?

Ron Turner's SPACE ACE Volume 3 published

John Lawrence, longtime fan of the late artist Ron Turner, has published another collection of classic 1950s strips by the illustrator. Ron Turner's Space Ace Volume 3 is an A4 sized 40 page softback book featuring four complete stories featuring the comics character Space Ace. 

The strips originally appeared in Lone Star magazines and annuals in 1958/59 in black and white. For this collection, artist John Ridgway has carefully restored and 'colourised' them. More than a simple case of colouring, John has breathed new life into the strips. The results are very impressive indeed.

The book also contains a three page interview with Ron Turner regarding his work on Space Ace, and a two page letters column. 

This is marvellous stuff. The plots and hardware may seem somewhat dated perhaps but that's irrelevant to collectors and enthusiasts of Ron Turner's artwork. In fact it's part of the attraction of such material. We really need more old strips archived like this before they're forgotten forever. 

Ron Turner's Space Ace is a labour of love for John Lawrence. Although the price may seem slightly expensive it has to be remembered that the print run is very limited and that this is a non-profit venture. The printing and paper quality is excellent and its sturdy laminated cover makes the book look very classy indeed. 

Copies are available priced £8.95 each (UK), 13GBP (Europe), 14GBP (International) including postage and packing. Order your copy via PayPal at:
spaceace.54@virginmedia.com

The Unseen Daleks!

As I covered in a blog post a few weeks ago, in 1997 Doctor Who Magazine ran a brand new six-part Daleks comic strip by John Lawrence and Ron Turner as a sequel to the strips that had appeared in TV21 in the 1960s. What I then learned, thanks to a comment left by John, was that he and Ron Turner had pitched another Dalek series after that but it had been turned down.

Thanks to John's generosity, he's sent me scans of the two unpublished pages of the new series that never was. Sadly, Ron Turner passed away in 1998 so these were the only two pages completed, but artist Lee Sullivan has stepped in to complete the six part story which will finally appear in Gareth Kavanagh's Doctor Who tribute magazine Vworp! Vworp! issue 3.  

Until then, here are the two unseen pages, written by John Lawrence, art by Ron Turner. Excellent stuff! (Thank you John.) Click the images to see them larger. The story continues in Vworp! Vworp! No.3, out soon! https://twitter.com/VworpVworpZine