TV Century 21

"TV Century 21" (known as "TV 21" from September 1968) [ [http://www.technodelic.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Upload01/Scarlet01.htm Technodelic's feature on "Captain Scarlet", which ran as the magazine changed named] ] was a weekly British children's comic of the 1960s and early 1970s. It promoted the many television science-fiction puppet series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's "Century 21 Productions". The comic was published as if it were a newspaper from the future, with the front page usually given over to fictional news stories set in the worlds of "Thunderbirds", "Fireball XL5", "Stingray", "Captain Scarlet" and other stories. [http://www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/~ajhs/research/papers/tv21/]

Many of the leading British comic book artists worked for the magazine, including Frank Bellamy, who drew two-page-spread adventures of Thunderbirds, Don Harley, Mike Noble, Ron Embleton, Gerry Embleton, Keith Watson, Ron Turner, Rab Hamilton, James Watson, John Cooper, and the team of Carlos Pino and Vicente Alcazar under the pseudonym "Cervic".

History

In 1965, the television series 'Stingray', which told the popular underwater adventures of Troy Tempest and his friends, was rewarded with its own comic. TV Century 21 hit the bookstalls on 23rd January 1965. The magazine, later to drop the 'Century' from its title, and now known widely as TV 21, capitalised on the immense popularity of the latest Gerry Anderson television shows.

Despite the fact that 'Supercar' and 'Fireball XL5' were made long before the start of 'TV 21', they were still being shown sporadically on ITV, and thus also featured in the magazine. 'Thunderbirds' was not featured in TV 21 until issue 52, but one of the key characters from it, the aristocratic Lady Penelope, was featured from the start.

'Fireball XL5', 'Stingray' and 'Lady Penelope' were the first three colour strips which started with the launch of the magazine. The front covers were in colour too, with photographs either from one or more of the Anderson television series, or occasionally of the stars of the back page feature.

The magazine also extended its licensing beyond Anderson's projects, and for its first 2 years published strip adventures based on 'The Daleks', the early "scripts" for which had the approval of Terry Nation.

In contrast to TV Comic which was a traditional strip comic, TV 21 was presented as a newspaper for children with a front page of 'Stop Press' items and 'news' style photographs of their puppet heroes.

Early copies of TV 21 are very hard to find, and fetch very high prices compared to almost all other Gerry Anderson printed material. The artists involved with the magazine included Eric Eden and Frank Bellamy.

In 1967 the indestructible 'Captain Scarlet' appeared on television and in the pages of TV Century 21. Meanwhile, Captain Scarlet's enemies 'The Mysterons' were having their history explained in another City Magazines publication TV Tornado which also featured the popular series "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." and "The Saint". TV Tornado merged with TV 21 in September 1968.

TV Century 21 comic officially dropped the 'Century' from the title at the start of 1968 after 154 issues.

TV21 & Joe 90

On 18th January 1969, the latest Gerry Anderson success, 'Joe 90', was given his own paper. This was not a very long lasting publication however, merging with TV 21 in September 1969 after just 34 issues. From this point onwards, the TV 21 and Joe 90 comic as it was then called restarted their numbering from number 1, with 'New Series No.' given on the front cover. The new comic kept to a similar format, but the Anderson strips of 'Joe 90' and 'Thunderbirds' were relegated to black and white in favour of the new favourites Star Trek and Land of the Giants.

Editors

TV Century 21 was edited by Alan Fennell from 1965 to 1968, then by Chris Spencer and later by Howard Elson.

Overseas version

Due to the success of "Thunderbirds", "TV21" was adapted for the Dutch market as "TV2000."

ister publications

In the UK, TV Century 21 got a girl's sidekick in the form of the Lady Penelope magazine. This featured Frank Langford's "Lady Penelope" comic strip. This lasted a total of 204 issues, but after 123 issues, the comic changed its name to "Penelope". It also included an "Angels" strip as a prelude to the launch of Captain Scarlet.

Other sister comics included "TV Tornado" and "Solo" both of which included Mysterons strips as further preludes to Captain Scarlet. TV Tornado also included strips of Lone Ranger, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Tarzan and the Saint as well as The Man From UNCLE; Solo was merged with TV Tornado which later merged with TV21 which itself merged in the 1970s with Valiant.

TV21 - the band

A new wave group named TV21 (with permission from then owners of the comic, IPC magazines) formed in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1979. The band released a string of 7" singles and one album "A Thin Red Line," before splitting up in 1982, immediately after opening for the Rolling Stones on the Scottish dates of their 1982 European Tour. The band reformed after a 23 year gap to perform at a tribute night for the legendary DJ John Peel who died the previous year. At the time of writing they are still playing and recording new material.

References