Volume 1, Adventure In The 21st Century ISBN: 9781905287932
Volume 2, Invasion In The 21st Century ISBN: 9781905287949
Volume 3, Escape From Aquatraz ISBN: 9781904674085
Volume 4, Above & Beyond ISBN: 9781904674153
The first thing I need to mention before this post gets going is my absolute ignorance of all things Anderson. I don’t recall ever seeing a single episode of any of the puppet shows and in broad terms, the premise of the shows were not known to me.
So the obvious question is: Why would I buy these four volumes if I have no interest in the Anderson Universe?
The short answer is: Frank Bellamy. But there is a little more to it than that. It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of British comics from the 50s to the 70s and the talent that was involved in these strips in incredible. The Anderson
Again, it’s no secret that I’m totally in love with Bellamy’s art. Regardless of the other strips reprinted I’d still want to own the few pages of his strips that are in each volume. Bellamy worked on the Thunderbirds strips and these are well represented in these books and they are an absolute joy to behold. I believe that these strips highlight some of Bellamy’s best work and any one interested in his art should really take a look at these books.
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| Frank Bellamy Thunderbirds strip. Scan from original comic. Bellamy draws the best explosions I've ever seen. |
But the other strips don’t fall short either. I was particularly impressed by Mike Noble’s contributions, but every strip has merits. It’s to be expected, these strips aren’t reproduced in any particular order, they’re essentially cherry picked by Chris Bentley, the editor, from either the best or generally most interesting strips that appeared over the run of the original comic. In most instances the reading order is unimportant, but there are a couple of moments, particularly with the Fireball XL5 strip, when it’s obvious that a story printed in volume four takes place directly before a story reprinted in volume two. It’s not a big deal though, even for a reader like myself, who has no previous knowledge of any of the strips or characters, the writers are able to put enough subtle back story into the strips that you feel you have a grasp of the characters and situations almost instantly.
In the introduction for the first volume written by Chris Bentley, we’re told that a considerable amount of the original art was available for these reprint editions. Whilst all of the pages are reproduced to a high standard, there was one instance when, mid way through a strip, I found myself flipping back to the contents page to see who the second artist on a particular strip was. I was surprised to see that the credits listed only one artist. When I flipped back to the strip I realised that I wasn’t looking at a different artist, I was actually seeing pages that had been reprinted from the original boards, whereas the first few pages of the strip had been reproduced from a copy of the comic because the original art was not available. The difference was incredible. The level of detail that was strikingly obvious in the art board pages was non-existent in the comic pages. I think this speaks volumes for the care and attention taken by the publisher in reprinting the strips to the highest possible standards whenever possible.
There is one glitch with reprinting these strips in this format. Some instalments were printed in the centre spread of the comic. In a floppy comic without a spine, there was no problem printing panels that ran from one page, across the break and onto the opposite page. But because of the spine in these reprints this format doesn’t print in a reader friendly layout. To be honest, there’s not much that can be done about this. The only reasonable options are to artificially create a unprinted strip down the centre of the art to allow the minds eye to patch the parts together, or, as in this case, to create an overlap, so that each page prints a little over half the full image which allows the art to be viewed in spite of the spine crease. It’s a difficult call to make and one that is never going to please everyone. Personally, I’d have rather seen the former option, but it does come down to personal taste.
Unfortunately, the overall quality of the books is a fraction below standard. As I said above, the printing is fantastic, but the paperback editions feel very flimsy (I believe that there are hardback editions available, but my copies and the ISBN’s above are paperback), with lightweight card covers that I’ve protected with plastic covers as you would see on library paperbacks (available from www.bookprotectors.com if you’re interested). I imagine that this decision was made in order to keep the costs down, but I saw a copy on a shelf in Waterstones a while back that looked incredibly worn, so I’d be aware that they won’t stand up to wear and tear too well. This is a shame because the content is fantastic but the package leaves something to be desired.
As ever, there are a couple of down points with these volumes, but I’m sure you’ve noticed that they are all related to the package as opposed to the content. The content is superb, with some of the finest British artists to ever have worked in the medium represented in these books. Anyone interested in a master class of story telling should give these books a go. Recommended.
So this was another one of my purchases that I was unsure of before I started reading it. But all things considered, it’s worked out quite well I think.
Mad Thinker Reads…………..
FAB, SIG, PWOR and any other TLA’s that come to mind.
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I was quite a fan of Gerry Anderson, I came in aged 5 to Supercar, therefore I have a very faint memory of his cowboys and Indians thing ?I collected I don't know what now to get a Mike Mercury Supercar Driving License, but I also collected Robinsons jam tops to get Gollywog badges, now considered unP.C..
ReplyDeleteTV 21 came along when I must have been 9. Fireball XL5 was a direct lift from Frank Hampson, I.E. the Fireball XL5 steamed along a track and up a ramp, the America space race rockets stood at launch pads. Steve Zodiac was the Fireball pilot, his co-pilot Robbie the robot, the airstewardess Venus, and under the semi-oval dome on the back of the spacecraft the professor of this series worked, Professor Beaker in the Supercar strip.
Stingray, Troy Tempest and Phones, their female interest Marina and Commander Shore's daughter at the World Aquatic Security Patrol.
Thunderbirds in the centre. There was an Agent 21, a toy salesman, the toys were his secret weapons, he used to go about in a white Beatles-like collarless jacket, black pants and black turtleneck, 1960 fashionable but for the 21 Century? It was in black and white, but a clever strip with the stories.
I forget what the girls version was called, like the Eagle had Swift for the girls TV 21 had an opposite sex companion, this featured Captain Scarlet's/Spectre, Angels on the back cover, shades of Goldfinger's distaff air force under Pussy Galore. Captain Scarlet itself was a rip off of Steranko's Nick Fury agent of Shield. Fury and the captain were both invunerable. They were all following the popularity of the Bond films. When the white heat of science was going to solve everyone's problems, late 1960's the BBC brought us Doomwatch, pre envoirment aware. We were getting intrapersonal with science it threw up issues.
I was maturing and Anderson's creations, Joe 90, the mental cuckoo. He could be downloaded with some else's memories. The clone Ninestein. MC very square. He complained he was puppet trapped, and though he updated skills on it, CGI-ing operating rods out of the shots and things, it remained children's fodder though he did try to get more adult in the 60's with human actors, and later with Ed Bishop, I think he was behind the Space 1999 conceit, an original series but the second series with a slight cast change repeated stories wholesale from the first series, a shame.
Being unemployed in the 1980's a White House, Ipswich Employment training agency raved that a trainee had come up with a new logo for the company, sadly he had given them the rocket swishing round TV21 logo and they were fined for copyright infringement.
I have never seen the film, but Team America was a nostalgic nod to the work of Gerry Anderson.
AS I have writen above Gerry Anderson ripped off Nick Fury, Agent of Shield. Cloudbase in Captain Scarlet, Marvel's the Heli-carrier. Colonel White's hot seat within a round table you can see the inspiration in the Mad Thinkers Nick Fury blog. Leiutenant Green, a black but male Communications Officer, Star Trek's Uhura. But the influence of Jim Steranko's Nick Fury which was a Bond fashion follower, Pierce Bronson drove a DB 6 Aston Martin that had the ability of invisibilty, Nick was there first with his Ferrari, but it was ultra cool in that it had the added utility to change its colour.
ReplyDeleteWho hasn't been mentioned is Sylvia Anderson, Gerry's wife. Gerry was uncool when they divorced as she gouged him for part of his copyrights, but she had designed and in the early days actually needle and thread made the costumes,, though one may say they were her pale copies of Piere cardan costumes. In the above articles I have mentioned Ed Bishop, he played Ed Stalker head of a British film company that was the cover for UFO, like Captain Scarlet he was fighting aliens who were invading Earth. American Tv had had already a similiar type of programme but the hero of the piece was alone against the invaders. The star who went on to play once on Star Trek like many another celeb of the period got drug addiction problems, he had ability but never got onto the large screen to my knowledge. Meanwhile on UFO, George Sewel, brother of Jon Perwee, Dr. Who played the head of security. He would star as the senior officer in Special Branch, the first couple of series were sold to America, but by George's time ITV made it purely for the domestic audience, so george had a black girlfriend. Patrick Mower late of Callan, then was Tom the cocky underling, who George had hated at the inception because on a raid Tom's mistake had almost got the older man killed. UFO, had a plethora of talent on it, Wanda Veltnam was in the cast, and I forget who else. Ninestein, the ninth Einstein cloned reincarnation. The first production Gerry did without his wife, I think it dated to the mid to late 1970's, for unknown reasons the new American partnership did not work out. The brave Japanese character in it was named Hiro, it was a bit by the numbers and not very original. Possibly because the myth of white science being the savior of the human race was looking like the bane of our existence, now we question neutritions being so good for us, and we should go back to organic and vegtable foods.
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