Gerry Anderson’s many puppet series have shown on TVs around the world in huge numbers. The titles are legion, and are still popular with fans - if you grew up in the 1960s and ’70s, then names like Stingray, Fireball XL5, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, and Lady Penelope should do a good job of tickling up those memory cells.
Anderson’s comic publishing backed up his TV puppet empire, with the weekly Century 21 styled to look like a colour ‘newspaper of the future’. It was a big success, with a first issue that sold 750,00 copies.
And now there’s a pair of attractive books complied by Chris Bentley (jacket, top picture), with picture strip art (middle picture) from C21 artists and writers. The books really open up the past for Anderson enthusiasts.
We’ve just looked through Volume 1, and it’s a thickie (164 pages), packed with colour (even the ink smells nice), and has excellent reproduction that’s probably better than the original comics. My fave artist from that era is the masterly Frank Bellamy, whose portrayals of mighty explosions and rocket takeoffs (bottom) remain unbeaten to this day.
Century 21 Volume 1 is published by Reynolds & Hearn Ltd. Volume 2 is published tomorrow, June 18; both titles are available from Amazon here.
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