Posts Tagged ‘Gerry Anderson’
TV 21 Was The Go-Ahead Comic Of The 1960s
DID you read TV 21, the British children’s comic from the 1960s and early 1970s? It was “A brand new comic of the future for the children of today”. TV Century 21 was a look to the go-ahead future.
Episode 1 launched with no little hype.
In 1960, City Magazines first published TV Century 21. The title would later be called just TV21.
Every week the taglines at the end of each strip would be written in code, and the Identicode was used to decipher them.
* With City’s close association with Gerry Anderson’s Century 21 productions TV21 was far more than just a comic that featured tv characters. The editor himself (Alan Fennell) was a scriptwriter onFireball XL5 and Stingray, and Lady Penelope debuted in her own strip in issue one several months before the first episode of Thunderbirdsever appeared on tv. The comic also had access to exclusive photographs of the models and characters, which were ideal for the newspaper-style covers of TV21. All in all, TV21 was very much a part of the Gerry Anderson universe, and the exciting thing was that the comic presented all those tv shows as part of a shared universe.
* The much heralded arrival of ‘Thunderbirds’ in TV 21 came after the first immensely successful year of the comic. In issue 52, Lady Penelope visits Tracy Island to see the home of International Rescue, and agrees to be their British agent. On the following week, Lady Penelope was given her own comic in a spin off from TV 21 aimed at girl television fans. The emphasis here was a little different, with the first class Lady Penelope strips being accompanied by features on pop stars and fashion. This comic is also very popular with collectors, with many photographs from the television series.
It wasn’t all Anderson TV shows. Whatever did happen to this crew?
And Ed “Stewpot” Stewart:
Posted: 9th, November 2013 | In: Flashback, The Consumer | Comment
Did Lady Penelope break up jealous Gerry Anderson’s marriage to Sylvia?
I’M sorry Gerry Anderson decided to leave us over Christmas. Generally I do not approve of this sort of untimeliness. But I must not be severe. The astral tunnel functions by its own timetable and it’s not for the likes of me to waggle a timepiece at its insensitive operator.
But his death reminds me of my meeting with Sylvia Anderson, by then his ex-wife, of many years ago. She had been instrumental in the development of Thunderbirds and, in particular, in the rise of Lady Penelope: indeed, Sylvia was Her Ladyship’s honeyed voice.
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Posted: 29th, December 2012 | In: Celebrities | Comment
RIP Gerry Anderson and his supermarionation heroes
GERRY Anderson RIP. Photos of the life of the man who created Supercar (1961-62), Fireball XL5 (1962-63), Stingray (1964-65) and Thunderbirds (1965-66) can be seen here.
Photo above: The Television Society Silver medal awarded to “Thunderbirds”, the television puppet series, for work of outstanding artistic merit in front of the camera, is shown by Gerry Anderson and his wife Sylvia at the Dorchester Hotel, Park Lane, London. 13/05/1966
Born into the immigrant Jewish Bieloglovski family, Gerry Abrahams became Gerry Anderson.
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Posted: 27th, December 2012 | In: Celebrities | Comments (2)
