1. Cover- these covers were awaited with bated breath and near-hysteria every Wednesday morning in the 60s, as they provided the ONLY colour photos of the Thunderbirds, Stingray or Fireball models.
2. Speaking of which, this Fireball XL5 page by Mike Noble is from the era where he achieved what many consider his finest work. I personally prefer his earlier fireball work, but I wouldn't go to war about it.
3. Bill Titcombe again at his peak, with that casual, cool style that personified 1960s cartooning.
4. John M Burns, in his early days but already so distinctive and brilliant. Can you believe we had to make do with his black and white pages way back then?!
5. Back cover by Ron Turner, again at his peak, and what a terrific sense of design.
(If you're wondering why I didn't include Frank Bellamy's Thunderbirds, at the time of this particular issue, he was taking a break to design the Winged Avenger images for The Avengers ABC TV series.)
With all these guys working at or near their full potential, is it any wonder we sad 1960's readers look back with fondest memories at those days?
3 comments:
Ah brilliant! If there's one adventure comic that captured the childhood feel of the 1960s (or even the 2060s) it was TV21. All other adventure comics looked so very old fashioned beside it that I never followed Lion, Hotspur, etc regularly until after TV21 had ended its first run in 1969.
Believe it or not, by sheer coincidence, I posted the cover of the 1967 TV CENTURY 21 Annual on my own blog. Yeah, it really was a brilliant comic. I must dig out that old photo of me holding a copy of TV21 when I was six and post it on my site.
Well spotted Nigel. Bellamy did indeed take a break at that time to produce illustrations for the Avengers episode. I believed, as a kid, that this was his first holiday as he mentioned in the famous Skinn/Gibbons interview he hardly got away, and the gap seemed to account for this. BUT YOu are right, not the young me!
For pictures of the Winged Avenger (and great mouseovers) go to http://wingedavenger.theavengers.tv/WingedAvenger/winged_main.htm
Oh and BTW, I thought Don Harley's filler for FB's time away, was good too!
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