Publication History
In 1965, the Supermarionation TV series Stingray (1964 – 65), which followed the underwater adventures of Troy Tempest and the World Aquanaut Security Patrol (WASP), was given with its own comic. The first issue of TV Century 21 was published on 23 January 1965, capitalising on the popularity of the latest Gerry Anderson-produced TV series. In contrast with TV Comic, which was a traditional strip comic, TV Century 21 was conceived as a newspaper for children with a front page containing "Stop press"-style news items and photographs.
Although production on Supercar (1961 – 62) and Fireball XL5 (1962 – 63) had ended prior to the launch of TV Century 21, they were still being broadcast sporadically on ATV in the United Kingdom, and therefore also appeared in the comic. Thunderbirds (1965 – 66) was not featured until issue 52, but one of the series' main characters, the aristocratic Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, appeared from issue 1. Fireball XL5, Stingray and Lady Penelope were the first three colour strips whose origins can be traced to the first issue. The front covers were also in colour, with photographs from one or more of the Anderson series or occasionally of the stars of the back page feature.
TV21 also extended its licensing beyond the Anderson productions, and for its first two years published strip adventures based on extraterrestrial Doctor Who villains the Daleks, the early scripts for which had the approval of Dalek creator Terry Nation.
The comic dropped the "Century" from its title in January 1968, after 155 issues, and became known as TV21. The previous year, the character of the "indestructible" Captain Scarlet, the hero of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967 – 68), had made his first appearance. The backstory of the Mysterons, Scarlet's Martian enemies, was being revealed in TV Tornado, another City Magazines publication. In September 1968, after 192 issues, TV21 merged with TV Tornado to form TV21 and Tornado.
Read more about this topic: TV Century 21
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