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Monday, 23 September 2013

MORE COMIC STRIPS ARE GO!

While the late great Frank Bellamy will always be considered by fans to be The Thunderbird artist, several other illustrators contributed to the many Thunderbird comic strips that appeared in the sixties and seventies. 

A lot of the comic strip art in the annuals and specials was, of course down to Ron Turner, who preferred working in black and white creating his trademark heavy use of almost cinematic dark and light artistic effects.

However, as we know there are plenty of examples of Ron's colour work, notably his TV21 Dalek strip.

I've dug out two Thunderbird strips celebrating Ron's work, one in black and white and one in colour. 


The first is from the TV21 Thunderbirds Extra from 1966 showing more of his work in black and white. I remember seeing the original first page at a Fanderson convention and being really impressed by it's dramatic look. 







My second selection is from the 1972 Thunderbirds Annual published by Polystyle, in which Ron painted two excellent full colour strips. 


This story is called Invisible Invader.











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7 comments:

  1. WOTAN9/23/2013 8:28 am

    I really cant take to Bellamys photo-referenced style, it suited Dare, but given Andersons almost 'cartoonish' stylised puppets, the hyper-real representation didnt work for me. Turner captures the exagerrated features and amazing tech, perfectly.

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  2. SCOOP9/23/2013 8:37 am

    Good points Bill. Strangely enough it was Ron who drew the Thunderbirds painting - by - numbers sets of the time which again, were perfect for Ron's dramatic and exaggerated style.

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  3. Andy B9/23/2013 10:58 am

    Didn't like Bellamy's Dan Dare or his Thunderbirds, but always liked Ron Turner's art, both as a kid and now.

    Thanks, Scoop.

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  4. SCOOP9/23/2013 11:17 am

    I can see that I'm going to have to include Ron in the next installment on Captain Scarlet.No bad thing though.

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  5. WOTAN9/23/2013 11:18 am

    Do Ron, Ron,yes do Ron, Ron!

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  6. Bill Everatt9/23/2013 11:23 am

    I used to always look forward to reading the Annuals, as there would always be several outings for Ron Turners work. I did like Frank Bellamys representations too, although I would have liked to have seen a Thunderbirds story drawn by Mike Noble. His artwork was one of the reasons why I used to get TV21 every week!

    I was never a big fan of the 'cartoonish' stylised puppets and found the strings annoying.

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  7. Geoffrey Ellis9/23/2013 6:35 pm

    Thanks for showing these, there was always something special about Ron Turner's work.

    The enemy craft in the colour story is similar to his design for 'Wonder Car' in Whizzer & Chips (well it helped to fill the gap between the true Gerry Anderson version of TV21 ending and Countdown starting).

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