THE FUTURE IS FANTASTIC: GUEST MIKE NOBLE

I think we're all aware of artist Mike Noble and his comic strip  contributions to Gerry Anderson's TV series.

Mike's first full Gerry Anderson related comic strip first appeared in issue 6  of TV Century 21, when he took over from Graham Coton on Fireball XL5.

He was still working on it when he started on his next comic strip, Zero X. This is his last single page for Fireball XL5, prior to Don Lawrence (better known for his Trigan Empire strip in Ranger and Look & Learn) took over.

Mike did say regarding the Fireball XL5 strip that he'd discussed things with the editor, and it was decided to give the strip more realism , and make the characters look human rather than their puppet TV counterparts, hence Zoonie never makes an appearance.!

Mike's first two panels for Zero X. Considering this was never a TV series it was still a popular strip.

It started in issue 105 and continued until 241, although like Fireball, Mike didn't illustrate all the Zero X strips. Jim Watson did a fair stint, and  briefly,  Eric Eden and F. Belsia.

Here's Mike's last panels for Zero X in the penultimate issue 241 of TV21.

Mike was one of the several artists who worked on the Captain Scarlet strip. Following Ron Embleton, Mike's first Scarlet strip appeared in issue 158, and covered four pages - two in colour, and two in black & white.

His last Captain Scarlet strip for TV21 issue 189. Still four pages but only one in colour.

When TV21 changed it's format, following issue 242. Mike did produce some impressive work for the Star Trek strip, but once TV21 was swallowed up by Valiant comic, Mike got regular full colour comic strip work with Look In magazine starting with Timeslip. But he would be doing another Gerry Anderson series comic strip in time!

Mike worked on the Space 1999 strip in Look In, taking over from John M Burns. During his talk he mentioned this, and his mistake in giving the Eagle three boosters rather than four. A reader had complained, but as Mike explained, he'd never seen the programme, and his reference material was fairly limited. Although , he did say he still had his original reference sheet sent from AP Films for Fireball XL5.

Mike's debut panels for the Space 1999 strip.

Mike's final panels for Look In on the Space 1999 strip.

These days Mike doesn't do that much art as arthritis is creeping in. But just to keep his hand in, he can still manage odd commission though.