SUPERCELEBRATION ORIGINAL ART DISPLAY

As I’m very fond of British Adventure comics from the sixties and early seventies, one of the highlights of the last few Fanderson conventions these past few years has been the dedicated art displays which featured original art-boards from TV21, Lady Penelope, Joe 90 (Top Secret), Solo and various Summer Specials, as well as other associated publications that featured Gerry & Sylvia Anderson’s TV series, or related subjects, like Look –In and Countdown.

Supercelebration had a lot on display including some examples I’ve seen before and have featured in the past here on the blog. Not that I’m complaining, of course, but I thought I’d try and show a few ‘new to me’, or ‘not seen for a while’ items this time, although not exclusively, so some of you might spot one or two you’ve seen before.

There was certainly no shortage of original Mike Noble artwork ranging from Fireball XL5 to Worzel Gummidge. Although I loved his less juvenile version of Fireball XL5  in TV21, I think like many people I also enjoyed his  Zero X strip.

I do find this original Zero X page interesting as it features a mix of Mike Noble’s Zero X artwork cut and pasted along with Catalan artist, Ferran Sostres who briefly worked on the Zero X strip around September, 1968 for just one story for TV21 as far as I can make out. 

While I don’t dislike his lighter more comic art style I’m not sure it sits well with Mike Noble’s more precise engineered Zero X look.   I’m can’t say why the editors decided to do this. One reason might be that from what I see, Sostres drew the Zero X in space complete with its lifting bodies attached, rather than just the main body.

Artist, Ron Embleton is probably best known to TV 21 fans for his early Stingray strip in the comic.

Other artists also worked on colour spreads for the comic and on display were some fine examples from Ron’s brother, Gerry Embleton.

This example from Gerry has Countdown Summer Special 1971 written across the top, although it did originally appear in the pages of TV21.

This piece of artwork is by Michael Strand. I particularly like this panel showing Stingray at night off the coast of Jamaica.

In TV 21, Frank Bellemy was best remembered as the Thunderbirds artist, although former Eagle artist, Don Harley stepped up to the easel from time to time. 

Here is a Don Harley panel on display showing the well-remembered ‘Thunderbirds go to Venus’ story strip. Roger Dicken, he of Alien face-hugger fame, and the Martian Rock Snakes made a plasticine model of a Venusian monster which was used for a series of exclusive photos, taken by Century 21 in house photographer, Doug Luke for some of the front covers of TV21 to promote the story.

Several pages were on display from the 1966 TV21 Summer Extra. I remember having this special at the time, which was packed with extra features promoting and illustrating the imaginary world of the TV21 21^st Century.

Drawn by another ex-Eagle artist, Eric Eden, this particular page shows the original art for the International 1 rocket, which went on to become the inspiration for the Mobile Launch Platform toy in the Tr-ang Spacex range.

Unmistakable Ron Turner artwork from the 1966 Thunderbirds Extra.  Prolific artist, Ron Turner, who, amongst other things drew Space Ace, and Rick Random-Space Detective strips in the fifties, and went on to illustrate many of the Century 21 annuals in the sixties, is probably best known to readers of TV21 and Doctor Who fans alike as the second artist to work on the TV21 back page Dalek strip, following Richard Jennings.

Another prolific artist is John Burns, or John M. Burns who worked on many of the stand-alone black & white strips in TV21 and Lady Penelope comic, as well as drawing Space:1999 in Look - In. Countdown readers will recognise his unique style on that comic’s ‘Countdown’ strip. These pieces of original art show panels from the ‘Catch or Kill’ strip.

One piece of ‘Catch or Kill’ artwork on display using a similar John Burns style was actually done by Gerry Embleton.

Another character that many TV21 readers have a fondness for is Agent 21 aka Brent Cleever aka Mr Magnet. There were some original examples on display showing the Universal Secret Service agent in action.

Rab Hamilton was the usual TV21 artist on the strip. Jon Davis, who might be better known as the artist on the Angels strip in Lady Penelope, drew this Agent 21 strip in the 1966 TV21 Summer Extra.

This feature page is from the 1965 TV21 International Extra, and a rare look at Agent 21 and the Century 21 toys building in colour.

As an avid reader of TV21 I always enjoyed the occasional special feature, and one such item was the series of articles that made up ‘Saturn Probe’. The articles told the story over several weeks of a fictional trip to Saturn by a group of astronauts on ‘Shindig 1’, a spacecraft not unlike the Zero X MEV. Although most of the articles used stock NASA photos and several stills from 2001: A Space Odyssey, occasionally there were new full page pieces of artwork done by artist, Andy Harrison.

This is one that I have seen on display before, but I couldn’t resist including it again.

There were several pieces of editorial art on display. This mock-up of an issue of Lady Penelope for example.

These two pieces of editorial art showing a dummy of Joe 90: Top Secret Covers. It’s interesting to note that one shows that the Land of the Giants strip isn’t included at that point, being replaced by Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

Well, I hope that gives a taster as to what was on display. I could include so much more - Frank Langford artwork in Lady Penelope; Don Harley artwork in Solo; Frank Hampson artwork in TV21…

Thanks go to Graham Bleathman and others for organising the display, and all the current artwork owners who were happy to display them.