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Saturday, 8 February 2025

MY WHITMAN TV TIE-IN BOOKS

 I suspect most readers of TV tie-in books will remember reading as a youngter at least one or two of the Whitman series of original television adventure hardback books, based on the popular TV shows of the time.

Whitman was associated with the Western Publishing Company which published the Dell and Gold Key comics, which between them produced dozens of TV tie-in authorized, adventures. My favourites were their science fiction and adventures comics and books based on my favourite TV series.

The books were unsurprisingly, aimed at young adults, and the plots and characters didn't necessarily  reflect what we saw on screen, which makes me think the authors hadn't seen the shows, or possibly  had only general synopsis  to work with.

While I have a fair number of Gold Key comics in the collection, I only have three original Whitman TV tie-in Authorized Adventure books.

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea;

The Green Hornet;

Land of the Giants.

I did have the two Man from UNCLE books, and the Star Trek tie-in books, but they went AWOL during a house move.

Lucky for me the Star Trek: Mission to Horatius edition was reprinted by Pocket Books in 1996 to coincide with the 30th anniversary of Star Trek.

Here's a few photos, along with their Gold Key contemporaries. 










As a point of interest, when AP Films merchandise director, Keith Shackleton went over to the United States to broker a deal giving Western Publishing the rights to do original Supercar and Fireball XL5 comics, as part of the deal he managed to secure the UK publishing rights for many of the American Gold Key and Dell titles which appeared it the City Magazines TV tie-in comics and books, like Burke's Law, My Favourite Martian, Bewitched and The Man from UNCLE.

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5 comments:

  1. Anonymous2/08/2025 3:22 pm

    I had several of those Whitman TV Books. Even as a kid, I liked the great covers, but the stories inside were boring! As you mentioned, it was almost as if the author had never seen the program! I can't even recall if the author was credited, or remained anonymous? Still, a fun memory. SFZ

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    1. SCOOP2/08/2025 4:02 pm

      The author and the artist are both credited in the books I've got, Zigg.
      The last one I read was the Green Hornet edition. It wasn't bad. A simple read, but enjoyable.
      I seem to remember there was one or two in my junior school library, unfortunately they were based on western TV series!

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  2. Paul Adams from New Zealand2/08/2025 8:21 pm

    I have managed to pick up around a dozen of these books, mainly at fairs, over the years. If I recall correctly the author and artist are only credited inside the books, not on the covers ?
    I also have a book called Whitman Juvenile Books - Reference & Value Guide, David and Virginia Brown, Collector Books, USA, 1997 and 1999. The material is not well organised, but the information is there.

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  3. lewis p morley2/08/2025 9:32 pm

    It's funny that as a kid, I probably would have been a bit snooty about the scratchy quality of the end paper artwork...
    But seeing it anew, I'm impressed at the dynamism of some of the layouts. That Enterprise with it's rocket trails makes a great silhouette against the background!

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