45th Anniversary of TV21

[Lew Stringer]

It's been 45 years today since the first issue of TV Century 21 appeared. Fans of a certain age may remember this spectacular comic and why it's still highly regarded today. I've posted a blog about it over on Blimey! but I'm sure the comic would make a good topic for discussion here too.
http://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2010/01 ... -tv21.html




Lew

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

Fans of a certain age indeed, Lew! It was a classy comic, though, obviously pretty pricey at the time, and I was relegated to only seeing my cousin's copies at the time; I doubt if I had the money to buy many issues for myself. The high production values justified the cost however, as much of the comic work inside was on the same level as 2OOO AD after 1987, when they went almost all-colour.

[Lew Stringer]

Fans of a certain age indeed, Lew!

Interesting that TV21's anniversary hasn't generated more comments here, but the average age of active Comics UK members seems to be below 40 so they wouldn't remember it. And many of those who were around in 1965 seem to mainly prefer the more traditional adventure comics (Hornet, Victor etc).

Not a criticism of course, just an observation.

Lew

[philcom55]

Ah yes - I remember it well.

...And I remember the playground at school the next morning when almost every boy (and even some girls! ) had their own copy. It's hard to believe that in those days a new comic could have the same impact as something like a new 'Grand Theft Auto' game might have today...!

- Phil Rushton

[Peter Gray]

Thanks for showing each pages inside by photograph.its nice to see..
It must have been the same impact that Eagle had in the 50's..

the dalek strip really does stand out in the Gerry Anderson comic..what a neat thing to have in the comic..also the stories inside do grab you..

DFC is the closest thing we had has a new comic in the Noughties..what will we get in the Tennies?

[NP]

TV21, is it really 45 years?
I completely missed the TV advertising! I saw the Sparky ad, and was impressed. Then, one grey evening coming home from school, I saw a bigger boy (probably one of those 7 year olds the comic was aimed at!) coming out of the newasagents with something under his arm. That something had a small red picture of The Daleks on it - the back cover of TV21!!! I declared to my mum right then- "that's the comic for me!" When i found out that apart from Daleks it had Fireball and Stingray in it I was delerious! Every Wednesday we would get our copies from the shop, take them to school and at break time, the instant the bell went, thirty desks would slam open and thirty pairs of hands would grab their thirty TV21s and begin reading!
As to it being for 7-12 year olds, I remember my big sister saying to me: "You shouldn't be reading that comic, it's for 7 year olds". On my 7th birthday I proudly told her i could read it now and she said " Oh yes, they've changed it, it's for 8 year olds now".

[Digifiend]

Sounds like someone was jealous!

[Wil]

I came along in '64 so I was a little young for TV21. I loved the Anderson shows, though so I might have had a few copies. I did get some issues of the later Joe90 comic which had the same newspaper format covers, though. I've got an old (old!) scrapbook full of bits of Joe90 cuttings from those comics which have the weird feeling of making me both terribly nostalgic and horrified (at what I did to them) at the same time!