Thunderbirds Comic Anthology Volume 1 and 2 - Anderson Entertainment's reprints

Volume Two. Cover by Lee Sullivan

It's arrived! The second volume of the complete reprinting of all Frank Bellamy's "Thunderbirds" stories from TV21 comic...well nearly all. I'll explain shortly, I neglected to review Volume One so that appears at the end of this article especially as most of what I want to say applies to both.

CONTENTS of Volume Two

•      Feature: Thunderbirds in TV Century 21 - 1967
• Operation Earthquake Issues #118 - #124 (22 April to 3 June 1967) 
• Tracy Island Exposed Issues #125 - #129 (10 June to 8 July 1967) 
• The Revolution Issues #130 - #136 (15 July to 26 August 1967) 
• The Space Mirror Issues #137 - #140 (2 September to 23 September 1967) 
•      Feature: In Profile - Frank Bellamy
• The Earthquake Maker Issues #141 - #146 (30 September to 4 November 1967) 
• Visitor from Space Issues #147 - #154 (11 November to 30 December 1967) 
• The Antarctic Menace Issues #155 - #161 (6 January to 17 February 1968) 
• Brains is Dead Issues #162 - #169 (24 February to 13 April 1968) 
•      Feature: Thunderbirds in TV Century 21 - 1968
• The Space Cannon Issues #170 - #172 (20 April to 4 May 1968) 
• The Olympic Kidnap Plot Issues #173 - #178 (11 May to 15 June 1968) 
• Revolt on Jupiter Issues #179 - #183 (22 June to 20 July 1968) 
• Devil's Crag Issues #184 - #187 (27 July to 17 August 1968) 
• The Eiffel Tower Demolition Issues #188 - #191 (24 August to 14 September 1968) 
• The Nuclear Threat Issues #192 - #196 (21 September to 19 October 1968)
•      Feature: In Profile - Scott Goodall
• The Hawaiian Lobster Menace Issues #197 - #202 (26 October to 30 November 1968)
• The Time Machine Issues #203 - #208 (7 December 1968 to 11 January 1969)
• The Zoo Ship Issues #209 - #217 (18 January to 15 March 1969)
•      Feature: Thunderbirds in TV Century 21 - 1969
• City of Doom Issues #218 - #226 (22 March to 17 May 1969)
• Chain Reaction Issues #227 - #234 (24 May to 12 July 1969)
• Jungle Adventure Issues #235 - #238 (19 July to 9 August 1969)
• Danger in the Deep Issues #239 - #242 (16 August to 6 September 1969)
•      Feature: Annual Assignments

As you can see there are six features interspersed between Thunderbirds stories and I like what Fred McNamara has done in describing the changes in story content from year to year - covered by this reprint. The two page biography of Frank Bellamy is sparse but welcome, however Swift was not seen as "girls-orientated" - that would be Girl. Swift was for younger readers than Eagle. I'm glad to see Fred McNamara has corrected an earlier error he made in an online article and returned Bellamy to the Royal Artillery (and not the RAF!). He must get credit for apologising for his "Nancy Wilson" error in Volume One of these reprints - nice touch! I enjoyed the articles which are very well-written and some insights are useful. I was surprised the Thunderbirds Annuals - mentioned in an article reviewing the contents - were not illustrated as TV21 covers had been shown in Volume One. But perhaps space constraints led to this omission. 

Now to my main concern with both volumes. It's the colour.  TV21 changed printing but not printer later in its initial run and the decline in quality from shiny glossy paper to a 'flat' paper was obvious, even to a kid like me at the time. With each reprint of Thunderbirds we see a few issues: the loss of the centre of a two page centre-spread and the murky colours presented. If we compare some of the previous reprints one can see the problem. BUT I must state I am absolutely no expert in this area. I have merely scanned each piece on an A4 Epson scanner without changing any settings or cropping etc.. 

TV21 #163 p.10

TV21 #163 p.10 Original FADED artwork

TV21 #163 p.10from Egmont's Thunderbirds Volume 2 

 

TV21 #163 p.10 from Thunderbirds Comic Anthology Volume Two

I think the nearest to the original might be Ravette's Thunderbirds: Shock Wave and I suspect they lightened all the artwork. We can see the burial in space with the figures clearly visible.

TV21 #163 p.10 from Thunderbirds:Shockwave

As I've said many times I know that viewing anything on a monitor versus the printed output are different and a digital scan versus the original photographed artwork reproduced in photogravure is different again!

Tim Keable kindly gave me permission to show his photo of the original artwork for the next page showing a huge Hood portrait. 

Photo of the original art for page 11 of TV21 #163

Compare this to the scan I made of the same in the volume discussed here - I realise it's not a fair comparison but I wanted to show those who have never seen Bellamy's original artwork how clear his colours were compared to some of the original printing and later reprints.

Page 105

and the Ravette version... 

TV21 #163 p.11 from Thunderbirds:Shockwave

Again I realise how much work has gone into this production and don't want to appear mean, I just would love to see a 'cleaner' brighter version which shows off Bellamy's artwork at its best. Unfortunately as any cursory read of this blog shows, many originals are faded so - although we might see the linework - the colours are gone or near gone on so many originals.

So the PROS are that we have an almost complete reprint of Frank Bellamy's Thunderbirds comic strip in these two volumes - we are still waiting for TV21 & Joe 90 #1-4 (27 September 1969 - 18 October 1969) - the start of the new series before Bellamy left altogether - will this appear in another volume from Anderson Entertainment reprinting the 38 stories from TV21 & Joe90?. The issue with the centre gutter soon disappears as Bellamy changed his art to be two separate pages in lieu of a centre-spread of two pages. It's great to be able to grab two books and get all the stories in one place. The CONS are basically the colours, although they emulate many other reprintings in this, I wish they had been lightened more. 

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS (Volume Two)

• Features writer and researcher: Fred McNamara
• Layout and strip restoration: Robert Hammond
• Cover art: Lee Sullivan
• Cover design: Robert Hammond
• Publisher: Anderson Entertainment 
• Format: Hardcover (printed), 304 x 228 mm (portrait)
• Pagination: 248 pages
• Publishing Date: June 2026 
• ISBN: 9781917142151 
• Price: £37.99 

 Order from Anderson Entertainment store

 Thunderbirds Comic Anthology Volume One

Cover by Lee Sullivan

CONTENTS OF VOLUME ONE

•      Feature: 21st Century Elegance 
•  Mr. Steelman Issues #1–#11 (23 January to 3 April 1965) Artist: Eric Eden. 
• Behind Enemy Lines Issues #12–#18 (10 April to 22 May 1965) Artist: Eric Eden. 
• The Astran Assassination Issue #19 (29 May 1965) Artist: Eric Eden. 
• Mr. Steelman Strikes Back Issues #20–#34 (5 June to 11 September 1965) Artist: Eric Eden. 
•      Feature: In Profile – Eric Eden 
•  The Isle of Arran Riddle Issues #35–#43 (18 September to 13 November 1965) Artist: Eric Eden.
• The Vanishing Ray Issues #44–#51 (20 November 1965 to 8 January 1966) Artist: Eric Eden.
•      Feature: In Profile – Alan Fennell 
•      Feature: Rescue Stations 
• Blazing Danger Issues #52–#58 (15 January to 26 February 1966)
• Mission to Africa Issues #59-#65 (5 March to 16 April 1966)
• Talons of the Eagle Issues #66-#72 (23 April to 4 June 1966)
•      Feature: Renegades, Gambles & Outlaws
• Atlantic Tunnel Issues #73-#82 (11 June to 13 August 1966)
• Solar Danger Issues #83-#98 (20 August to 3 December 1966) Artists: Frank Bellamy (#83-#92); Don Harley (#93-#98)
• The Big Freeze Issues #99-#104 (10 December 1965 to 14 January 1966)
• Operation Depthprobe Issues #105-#109 (21 January to 18 February 1967)
• The Trapped Spy Issues #110-#117 (25 February to 15 April 1967)
•      Feature: Targeted Hardbacks 

This volume starts with the TV21 "Lady Penelope" stories drawn by the excellent Eric Eden and then we get to the actual "Thunderbirds" strip reprints. From TV21 #52 through to #117 we see the Bellamy illustrated stories and for the first eight (presented here) the problem is the same as with many reprints of such comics. The centrespread of a comic is difficult to reprint properly as stuff gets lost in the margins of the gutter. Recently Book Palace bravely reprinted "Wrath of the Gods" from Boy's World (together with Bellamy's "Ghost World") in a landscape fold-out, thus avoiding the problem. In their "Heros the Spartan" reprint, Book Palace "doubled up" the edges of the pages that fell in the gutter so nothing was lost. But I have to say it's a universal problem when reprinting centrespreads. The word balloons all appear to be replaced with clear lettering and I'm guessing that any anomalies in the scanning process meant Robert Hammond has had to correct them, i.e. folds, tears etc. For some reason the blurbs at the bottom of pages ("Next Episode" announcements) have been deleted (except for the issue #91's "Tommy Buster" advert). An opportunity missed in my opinion. They could have also included the Secret Agent code - especially as the aim is to highlight the wonderful world of Alan Fennell's editing and immersion in the Anderson productions. 

Errors have crept into the features, for example - the worst - on page 123, Bellamy's wife is called Nancy Wilson - her maiden name was not even Wilson, let alone her married name! [CORRECTED in Volume Two above] In the feature on the published annuals the images for the TV21 1967 and 1968 annuals are mixed up. I wondered why a gallery of annuals and "targeted hardbacks" - as Gerry Anderson associated titles are called here - could not be shown when a small gallery of TV21 covers are! maybe I'm being too critical as space constraints must have had some part to play. 

Overall, a nice production with added features of interest.  

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS (Volume One)

• Features writer and researcher: Fred McNamara
• Layout and strip restoration: Robert Hammond
• Cover art: Lee Sullivan
• Cover design: Robert Hammond
• Publisher: Anderson Entertainment 
• Format: Hardcover (printed), 304 x 228 mm (portrait)
• Pagination: 296 pages
• Publishing Date: September 2025 
• ISBN: 97819171422106 
• Price: £37.99 

Frank Bellamy - Birthday Tribute

Today is Frank Bellamy's birthday - he was born on 21 May 1917 and left us far too soon. 

His influence has not waned over the years. In an interview published just yesterday Alan Moore mentions him in passing! But today I want to concentrate on how Bellamy's artwork is used by others. We've already looked at Al Williamson and Wally Wood, but today we are specifically looking at the 1994 Thunderbirds comic, drawn in this particular story by Mike White. We can see how the late Mike White 'borrowed' Bellamy images in his own quite lovely artwork. Finding which TV21s they came from has been quite an exercise, but Paul Holder was a great help, giving me most of these references. Showing Mike White's art alongside Frank Bellamy's allows us to marvel once again at how respected and loved Frank Bellamy's artwork is. Enjoy Frank's birthday with me by looking more closely at his wonderful Thunderbirds art - his most reprinted work.

The three issue story "The Virus" appeared in The New Thunderbirds 5 August 1994 -  19 August 1994 (#73-75).  I present the whole story here to show how influential Bellamy's artwork is, so I hope the copyright holders won't mind my overview for academic study, but should that not be the case, please let me know! 

The New Thunderbirds #73 p.3

The above page contains images from the following TV21s.  

• Thunderbird 3 from TV21 #181
• Thunderbird 1from TV21 #154?
• Thunderbird 5 from TV21 #52? 

TV21 #181

TV21 #154

TV21 #52

The next page in The New Thunderbirds #73 is page 4 

The New Thunderbirds #73 p.4

Here we have

• The top Thunderbird 1 from TV21 #61
• The middle Thunderbird 1 from TV21 #62
• The bottom Thunderbird 1 from TV21 #219

TV21 #61

TV21 #2

TV21 #219

The next page in The New Thunderbirds #73 is page 5

The New Thunderbirds #73 p.5

The only thing we could match here was the Thunderbird 1 which we think came from TV21 #140

TV21 #140

Here's page 6 of the story. Can you find the craft in TV21s and let me know?  

The New Thunderbirds #73 p.6

Then we move onto The New Thunderbirds #74 is page 3  

The New Thunderbirds #74 p.3

• The Hood comes from TV21 #214
• The Thunderbird 1 on the bottom left comes from TV21 #53 (the second ever episode of Thunderbirds) 

TV21 #214

TV21 #53

The next page in The New Thunderbirds #74 is page 4

The New Thunderbirds #74 p.4

•  The Thunderbird 5 comes from TV21 #137

TV21 #137

Here's page 5 of the The New Thunderbirds #74. Can you spot where these came from?

The New Thunderbirds #74 p.5

Then we come to page 6

The New Thunderbirds #74 p.6

• Thunderbird 4 comes from TV21 #211
• Thunderbird 2 (modified) from TV21 #235
• Thunderbird 2 (final panel) also comes from TV21 #235  

TV21 #211

TV21 #235

Here's page 3 of the The New Thunderbirds #75. 

The New Thunderbirds #75 p.3

• Thunderbird 5 from TV21 #194

TV21 #194

The next page in The New Thunderbirds #75 is page 4 

The New Thunderbirds #75 p.4

• Thunderbird 3 from TV21 #179
• Thunderbird 5 from TV21 #210 

TV21 #179

 

TV21 #210

The New Thunderbirds #75 is page 5

The New Thunderbirds #75 p.5

• The missile in TV21 #89 - note the explosion by White (above) and the one by Bellamy (below) - no attempt to copy the master here (However I've shown Al Williamson had a very good go!)! 

TV21 #89

Finally we have page 6 of The New Thunderbirds #75, which I'll leave you to discover for yourself!

The New Thunderbirds #75 p.6

John Freeman's excellent site DownTheTubes featured an obituary for Mike White with links to other tributes. I'm very grateful to Shaqui Le Vesconte for confirming the artwork was by Mike White, as he is not credited anywhere else for the Thunderbirds work, that I could find. 

I hope that he gets his day in the sun if Jamie Anderson, son of the late Gerry Anderson, publishes reprints of the 1990s Thunderbird original strips in his ongoing comic anthology series. So far we have seen Thunderbirds Comic Anthology Volume One (with Lee Sullivan's artwork on the cover) and Volume Two is coming out any time now and can be pre-ordered on his website. Again we see Bellamy's work still being enjoyed.

Finally, and just because Paul Holder reminded me, the image below started out as a birthday card. Back in 2011 I showed the image Bellamy drew for Dez Skinn of a western gunfighter. Here's the photo taken by Frank Bellamy as a record of his work. Scroll down this page (on Frank's influence!) to read how Bellamy knew he made a mistake in this artwork! 

"Western Gunfighter" taken from a photo of the art by Bellamy

Happy Birthday Frank. You are never forgotten!

AUCTION: Thunderbirds + Happy Warrior original art

 

Thunderbirds, TV21 #111

Anderson & Garland have an enormous Peter Hansen sale with things to interest loads of people and sure enough Frank Bellamy is represented

THUNDERBIRDS TV21 #111

 The above original Thunderbirds artwork sold on eBay for £1,500 back in February 2008. It was faded then and has not worsened and when you zoom in, the linework shows Bellamy's usual excellence. Anderson & Garland describe it as:

Original Thunderbirds artwork by Frank Bellamy for T. V. Century 21
An original artboard by artist Frank Bellamy for the Thunderbirds series 9, published in TV Century 21 Comic No. 111, pages 10 and 11 double spread, coloured inks on artboard signed by the artist, 50 x 70cms unframed.

Whoever wins this, I'd love for them to talk to me about the substituted heads I discovered when comparing the published art to what Bellamy photographed before delivering the artwork.

Here are the other images Anderson & Garland shared

 "HAPPY WARRIOR" EAGLE 2 MAY 1958 

Eagle 2 May 1958 (Vol.9 No.18) original art 

The last time any pages came to auction from the Churchill strip "The Happy Warrior", (August 2022),  Comic Book Auctions Ltd got £2,450 for the page from Eagle 22 November 1957 Vol.8 No.47. This one is the sort of thing I love from Bellamy - but be assured I won't be bidding. The hand reaching from the swastika over the island of Crete! Beautifully graphic and a technique he repeats for the Radio Times.

Graphic devices were a speciality

Bellamy's assured hand at portraits

The research paid off!

Anderson & Garland describe this as:

Sir Winston Churchill by Frank Bellamy
An original painted artboard by artist Frank Bellamy for the story-strip The Happy Warrior: The True Life Story of Sir Winston Churchill for episode 31, published in the Eagle Comic for Boys, coloured inks on lineboard, 53 x 41cms overall, unframed.
The Happy Warrior was written by Clifford Makins and appeared on the back page of Eagle Comic during 1957 and 1958, its success was such that it was quickly republished in 1958 by Hulton Press as a stand alone book. Other reprints came in 1981, 2008 and 2014.

Here's what the comic page looked like

Eagle 2 May 1958 (Vol.9 No.18)

Also for your interest Bellamy took a photo of the finished artwork before despatching it to Hulton for publication and this seems the logical place to show it.

Bellamy's Polaroid of the above work

The auction also has three circus posters in two lots - I've written about them before on the blog - so even though they are not original art, I thought I'd mention them here for those who missed the information before. Look for Lots 356 and 357

 Lastly I should mention that there is also a publisher's file copy of some Eagle comics with Dan Dare and Fraser of Africa (January to December 1960) by Bellamy (and others) at Lot 271. 

 

 

AUCTION SUMMARY

THUNDERBIRDS TV21 #111 (Lot 205)

WHERE?: Anderson & Garland
Estimate: £800 - £1,400
ENDING PRICE: £1,100
END DATE: Wednesday 11 March 2026

 "HAPPY WARRIOR" EAGLE 2 MAY 1958  (Lot 204)

WHERE?: Anderson & Garland
Estimate: £1,000- £1,800
ENDING PRICE: £1,300
END DATE: Wednesday 11 March 2026

• GERRY COTTLES CIRCUS POSTERS Lots 356 and 357
• PUBLISHER'S FILE COPY Vol 11: 1-53 Lot 271