Summer 1971. Still at school, Jon Pertwee was Doctor Who (and was in colour), Dastardly and Muttley were still trying to "Stop that Pigeon" and Gerry Anderson was still going strong as we sat down to watch UFO, his first "live action" TV series.
These programmes all had their fans so it was inevitable that some publisher would produce a comic with them in and so we were introduced to Countdown.
All these shows and more were to appear over the comics 132 issue run, though it went through a number of name changes becoming TV Action and Countdown before ending up as simply TV Action.
Although promoted as "The Space Age Comic" other features included such gems as The Persuaders. The comic also spun off three Annuals and two Holiday Specials of which this was one.
Kicking off with UFO, this special also included tales reprinted from TV 21 of Stingray and one of my favourite Gerry Anderson shows, Fireball XL5.
Doctor Who also made an appearance though sadly just in a short text story.
I'm not over-familiar with this comic which is why I picked up this (well read) copy from my local comic shop but it does bring back memories from my youth which made the purchase so worthwhile.
I thought I'd end with the opening theme tune from UFO. Deserves a re-run on TV, but then so does so much stuff from the past. So much better than half the tosh they show on the old telly-box these days.
Nuff said?
UFO, Space 1999, Six Million Dollar Man and so many others; it was perhaps the 'golden era'?
ReplyDeleteAnother great comic. It was almost the '70s version of TV21 as it had been in the '60s. Although TV21 was still around, it was a vastly different comic to its original incarnation. In fact, TV21 merged into Valiant around this time, although its name (as a junior member) still adorned the cover of Valiant right up 'til 1974, if I recall correctly.
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