By Frank Bellamy, with Steve Kite, Graham Bleathman, D M Stokes & Keith Page, edited and compiled by Alan Fennel (Special Edition produced by Ted Smart for The Book People)
No ISBN:
There’s never an excuse to ignore a book with Frank Bellamy artwork in it so I’m here to tantalise all you internet shoppers and Jumble Sale hoppers with a rare book that seems to pop up quite often and which no fan can afford to miss.
When Fleetway revived their Gerry Anderson franchise in the early 1990s the comics featured artwork from TV21 supplemented with new and original material from another generation of fans and creators. Thunderbirds was far and away the biggest hit, resulting in five collections in slim graphic albums between 1991-1993. Some of that material was also re-collected for a limited edition hardback that had superb production values and a generous page count.
This volume contains the usual beloved assortment of cutaways, photos and profile features, plus earnest and entertaining strips from Keith Page (‘Terror in New York City’), D M Stokes (’30 Minutes after Noon!’) and the excellent Steve Kite (‘The Uninvited’ and ‘City of Fire’) taken primarily from Thunderbirds…: In Action and Danger Zone.
But as usual the real gold is the phenomenal and unparalleled work of Frank Bellamy, whose fantastic design, drawing and painted colour (which holds up rather well here, despite the limitations of modern print technology to accommodate the subtleties of the photo-gravure process) steals the show – and usually one’s breath away!
His five tales reprinted here are ‘The Trapped Spy’, ‘Operation Earthquake’, ‘Tracy Island Exposed’, ‘Brains is Dead’, and the unforgettable alien invader story ‘Visitor From Space’, with one of the most memorable monsters in comics history stealing the show on every page.
The work of Bellamy and his successors are a cherished highpoint of British comic-making. Even though it might be fun to hunt out these lost treasures surely there must a publisher somewhere willing to place these gems in a setting they deserve – a definitive high-quality collected edition?
© 1992 ITC Entertainment Group Ltd. Licensed by Copyright Promotions Ltd. All Rights Reserved.