Action 21 was a short-lived comics magazine published by Engale Marketing between 1988 and 1989. Though intended to be monthly, there were longer gaps between issues 3 and 4 as well as issues 6 and 7 prior to its abrupt cancellation after the tenth issue. The magazine was edited by noted fan and Fanderson founding member David Nightingale, and its covers were designed by future Thunderbirds artist Graham Bleathman[1].
Although Action 21 could not use the TV Century 21 name due to legal issues, the publication marked the first time since Countdown in the early 1970s that comic strips based on the supermarionation series had appeared in print on a regular basis. While the comic content in Action 21 consisted solely of TV21 reprints, reprints would be successfully combined with new material in Thunderbirds The Comic which began only two years after the end of the magazine.
All three Thunderbirds-related TV21 comic series — the main Thunderbirds strip, Lady Penelope and Zero X — were represented in Action 21, along with Fireball XL5, Stingray and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. Like TV21, the publication was set one hundred years into the future, placing the setting of these stories in the 2080s roughly twenty years later than their original versions. The shared universe aspect of the various series was also emphasised through the use of newly-written TV21-esque front covers and the revival of the Dateline format.
Following the magazine's demise, Engale went on to produce Century 21, a mostly out-of-universe reference magazine with regular comic reprints within.
Thunderbirds-Related Content[]
Thunderbirds Comic Strip[]
- Main article: Thunderbirds (TV21)
Thunderbirds appeared in every issue of Action 21. A reprint of Blazing Danger was published from issues 1 to 7 and was followed by a Mission to Africa reprint, the two stories which had started the TV21 strip.
However, Mission to Africa was not completed, with only three of its seven parts seeing print. The text "TRANSMISSION BROKEN! PLEASE STAND BY!" at the end of the third part clearly indicates the story would have continued had an eleventh issue materialised.
Lady Penelope Comic Strip[]
- Main article: Lady Penelope (comic)
Lady Penelope also appeared in every Action 21 issue, with the eleven-part premier TV21 story Mr. Steelman being reprinted across the ten issues. The strip was afforded double pages in the tenth issue to accomadote this. Additionally, this first story was said to be based on extracts from Lady Penelope's autobiography and was dated to 2086, about two years prior to most of the rest of the magazine.
The third Lady Penelope story from TV21, Assassination!, was also published in Action 21 (in issue 4) owing to its status as an instalment of the Fireball XL5 crossover story The Astran War.
Had the publication continued, Behind Enemy Lines, the second TV21 comic, would have followed Mr. Steelman. This is evidenced by the text "NEXT MONTH: DATELINE BEREZNIK 2089" in the tenth issue as well as the fact that Agent 21 announced in issue 8 that Penelope had signed on as a special investigator for Action 21 and that her first report, concerning Bereznik, was set to appear in issue 11.
Zero X Comic Strip[]
Zero X also maintained a presence in every issue, with the reprinting of the first two TV21 stories occurring. Return to the Red Planet was published in its entirety from issues 1 to 5 and the first part of Prisoners of the Star immediately following later in issue 5.
However, the story would not be completed and only managed to reach its sixth part of twelve by issue 10. As suggested in that issue by the text "NEXT: THE LAST MILE!!", issue 11 and beyond would have finished the storyline.
Lady Penelope Investigates[]
- Main article: Lady Penelope Investigates (series)
Thirteen instalments of Lady Penelope Investigates were reprinted in Action 21, though this was likely due in large part to the original page formatting from TV Century 21. For its first eleven issues prior to the Lady Penelope comic strip being promoted to two full pages, Lady Penelope Investigates occupied the less-than-half-page of space below the second page of the comic. Thus, when Action 21 reprinted Mr. Steelman the first eleven Lady Penelope Investigates were also reprinted too.
Additionally, issues 2 and 3 reprinted Lady Penelope's two-part investigation of International Rescue which, two full pages in length, had originally served in TV21 to promote the incoming Thunderbirds strip.
Dateline and the Cover Stories[]
- Main article: Action 21/Covers
The Dateline and cover stories were perhaps most notable for including content and references which would have been impossible had they accompanied some of the stories printed in Action 21, specifically with regards to integrating established facts from Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. All other reprinted stories in the magazine predated the Captain Scarlet strip, necessitating some changes and new plotlines to reconcile the fact that all these series were now taking place concurrently with each other.
The most obvious of these storylines was related to the Fireball XL5 comic The Astran War and involved the World President (named Lhomel, rather than Nikita Bandranaik as in TV21) accusing the Mysterons of causing or somehow engineering humanity's conflict with the Astrans, a claim he repeated several times. This culminated in Lhomel's resignation in issue 9 following Steve Zodiac's discovery of evidence which implicated the Astran Kaplan.
The influence of Captain Scarlet was also present in the background of the Zero X strip, with the Mysteron War being given as the reason for why the Zero X received no aid during their mission to Mars in Return to the Red Planet. Lionel Lurie, the mayor of the human colony Kahra, warned in issue 1 that they would not be able to spare the men or the machines to help the expedition if it got into trouble and reiterated this in issue 2. This was stated to be a consequence of the outbreak of the Mysteron War as most of the city's population found excuses to return to Earth. The World Space Patrol were also stated to be unavailable due to the Astran crisis, a storyline originally published almost two years before the Zero X strip debuted. In issue 3, the World President announced a planned major facelift for Kahra including a new World Army Airforce base to protect the colonists from the Mysterons.
The history of the Zero X was also altered in the Dateline for issue 1. Missions one and two (as seen in the film Thunderbirds Are Go) remained in place but Captain Black's ill-fated expedition became the third mission, switching places with the Paul Travers-led mission depicted throughout the Zero X strip. This was due to the entire Captain Scarlet series taking place after Captain Black's instigation of the Mysteron War at the beginning of the first episode meaning, if the first stories of the Zero X and Captain Scarlet comic strips are set around the same time, Black's mission must have taken place before the one begun in Return to the Red Planet.
Also, the Thunderbirds comic Blazing Danger directly crossed over with the Captain Scarlet comic We Will Destroy Unity City in the cover story for issue 3. On his way to the Canadian forest fire in Thunderbird 1, Scott Tracy's flight path took him past a drifting Cloudbase, whose personnel had been knocked out with gas by the Mysterons. Scott reported back that he had attempted to identify himself on the usual frequency but received no reply and saw no sign of life.
Other Features with TB-Content[]
Competition[]
- Issue 4 launched a competition with a prize of twenty-five Thunderbirds calendars. Readers had to answer three questions correctly for a chance to win, one of which was "Which Spaceport does Zero-X leave from?".
Reader-Submitted Content[]
- In issue 5, in reference to the events of Return to the Red Planet, Jason Watson of Castleford put forth the opinion that the people of Kahra could have looked for the crew of Zero X if they really wanted to but had instead exploited the situation for more World Government funds.
- In issue 6, Sue Butler from Immingham asked Agent 21 why the World Space Patrol did not come help when Zero X was in trouble on Mars as well as why it took the craft weeks to get there when Fireball XL5 was capable of making the journey in minutes. As to the second question, 21 replied that as Zero X was built to explore Mars it was fitted with "slow but sure" engines while XL5 was built to patrol the solar system so its engines emphasised speed. For the first question his answer was that the Space Patrol were kept busy by the Astran crisis. A picture of Zero X in flight accompanied the letters page for this issue.
- In issue 7, Mike Atkinson of Wigtown accused Ray Pierce of lying when he claimed he did not know anything about the structure of planets in issue 5. Noting Pierce's qualifications as a physicist and chemist with surgical and geographic training, Agent 21 agreed with this assessment, suggesting perhaps that the Zero X crew were giving Conrad Carlson one final chance to redeem himself.
- Also in issue 7, an image of the Junglecat accompanied a question from Mark Sydney of Exeter about the World Army Air Force.
- In issue 9, in response to Phil Willis's request for more information about Rhapsody Angel, Agent 21 published a short biography on her which included the detail that she had worked as a personal assistant to Lady Penelope during her vacations.
Advertisements[]
- Issue 1 contained a full page advertisement for an array of VHS tapes, described as "the best of Gerry Anderson on Channel 5". For Thunderbirds, volumes 1 to 8 were specifically mentioned while other parts of the page promoted Captain Scarlet, UFO, Stingray, Joe 90, Space: 1999 and Terrahawks. Also, an illustration of Thunderbird 1 was featured and a screenshot of Lady Penelope and Scott was used to represent Thunderbirds.
- Issue 2 featured a full page advert for the 1989 Thunderbirds Calendar from Engale Marketing. The calendar was said to have a photographic cover and full page colour stills from Thunderbirds (as well as Captain Scarlet, Joe 90, Stingray and UFO). Instructions on how to pay for the calendar via postal order were included, as was a note stating that Thunderbirds calendars and other Anderson-related items were available from the science fiction shop Thunderbooks. Another advert for the 1989 Calendar followed in issue 3, sharing the page with an advert for Action 21 itself.
- Issues 4 through 7 reprinted the adverts of each of the Tracy brothers and their Thunderbird craft which had originally appeared in successive issues of TV21 in the run-up to the start of the Thunderbirds comic strip. The half-page features for Gordon and Thunderbird 4 and Alan and Thunderbird 3 appeared together in issue 5 as they had been accompanied by adverts for non-related products on their original publication.
- Issue 5 contained an advertising page entitled the Engale Market Place. Among the Thunderbirds-related products featured were the "Thunderbird Century Modelling Manual" from Model Graphix in Japan, Thunderbirds calendars, sew-on cloth patches with the Thunderbirds and International Rescue, logos, the "Supermarionation Files" book from America, full colour photographic postcards, and enamel badges from Niglen depicting Thunderbird 2, Thunderbird 3, Alan and Lady Penelope.
- Issue 7 featured a quarter-page advert for a FAB 1 produced by the Kingsbury Collection in collaboration with Gerry Anderson to mark the Silver Jubilee of Thunderbirds. It was described as "individually hand-cast, caringly assembled, polished to a delicate satin finish and securely mounted on a beautiful mahoghany base". Each FAB 1 also came with a certificate of authenticity which was personally signed by Gerry Anderson.
- Issue 9 featured a full-page colour advert for the 1990 Thunderbirds Calendar. It was noted as containing "stunning" colour photographs of scenes from Joe 90, Captain Scarlet, Stingray, UFO and Thunderbirds. Instructions for how to pay for the calendar were also included.
- Issue 10 contained a colour advert for four new 37" x 27" colour photo posters. Three of these were Thunderbirds-related, depicting the Tracy family, Thunderbird 2 on its launch ramp and Thunderbird 2 in its hangar.