TV21/TV Century 21

This weekly comic was first published in 1965 as TV Century 21 by City Magazines (and later by IPC) to promote Gerry Anderson properties, taking the Supercar and Fireball XL5 strips from TV Comic.

The comic was published in the style of a newspaper of the future, with the front page usually dedicated to fictional news stories set in the universe of Anderson’s TV shows.

The comic was renamed TV21 in 1968 when it absorbed TV Tornado and strips based on TV series were gradually phased out, with Star Trek eventually the lone survivor. In 1972 it merged into Valiant.

Regular strips included:

• The Blue Angels
• Burke’s Law
• Butch Conner Sheriff of Dodge City
• Cap’n Stardust
• Captain Scarlet
• Catch or Kill
• Clancy Clot: Magician’s Mate
• The Daleks
• Danny Merlin Son of the Wise – a fantasy strip about junk shop owner Danny Merlin, keeper of the “Keys of Wisdom”
• Department S
• Fireball XL5
• Forward From the Back Streets
• Front Page – TV Century 21 investigative reporter Pete Tracker learns about the secretive organisation Spectrum in the year 2067
• Get Smart
• Ghost Rider
• The Heat-Master
• Homer the Happy Ghost
• The Investigator
• I’ve Got a Sports-Mad Dad
• Joe 90
• The Kid King
• Lady Penelope
• Land of the Giants
• The Lone Ranger and Tonto
• Menace of the Black Museum
• Micky’s Moonbugs
• The Munsters
• My Favorite Martian
• The Phantom
• The Ringo Kid
• The Saint – formerly in TV Tornado. Renamed ‘Meet The Saint’
• Sgt Bilko
• The Silver Surfer
• S.N.O.R.K.E.L – which stood for Section Nine, Ocean Research and Knowledge Establishment for Learning
• Special Agent 21 – eventually changed its name to ‘Mr Magnet’
• Spider-Man
• Star Trek
• Stingray
• Supercar
• Tarzan – formerly in TV Tornado
• Thunderbirds
• The Tuffs of Terror Island
• Wheels Moran
• Wright C.H.A.R.L.I.E. – a humour strip about the inventions of a Professor Wright from the Central Headquarters Atomic Research Liaison for Industrial Experimentation (C.H.A.R.L.I.E)
• Zero-X