122-465: City Magazines was a British publisher of weekly comics and men's magazines that operated from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s. The company's most notable publications were comics magazines based on licensed television properties, including TV Century 21 and Lady Penelope , both of which featured comics based on Gerry Anderson 's Century 21 Productions Supermarionation shows. A number of City Magazine titles were absorbed by IPC Magazines in
244-513: A mass medium in the early 20th century with the advent of newspaper comic strips; magazine-style comic books followed in the 1930s, the superhero genre became prominent after Superman appeared in 1938. Histories of Japanese comics and cartooning ( manga ) propose origins as early as the 12th century. Japanese comics are generally held separate from the evolution of Euro-American comics, and Western comic art probably originated in 17th-century Italy. Modern Japanese comic strips emerged in
366-406: A medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically takes the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons , captions , and onomatopoeia can indicate dialogue, narration, sound effects, or other information. There is no consensus among theorists and historians on a definition of comics ; some emphasize
488-427: A singular noun when it refers to the medium itself (e.g. " Comics is a visual art form."), but becomes plural when referring to works collectively (e.g. " Comics are popular reading material."). The comics may be further adapted to animations (anime), dramas, TV shows, movies. The European, American, and Japanese comics traditions have followed different paths. Europeans have seen their tradition as beginning with
610-548: A combined circulation of over 2 million copies by the 1950s. Their characters, including " Dennis the Menace ", " Desperate Dan " and " The Bash Street Kids " have been read by generations of British children. The comics originally experimented with superheroes and action stories before settling on humorous strips featuring a mix of the Amalgamated Press and US comic book styles. The popularity of superhero comic books declined in
732-475: A comics division. First, it launched the weekly teen girls' magazine Boyfriend in 1959, which featured a mix of text stories and comics. In the period 1961 to 1965, City Magazine published licensed comics based on the Hanna-Barbera animation properties Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear (with the odd Flintstones one-off thrown in). The company dipped into the growing "TV comic" market in 1960, acquiring
854-474: A defining factor, which can imply the exclusion of even photographic comics. The term manga is used in Japanese to indicate all forms of comics, cartooning, and caricature. The term comics refers to the comics medium when used as an uncountable noun and thus takes the singular: "comics is a medium" rather than "comics are a medium". When comic appears as a countable noun it refers to instances of
976-479: A definition of the comics medium, and attempted definitions and descriptions have fallen prey to numerous exceptions. Theorists such as Töpffer, R. C. Harvey , Will Eisner , David Carrier, Alain Rey, and Lawrence Grove emphasize the combination of text and images, though there are prominent examples of pantomime comics throughout its history. Other critics, such as Thierry Groensteen and Scott McCloud, have emphasized
1098-493: A dozen stories; they are later compiled in tankōbon -format books. At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, nearly a quarter of all printed material in Japan was comics. Translations became extremely popular in foreign markets—in some cases equaling or surpassing the sales of domestic comics. Comic strips are generally short, multipanel comics that have, since the early 20th century, most commonly appeared in newspapers. In
1220-489: A humour strip set in the "Anderson universe" about the inventions of a Professor Wright from the Central Headquarters Atomic Research Liaison for Industrial Experimentation (C.H.A.R.L.I.E.), debuted in issue #107 (4 February 1967). It lasted until issue #131 (22 July 1967), when it – and Catch or Kill – were replaced by Front Page . That feature, drawn by John M. Burns , was a meta-strip set in
1342-603: A larger page size than used in many other cultures. In English-speaking countries, the trade paperback format originating from collected comic books have also been chosen for original material. Otherwise, bound volumes of comics are called graphic novels and are available in various formats. Despite incorporating the term "novel"—a term normally associated with fiction—"graphic novel" also refers to non-fiction and collections of short works. Japanese comics are collected in volumes called tankōbon following magazine serialization. Gag and editorial cartoons usually consist of
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#17330849224551464-458: A merger with another title, Joe 90 Top Secret . At this time, the issue numbering of TV21 and Joe 90 , as the comic was now called, was reset to #1, with a "New Series No." printed on the front cover. While the general format of the old comic was preserved, the Thunderbirds and Joe 90 strips were now printed in black-and-white in favour of the new colour favourites Star Trek and Land of
1586-432: A month's notice. A small nucleus of staff from the disbanded division were taken on by Leonard Matthews and Alf Wallace – the ex-managing editors of Fleetway Juvenile Comics ; and Eagle and Odhams ' Power Comics line, respectively – who were now operating an independent studio off Fleet Street under the name of Martspress . With the coming relaunch, Martspress became the comic's packager. The new merged comic
1708-622: A narrator, convey characters' dialogue or thoughts, or indicate place or time. Speech balloons themselves are strongly associated with comics, such that the addition of one to an image is sufficient to turn the image into comics. Sound effects mimic non-vocal sounds textually using onomatopoeia sound-words. Cartooning is most frequently used in making comics, traditionally using ink (especially India ink ) with dip pens or ink brushes; mixed media and digital technology have become common. Cartooning techniques such as motion lines and abstract symbols are often employed. While comics are often
1830-605: A new one in 1968 and another one in 1969. TV Century 21 was launched to capitalise on the popularity of the Gerry Anderson -produced Supermarionation TV series Stingray , which followed the underwater adventures of Troy Tempest and the World Aquanaut Security Patrol (WASP). Stingray strips were joined by Supercar , Fireball XL5 , and Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward (from Thunderbirds ). (The Supercar and Fireball XL5 TV programs had ended prior to
1952-586: A new one in 1968 and another one in 1969. In January 1968, City Magazines launched Go Girl , a mix of comic strips, pin-ups, and text features. The series only lasted 31 issues, however, from 13 January to 10 August 1968. From 1969 to 1972, City Magazines also published Once Upon a Time , packaged by Martspress, which was an educational comic in the vein of Look and Learn , featuring artists like Don Lawrence , Jesús Blasco , and Ron Embleton . (This title also appears to have been affiliated with IPC Magazines .) The company published Motor Cyclist Illustrated in
2074-559: A new puppet series that had not succeeded in being sold to a studio. Early issues of the series featured photographic covers of Anderson's puppets; in addition to the main Candy and Andy strip, other strips were based on popular television children's programs like Winnie-the-Pooh , William Timym 's Bengo the Boxer Pup , Maria Perego 's Topo Gigio , and Associated Television 's koalas Tingha and Tucker . Candy lasted 154 issues — as well as
2196-614: A number of annuals and specials — from 1967 through 1969. Also debuting in January 1967 was the new ongoing title TV Tornado . True to its name, TV Tornado , which was edited by Mick Anglo , featured comics based on popular television properties, including Lone Ranger , Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea , Tarzan , The Saint , Bonanza , and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. ; plus text features about Doctor Who and The Avengers . The back story of
2318-572: A number of related annuals and specials, two of them featuring Stingray . The first Thunderbirds annual was published in 1966, with a new one appearing each year until 1972. City Magazines also published the first TV Century 21 Annual in 1966, eventually putting out five such annuals (with the last one appearing in 1970). A second Stingray Annual appeared in 1966, and two more TV Century 21 seasonal specials in 1966 and 1967. The first Captain Scarlet annual debuted in 1967; City Magazines published
2440-763: A prolific body of work. Towards the close of the 20th century, these three traditions converged in a trend towards book-length comics: the comic album in Europe, the tankōbon in Japan, and the graphic novel in the English-speaking countries. Outside of these genealogies, comics theorists and historians have seen precedents for comics in the Lascaux cave paintings in France (some of which appear to be chronological sequences of images), Egyptian hieroglyphs , Trajan's Column in Rome,
2562-531: A similarly confusing history since they are most often not humorous and are periodicals, not regular books. It is common in English to refer to the comics of different cultures by the terms used in their languages, such as manga for Japanese comics, or bandes dessinées for French-language Franco-Belgian comics . Many cultures have taken their word for comics from English, including Russian ( комикс , komiks ) and German ( Comic ). Similarly,
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#17330849224552684-439: A single panel, often incorporating a caption or speech balloon. Definitions of comics which emphasize sequence usually exclude gag, editorial, and other single-panel cartoons; they can be included in definitions that emphasize the combination of word and image. Gag cartoons first began to proliferate in broadsheets published in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the term "cartoon" was first used to describe them in 1843 in
2806-406: A way that one could read the 6-panel comic, flip the book and keep reading. He made 64 such comics in total. In 2012, a remake of a selection of the comics was made by Marcus Ivarsson in the book 'In Uppåner med Lilla Lisen & Gamle Muppen'. ( ISBN 978-91-7089-524-1 ) Shorter, black-and-white daily strips began to appear early in the 20th century, and became established in newspapers after
2928-411: Is the incorporation of verbal content". Aaron Meskin saw McCloud's theories as an artificial attempt to legitimize the place of comics in art history. Cross-cultural study of comics is complicated by the great difference in meaning and scope of the words for "comics" in different languages. The French term for comics, bandes dessinées ("drawn strip") emphasizes the juxtaposition of drawn images as
3050-599: The New York World and later the New York American , particularly Outcault's The Yellow Kid , led to the development of newspaper comic strips. Early Sunday strips were full-page and often in colour. Between 1896 and 1901 cartoonists experimented with sequentiality, movement, and speech balloons. An example is Gustave Verbeek , who wrote his comic series "The UpsideDowns of Old Man Muffaroo and Little Lady Lovekins" between 1903 and 1905. These comics were made in such
3172-464: The IPC Magazines title Petticoat to form Petticoat/Trend . In the period 1961 to 1965, City Magazine published licensed comics based on the Hanna-Barbera animation properties Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear (with the odd Flintstones one-off thrown in). Huckleberry Hound Weekly ran 283 issues, from 1961 to 1967, with a number of various one-offs and seasonal "extras." (In 1967,
3294-525: The International Publishing Company . Men Only was sold in 1971 to Paul Raymond Publications , who relaunched it as the start of a top-shelf publishing empire (competing with Mayfair as well as US magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse during the 1970s and 1980s). Similarly, Escort was incorporated as part of Men Only and then relaunched in 1980 by Paul Raymond as part of his stable of softcore pornography magazines. In
3416-1050: The Mysterons , Captain Scarlet 's Martian enemies, was revealed in TV Tornado . Other strips and characters that appeared in TV Tornado included Batman , Superman , The Phantom , Flash Gordon , the Green Hornet , Magnus, Robot Fighter , and The Invaders . Solo , which debuted in February 1967, also contained strips based on the Mysterons, as well as other licensed TV properties like The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Sergeant Bilko (a.k.a. The Phil Silvers Show ). The title also featured Disney -related strips, including Mary Poppins , Super Goof , and Uncle Scrooge . In late September 1967, after publishing 31 issues, Solo merged with TV Tornado . And in September 1968, after 192 issues, TV Tornado
3538-471: The United States , western Europe (especially France and Belgium ), and Japan . The history of European comics is often traced to Rodolphe Töpffer 's cartoon strips of the 1830s, while Wilhelm Busch and his Max and Moritz also had a global impact from 1865 on, and became popular following the success in the 1930s of strips and books such as The Adventures of Tintin . American comics emerged as
3660-503: The 11th-century Norman Bayeux Tapestry , the 1370 bois Protat woodcut, the 15th-century Ars moriendi and block books , Michelangelo's The Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel, and William Hogarth 's 18th-century sequential engravings, amongst others. Illustrated humour periodicals were popular in 19th-century Britain, the earliest of which was the short-lived The Glasgow Looking Glass in 1825. The most popular
3782-634: The 1930s, at first reprinting newspaper comic strips; by the end of the decade, original content began to dominate. The success in 1938 of Action Comics and its lead hero Superman marked the beginning of the Golden Age of Comic Books , in which the superhero genre was prominent. In the UK and the Commonwealth , the DC Thomson -created Dandy (1937) and Beano (1938) became successful humor-based titles, with
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3904-589: The 1969 relaunch. The publication dropped the "Century" from its title in January 1968, after 155 issues, becoming known as TV21 . With that same issue, the Special Agent 21 strip changed its name to Mr. Magnet , and the Get Smart , Front Page , and Sgt. Bilko strips were all canceled. In September 1968, after 192 issues, TV21 merged with its sister publication TV Tornado to form TV21 and Tornado . The TV Tornado strips Tarzan and The Saint moved with
4026-481: The 1980s, mainstream sensibilities were reasserted and serialization became less common as the number of comics magazines decreased and many comics began to be published directly as albums. Smaller publishers such as L'Association that published longer works in non-traditional formats by auteur -istic creators also became common. Since the 1990s, mergers resulted in fewer large publishers, while smaller publishers proliferated. Sales overall continued to grow despite
4148-467: The 1990s. Formal theories of manga have focused on developing a "manga expression theory", with emphasis on spatial relationships in the structure of images on the page, distinguishing the medium from film or literature, in which the flow of time is the basic organizing element. Comics studies courses have proliferated at Japanese universities, and Japan Society for Studies in Cartoon and Comics ( ja )
4270-561: The Anderson productions, and for its first two years published strip adventures based on the extraterrestrial Doctor Who villains the Daleks , the early scripts for which had the approval of Dalek creator Terry Nation . Many of the stories were written by David Whitaker , who alternated with Nation in writing Daleks stories for the Doctor Who TV series; however, as Polystyle's TV Comic had
4392-546: The Back Streets , by Martin Asbury ; and I've Got a Sports-Mad Dad ; as well as Roy Davis' humour strip The Kid King . Star Trek , originally by Harry Lindfield, was one of only strips to last all 105 issues of the relaunched publication, eventually being illustrated by Jim Baikie , Mike Noble , and Carlos Pino and Vicente Alcazar , often working together as "Carvic". Joe 90 and Thunderbirds gradually disappeared from
4514-681: The British humour magazine Punch . Webcomics are comics that are available on the internet, first being published the 1980s. They are able to potentially reach large audiences, and new readers can often access archives of previous installments. Webcomics can make use of an infinite canvas , meaning they are not constrained by the size or dimensions of a printed comics page. Some consider storyboards and wordless novels to be comics. Film studios, especially in animation, often use sequences of images as guides for film sequences. These storyboards are not intended as an end product and are rarely seen by
4636-563: The Chinese term manhua and the Korean manhwa derive from the Chinese characters with which the Japanese term manga is written. Academic journals Archives Databases TV Century 21 TV Century 21 , later renamed TV21 , TV21 and Tornado , TV21 and Joe 90 , and TV21 again, was a weekly British children's comic published by City Magazines during
4758-812: The Gerry Anderson license in early 1970, so the two remaining titles — TV21 and Penelope — lost their Anderson-related content. Shortly after losing the Anderson license, City Magazines acquired the Marvel Comics license (previously held by Odhams Press , a division of IPC Magazines ), with some Marvel strips being reprinted in TV21 . In the period 1967 to 1971, all of City Magazines' main comics titles ended up being taken over by IPC Magazines and/or merged into existing IPC titles: these included Boyfriend and Trend (formerly Boyfriend ), Penelope (formerly Lady Penelope ), and TV21 (formerly TV Century 21 ). By 1974,
4880-543: The Giants . The Joe 90 aspect gradually disappeared from the comic, whose name reverted to TV21 after 36 issues (the 278th overall). (Further Joe 90 annuals were published, however, in 1969 and 1970.) The title sputtered along for another year, mostly based on reprints, including of American Marvel Comics strips. With issue #93 (3 July 1971), the title changed publisher-name from City Magazines to IPC Magazines. TV21 ceased publication with issue #105 (25 Sept. 1971), when it
5002-470: The Japanese term for comics and cartooning, manga , in the early 19th century. In the 1930s Harry "A" Chesler started a comics studio, which eventually at its height employed 40 artists working for 50 different publishers who helped make the comics medium flourish in "the Golden Age of Comics" after World War II. In the post-war era modern Japanese comics began to flourish when Osamu Tezuka produced
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5124-499: The Mysterons and other stories. The front covers were also in colour, with photographs from one or more of the Anderson series or occasionally of the stars of the back-page feature. The brainchild of writer-editor Alan Fennell (who also wrote episodes of the various Anderson TV shows) and presenter Keith Shackleton , TV Century 21 was produced by the staff at the Andersons' Century 21 Publications , while printing and distribution
5246-640: The Swiss Rodolphe Töpffer from as early as 1827 and Americans have seen the origin of theirs in Richard ;F. Outcault 's 1890s newspaper strip The Yellow Kid , though many Americans have come to recognize Töpffer's precedence. Wilhelm Busch directly influenced Rudolph Dirks and his Katzenjammer Kids . Japan has a long history of satirical cartoons and comics leading up to the World War ;II era. The ukiyo-e artist Hokusai popularized
5368-591: The Thunderbirds team and Captain Scarlet eventually joined the comic's lineup. The publication extended its licensing beyond the Anderson productions, as well, publishing strip adventures based on the extraterrestrial Doctor Who villains the Daleks , in addition to adaptations of the popular television series My Favourite Martian and Burke's Law . The comic dropped the "Century" from its title in January 1968, after 155 issues, and became known as TV21 . In September 1969, after 242 issues, TV21 relaunched after
5490-893: The US, daily strips have normally occupied a single tier, while Sunday strips have been given multiple tiers. Since the early 20th century, daily newspaper comic strips have typically been printed in black-and-white and Sunday comics have usually been printed in colour and have often occupied a full newspaper page. Specialized comics periodicals formats vary greatly in different cultures. Comic books , primarily an American format, are thin periodicals usually published in colour. European and Japanese comics are frequently serialized in magazines—monthly or weekly in Europe, and usually black-and-white and weekly in Japan. Japanese comics magazine typically run to hundreds of pages. Book-length comics take different forms in different cultures. European comic albums are most commonly colour volumes printed at A4-size ,
5612-505: The Universal Secret Service. The character had first appeared, in text form, in issue #1, as the fictional editor of TV Century 21 ; readers were "drafted" as his agents and asked to address reports (i.e. letters) to Contact 21. Special Agent 21 was written by Tod Sullivan and illustrated by Rab Hamilton. Three strips left the publication with issue #51 (8 January 1966) – Lady Penelope , Supercar , and Burke's Law – replaced
5734-547: The Wise ; and the humour strip Micky's Moonbugs , drawn by Graham Allen. (S.N.O.R.K.E.L. stood for Section Nine, Ocean Research and Knowledge Establishment for Learning; Danny Merlin was a fantasy strip about junk shop owner Danny Merlin, keeper of the "Keys of Wisdom.") None of these strips lasted very long. A sign of the title's failing prospects began with issue #55 (10 October 1970), when reprints began to replace original strips (reprints being much cheaper to produce). First to join
5856-595: The World Space Patrol seen in Fireball XL5 . The primary setting was the 2060s, with each newspaper-style issue covering the "top stories" of the decade. Earth was depicting as having a World Government – based in the fictional Unity City, Bermuda , and incorporating a President and a Senate – whose authority encompassed most of the planet. Besides Spectrum, the World Navy, the World Aquanaut Security Patrol (WASP) and
5978-460: The World Space Patrol, all of which were seen in the Anderson series, the future Earth also boasted a World Army, World Air Force, and Universal Secret Service (USS). Elements of these would feature in multiple strips, including ones based on other series; elements of Fireball XL5 appeared several times in the Captain Scarlet adventures. Various textual commentaries established backstories for
6100-610: The XL fleet, Fireflash, and the first Martian probe. (The strip was not related to a later unsuccessful TV pilot by Gerry Anderson.) The strip didn't last long, being canceled after issue #89 (1 October 1966). Following The Investigator was Catch or Kill , another strip taking place in the year 2066. Originally by Angus Allan and John M. Burns , Gerry Embleton later took over the art chores. With issue #105 (21 January 1967), Zero-X , by Angus Allan and Mike Noble , joined TV Century 21 , replacing The Daleks . Wright C.H.A.R.L.I.E. ,
6222-468: The artwork in ink; a colourist ; and a letterer , who adds the captions and speech balloons. The English-language term comics derives from the humorous (or " comic ") work which predominated in early American newspaper comic strips, but usage of the term has become standard for non-humorous works as well. The alternate spelling comix – coined by the underground comix movement – is sometimes used to address such ambiguities. The term "comic book" has
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#17330849224556344-491: The brain's comprehension of comics is similar to comprehending other domains, such as language and music. Historical narratives of manga tend to focus either on its recent, post-WWII history, or on attempts to demonstrate deep roots in the past, such as to the Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga picture scroll of the 12th and 13th centuries, or the early 19th-century Hokusai Manga . The first historical overview of Japanese comics
6466-687: The characters that also connected the various series; for example, some of the Spectrum officers seen in Captain Scarlet were revealed to be former World Space Patrol agents. This did not necessarily contradict any of the TV series themselves as all were assumed to be set in the mid-21st century at least up until Captain Scarlet ; Anderson's final two Supermarionation series, Joe 90 (1968–69) and The Secret Service (1969) had more contemporary settings. ( The Secret Service never appeared in TV21 .) A recurring plot element
6588-422: The combination of images and text, some sequentiality or other image relations, and others historical aspects such as mass reproduction or the use of recurring characters. Cartooning and other forms of illustration are the most common means of image-making in comics. Photo comics is a form that uses photographic images. Common forms include comic strips , editorial and gag cartoons , and comic books . Since
6710-596: The comic, whose name reverted to TV21 after 36 issues (the 278th overall). In fact, by issue #38 (13 June 1970), both strips were gone, and with them the last vestiges of the Gerry Anderson Supermarionation properties. TV21 no longer had the Anderson license. With their demise, TV21 underwent a series of strip turnovers. In short succession, four new strips joined the lineup: the adventures strips The Heat-Master , S.N.O.R.K.E.L. , and Danny Merlin Son of
6832-536: The company appears to have gone defunct; its assets ended up in the possession of the Daily Express (formerly Beaverbrook Newspapers). City Magazines started in 1955 with the weekly men's magazine Blighty Parade , a magazine originally called Blighty which had been relaunched in 1939 by another publisher. In 1959, the title of the magazine was changed to Parade & Blighty , and then in 1960 to Parade . City Magazines published Parade until c. 1971, when it
6954-768: The definition of comics, a medium that has taken various, equally valid forms over its history. Morgan sees comics as a subset of " les littératures dessinées " (or "drawn literatures"). French theory has come to give special attention to the page, in distinction from American theories such as McCloud's which focus on panel-to-panel transitions. In the mid-2000s, Neil Cohn began analyzing how comics are understood using tools from cognitive science, extending beyond theory by using actual psychological and neuroscience experiments. This work has argued that sequential images and page layouts both use separate rule-bound "grammars" to be understood that extend beyond panel-to-panel transitions and categorical distinctions of types of layouts, and that
7076-461: The duo of Vicente Alcazar and Carlos Pino under the pseudonym "Cervic". Initial weekly sales were in excess of 600,000. The comic was adapted for the Dutch market as TV2000 . Early copies of TV Century 21 are difficult to find, and attract high prices compared to nearly all other print material associated with Gerry Anderson's work. In contrast with Polystyle Publications ' TV Comic , which
7198-400: The early 20th century, and the output of comic magazines and books rapidly expanded in the post-World War II era (1945)– with the popularity of cartoonists such as Osamu Tezuka . Comics has had a lowbrow reputation for much of their history, but towards the end of the 20th century, they began to find greater acceptance with the public and academics. The English term comics is used as
7320-580: The editors, writers, and artists, while City Magazines arranged for printing and distributing the titles. The Century 21 Publications imprint's most prominent and long-running titles were TV Century 21 , later known as TV21 , which launched in January 1965; and Lady Penelope , which launched in January 1966. Building on the success of the two earlier titles, in January/February 1967, City Magazines launched three more Anderson-related titles: Candy , TV Tornado , and Solo. The latter title didn't survive
7442-617: The era, featuring a mix of adventure, humour, Western , and sporting strips, some of which were reprints from other publications. Marvel Comics reprints became a feature in the magazine's final year of publication. The first issue of TV Century 21 was published on 23 January 1965. The comic dropped the "Century" from its title in January 1968, after 155 issues, and became known as TV21 . In September 1968, after 192 issues, TV21 merged with its sister publication TV Tornado to form TV21 and Tornado . On 18 January 1969, Gerry Anderson's most recent Supermarionation production, Joe 90 ,
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#17330849224557564-699: The era, including Bewitched , The Monkees , The Beverly Hillbillies , Crossroads , Daktari , The Man from U.N.C.L.E. , and The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. . Other strips published in Lady Penelope connected with other Century 21 Productions. After 123 issues, the title was shortened to Penelope ; it eventually ran for 204 issues until 20 December 1969, when it was acquired by IPC Magazines and merged with Princess Tina (to become Princess Tina and Penelope ). Lady Penelope annuals began appearing in 1967, continuing for six editions until 1972. City Magazines also published three The Monkees Annuals in
7686-582: The establishment of the Comics Code Authority self-censoring body. The Code has been blamed for stunting the growth of American comics and maintaining its low status in American society for much of the remainder of the century. Superheroes re-established themselves as the most prominent comic book genre by the early 1960s. Underground comix challenged the Code and readers with adult, countercultural content in
7808-527: The first modern Japanese comic strip. By the 1930s, comic strips were serialized in large-circulation monthly girls' and boys' magazine and collected into hardback volumes. The modern era of comics in Japan began after World War II, propelled by the success of the serialized comics of the prolific Osamu Tezuka and the comic strip Sazae-san . Genres and audiences diversified over the following decades. Stories are usually first serialized in magazines which are often hundreds of pages thick and may contain over
7930-493: The following issue with Thunderbirds , Get Smart , and The Munsters . Bruno Marraffa, who had been drawing Supercar , took on Get Smart , while Paul Trevillion , who had been drawing Burke's Law , was now the lead artist for The Munsters strip. A new strip joined the lineup with issue #73 (11 June 1966). The Investigator , by Alan Fennell and Don Harley, was about Bob Devlin and Marc Carter, fictional troubleshooters for Universal Engineering Incorporated, builders of
8052-517: The hero of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons , made his first appearance in TV Century 21 in issue #141, 30 September 1967, timed to coincide with the airing of the first episode of the TV show. (The back story of the Mysterons , Captain Scarlet's Martian enemies, was being revealed in TV Tornado , another City Magazines publication.) Captain Scarlet was featured on most covers of the title until
8174-570: The introduction of five strips reprinted from American Marvel Comics titles. Although the publication had given up the Gerry Anderson license, IPC did have the Marvel license, which had last been used to publish reprints of Marvel's superhero strips in the Odhams ' line of Power Comics (including Smash! ) in 1966–1969. Beginning with the issue of 28 November 1970 (#61), some Marvel stories began being reprinted in TV21 . The Marvel reprints – which featured
8296-437: The late 1960s and early 1970s. The underground gave birth to the alternative comics movement in the 1980s and its mature, often experimental content in non-superhero genres. Comics in the US has had a lowbrow reputation stemming from its roots in mass culture ; cultural elites sometimes saw popular culture as threatening culture and society. In the latter half of the 20th century, popular culture won greater acceptance, and
8418-495: The late 1960s; the company ceased operations in c. 1974, with its remaining assets coming under the control of the Daily Express . City Magazines started in 1955; its first title was Blighty/Parade , which it acquired from another publisher; followed by Escort , launched in 1958. City Magazines' headquarters were initially at 45 St Pancras Way, London, later moving to 167-170 Fleet Street , and later to Aldwych House, 81 Aldwych, London. In 1959–1960, City Magazines started
8540-560: The late 19th century. New publications in both the Western and Japanese styles became popular, and at the end of the 1890s, American-style newspaper comics supplements began to appear in Japan, as well as some American comic strips. 1900 saw the debut of the Jiji Manga in the Jiji Shinpō newspaper—the first use of the word "manga" in its modern sense, and where, in 1902, Rakuten Kitazawa began
8662-412: The late 20th century, bound volumes such as graphic novels , comic albums , and tankōbon have become increasingly common, along with webcomics as well as scientific/medical comics. The history of comics has followed different paths in different cultures. Scholars have posited a pre-history as far back as the Lascaux cave paintings. By the mid-20th century, comics flourished, particularly in
8784-421: The latter half of the 1960s. Originally produced in partnership with Gerry and Sylvia Anderson 's Century 21 Productions , it promoted the company's many science-fiction television series. 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 worlds of Fireball XL5 , Stingray , Thunderbirds , Captain Scarlet and
8906-632: The launch of TV Century 21 , but were still being broadcast sporadically on ATV in the United Kingdom. They also had previously been adapted into comics a few years earlier in Polystyle Publications ' TV Comic .) Other than Lady Penelope herself, the Thunderbirds themselves were not featured until issue #52, the same issue the Lady Penelope strip left TV Century 21 to star in her own comic . TV Century 21 extended its licensing beyond
9028-462: The lines between high and low culture began to blur. Comics nevertheless continued to be stigmatized, as the medium was seen as entertainment for children and illiterates. The graphic novel —book-length comics—began to gain attention after Will Eisner popularized the term with his book A Contract with God (1978). The term became widely known with the public after the commercial success of Maus , Watchmen , and The Dark Knight Returns in
9150-635: The lineup were the American King Features Syndicate strips The Phantom and The Lone Ranger and Tonto . Another, original, Western strip , Butch Conner Sheriff of Dodge City , came along an issue later, shortly followed by The Blue Angels , reprints of the Buck Danny strip from the Franco-Belgian Spirou magazine. All of these strips lasted fewer than ten issues before being canceled and replaced. Late November 1970 saw
9272-495: The lineup, including the mostly forgettable adventure strips Menace of the Black Museum , The Tuffs of Terror Island , and Wheels Moran ; and the humour strips Clancy Clot: Magician's Mate and Cap'n Stardust . Of all those, only The Tuffs of Terror Island survived the merger with Valiant and Smash! Two former employees of Century 21 Publishing , Dennis Hooper and Roger Perry, had worked on TV21 and Lady Penelope in
9394-516: The medium, such as individual comic strips or comic books: "Tom's comics are in the basement." Panels are individual images containing a segment of action, often surrounded by a border. Prime moments in a narrative are broken down into panels via a process called encapsulation. The reader puts the pieces together via the process of closure by using background knowledge and an understanding of panel relations to combine panels mentally into events. The size, shape, and arrangement of panels each affect
9516-630: The merger to the new TV21 and Tornado . This meant the cancelation of the Supermarionation strips Stingray and Zero-X ; Fireball XL5 , meanwhile, had ended back in issue #174 (18 May 1968). The final new strip to join the publication's lineup – taking over from the canceled Tarzan – was the adaptation of the TV series Department S , drawn by Carlos Pino , which debuted in issue #212 (8 February 1969). ( Tarzan would return shortly thereafter in TV21 and Joe 90 .) TV21 and Tornado published its final issue, #242, on 6 September 1969. With
9638-457: The mid-1980s. In the 21st century graphic novels became established in mainstream bookstores and libraries and webcomics became common. The francophone Swiss Rodolphe Töpffer produced comic strips beginning in 1827, and published theories behind the form. Wilhelm Busch first published his Max and Moritz in 1865. Cartoons appeared widely in newspapers and magazines from the 19th century. The success of Zig et Puce in 1925 popularized
9760-466: The name of a comic.") The final issue of TV21 and Tornado before the merger was #242, published 6 September 1969. Meanwhile, at the beginning of 1969, Century 21 Productions had become financially over-stretched. Within a few months, the company had disbanded their three warehouse-sized studios on the Slough Trading Estate . In June 1969 the entire staff of Century 21 Publications were given
9882-534: The new TV21 and Joe 90 , the publication dispensed with the hundred-years-in-the-future cover date format as well as the focus on the Anderson-universe, becoming more of a typical British adventure comic (the first four issues, in fact, featured association football imagery). According to Stringer, "the content and tone of the merged comic was more like Joe 90 than TV21 ." The Thunderbirds and Joe 90 strips were printed in black-and-white in deference to
10004-524: The new colour features Star Trek and Land of the Giants . The Saint strip, now titled Meet the Saint , continued from the first volume of TV21 , illustrated by Vicente Alcazar ; the Tarzan strip returned as well, drawn by Don Lawrence . The relaunched publication for the first time featured strips not related to either Anderson properties or television adaptations, such as the sporting strips Forward From
10126-423: The period 1965–1967, the flagship title Parade was used in specials with the company's other monthlies: Parade Carnival , Carnival Parade , Parade Escort , etc. City Magazines' second ongoing publication was the weekly teen magazine Boyfriend , which debuted in 1959. Early issues featured a romance comic on the cover, whose story continued on the interior pages. Later issues featured photographic covers and
10248-459: The period 1965–1968. They pitched Polystyle Publications the idea behind a new comic utilizing the Anderson license. Soon enough, Polystyle's Countdown , debuted in February 1971, initially reprinted many of the Supermarionation strips which had originally run in TV21 , including Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons , Fireball XL5 , Joe 90 , Lady Penelope , Stingray , Thunderbirds , and Zero-X . ( Countdown launched while TV21
10370-425: The period 1969 to 1971. The final comics title launched by City Magazines was the football comic Striker , which debuted on 10 January 1970. Only the first 23 or 24 issues of Striker included comics content; about 7 pages per issue. Sometime around issue #30, the magazine was acquired by Banner Press Limited and merged with another magazine to become Inside Football and Striker . Comics Comics are
10492-440: The primacy of sequences of images. Towards the close of the 20th century, different cultures' discoveries of each other's comics traditions, the rediscovery of forgotten early comics forms, and the rise of new forms made defining comics a more complicated task. European comics studies began with Töpffer's theories of his own work in the 1840s, which emphasized panel transitions and the visual–verbal combination. No further progress
10614-520: The primary outlet for comics in the mid-20th century. As in the US, at the time comics were seen as infantile and a threat to culture and literacy; commentators stated that "none bear up to the slightest serious analysis", and that comics were "the sabotage of all art and all literature". In the 1960s, the term bandes dessinées ("drawn strips") came into wide use in French to denote the medium. Cartoonists began creating comics for mature audiences, and
10736-492: The primary rights to adapt the Doctor Who television series itself, the character of The Doctor could not appear in the TV Century 21 comic. TV Century 21 's early issues featured adaptations of two other popular TV series as well: My Favourite Martian , with art by Bill Titcombe; and Burke's Law , with art by Paul Trevillion . Issue #21 of TV Century 21 saw the debut strip of Special Agent 21 , i.e. Brent Cleever of
10858-455: The public. Wordless novels are books which use sequences of captionless images to deliver a narrative. "Comics ... are sometimes four-legged and sometimes two-legged and sometimes fly and sometimes don't ... to employ a metaphor as mixed as the medium itself, defining comics entails cutting a Gordian-knotted enigma wrapped in a mystery ..." Similar to the problems of defining literature and film, no consensus has been reached on
10980-470: The remaining City Magazines titles. In the summer of 1969, Gerry Anderson's Century 21 Productions had become financially over-stretched. Within a few months, the company had disbanded its three warehouse-sized studios on the Slough Trading Estate . In June 1969 the entire staff of Century 21 Publications were given a month's notice. A small nucleus of staff from the disbanded division were taken on by Matthews at Martspress/City Magazines. City Magazines lost
11102-618: The satirical and taboo-breaking Hara-Kiri defied censorship laws in the countercultural spirit that led to the May 1968 events . Frustration with censorship and editorial interference led to a group of Pilote cartoonists to found the adults-only L'Écho des savanes in 1972. Adult-oriented and experimental comics flourished in the 1970s, such as in the experimental science fiction of Mœbius and others in Métal hurlant , even mainstream publishers took to publishing prestige-format adult comics . From
11224-562: The study of comics. David Carrier's The Aesthetics of Comics (2000) was the first full-length treatment of comics from a philosophical perspective. Prominent American attempts at definitions of comics include Eisner's, McCloud's, and Harvey's. Eisner described what he called " sequential art " as "the arrangement of pictures or images and words to narrate a story or dramatize an idea"; Scott McCloud defined comics as "juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in
11346-488: The success in 1907 of Bud Fisher 's Mutt and Jeff . In Britain, the Amalgamated Press established a popular style of a sequence of images with text beneath them, including Illustrated Chips and Comic Cuts . Humour strips predominated at first, and in the 1920s and 1930s strips with continuing stories in genres such as adventure and drama also became popular. Thin periodicals called comic books appeared in
11468-586: The success of TV Century 21 , City Magazines began publishing a number of related annuals and specials, two of them featuring Stingray . The first Thunderbirds annual was published in 1966, with a new one appearing each year until 1972. City Magazines also published the first TV Century 21 Annual in 1966, eventually putting out five such annuals (with the last one appearing in 1970). A second Stingray Annual appeared in 1966, and two more TV Century 21 seasonal specials in 1966 and 1967. The first Captain Scarlet annual debuted in 1967; City Magazines published
11590-618: The superhero strips Spider-Man and the Silver Surfer , the Western strips Ghost Rider and the Ringo Kid , and the 1950s humour strip Homer the Happy Ghost – lasted through TV21 's final issue. At this point, other than Star Trek , the publication called TV21 had no more strips based on television properties. In the comic's last few months, as other strips dropped away, new ones joined
11712-459: The tagline, "The modern young woman's magazine." In 1966, with issue #352, Boyfriend was merged with another City Magazines title, Trend , to become Trend and Boyfriend , and then, shortly thereafter, Boyfriend and Trend (the "Boyfriend" in the title being much smaller than the word "Trend"). The magazine's tagline at this point was, "Setting the pace for the girl with go!" The magazine lasted until issue #428, 9 September 1967, when it merged with
11834-399: The term "Ninth Art" was coined, as comics began to attract public and academic attention as an artform. A group including René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo founded the magazine Pilote in 1959 to give artists greater freedom over their work. Goscinny and Uderzo's The Adventures of Asterix appeared in it and went on to become the best-selling French-language comics series. From 1960,
11956-428: The timing and pacing of the narrative. The contents of a panel may be asynchronous, with events depicted in the same image not necessarily occurring at the same time. Text is frequently incorporated into comics via speech balloons , captions, and sound effects. Speech balloons indicate dialogue (or thought, in the case of thought balloons ), with tails pointing at their respective speakers. Captions can give voice to
12078-459: The title Express Weekly from Beaverbrook Newspapers and renaming it TV Express Weekly . The experiment only lasted until 1962, however, when TV Express was merged into Polystyle Publications ' TV Comic . From 1965 to 1970, City Magazines partnered with Gerry Anderson 's Century 21 Productions to produce weekly comics based on Anderson's Supermarionation properties. The Century 21 Productions division Century 21 Publications provided
12200-428: The title changed publisher-name from City Magazines to IPC Magazines. TV21 ceased publication in late September 1971 (issue #105), following its merger with IPC Magazines ' Valiant and Smash! to become Valiant and TV21 . Altogether, the title published 347 issues from 23 January 1965 to 25 September 1971 (242 issues before the merger with Joe 90 and an additional 105 issues thereafter). In late 1965, with
12322-417: The title was acquired by Hayward .) Yogi Bear's Own Weekly ran 75 issues from 1962 to 1964, also publishing a number of specials and seasonal extras. The company's first (and longest-running) title, TV Century 21 , aimed at teenage boys, debuted on 23 January 1965; featured strips included Stingray , Supercar , Fireball XL5 , and the aristocratic Lady Penelope from Thunderbirds . The rest of
12444-600: The trend towards a shrinking print market. Japanese comics and cartooning ( manga ), have a history that has been seen as far back as the anthropomorphic characters in the 12th-to-13th-century Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga , 17th-century toba-e and kibyōshi picture books, and woodblock prints such as ukiyo-e which were popular between the 17th and 20th centuries. The kibyōshi contained examples of sequential images, movement lines, and sound effects. Illustrated magazines for Western expatriates introduced Western-style satirical cartoons to Japan in
12566-529: The use of speech balloons in European comics, after which Franco-Belgian comics began to dominate. The Adventures of Tintin , with its signature clear line style, was first serialized in newspaper comics supplements beginning in 1929, and became an icon of Franco-Belgian comics. Following the success of Le Journal de Mickey (est. 1934), dedicated comics magazines like Spirou (est. 1938) and Tintin (1946–1993), and full-colour comic albums became
12688-539: The viewer", a strictly formal definition which detached comics from its historical and cultural trappings. R. C. Harvey defined comics as "pictorial narratives or expositions in which words (often lettered into the picture area within speech balloons) usually contribute to the meaning of the pictures and vice versa". Each definition has had its detractors. Harvey saw McCloud's definition as excluding single-panel cartoons, and objected to McCloud's de-emphasizing verbal elements, insisting "the essential characteristic of comics
12810-424: The work of a single creator, the labour of making them is frequently divided between a number of specialists. There may be separate writers and artists , and artists may specialize in parts of the artwork such as characters or backgrounds, as is common in Japan. Particularly in American superhero comic books, the art may be divided between a penciller , who lays out the artwork in pencil; an inker , who finishes
12932-489: The year 2067 about fictional TV Century 21 investigative reporter Pete Tracker, who learns about the secretive organization Spectrum; the strip was used to promote the upcoming Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons TV series (and the accompanying comic strip). The first new TV series adaptation to appear in a while, Sgt. Bilko , debuted in issue #139 (16 Sep 1967). The character of the "indestructible" Captain Scarlet ,
13054-424: The year, merging into TV Tornado in September 1967, while TV Tornado merged into TV21 in September 1968. Leonard Matthews , a longtime editor at Amalgamated Press and its successor Fleetway Publications , seems to have taken over City Magazines in early 1969. Along with Alf Wallace, another former editor at Fleetway Odhams Press , Matthews opened Martspress , which took over the packaging and publishing of
13176-405: The years 1968, 1969, and 1970. After the company's success with weekly comics aimed at teenagers, Century 21 Publications' third ongoing title, Candy , was a "nursery-type" magazine marketed to younger children. Launched mid-January 1967, the stars of the title were Anderson's puppet characters Candy and Andy (the female one being the magazine's namesake). Candy and Andy had originally been part of
13298-447: The years following World War II, while comic book sales continued to increase as other genres proliferated, such as romance , westerns , crime , horror , and humour. Following a sales peak in the early 1950s, the content of comic books (particularly crime and horror) was subjected to scrutiny from parent groups and government agencies, which culminated in Senate hearings that led to
13420-437: Was Punch , which popularized the term cartoon for its humorous caricatures. On occasion the cartoons in these magazines appeared in sequences; the character Ally Sloper featured in the earliest serialized comic strip when the character began to feature in its own weekly magazine in 1884. American comics developed out of such magazines as Puck , Judge , and Life . The success of illustrated humour supplements in
13542-418: Was Seiki Hosokibara's Nihon Manga-Shi in 1924. Early post-war Japanese criticism was mostly of a left-wing political nature until the 1986 publication of Tomofusa Kure's Modern Manga: The Complete Picture , which de-emphasized politics in favour of formal aspects, such as structure and a "grammar" of comics. The field of manga studies increased rapidly, with numerous books on the subject appearing in
13664-409: Was a traditional strip comic, TV Century 21 was conceived as a newspaper for children with a front-page containing " Stop press "-style news items and photographs. The majority of the strips in TV Century 21 were set in the same shared future history . Even strips without a related TV series tied into it; for example, Special Agent 21 was set in the relative "past" and depicted the formation of
13786-402: Was adapted into a City Magazines spinoff comic, titled Joe 90 Top Secret . The new comic did not endure, however, lasting only 34 issues before it was merged with TV21 and Tornado (According to British cartoonist and comics historian Lew Stringer , "... Joe 90 was selling better than TV21 but lost out to the older title, presumably because the publisher felt that TV21 had more longevity as
13908-521: Was established in 2001 to promote comics scholarship. The publication of Frederik L. Schodt 's Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics in 1983 led to the spread of use of the word manga outside Japan to mean "Japanese comics" or "Japanese-style comics". Coulton Waugh attempted the first comprehensive history of American comics with The Comics (1947). Will Eisner's Comics and Sequential Art (1985) and Scott McCloud 's Understanding Comics (1993) were early attempts in English to formalize
14030-430: Was handled by City Magazines . Many of the leading British comic artists of the time contributed to the publication, including Frank Bellamy (who drew two-page-spread adventures for Thunderbirds ), John M. Burns , John Cooper , Jon Davis , Eric Eden , Ron and Gerry Embleton , Rab Hamilton , Don Harley , Richard E. Jennings , Mike Noble , Paul Trevillion , Ron Turner , James Watson and Keith Watson , and
14152-570: Was made until the 1970s. Pierre Fresnault-Deruelle then took a semiotics approach to the study of comics, analyzing text–image relations, page-level image relations, and image discontinuities, or what Scott McCloud later dubbed "closure". In 1987, Henri Vanlier introduced the term multicadre , or "multiframe", to refer to the comics page as a semantic unit. By the 1990s, theorists such as Benoît Peeters and Thierry Groensteen turned attention to artists' poïetic creative choices. Thierry Smolderen and Harry Morgan have held relativistic views of
14274-424: Was merged into TV21 , forming TV21 and Tornado . The Andersons' latest Supermarionation production, Joe 90 , inspired a Joe 90 comics annual in 1968, followed on 18 January 1969 with an ongoing comics series, called Joe 90 Top Secret . This publication did not endure, however, merging with TV21 and Tornado in September 1969 after only 34 issues. With the success of TV Century 21 , City Magazines published
14396-436: Was merged into IPC's long-running comics title Valiant . In January 1966, a sister publication to TV Century 21 — this time aimed at teenage age girls — was launched: Lady Penelope , which featured Frank Langford 's Lady Penelope comic strip (previously appearing in TV Century 21 ). Billing itself as "the comic for girls who love television," Lady Penelope also included strips based on popular television programs of
14518-496: Was renamed TV21 and Joe 90 , with the issue numbering reset to 1 (with a "New Series No." printed on the front cover). Reflecting City Magazines' relationship with IPC Magazines , the first issue of TV21 and Joe 90 featured an advertisement for the IPC title Smash! (which IPC had taken over from Odhams Press on 1 January 1969). The publication's name reverted to TV21 after 36 issues (the 278th overall). With issue #93 (3 July 1971),
14640-541: Was still in publication, but when it no longer held the Anderson license.) With the end of TV21 in October 1971, IPC discontinued using Marvel reprints. Marvel set up its own Marvel UK imprint, releasing The Mighty World of Marvel #1 in September 1972. However, because IPC had the means to publish and distribute Annuals, the first Marvel Annual , published in Autumn 1972, which featured early stories of Spider-Man , Conan ,
14762-520: Was taken over by Williams Publishing , the publishing imprint of Warner Communications . Similar titles published by City Magazines were the pin-up magazines Escort (1958–1971), Carnival (1965–1970), and Men Only (1965–1971). Carnival was acquired from Liverpolitan Ltd in Birkenhead , where it originated in 1955. Men Only was a publication dating back to 1935, originally published by C. Arthur Pearson Ltd and acquired by City Magazines from
14884-581: Was the fictional Eastern European nation of Bereznik, a country not part of and hostile to the World Government. It appeared most frequently in the Thunderbirds and Lady Penelope strips, usually as an antagonist . After losing the Gerry Anderson license in mid-1970, TV21 became a television comic virtually in name only, with the Star Trek strip being the lone feature still related to TV. The publication became more typical of other British comics of
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