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The first Space Patrol strip, TV Comic 668Space Patrol in TV Comic Annual 1966

The TV Comic Annual 1966 appeared in the autumn of 1965. Space Patrol was coming to the end of its superb year long run in TV Comic itself, the final strip appearing in issue 719 at the end of September.

Space Patrol was represented on the cover (which usually contained characters from all the regular strips in a single illustration) with a Galasphere hovering in the sky, drawn (as with the cover of the 1965 Holiday Special) by Bill Mevin. The final stories for TV Comic were two four page full-colour strips.

The previous year, when Gerry Anderson's Supercar and Fireball XL5 had been the predominant strips, the front and rear endpapers had presented double page reproduction of colour photos from both series and ths year Space Patrol took pride of place in what may be the only colour photos to survive in print.

We reproduce them here in full, repaired and enhanced to their full glory

The first Space Patrol strip, TV Comic 668

As Network Video scanned and repaired the same images from the annual for their postcards, it has to be assumed the original colour photos and negatives are lost, perhaps forever...
Click on the images to see larger versions in our photo section


Story One: (4 pages, pages 8-11)
Written by Roberta Leigh
Drawn by Bill Mevin

The crew of Galasphere 347 are awoken from the freezer unit by an attack alarm. In defence, they disable the alien saucer and find tiny occupants from the planet Spectros. The Spectrons are at war with the Noxids and believed the Galasphere to be one of their new ships. The misunderstanding cleared up, the ships part company but then Dart and his crew are attacked by a Noxid fleet. At the last minute, a Spectron flotilla arrives to save the day.

The first Space Patrol strip, TV Comic 668

3 out of 5out of 5

Notes:
• The freezer units seen in the Galasphere are depicted as individual clear topped cabinets, as in the regular comic strip.
• The Spectron and Noxid ships are clearly based from the Earth and Astran ships seen in the ‘TV Century 21’ comic strip version of Fireball XL5, published earlier that year.
• The strong moral tone of the series is reflected in the final frame of 'one good turn deserving another'.


Story Two: (4 pages, pages 53-56)
Written by Roberta Leigh
Drawn by Bill Mevin

Galasphere 347 encounters a massive artificial planet on a collision course with Earth but when there is no response to their signals, Dart, Slim and Haggerty investigate. They find a fully automated environment devoid of intelligent life with the exception of strange wild animals. Dart discovers the control area and diverts the planet but in doing triggers a device that emits a strange energy. Only the accidental intervention of one of the wild animals saves Dart’s life and the explorers flee as the light hunts and kills the other animals. Back on the Galasphere, Haggerty theorises the fate of the original crew.

The first Space Patrol strip, TV Comic 668

3 out of 5out of 5

Notes:
• A strange, atmospheric little story that might have made an effective episode if expanded upon.
• Husky is almost entirely absent from this story, only appearing in the penultimate frame and having no dialogue.

And so the association between Space Patrol and TV Comic came to an end. However this was not the end of Space Patrol in comics, as this strip in The Beezer reveals...


(With thanks to Jean Riddler & Laurence Marcus)
Merchandise Index
Super Mag 12
TV Comic Part One
Super Mag 24
TV Comic Holiday Special
TV Comic Part Two
The Beezer Pt.1
The Beezer Pt.2
We close on the blazing sun in space before fading to a view of ringed planet Saturn. A gyroscope-like ship, enclosed in a flickering bubble of energy, speeds past us and beyond accompanied by almost musical radiophonic tones. We see it pass the Moon before spinning away to the twilight of the Earth's curved horizon... As we hear a grinding rhythmic electronic score, we see scenes of a futuristic city under a dramatic sky. Some buildings and antennae rotate, light pours from other structures as bullet-shaped and spherical vehicles move rapidly back and forth... 'This is Earth - the year 2100. New York is the headquarters of Space Patrol and men from Earth, Mars and Venus live and work there as guardians of peace. This is the story of those men, whose courage and daring make the universe safe for us all.'
We close on the blazing sun in space before fading to a view of ringed planet Saturn. A gyroscope-like ship, enclosed in a flickering bubble of energy, speeds past us and beyond accompanied by almost musical radiophonic tones. We see it pass the Moon before spinning away to the twilight of the Earth's curved horizon... As we hear a grinding rhythmic electronic score, we see scenes of a futuristic city under a dramatic sky. Some buildings and antennae rotate, light pours from other structures as bullet-shaped and spherical vehicles move rapidly back and forth... 'This is Earth - the year 2100. New York is the headquarters of Space Patrol and men from Earth, Mars and Venus live and work there as guardians of peace. This is the story of those men, whose courage and daring make the universe safe for us all.'
We close on the blazing sun in space before fading to a view of ringed planet Saturn. A gyroscope-like ship, enclosed in a flickering bubble of energy, speeds past us and beyond accompanied by almost musical radiophonic tones. We see it pass the Moon before spinning away to the twilight of the Earth's curved horizon... As we hear a grinding rhythmic electronic score, we see scenes of a futuristic city under a dramatic sky. Some buildings and antennae rotate, light pours from other structures as bullet-shaped and spherical vehicles move rapidly back and forth... 'This is Earth - the year 2100. New York is the headquarters of Space Patrol and men from Earth, Mars and Venus live and work there as guardians of peace. This is the story of those men, whose courage and daring make the universe safe for us all.'