Stingray Comic Anthology: Tales From The Depths Volume One (book review).
It’s remarkable that 60 years have passed since the TV series ‘Stingray’ made its dramatic debut. Naturally, the UK broadcasted it in black and white, as we hadn’t transitioned to colour for another five years. Lew Grade was thinking of the American market and had ‘Stingray’ recorded in colour. Even so, it was a must-watch show on TV on a Tuesday afternoon. At my young age, I didn’t fully understand Marina and Atlanta Shore’s romantic attachment to Troy Tempest and his navigator, Phones, who was left without a girlfriend. It was only with the first ‘Stingray Annual’ that we discovered Phone’s actual name to be George Sheridan, although no one ever called him that, even off duty on TV. Oddly, considering all the, shall we say, ‘fishy’ names the other Terreaineans are given, Phones does seem to be the odd one out.
When it came to the comicbook strip in ‘TV Century 21’, there was a lot more latitude for Ron Embleton to show them both in Stingray, using monocopters and the aquasprites from the sides of the vessel. For a youngster such as myself, the comicbook strip provided the opportunity to see both in color and with color stills interspersed with the early stories. The strip’s quality and continuity sparked my imagination just as much as the work on ‘Fireball XL5’. If you missed them, check out the Anderson Anthology.
This is a heavy book that comes in its own special box, and I must admit that I laughed with glee when I saw it.
The first three stories flow sequentially, establishing a sense of continuity while successfully exploring diverse locations. The first appearance of the Sidewinder from Thunderbirds, now known as the Jungle Cat, demonstrates how far the next series had progressed in terms of its design. As an interesting comparison, this Jungle Cat must have been much larger, as it was capable of carrying a Stingray in its hold to a lake.
Occasionally, there is an eyebrow raised, like when Troy wants Marina to translate an underseas language for him. Given that she is mute, one may wonder how she manages to communicate effectively. The TV version doesn’t reveal whether she can write or even be literate until a later story, primarily because the communication barriers were never broken. She wasn’t unintelligent; she was simply lacking in literacy. You can’t help but wonder if she would have mastered sign language if the series hadn’t used puppets. She was always mysterious.
At the end of the third story, Tempest mentions the Kaplan assassination, and we don’t see any of the pages here. I imagine this book would have been even larger if they had included the entire story here, but if you want to maintain continuity, you can pull out your copy of the ‘Fireball XL5 Comic Anthology’ to reread.
The realistic depiction of storylines was one of the strengths of the original TV21 comicstrips. The decision to use a court martial to punish Commander Shore for dereliction of duty was made without hesitation, despite the possibility of having more WASP personnel available as stand-ins. Nobody mentions other submarines like Stingray either. While we don’t display all the strips here, I remember one of the later ones mentioning the existence of other submarines with similar designs and names.
A surprising reminder from 1966 is that ecological issues, such as the melting of icecaps in ‘The Weather Mystery’, still hold relevance today. Granted, this time it was an alien robot intervention, but the results would have been the same. Science fiction has always explored global disasters as a theme, so why shouldn’t comic strips follow suit? Incidentally, this is the first story in which Tempest addresses Phones by his surname, eliciting an angry response.
The original stories hold up remarkably well over a range of artists. However, this does not imply that they are flawless, particularly in the later black-and-white versions where the likenesses significantly diminish. Only Commander Shore maintains his likeness throughout the series. Many years ago, when I was having a talk with some of the artists who worked on Look-In’s comicstrips, they commented that caricature was easy with well-defined features. When it came to character usage, Marina fared better than Atlanta, and Lt. Fisher only appeared a few times. I do wonder about the several thousand feet, not fathoms, that Stingray dived to, but the depths were likely accurate for the most part. Similar to ‘Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea’, they took certain liberties with visibility underwater, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to see anything happening.
Objectively, in one of the latter stories, one of the seagoing species was commenting to Titan that the oceans covered three-quarters of the Earth, and it was the Terreaineans who had invaded their territory. In that regard, he certainly makes a valid point, and it’s unfortunate that we didn’t witness a greater representation of peaceful species, such as those Marina belongs to. Don’t forget the original TV series and these comicstrips were made 60-odd years ago and how much things have changed since then.
‘The Stingray Hi-Jack Mission’ appears to be lacking a few pages, as it fails to explain the rescue of Tempest and Phones from the sea.
Titan and X20 don’t appear in all stories, but that was also true of the TV series. Variety always worked. As a comic strip, ‘Stingray’ possessed a greater range of effects compared to its TV counterpart, which contributed to its success and extended longevity.
I’ve carefully avoided the multi-part, more contemporary story and the final one in this book. When you compare the art to Embleton, it comes over as second best. The colouring on the first reminds me of a file mismanagement that was done in the ‘Thunderbirds Are Go’ comic a few years back, where it should have been converted to the right format for the printing press colours and had poor registration. Regardless of its origin, it was reproduced exactly as it appeared.
If there is a major criticism with the book design is the size of the book and Stingray was originally printed as a two-page expanse, than some of the art is lost in the fold of the book. Honestly, the only way to overcome this issue is to reduce the number of pages, and since this is the first volume, it is reasonable to assume that volume two will follow suit in terms of length. Whether or not stitched binding would have sorted that out is debatable. With ‘The Flying Fish Mystery’, the comicstrip went back to the two-page format. I would need to compare this to the other ‘TV21’ strips, but from what I recall, they all maintained the two-page layout. It might simply be down to artist preference. The Sea-Leopard was undoubtedly one of the finest aircraft carriers ever designed, yet one must question the location of the shipyard in Marineville, which required four powerful helicopters to transport it to the sea. One thing I will say is that the TV series is so ingrained now that I was reading the dialogue with the right voices. I still have a strong affinity for X20, which is not surprising given that he was modeled after Peter Lorre.
There is expected to be a second volume, particularly considering that the final new story ended midway. I anticipate that it will include content from the ‘Stingray Annuals’, as well as the cutaways for Marineville, the Terror Fish, and character bios. I hope someone is considering reprinting “The Adventures of Marina” from “Lady Penelope Comic,” as it’s an important piece of mythology that has never been reprinted, showing how she and her father could no longer speak. However, I believe I might make an exception for ‘The Adventures of Oink’. Similarly, the introduction heavily mentions the ‘Agent 21’ strip, which deserves its own book. Who wouldn’t want a briefcase with his toy samples?
Despite my criticisms, if you’re an Anderson fan, you’ve likely already purchased this book. Previous reprints of the Embleton strips have not included the later strips, making this edition essential from a comprehensive perspective. Now, where are those launch tubes? I’m about to launch Stingray.
GF Willmetts
October 2024
(pub: Anderson Entertainment, 2024. 265 page large hardback graphic novel. Price: £37.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-914522-71-0)
check out websites: www.gerryanderson.com and https://shop.gerryanderson.com/products/stingray-comic-anthology-volume-one-tales-from-the-depths
