Thunderbirds Comic Anthology Volume 2 (graphic novel review).
This second volume of Thunderbirds features 21 stories, all under the hand of artist Frank Bellamy. Unlike Mike Noble and Ron Embleton, who strove to combine their artwork into painting, Bellamy’s work was essentially coloured inkwork and heavily design-orientated across the double pages rather than regular panel work. As such, it allowed more room to show the various Thunderbirds vehicles, even if TB1 and TB2 were often using their main boosters to show motion. I should point out that, after some of the opening stories, Bellamy changes from regular double-page spreads, so you only have the problem of the centre crease a few times. The writing started off with Alan Fennell and then Scott Goodall took over, although exactly where is not defined.
I do agree, to some extent, with the opening uncredited article that the TV and comic-strip versions diverged from each other. Take the second story, ‘Tracy Island Exposed’, where the Hood’s plan is to damage the Thunderbirds hangar and reveal the vehicles. Firstly, it is hardly as if Tracy Island itself was secret, or that the family would never have visitors. It was more a question of where the vehicles were hidden. I doubt if anyone would have noticed them. Secondly, where was the protocol of them never being photographed if Jeff Tracy had a wooden mock-up of TB2 on display for a celebration of International Rescue? Tracy Island’s location might be known, but it is still off the beaten track to avoid the Thunderbirds’ launchings being seen, let alone to have tourists wandering about.
Do we really want to explore TB1 and TB2 being put into orbit near TB5 to keep them out of the way, given that neither is really space-worthy? Why wasn’t TB3 also sent away, come to that? An odd point generally here is Alan Tracy practically becoming a secondary, often missing character in preference to Gordon and John. When I was young, I let it slide to some extent because this was only for one story, but my experience as a writer and reviewer does make it rather too easy to pick holes in it. Alan appears a couple of times, but often to fly TB3 solo rather than with Scott as co-pilot.
On some positive notes, the story ‘The Revolution’, which has International Rescue involved in a country’s politics and possible revolution, does allow us to see how they had to cope with, shall we say, less well-off countries in order to enable rescues. This would have been a lot harder to put across on television, but with TV21, where its audience was growing up, it allowed some exploration without necessarily preaching about it.
I hadn’t realised ‘Brains Was Dead’ was originally done as a comic-book story. I’m beginning to wonder if it has been omitted from other releases of the Thunderbirds comic strips. My criticisms of the audio version on the Thunderbirds Blu-ray a couple of months ago still stand. The main difference between them is having Grandma Tracy on TB5 in the audio version. The article writer in his piece afterwards has similar feelings, especially as new writer Scott Goodall moves towards International Rescue sorting out crimes rather than rescues. In some respects, I can see the problem. How many different sorts of rescues can you do without things becoming boring, or without needing side-plots? Likewise, unlike television, the comic strip can have a lot more movement, and the Tracy brothers certainly do a lot more running.
Alan finally makes an appearance in the eleventh story, ‘Revolt On Jupiter’, although really it is his father’s story. Having the Solar System colonised does tend to work against the Zero-X storyline, where it took some effort to get to Mars. Do we need to discuss how fast TB3 would have to go to get to Jupiter so quickly? Am I being over-critical of a story from 1968, or merely conscious of how many factual articles TV21 ran at the time?
Of note is the serious damage done to the various Thunderbirds. TB4 had to be totally rebuilt, TB2 was rebuilt twice more than it was in ‘Terror In New York’, and even TB1 has had some damage. They were all rebuilt the same way, so presumably Brains thought he had the ultimate designs for them all.
Contrary to ‘The Time Machine’, which I’ve commented on before regarding the problems of disassembling TB4 to fit inside it twice, the next story, ‘The Zoo Ship’, still springs a surprise. There is too much of a surprise to spoil here, although you do have to wonder why Jeff Tracy leaves the main Thunderbirds hangars open all the time. I’m also a little unsure about using TB3 in Earth’s atmosphere to do anything, as it is designed for power rather than manoeuvrability.
There are various articles spread through this book on Frank Bellamy and his second writer, Scott Goodall, as well as features about TV21 and its annuals. There is a puzzle with the latter. Granted, the annual stories weren’t the best, but there is an absence of most of their covers. If there is going to be a third volume and the stories are reprinted there, then surely the article deserved to be there instead, while the cutaways of the various Thunderbirds, FAB 1, pod vehicles and non-International Rescue vehicles could have filled those pages.
I deliberately spread my reading of this book over a week. It can be very easy to get a little punch-drunk reading these stories in only a couple of sittings, and you really do need time to let them sink in. Bellamy’s art keeps the action going all the time, and we rarely see the Tracy family take any downtime. Back in the day, you would never have got any analysis like this and, with only two pages a week, you would quickly have read TV21 in a matter of an hour, as it had text information articles as well. The fact that these stories still stand up today is a testament to the quality they carried at the time. The only question now is whether there will be a volume three covering the rest of the stories.
GF Willmetts
June 2026
(pub: Anderson Entertainment, 2026. 280-page graphic novel large hardback. Price: £37.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-917142-15-1)
check out website: https://gerryanderson.com/products/thunderbirds-comic-anthology-volume-two-hardcover
