Countdown (Polystyle Publications)

From 1965 to 1969, the weekly British children's comic TV Century 21 (later known as TV21), published comic book versions of the many Supermarionation TV shows created by the Century 21 Productions company of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. By mid-1969, however, TV21 was no longer paying for the license or printing any Anderson content. (TV Century 21 had originally been published by City Magazines, in partnership with Anderson's Century 21 Publishing; its final year of publication was with IPC Magazines.)

In conceiving of the new comic, and with Anderson's UFO set to debut on television in autumn of 1970, an opportunity arose to create a new, Anderson-based publication. In addition, Countdown editor Dennis Hooper and art editor Roger Perry had for several years enjoyed a close professional association with Gerry Anderson and his wife Sylvia, and therefore had intimate knowledge of the Supermarionation shows. Hooper and Perry had been employees of Century 21 Publishing between 1964 and 1968, with Hooper art editor of TV21's various spinoff magazines, including Lady Penelope and Candy, while Perry oversaw the books and the Christmas annuals. During this period, it had been natural for them to make regular visits to the parent company, Century 21 Productions (whose film studios were to the west of Greater London, near Windsor).

At the beginning of 1969, Century 21 Productions disbanded their three warehouse-sized film studios on the Slough Trading Estate, when Lew Grade took the decision to cease production of the Supermarionation shows and transfer to live action filming at ATV Elstree for the latest show, Anderson's UFO; in consequence, as of June 1969 the entire staff of Century 21 Publishing were given a month's notice. TV21, Lady Penelope and Candy struggled on for a few more months. They – together with a small nucleus of staff from the disbanded Century 21 Publishing – were taken on by Leonard Matthews[1] (ex-managing editor of Fleetway Juvenile Comics) and Alf Wallace (ex-managing editor of Eagle and Odhams' Power Comics line), who were now operating an independent studio off Fleet Street under the name of Martspress.[1] By 1970, TV21 was heavily reliant on American Marvel Comics reprints and no longer featured any Gerry Anderson content.[2]

All this being so, it was a simple matter for Polystyle to get Lew Grade's blessing and secure the appropriate franchising licenses on the discontinued puppet shows which TV-21 had recently discarded. In addition, the new magazine had easy access to a wealth of ready-made artwork from those shows, created by the best continuity strip artists of the day – artwork which had been used only once before in TV21, and was now filed away in the vaults beneath Farringdon Road, London. Although the stories had already been seen in print four or five years earlier, those readers had grown up and were assumed to be no longer reading comics. To the intended new readership of Countdown, these reprint strips would appear entirely new.

Another piece of good fortune for Polystyle arose from another company’s misfortune. In April 1950, the boys’ comic Eagle first saw the light of day on Sun Printers Ltd machines at Watford. Sun Printers had temporarily handled the job of printing Eagle in the twelve months it took printer Eric Bemrose (of Liverpool) to design and build new ten-unit rotogravure machines. By 1971, however, Sun Printers had been unable to find enough work to keep their own photogravure presses running. With Sun being already familiar with this type of comics work, a deal was struck between Sun and Polystyle to print Countdown for one calendar year (52 issues) for the cost of the materials only – all machine-time was free of charge.

The magazine had a very small in-house staff of just four. Apart from editor Dennis Hooper and art editor Roger Perry, the Countdown staff included Robin Hilborn (assistant editor, 1970–71), Peter Levy (assistant editor, 1971–73) and 54-year-old Bill Kidd (assistant art editor), who in early 1973 died of stomach cancer. He was replaced by 19-year-old Danny Fox, a letterer who had been working on Countdown's sister magazine TV Comic.[3]

Polystyle were uncertain as to the most effective name for the new comic (an uncertainty which was to lead to five name changes over its run), initially registering it as Countdown and Rocket,[4] although publishing the first nineteen issues under the title Countdown. The first issue was launched on 20 February 1971.

The expense of the high-quality paper and photogravure quality printing needed for the colour pages and photo features, however, meant a high cover price of 5p (one shilling) compared to 6d and 7d for competing IPC Magazines titles such as Valiant, Lion, and Smash!, making Countdown almost twice as expensive as any other boys' comic on the market (a fact which was addressed by the editorial in issue #1).

With issue #19 and going until issue #45, the title of the comic was amended to Countdown: The Space-Age Comic! Issues #45–56 saw the new title Countdown for TV Action!, and issues #57-58 saw the title changed to TV Action in Countdown.

TV Action #59, 1 April 1972

After 58 weeks, the publisher cut costs by relaunching the comic in a much cheaper format. From issue #59 (1 April 1972), Countdown dropped the glossy printing that had distinguished it, and switched to cheap newsprint-quality paper, also abandoning the photogravure printing that had also been a feature until then. (This entailed also switching to new printers: David Brockdorff Ltd of Walthamstow and Harlow.)[5]

The relaunch saw a shift in emphasis away from Gerry Anderson content, with the Doctor Who strip given the front page as well as two pages inside. The newly named TV Action + Countdown dropped many of the original strips from Countdown, substituting new ones based on contemporary crime and adventure television programmes: these included Hawaii Five-O, Alias Smith and Jones and Cannon (TV Series). From issue #100, the publication's title became simply TV Action, and the roster of strips expanded to include the Gerry Anderson-produced The Protectors.

The final issue, #132, was cover-dated 25 August 1973; the title officially merged with Polystyle's TV Comic, with only Doctor Who and the humorous Droopy and Dad's Army strips initially surviving the merger—ironic given that all three strips had originally featured in TV Comic before being transferred across to Countdown/TV Action. New strips based on the TV detective series Cannon would later appear in TV Comic, while several of those which had first been published in TV Action would later be reprinted in the short-lived sister-title Target in 1978.

The title was changed or amended five times in the course of the comic's run:

• Issues 1-18: Countdown
• Issues 19-45: Countdown: The Space-Age Comic!
• Issues 46-56: Countdown for TV Action!
• Issues 57-58: TV Action in Countdown
• Issues 59-100: TV Action + Countdown
• Issues 101-132: TV Action

In addition to the weekly comics, there were three annuals published (longer form, 80 page hardbacks)[6]

• Countdown Annual 1972 (published Autumn 1971)
• Countdown for TV Action Annual 1973 (published Autumn 1972)
• TV Action Annual 1974 (published Autumn 1973)

Countdown was unusual in carrying both weekly serials and complete stories, rotating the latter among the various TV programmes that it featured. Countdown featured an original strip based on the latest Anderson production, the live-action series UFO, along with reprints of strips from earlier Anderson successes like Stingray, Thunderbirds and Fireball XL5. In addition, it carried a totally original strip, Countdown, drawn by John M. Burns and including spacecraft designs from the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Countdown was distinctive for its highly-detailed nonfiction articles — five or six pages in a 24-page issue — with an emphasis on space exploration. The space articles were written by Robin Hilborn until issue #32 and Peter Levy (often writing as "Arnold Kingston" and "Peter Brosnan")[7] thereafter, with contributions from freelancers Dan Lloyd and Peter Newark. These articles included a level of technical detail more typical of technical trade journals: for example, in a 1971 issue of Countdown, the fourth installment of a series on unmanned satellites, entitled "Space Lighthouses," explained the Doppler effect and gave details of US and Soviet navigation satellite programmes.

To capitalise on the continuing popularity of the Doctor Who strip, featuring the likeness of Jon Pertwee (the actor who was then playing the Doctor on TV), that strip became the regular cover feature of TV Action. As an added inducement, the publisher had obtained a licence to include popular villains the Daleks in the strip. Hence the first relaunch issue had a colour cover featuring the Third Doctor and the Daleks. Doctor Who had an unshakeable popularity; it had emerged from, and would ultimately return to, the pages of TV Action's sister publication, TV Comic.

A comics version of the action-comedy series The Persuaders! debuted in issue #35 of Countdown, and this continued into the TV Action era, alongside Hawaii Five-0, Tightrope, Cannon, and other contemporary TV series.

Art editor Roger Perry was often present at filmings of Doctor Who, and finding a suitable picture from the files to go with a feature written about the recording was easy, and also gave the magazine a feeling of greater flexibility. Additional "filler pages" typically took the form of a competition (giving away items such as Airfix construction kits), or something quick and easy to write such as a hastily penned "profile" by Peter Levy.

One of these last-minute filler pages had come about after Perry needed to attend a funeral in Stuttgart. Several months earlier, on a particularly blustery day in late March 1972, Perry had driven down to Pegwell Bay in East Kent, taking with him science writer Dan Lloyd, who from 1959 through to 1968 had been Eagle magazine's chief sub-editor. It had been Lloyd's plan to create an in-depth feature on hovercraft but at Pegwell Bay, gale-force winds had prevented the hovercraft from flying. "Hoverlloyd" had been very cautious, as earlier that same month – on 4 March 1972 – an SR.N6 traveling from Ryde, Isle of Wight, to Portsmouth had overturned in similar winds on the Solent, killing five of the 27 passengers. The freak accident had happened just 400 yards off Southsea beach. To compensate for their disappointment, Lloyd's press officer suggested that when they next were in the vicinity, Lloyd and Perry would be most welcome to be given a free ride over to France.

Perry telephoned Lloyd's press officer and was immediately invited to the launching of the company's third SR.N4 craft. The launching would be blessed by the inventor of the hovercraft, Sir Christopher Cockerell, CBE. Taking assistant art editor Bill Kidd along as staff photographer, Perry found he had enough material to create the first in a long line of The Man From TV Action features.

This was not the first time that Perry had been involved in this type of informative journalism. In 1961, while employed as a designer on Eagle, Perry's image had been used in a weekly continuity strip called The Roving Reporter. Although Perry never actually left the confines of his office, the illustrations created, by (amongst others) Countdown artists John M. Burns and Eric Kincaid (better known for his Toad of Toad Hall and Riverbank Tales), gave the impression that Perry (a.k.a. Larry Line) was always out and about somewhere in the ever-expanding world.

The strips, many of which were reprinted from TV21, included:

• Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
• Countdown – the eponymous "Countdown" strip
• Dastardly and Muttley
• Doctor Who
• Fireball XL5
• Joe 90
• Lady Penelope
• The Persuaders! — debuted in issue #35
• The Secret Service
• Stingray
• Thunderbirds
• UFO
• Zero-X

• Alias Smith and Jones
• Autocat and Motormouse
• Cannon
• Dad's Army
• Doctor Who
• Droopy
• Hawaii Five-O
• Mission Impossible
• The Protectors
• Tightrope