When I first saw the new REDAN Thunderbirds comic way back in 2000, I thought to myself, "no way is this going to last". Boy, was I wrong. As the comic sails majestically past the issue 50 landmark, I thought I'd highlight some information about this little wonder.

As I sit here on March 4th (late at night as usual), I stare in stunned admiration at issue 51 of the Thunderbirds comic from Redan. Don't get me wrong here, this comic takes about 15 seconds to go through. It was, somewhat surprisingly, aimed at pre-school children, young even by the standards of Anderson fare.

In the newsagent, this rubs shoulders with the likes of Noddy, Barney and other CRAP. The artwork is highly simplistic, yet the magazine continues. Astonishingly, each and every issue comes with some sort of Thunderbirds-themed free gift attached to the front. This issue its a yellow plastic "water game" that looks more than a little like Thunderbird 5 and inside the main area is a Thunderbird 4 along with a bunch of plastic hoops and nails. Like I'm ever going to try it out.

The magazine has seen a number of transitions, having moved from fortnightly to monthly and changing the name from "Thunderbirds" to "Classic Thunderbirds" (you may roll your eyes). 32 pages!! I know what you want to know: "Do they reprint the old comics?" Nope! It's all new material each month! Each page is full colour. Well, alright there is a section with screen grabs. So lets take a look through this issue:

Cover and strip

The cover is new artwork (simplified of course) showing TBs 1 and 2 flying over a crack in the snow down which a tracked vehicle appears to be trapped. Oh no. After the conents, we have 5 page comic strip "Icy Escapades" featuring the Mole, Recovery vehicle and the transmitter truck. For those who love cutting up comics (and who hasn't cut up a TV21 in the past) there is a page with Thundebirds bookmarks ready to be cut out, lucky you. Next up is a black and white version of the cover art, ready for you to colour in. This is followed by part 1 of a 6 piece "giant" poster of thunderbird 2. Artwork seems slightly better. The artist who does the artwork has a page about his work on the Thunderbirds comic. A Thunderbirds fan has posted some pages with artwork from the early editions of the comic.

A cutaway!

Can there be more? Of course! Each issue comes with a 2 page foldout cutaway by Graham Bleathman. They started out the comic by recycling his art from the Thunderbirds cutaways book, but now they have him do the artwork for each issue. To save money, they have him do the artwork in black and white and then staff at Redan do the colouring. Well, the comic is only 1.85. Graham has a page on his site where he talks about his work for Redan and even lists the illustrations he has done since the beginning.

Think of the children

Over each cutaway is a 8 page section of "edutainment" content like quizzes, simple puzzles and mazes. Hours of fun for kids of ALL ages. If you feel lucky, you can complete the "mission", mail it to Redan and perhaps win a set of fridge magnets! What are you waiting for? After an ad for another magazine (Fun to learn favourites featuring Thunderbirds), we come to a surprise. Why, it's "The Imposters" in photo form spread over 6 pages! This is a great way to relive the episodes and features excellent quality frame grabs as well as some narrative to explain the plot. Why is this a surprise? Well, the comic started out at issue 1 with the photo story to "Trapped in the sky". We are now at issue 51. Each issue has featured a photo story. Yup, we're recycling the SAME content. This is probably why they aim the comic at pre-schoolers. They did add a small twist, there is now a "debrief" quiz on the show. I hope I get the answers right.

Closing it out

Closing out the issue is the obligatory letters page. We get to see really really bad artwork, usually done in crayon. They never print my letters. I guess I need to stop ending every letter in motherf***er. The back of each issue shows a ton of merchandise from Newcron. They have radio controlled Thunderbird 2,4 and Fab 1. I want them. Also they have a Thunderbirds uniform and a Captain Scarlet quilt cover set. By the way, I have not really sent any rude letters to Redan, I just wanted to see if you were paying attention.

The comic may not be the greatest, but at least they are still producing it and it has outlived many other Anderson themed publications. On the whole, they seem to be making an effort to produce new material rather than recycle and the price is reasonable. Especially when compared to some of the other Thunderbirds publications making the rounds. While it may not have pride of place in your collection, its worth checking out. Keep 'em coming Redan! I wish Redan had a web site, then I could put a link to it. But they don't. Probably costs too much.

For those interested in obtaining back issues, Ralph Titterton in the UK has spare copies from the early years available. See his ad in the Trade Zone here