Fireball XL5 was the second of legendary Gerry Anderson's to go out under the iconic banner "Filmed In SUPERMARIONATION". Set between the years 2062 and 2063, the series told the heroic adventures of Colonel Steve Zodiac and the crew of Fireball XL5...
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A black-and-white comic strip, drawn by Neville Main, was printed in TV Comic from 1962 to 1964. TV Century 21 (later just TV21) was first published in 1965 and quickly became one of the most successful British comics of all time, achieving record sales that remain unbroken to this day. One of the reasons for this success was in no small part down to an ingenious idea that reportedly came from Gerry Anderson himself; that of presenting the comic as if it were a tabloid newspaper from one hundred years in the future, with headlines and bylines relating to the Anderson-related strips within. That in turn gave the impression that the events being reported all took place within the same fictional universe, and slowly but surely TV21 began to embrace that notion and all of the storytelling possibilities it provided. Although the comic included many strips based on non-Anderson series it was the Stingray and Fireball XL5 strips that were the mainstays of the initial issues, with Thunderbirds andCaptain Scarlet eventually joining the ranks too.
TV Century 21 was launched on 16th January 1965 (cover dated 23rd January 2063) and was edited by Alan Fennell and published by City Magazines in association with AP Films (Merchandising), a division of the company that became Century 21 Publishing from Issue 92. Originally titled "Adventure to the 21st century", this lavish publication was filled with strips from stories of the most popular forms of culture at the time. It became the best selling comic within weeks of it's initial launch. In Issue 15 to 26, an early Fireball XL5 story saw the WSP team up Troy Tempest and Lady Penelope to help track down the assassin of a visiting alien dignitary, with the story seamlessly crossing over into the instalments of Stingray and Lady Penelope.
Combining all the various Anderson series into one cohesive universe was not something that had ever really been attempted on television (and probably wouldn't have worked even if they'd tried) but somehow in the comic it made sense. If Steve Zodiac needed help tracking down underwater criminals he could call Troy Tempest and Stingray for help, and if Captain Scarlet was trapped on a rocket heading out into space who better to recover him than a fleet of Fireball XL ships? It wasn't something that happened every issue or even every story but it was a regular enough occurrence and it added an enormous amount of charm to the comic.
