HEAVY METAL
Vol. 1 No. 2
May 1977
HM Communications, Inc. (Harvard Lampoon, Inc.)
Editors: Sean Kelly; Valerie Marchant
Associate Editor: Julie Simmons
Cover: Moebius
Pages: 100
Cover price: $1.50
A good representation of the type of excellent art that was a part of the early years of HM. Work by Moebius, Richard Corben, Philippe Druilliet, Vaughn Bode and a number of others make every page a feast for the eyes in concept and design. This is how good comics can get, folks.
Gerry and Sylvia Anderson were the creators and producers of the children's U.K. TV series, THUNDERBIRDS, which has enjoyed cult status, along with a few of their other shows, FIREBALL XL5 and STINGRAY. It was released by ITC Entertainment (the same company that aired THE PRISONER). I remember watching it (or was it one of the other series?), so it must have made its way to the U.S. in syndication later on (it failed to originally sell to the American market).
The episodes are your basic, comic-book-type stories of heroes against villains, with the International Rescue air fleet ready to save the day by show's end. The electronic puppets and especially the scale model sets, are amazingly produced and add to the charm of the show. It's really amazing that they accomplished so many episodes.
This magazine, published in 1966 by Century 21 Publishing, was one of the over 3,000 Thunderbirds-themed products that have come out since the show was aired. It reads like a sort of "behind the scenes" of the series and includes cast and credit information. Basically, it's everything you would want to know about the Thunderbirds in a nutshell. . . or, a space capsule.
