Countdown (Polystyle Publications)
Countdown was a British comic published weekly by Polystyle Publications - ultimately, under several different titles - from early 1971 to late summer 1973. The pages in each issue were numbered in reverse order, with page 1 at the end - a gimmick which was derived from the comic's title in order to create a countdown to the number one every week.
Countdown initially featured many comic strips based on Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation TV shows which had been popular throughout the 1960s. The principle exceptions to this were the strips based on Doctor Who, which had previously been published in Polystyle's long-established title TV Comic, the Anderson's new live-action series UFO, and the Roger Moore/Tony Curtis vehicle The Persuaders!.
It was a high-quality publication, featuring full-colour art on the cover and on many of the inside pages, and was printed on coated paper. After 58 weeks, the publisher cut costs by relaunching the comic under the title TV Action, in a much cheaper format. The relaunch saw a gradual shift in emphasis away from Gerry Anderson content, with an increased focus on comic strip stories based on popular crime and adventure TV series of the era such as Hawaii Five-O, The Protectors and Alias Smith and Jones.
A notable feature of Countdown was the inclusion of nonfiction articles about current space exploration which often included a level of technical detail more typical of technical trade journals aimed at adult professionals.
Publication history
Background and development
From 1965 to 1969, the weekly British children's comic TV Century 21, 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.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
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 and Alf Wallace, who were now operating an independent studio off Fleet Street under the name of Martspress. By 1970, TV21 was heavily reliant on American Marvel Comics reprints and no longer featured any Gerry Anderson content.
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.
Printing deal
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 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 for the cost of the materials only – all machine-time was free of charge.Staff
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, Peter Levy and 54-year-old Bill Kidd, who in early 1973 died of stomach cancer. He was replaced by 19-year-old Danny Fox, a letterer who had been working on CountdownLaunch
Polystyle were uncertain as to the most effective name for the new comic, initially registering the publication – and listing it in the official indicia – as Countdown and Rocket. The first issue of Countdown 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 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.
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.
Relaunch
After 58 weeks, the publisher cut costs by relaunching the comic in a much cheaper format. From issue #59, 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.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. 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 following week, 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 these 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 short-lived TV Comic sister-title Target'' in 1978.
Title changes
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''
Annuals
- Countdown Annual 1972
- Countdown for TV Action Annual 1973
- TV Action Annual 1974
Content
''Countdown'' era
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 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.
''TV Action'' era
To capitalise on the continuing popularity of the Doctor Who strip, featuring the likeness of Jon Pertwee, 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 ActionA 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.