Thunderbirds comics are blasting off back into action! 2026 marks a new era of Thunderbirds' sequential storytelling with Hidden Dangers, our multimedia narrative that tells all-new stories from the world of International Rescue.

Two forthcoming comics releases form crucial instalments in the Hidden Dangers saga: the hardback anthology Tales of Peril and the four-issue miniseries Burnout. Both of these titles are the latest examples of Thunderbirds' extended canon in comics form, which have proved a hugely popular source of telling all manners of Thunderbirds stories across the last sixty years. Let's examine the fascinating and lengthily history of Thunderbirds in comic form!

TV Century 21 is Go

Thunderbirds' comics adventures began in January 1965 with the launch of TV Century 21; the newspaper of the future. Co-published between A.P. Films Merchandising (later Century 21 Publications) and City Magazines, this comic was designed to be an in-house publication boasting the extended adventures of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's puppet heroes. Seven months before Thunderbirds' TV debut, TV Century 21 launched with the espionage adventures of Lady Penelope and Parker, depicting their spy-fi heroism prior to them becoming agents for International Rescue. 

The pair's adventures were illustrated by Eric Eden, one of the many post-war artists who'd cut their sequential teeth illustrating comic strips for the Eagle, which TV Century 21 editor Alan Fennell unapologetically borrowed heavily from in editorial style and artistic talent for his own futuristic paper. In their year's worth of storylines, Penelope and Parker battled against a rogues gallery of Cold War-coded enemy operatives, most recognisably, the devious mechanical genius, Mr Steelman.

In January 1966, Penelope and Parker left TV21 for their adventures to continue in her ladyship's very own flagship comic, also named Lady Penelope. As a sister title to TV Century 21, Lady Penelope boasted a more swinging 60s lifestyle and pop culture emphasis. In TV21's place came Thunderbirds, by now a familiar name to households across the U.K. and the globe. Impeccably illustrated by Frank Bellamy, Thunderbirds' comics adventures catapulted the dangerous world of International Rescue to dizzying heights of life-saving heroism. Bellamy had been Fennell's first choice to illustrate the Stingray strip for the comic's launch, but Bellamy's commitments to Eagle prevented him from joining the TV21 ranks until 1966, by which time Eagle's popularity was dwindling and TV21's ascent was stratospheric.

Storyline highlights throughout Thunderbirds' TV21 era involve climate change catastrophes (Solar Danger), intense political sabotage (The Trapped Spy), commentaries on hyper-technology's impact on impoverished communities (The Revolution). Around 1967, it's believed that Fennell departed writing the strip to become the managing director of Century 21 Publishing, leaving Scott Goodall to takeover writing duties. Under Goodall's reign, Thunderbirds' pushes back on action-packed yet believable rescue scenarios in favour of outlandish supervillain characters and I.R. becoming more of a crime-fighting unit. During Goodall's tenure, International Rescue would battle mechanical polar bears, time-travelling dam-busters and treasure-seeking pirates. 

Even with these wildly inauthentic story directions, Bellamy's ever-inventive page layouts and spectacular artwork enlivens even the less effective storylines. His enthusiasm for capturing the Tracy family and the Thunderbird machines in dramatically composed angles and unpredictable panel structures, combined with his craftsman-like ease in depicting futuristic technology (and his love of explosions), enabled Thunderbirds to be a stand-out of his artistic career.

Throughout the late 1960s, a beloved revolving line-up of post-war British comics artists complimented Bellamy's dominance by illustrating a variety of standalone Thunderbirds adventures in storybooks, seasonal specials and annuals.  

Countdown to Thunderbirds

Downward fortunes of Century 21's puppet empire, with its sprawling merchandise operation, and changing editorial hands dictated the first major transformation of Thunderbirds' comic adventures. By 1969, Supermarionation's popularity had peaked and with it came the chopping down of the company's profitable if tangled merchandise empire. TV21 and Joe 90: Top Secret merged to become TV21 & Joe 90 in September 1969, bringing with it the first major reboot of Thunderbirds' comics. 

Frank Bellamy illustrated the opening story of this renewed title before celebrated IPC/Fleetway-era artist John Cooper takes up the reigns. Cooper's black-and-white and exaggerated likeness of the Tracy characters are in stark contrast to Bellamy, offering a visually striking alternative to the classically regarded TV21 strips from earlier. Storylines from this era involve space rogues, mountainous sabotages, subterranean shoot-outs and climate-destroying asteroids. TV21 & Joe 90 endured an unstably metamorphic line-up, with Thunderbirds finally exiting the comic in June 1970.

With the Andersons now firmly entrenched in live-action adult drama, 1971 not only saw the launch of UFO on TV screens, but Countdown on the newsstands. Edited by former TV Century 21 art editor, Dennis Hooper, Countdown, the self-described space-age comic, brought with it new comic strip adventures of classic Anderson marionette marvels. Outside of the long-running UFO strip, Thunderbirds was the second longest running Anderson property in the comic, running until mid-1972, when other TV action stars of the day demanded page space (The Persuaders), and TV21 strips began being recycled.

Illustrated by celebrated Dan Dare artist Don Harley, Thunderbirds' Countdown adventures bring a renewed authenticity to Thunderbirds' extended canon that's sorely missing from the later TV21 years. Harley injects a striking visual maturity into the many thrilling danger zones faced by International Rescue, involving arctic anarchy, underwater sieges, and subterranean rescues.

1990s Revivals

The 1990s saw a huge revival of Thunderbirds, Stingray, and Captain Scarlet on BBC Two, along with a less successful reshowing of Joe 90. For the first time, these series were broadcast simultaneously across the UK, no longer beholden to the ITV regional network. With returning TV21 editor Alan Fennell at the helm, all four of these series received their first ever dedicated comic book title from Fleetway Editions.

Naturally, Thunderbirds was the runaway hit. Thunderbirds the Comic launched in 1991 and ran for an impressive 66-issue run until April 1994 when it merged with Fleetway's Stingray and Captain Scarlet titles. The New Thunderbirds enabled the comic to run to 89 issues. Early issues of Thunderbirds the Comic swiftly sold out, enabled by its balance of new and classic story material. While new and older fans were given a second chance to enjoy many of the classic TV21 serials that were reprinted in the comic, other story material was included.

The first thirty issues or so feature episode adaptations, mostly those scripted by Fennell himself. From issue #34, original storylines were also featured, bringing Thunderbirds into the then modern 1990s. Returning TV21 alumni John Cooper and Malcolm Stokes, along with newer talent. Many original storylines easily scale the creative feats of the classic 1960s stories, while others, such Sunprobe Sensation and Return of the Zombites, act as sequels to classic TV episodes.

At the centre of these was The Complete Thunderbirds Serial; the grandest and most definitive attempt to offer a dramatically compelling prequel to Thunderbirds, this part comic strip/part illustrated storybook centres on Jeff Tracy's pre-International Rescue life. Across a lengthily 45 instalments, readers are presented with the total story of how through tragedy, technological ambition, and heroism, Jeff is compelled to create a rescue organisation that can respond to any disaster around the world.

These original stories lasted until issue #84, by which time reprints were becoming more reliant, including storylines featured in The Funday Times by Fennell and Page. Some of these stories also found their way into the Thunderbirds annuals of the 1990s. These 1990s comics are also fondly remembered for celebrated Gerry Anderson artist Graham Bleathman's cross-sections of classic vehicles, buildings and more from the retrofuture 21st century, each of them packed with intricate and believable mechanical details.

Despite the celebrated successes of TV21 and Thunderbirds the Comic, the honour of longest-running Thunderbirds comic goes to the title you may know the least about. In November 2000, Redan launched its own Thunderbirds title, which ran for a mightily impressive seven years - the longest of any Thunderbirds comic. While the comic avoided reprinting TV21 material in favour of original storylines, Thunderbirds (as it was simply titled) was aimed at the more juvenile end of Thunderbirds' demographic, its storylines reflecting its attitude. The comic was otherwise bulked out with toys, puzzles, pull-out posters, photo adaptations of classic TV episodes, and more detailed cutaways from Bleathman of I.R. technology.

Redan's Thunderbirds comic ran for 43 issues until mid-2003 when it was renamed Classic Thunderbirds. This lasted until issue #63 in February 2005, when the comic rebranded once more from March onwards in celebration of Thunderbirds' 40th anniversary. Thunderbirds ultimately ran until December 2007, finally ceasing publication after 89 issues.

Blast off into Hidden Dangers

Fast forward nearly 20 years, Thunderbirds is taking off into new and thrilling danger zones with the forthcoming release of Burnout and Tales of Peril from Anderson Entertainment. 

Thunderbirds: Hidden Dangers: Tales of Peril features ten brand new comic stories from a fantastic selection of writers and artists from the worlds of Doctor Who, Marvel, 2000 AD and many more. Unlike past efforts with Thunderbirds' extended canon, Tales of Peril, just like all of the Hidden Dangers entries, is designed with absolute authenticity to the source material, as is the four-issue Burnout. Throughout Tales of Peril, you'll discover exciting adventures that tie into such classic TV episodes as The Imposters and Attack of the Alligators!, psychedelic espionage, deadly infernos, rampaging arctic animals and beyond, with the Tracy family facing danger and disaster at every turn.

Writer Chris Thompson and artist Conor Flanagan present a distinctly different Thunderbirds saga with the upcoming four-issue comic series; Thunderbirds: Hidden Dangers: Burnout. In this darkly intense adventure, back-to-back rescue operations take their toll on the Tracy family, culminating in a menacing saboteur putting their deadly plan against International Rescue into motion.

Both of these titles will debut at this year's Thought Bubble Comic Festival. We'll be there on the 14th and 15th of November with copies of Tales of Peril and all four issues of Burnout for fans to enjoy, plus other publications and goodies. Both Tales of Peril and Burnout #1 will also be available to purchase from the Gerry Anderson store on November 13th. 

From newspapers of the future to multimedia narratives, Thunderbirds comics adventures continue to deliver some of International Rescue's most thrillingly dangerous missions - Thunderbirds: Hidden Dangers is definitely go!

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