Showing posts with label Space: 1999. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Space: 1999. Show all posts

Sunday, October 19, 2025

It's the 50th Anniversary of Space: 1999

Along with the undeniably-kool Halloween horror stuff our various RetroBlogs are running this October...

...we're also presenting the various graphic versions of the pilot episode, "Breakaway", that launched the series half-a-century ago in 1975 on Secret Sanctum of Captain Video!
Power Records/Peter Pan Read-Along Album
"Breakaway"
A 20-page comic book story accompanied by a 45rpm record featuring a full cast presentation in the style of old time radio dramas along with music and SFX!
Note: It's not the actual TV cast, music and SFX, but Power Records' in-house ensemble!
Scripter is unknown, and the art is by Neal Adams' Continuity Associates, who "packaged" the graphics for almost all the Power Records albums.
In this case, the artists included Rich Buckler, Dick Giordano, Russ Heath, and Terry Austin!
Charlton Magazines
"Last Moonrise"
Five-page b/w magazine adaptation by writer Nick Cuti and artist Gray Morrow, who apparently served as Lead Artist/Art Director for Space: 1999 licensing, since his art was used on other products like t-shirts, lunchboxes, etc.
In particular, the cover art for #1 (above) was also used for print ads in magazines (including TV Guide) to promote the show's debut!
Trivia: For an unknown reason, though most actors' likenesses were used in the American comics, actor Prentis (mustachioed Main Mission Controller Paul Morrow) Hancock's likeness couldn't be used, so all the American stories featuring Paul used artist Gray Morrow's face as the character's visage!

Charlton Comics
"Moonless Night"
Another 5-pager, also written by Nick Cuti, and illustrated by Joe Staton, this time for the color comic book.
This Wednesday:
The Never-Seen-in-America Illustrated Short Story Adaptation of "Breakaway" from the 1975 British Space: 1999 Annual!
Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Buy...
Paid Link

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Gerry Anderson (1929-2012)

Supercar
Stingray
Thunderbirds
Captain Scarlet
UFO
Space: 1999
That's just a part of the universe Gerry Anderson created for sci-fi/fantasy fans.
Rest in peace.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Space: 1999 Returns to Comics!

One of the announcements at this weekend's WonderCon features...
...the first of a series of new graphic novels and comics from Archaia Entertainment.
We've been presenting the 1970s comics (both American and British) at our "brother" blog, Secret Sanctum of Captain Video™, and will continue to do so in advance of these new adventures.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

This Date in History: September 13, 1999

The Moon was blown out of orbit!
Click on art to enlarge!
We have the proof right HERE, on our "brother blog" Secret Sanctum of Captain Video™!
Learn the truth!
See what the government has been keeping from you!
Images!
Audio Files!
The Truth is Indisputable!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Trent, Kelly Robinson, Bill Maxwell...they were ALL Robert Culp!


One of the underappreciated talents of the genre, actor / writer / director Robert Culp, passed away.

Best known for his genre work, he made three appearances (more than any other lead actor) on the original Outer Limits, "Architects of Fear", "Demon with a Glass Hand"*, and  "Corpus Earthling".
He even played the villain in the 1st season Man From U.N.C.L.E. ep "The Shark Affair"!


His greatest success came on the tv series I Spy, one of the many secret agent shows of the 1960s, but one with a distinctive twist...it co-starred a Black actor as an equal part of the lead duo!
Bill Cosby's Alexander Scott posed as "trainer" to Culp's "pro tennis player" Kelly Robinson, but the pair were equals in every way, including fighting abilities and opportunities for romantic entaglements, though Scott was the better-educated of the two, and Robinson was more experienced at espionage work.
Both Culp and Cosby liked improvising their wise-cracking dialogue, and, after doing a couple of takes as scripted, usually did one or two off the tops of their heads, with the resulting episode being a combination of takes.
Culp and Cosby were both nominated for Emmys as Lead Actor in all three years, with Cosby winning each time.
Culp was also Emmy-nominated for one of the seven episodes he wrote. (Culp insisted on no improv when filming those episodes!)
Like most 60s shows, there was both a reunion tv-movie I Spy Returns, and an awful updated movie version I Spy with Eddie Murphy as Kelly Robinson.
There were eight original novels (no novelizations of episodes like Star Trek) and a comic book. (Remember, there were no videotape or dvds of the show!)

After  I Spy, Culp did various tv guest-star roles as well as both starring and supporting roles in feature films, most notably Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice.

He was the first choice for Commander John Koenig on Space: 1999, but when he insisted on the opportunity to write and direct as well, producer Gerry Anderson went with Martin Landau.

He returned to genre tv in the early 1980s as old-style FBI agent Bill Maxwell in The Greatest American Hero (which,like I Spy, ran three years), and it's spin-off pilot The Greatest American Heroine.
Robert Martin Culp
August 16, 1930 – March 24, 2010

A special tribute treat: The pop-culture spy blog Mister 8 provides the I Spy comic story "The Missing Man", while the Gold Key Comics blog samples the I Spy comic "A Deadly Friend".

*There were plans by "Demon with a Glass Hand" writer Harlan Ellison to use Trent (again played by Culp) in an episode of Babylon 5 (which Ellison was serving as a creative consultant on), but they never came to fruition.