Swinging 60s Saturday Morning Space Opera by Dave Goode

When I was a kid I would wake up early on
Saturday mornings to catch the sci-fi series

FIREBALL XL-5. The show originated in the U.K. AND was syndicated here in the U.S from 1963 to 1965. It had a catchy theme song and was set in the far-flung future of the 21st century. It was the 3rd "Supermarionation" show (the 1st was FOUR FEATHER FALLS, 2nd  SUPERCAR) produced by the husband and wife team of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and followed the Flash Gordon-like adventures of Col.Steve Zodiac and his crew Dr.Venus,Robert the Robot and Prof.Matthew Matic.

The show was hugely popular. And with it's success there came a slew of Fireball XL-5 spin-off products. One of the coolest products was a lunchbox/thermos set designed by comic book artist supreme Wally Wood. Wood was a master illustrator and his work in the space opera genre is considered some of his finest and made him perfect for this job.

There was also a one-shot comic book from Gold Key in 1964 with a way-out cover by George Wilson.* Of course in that alternative universe that sometimes runs through my mind there was a live-action FIREBALL XL-5 movie starring Steve Holland and Eva Lynd. In fact the Steve Zodiac marionette looked quite a bit like Steve Holland. And I wouldn't at all be surprised if Holland had posed for the cover of that Gold Key comic book cover.After he and Wilson had worked together to produce some other striking comic book covers.

* In Britain, a two-page black-and-white Fireball XL5 comic strip appeared in the weekly TV Comic between 1962 and 1964 before moving to the newly launched weekly TV Century 21 comic in January 1965 for another five years. The strips that appeared between 1965 and 1968 were in color only reverting to black-and-white in 1969. Four hard cover Annual books were published in Britain by Collins between 1963 and 1966 featuring color and black and white comic strip and text stories.

SPECTRUM IS GREEN by Dave Goode

When I was a kid I loved the Gerry Anderson produced television series FIREBALL XL-5. Classic space opera with a catchy theme song. But my favorite Gerry Anderson series was CAPTAIN SCARLET AND THE MYSTERONS. Set in the year 2068 the series focused on the struggle between Spectrum,a global security organization and the Mysterons of Mars. What was interesting about the series was that the Mysterons hostilities against Earth wasn't because that's what aliens do in science fiction. You know? Attack Earth.One of their cities on Mars was destroyed when Captain Black panics on Earth's first encounter with the Martians.

Captain Scarlet was Spectrum's primary agent against the Mysterons. Scarlet would acquire the Martian healing power of "retro-metabolism",giving him the ability to recover from injuries that would otherwise prove fatal. All of Spectrum's agents were given color-coded names. Aside from Captain Scarlet and Captain Black there was Captain Blue,Captain Magenta,Lt.Green and Colonel White.

The coolest thing about the series to me was the end credits that featured illustrations by Ron Embleton(1930-1988). These illustrations put Captain Scarlet in a series of cliff-hanger situations. Embleton was a noted historical illustrator as well as comic book/strip artist.

But his most famous work outside of the Captain Scarlet illustrations may have been on the Oh,Wicked Wanda feature in Penthouse magazine that he worked on from 1973 to 1980.