Escape from Aquatraz Volume 3 of the new series

John Freeman kindly passed on the following information from Marcus Hearn, which I hope he won't me quoting:

We're putting the finishing touches to Volume 3 now. I don't have a press release but I've attached the contents page and the jacket so that should give you what you need. It's restored to the same standard as the first two volumes and approx half the pages are scanned from original artwork.

cheers,

Marcus

The latest volume contains the following stories drawn by Bellamy:
ATOMIC RUNAWAY #192-196
ATOLL OF DOOM #197-202
THE MANAFU TRENCH #239-242

The first was reprinted once in the 1990s Thunderbirds comic (numbers 25-27 for those completists) as "Nuclear threat" and if you are Dutch in TV2000 # 1 - 3, 1969
The second was also reprinted once in the same Thunderbirds comic (#25-26) as "Hawaiian lobster menace"
And lastly Thunderbirds #42-45 had the only reprinting of the story titled "Danger in the deep".

I, for one, will be really pleased to see these stories again - especially if they contain a lot of the original artwork. The first two volumes (mentioned here) are absolutely gorgeous. Paul Holder and I spent an evening looking at each page and deciding how 1) the original artwork did not get reproduced so well in photogravure (surely the best there was at that time) and 2) deciding which pages were from the originals and which weren't. The reproduction in the first 2 volumes is so crystal clear that I couldn't believe how muddied some of the original TV21s were!

REPRINT: Century 21 Volumes 1 and 2

Chris Bentley and friends are to be congratulated for producing an absolutely gorgeous work. This year we have seen so much Bellamy work reprinted, but the reproduction on this is amazing. The original art from the archives has been used where possible. Some of the art will appear publicly for the first time ever as it was meant to be seen. Even photogravure cannot do some of this justice and the modern digital process has been used to great benefit.

Both volumes are available via the usual sources, but if money is no object, go to the publisher's website and order a hardback with Gerry Anderson's autograph. (You'll need to scroll down the page a bit)



The cover reproductions are nice too and some of the black and white Noble work inside has a positive shine on it. Below is the page taken from Reynolds and Hearn's website but obviously a scan of a website graphic based on original art isn't doing Bellamy any justice. Trust me on this one, the two hardbacks are well worth the money even if you still have the original TV21s.


Lastly, just for fun, I've copied what was the provisional cover for one of these two books, but was not used. This was originally published in the Thunderbirds Poster Magazine No.3, I think.


Lastly which of the Bellamy strips are reprinted?

Volume 1 reprints Thunderbirds: Chain reaction and Thunderbirds: The Devil's crag as well as 2 Captain Scarlet covers #185 (3/08/68) & #186 (10/03/68). The Thunderbirds stories come from TV21 #227-234, #184-187

Volume 2 reprints Thunderbirds: Operation Depthprobe and Thunderbirds: Secret of the iceberg from TV21 #105-109, #155-161

All this information has been added to the website