turnerround comic
TV Tornado Comic
Inside: Batman and Robin!
TV Tornado ...gave birth on January 14th 1966, priced only sixpence and ran for 88 issues before merging with TV21. I started collecting from issue 7 which first introduced The Green Hornet and Magnus Robot Fighter. 24 great pages of action and adventure. TV Tornado was a fantastic comic, in it's early life packed with great text stories from Bonanza, Batman and Superman.
Sadly Batman and Superman only lasted 6 issues with Bonanza's format changing to picture strip. New characters were introduced with more involvement on picture stories. The early comics also include - The Man From Uncle - Tarzan - Flash Gordon - Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea and The Phantom The Ghost Who Walks. The Phantom ran for all the 88 issues. Next came - The Saint - The Invaders - The Lone Ranger and The Mysterons, telling the creation of the Mysterons before Captain Scarlet. And there was always TV Tornado Flash Point by Ed Storm with great information and facts on TV and Film and sporting stars of the day. And some quick jokes. Here's one. Where do bats go swimming?.....Battersea.
I must mention Dan Dan The TV Man, a loony character who would do anything to be on television with disastrous results. Written and drawn by the legendary cartoon artist Dennis Gifford.
My favourites from TV Tornado are, The Phantom The Ghost Who Walks, Magnus Robot Fighter, The Saint and The Invaders.
The Phantom, a masked avenger who fights wrong and evil, living deep in the jungle at Skull Throne.
Magnus Robot Fighter, set in the future, 4000AD, as he battles the mad scientists who want to rule earth controlled by robots.
The Saint, dashing Simon Templar fights the villains, helps the police but is sometimes a thorn in their side.
The Invaders, David Vincent battles aliens from another planet in near perfect human form as he try's to convince an unbelieving world that they do exist.
The cover artwork on TV Tornado was of the best quality, concentrating on characters from the comic for early issues in multiple form. It wasn't long before just single characters were being depicted.
In the later issues, stars from TV series of the day were covered including - Stuart Whitman in Cimarron Strip - Leslie Crowther from Crackerjack - Laurence Payne from Sexton Blake, plus, sporting stars of the day, which included George Best.
After issue 37 TV Tornado incorporated with Solo comic, but there seemed to be no new characters and no difference to the comic. I must admit as a youngster of eleven I did become disillusioned with later issues of the comic, it became only 20 pages with too many adverts,and there was fewer tv characters.
If you can get early copies of TV Tornado you will be guaranteed some great stories to read. Four yearly Annuals were produced. The best by far are the first and second, larger than the rest with great stories all the way through.
