Shaqui: How did you come to work in comics?
William Potter: I came to London in 1995 or 1996, hoping to find work as an artist, with a portfolio of comic art - and really there was only 2000AD to approach. I did know the editor of Sonic The Comic, and she asked me if wanted to come in as editorial help. They needed writers more than artists, because everyone wanted to be an artist. And I'd written some comic strips that I'd illustrated, so she got me to come in. And I loved that - and that's how I ended up doing what I do now. That seemed to be the only way I could get my own work published, was to commission myself! But I can only do it when there's no-one else available, or we haven't got money. I'm not allowed to pay myself to do comic strips.

Shaqui: Are you there at a sort of reduced rate, for writing and additional artwork?
William Potter: I love to write stories, so yes, when they get me to edit a comic, they also get me as a writer, and a potential artist. Certainly I've published my own drawings in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, front covers and posters - for nothing - done at weekends. I'll take a day in lieu. There isn't an opening for me in Captain Scarlet though, because I think it would be a real struggle to get someone to do artwork for the New Captain Scarlet that looked anything like the show, and that would get approval.

Shaqui: Can you tell us how John Brown Junior got the license for the New Captain Scarlet magazine?
William Potter: John Brown Junior had a relationship with GE Fabbri, as they were for many years. The children's department, as we are, used to be a separate company, and we used to do work for them before. I worked for them a lot of times on licenses like Rugrats, and I launched Mr Bean magazine, and Basil Brush. In the last year, they started to try out doing magazines, and so we got Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. And at the same time we're doing New Captain Scarlet, there's Mr Bean out, Angelina Ballerina, and Dora the Explorer we do for them. When it comes to getting the license, it'll be GE who seek it out. They'll hear about what licenses are available, and there'll almost be a bidding war, where they'll go and meet the licensees, and say 'we can offer this'. And certainly, to help their case, they had the magazines we had produced for them. So I would hope Granada saw magazines like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and thought 'they can do a good job of this', and so give it to them.


Photo: Spectrum needs this man! Will Potter goes on an army training course - and drives a tank - for the press launch of his other new magazine Skillz. Photos courtesy of Will Potter.

Shaqui: So presumably it was your success with previous licenses that led to you doing New Captain Scarlet?
William Potter: Basil Brush wasn't so successful. Mr Bean is doing well certainly. Angelina is doing really well. Turtles did okay for a while but its star faded, alas. I'm regarded as something like a launch editor, where I've also launched this console game magazine (Skillz - which launches shortly after the New Captain Scarlet magazine) as well, and quickly passed it over to someone who knows something about games. Things like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Captain Scarlet, I'm a bit more precious about, because this was more where my interest comes from - a love of comics, and the TV shows I used to watch in my youth. So I'm a little more reluctant to give up the reins of this title. But whatever happens, I shall certainly be keeping a keen eye on it to make sure they don't go astray with it, whoever takes over.

Shaqui: How far in advance did you know you would be doing the magazine?
William Potter: It would have been early summer, or the spring? In terms of lead time, I knew about it months before I needed to work on it, which gave me an opportunity to go and do some research. And we allowed ourselves a lot of lead time for the first issue, because we didn't know how long it would take to get approvals, and we needed to come up with the design. Hopefully we can roll them out now. And I'm getting as far ahead as I need to, as I can.

Shaqui: As launch editor, presumably you have total control over the format of the magazine, within the series guidelines, and one that will hopefully sell?
William Potter: I've been really fortunate to have been given a lot of freedom in terms of coming up with ideas. Often, they'll just say 'Okay, we've got twenty-eight pages - what do you think should be in it?'. And so I'll dive into the world of Captain Scarlet, I'll look at the old DVDs, I look at your website to see what has been done before, and think 'oh that's appealing, we can do that with the new show', and I'll come up with a list - a synopsis and flat plan of the first issue - to show to the publishers, Granada and the licensees. And pretty much, they said yes to everything. So then I went away and wrote the whole thing, and then I roughly laid it out. The design has changed - it's much better than I can do. I'm not a designer. But I'm really proud of it, and apart from a few bits of text on the factual feature, I wrote every word in there, though obviously the script was written for the show. So yes, there's a lot of me in there, and I like it that way. I like to have a lot of control over it, and so the original vision carries on through.

Shaqui: Was there any difficulty in trying to take the elements of the show, to make a solid magazine format from facts which are a bit spartan at the moment, for features and so on?
William Potter: Yes, but I suppose I've nagged Granada to supply me with everything they have. I go through the scripts of the show, and there's a lot more detail in them that appears on screen - names of characters, how things work, the names of certain parts of the vehicles - which I can incorporate in the magazine. By finding out that information and putting it in the magazine it will appeal to the really keen fans, who can't get that information off the website. Also, this is the first publication for the new Captain Scarlet - the books won't be out until next year, the annual's not out until next year. I've been dealing with Granada, and given them a wish list of what we would need to continue beyond about issue 4. We need more images, and more information. And they're getting it together now - they've been really busy working on the actual show, and getting the toys together. So far I'm okay. I've got enough to do the magazine, but I'll keep asking for whatever I can.

Shaqui: Did you feel there was a kind of 'pecking order' - that the magazine was less a priority than the toys?
William Potter: The Bandai toys had to be ready for the Argos catalogue being printed. I don't think there was any pecking order. They actually have been really good about seeing the whole thing working together, introducing us to licensees and inviting us to opportunities to meet Bandai, Feva, and all the companies that will be producing stuff for Captain Scarlet. We've got a list of people who are producing stuff, that we can contact and say, 'Our mag's coming out now. Would you like to place an ad, or would you like to do a competition?'. And also there will be a merchandise link on the official Captain Scarlet website where people can find out, and we can put stuff on there. So hopefully, it will all be integrated, certainly in terms of look of everything.

Photo: 'I'm not lion to you!' Well, there were no Cheetahs around... Picture courtesy of Will Potter.

Shaqui: Will there be a press launch?
William Potter: For this, no. It will be listed in some of the trade mags. Certainly Tesco and W.H. Smith know about it. Mr Bean will have an ad for it (laughs), and yes we've got a Mr Bean advert in issue 1 - certainly a trade off! I don't think you'll find many magazines are launched now where there's the budget for TV ads or anything like that. It'll just appear on the shelves, and hopefully people will see it. I mean, I'm talking to you now, I'll going to be putting stuff out on other fan sites. Not that I'm assuming a lot of our younger core readership will know about it. But hopefully, word will trickle through - a few people find it, parents, fans of the original show will find out about it and want to buy it for their kids, and get them into it.

Shaqui: Having worked on other licensed products, would you say there's a formula for what works in a tie-in magazine, or is each one different?
William Potter: There is a bit of a formula, and I must admit I am influenced by what I did on Turtles to an extent. That to be able to generate enough content, we need to make a comic strip of some kind. I know other magazines have just done written stories with pictures but as a fan of comics, I feel that's a little bit boring. There will almost certainly will be comics, jokes, puzzles, some activities to keep the kids occupied. Parents will continue buying a magazine if there is something that keeps their kids quiet for a certain amount of time. So if they're not big readers, there should at least be loads of tick boxes and drawing opportunities, and things like that in the magazine. Letters... unless you've had a letter printed they can be very boring to read. But for us, I think the kids who get their stuff printed and actually are creative, they're great to find in a magazine. The fact the series has such great gadgets and vehicles, there has to be in every issue a great looking picture of a Falcon, or a Bison, or a Rhino, with some technical data. It may mean nothing to a six year old, this technical data, but it will certainly sound very good - all these made-up armaments. You may have noticed round our office we have lots of competitors' comics out - we have a look to see what they have and see what they do. Also I looked back on the history of Gerry Anderson comics, to see if there were any other ways that we could be original. And when I put my first plan together, I was just paranoid that it wasn't interesting enough, it wasn't different enough to what had been done before. But when I passed it around, they said 'no, this is what kids will want from a comic, and expect from a comic'.

Shaqui: Not wanting to put down the source material, do you feel limited by it to any extent?
William Potter: I can look at the positive side, and say the source material is the springboard that gives me ideas of things to put in. Because it is 3D CGI stuff, it does make it a little bit tricky in terms of coming up with puzzles, and I have expressed that to Granada and asked them if they can provide me with more 2D artwork for example, that we can do some more various spot the differences or puzzles. So we're not reliant so much on screengrabs from the show, and the few style guide images of the characters, that we can make our own images and have a bit more fun with them. I should think the fact that it is so 3D CGI means that I can get away with producing a comic that is for slightly older readers than perhaps was first intended. I honestly get a little bit bored writing to a limited vocabulary, writing for something that is very simple, and full of brightly coloured pages and drawing areas. I like to do something that's got a bit more depth to it, and with a bit more information behind it. And one thing I've put in here, which I didn't put in Turtles for example, is an educational element, which is springboarded or bounced from the show - so the fact they discover the Mysterons on Mars, means we can do a feature on Mars. The Red Arrows, being an influence on the Angels, means we can do something on those. In future issues we can do things on aircraft carriers, different kinds of weapons, tanks, secret agents, things like that. So we can also teach things as well, and hopefully the education side will be a big selling point.

The biggest thing that has frustrated me, is the fact that neither the budget - nor the style of the show - meant that we could commission new comic artwork. Especially, had we been able to commission new comic art, the history of illustration of Gerry Anderson stuff means it would have to be a really good artist. I looked at those old TV21s on your site, and thought, 'God, I wish we could do a magazine like that'. In TV21, and in Eagle as well, they were so beautifully illustrated, and full of information - they were works of art. It's really hard to be able to do anything like that (now), and I wouldn't say what we've done is anything in comparison to that. But I hope that the care, attention paid to detail, and the style and design of it, has paid off and compare in some way. When I was putting the CGI images in from the DVD grabs, it made me think about those old comics, the fact that those old drawings were so realistic in a way - in fact more realistic, possibly, than the show - that maybe it sat well next to it. I'd love to have written my own stories though...

Shaqui: Are there any nods to the original series in the magazine?
William Potter: I had a good look at your website, to see what was done before, to give me ideas, and I'd seen things like the whole map of England, and considered colour-coding it so there were colours for certain... not necessarily whole areas of Britain, but areas of the magazine. But kids were not really going to know all the colours of the Captains to begin with. I even considered the newspaper sections, with a pages where it's like a fake headline. There are nods, obviously because the creators of the show are such fans, that they put the odd little thing in.

Shaqui: Have you had any feedback from other fans, such as the Spectrum Headquarters website, or Fanderson?
William Potter: Fanderson I got in touch with, because I wanted to see about giving away some free issues at 'Countdown To Disaster', so they welcomed that. And again, they're happy to receive preview images and stuff. I said I'd make myself available at the convention. I'm not doing any panels, or anything like that. I feel that's a bit weird, 'cos it's just me basically! I assume I'll get a name badge, and a big red light above my head so people can find me! I'm there for questioning. One of the reasons I was happy to do this interview was to find out what yourself were hoping for from the magazine. Knowing full well it's going to be aimed at new fans, and a younger age group... to find out what you like, and perhaps you've got some good ideas about what extra content we can include. It's a magazine... we can be flexible. Throw away some crap, and have some new stuff.

Shaqui: Would you say you're a fan of the original series?
William Potter: Yeah, definitely. As soon as I found out I was working on this, I went straight out and bought a DVD of the original series, to remind me of what scared me as a kid. That title sequence... it's like whoa! And I went straight down the Animation Art Gallery, to see the original paintings of the end titles. Is it a good enough excuse to spend £300!? (mock cry of despair) Could I persuade the publisher to treat me...?



Will has with him a complete set of final proofs which at the time (late August) are yet to be sent to Granada Ventures for approval. To mention these in detail for the preview would have given too much away, but with issue 1 already on sale and issue 2 out shortly, here is our 'overview':

Mad About Mars
William Potter: That was the hardest thing to do, to get the images, and research...
Shaqui: Because they're not automatically supplied to you?
William Potter: Of course. But then we learnt things as well. When we were writing the stuff about Mars, we didn't say the first man on Mars was Tom Metcalfe, and he arrived in 2065 or whatever. At the bottom we had a warning: 'Mysteron Mars' - something like 'this is the Captain Scarlet universe', but without it blending into or becoming fact.



Captain Scarlet Biography
William Potter: This is stuff either off the website, or it's been supplied to us. One thing I'll say, they haven't mentioned his birthday. I actually share the same birthday as Captain Scarlet - the 17th of the 12th. Different year - he's not born yet!

The Design
Shaqui: Design elements like this, were these supplied to you as part of the style guide?
William Potter: Some of them, yes. You see the website, they also include that look. Borders, patterns, things like that. We change the colours, we deviate a bit. Granada have been very sensitive about sticking where we can to those styles, because they want it to look like everything else in Captain Scarlet.

Spectrum Tech: Skybase
Shaqui: The information you have for this - is it from the website?
William Potter: Some, and other bits - like Fred, the launch robot, who isn't featured on the website - that's from reading the scripts. I checked with the Indestructible Company, and they confirmed that yes, he's nicknamed 'Fred'.
Shaqui: Are you allowed to expand on that information?
William Potter: No, I can't make stuff up. It's unfortunate there isn't an expert. I was used to, on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, be able to write to one of the editors of the comic, and he was able to supply me with extra information. But there are no experts I can ask about (New Captain Scarlet) although I'm hoping to have a bit more access to the writers and designers of the show. They might be able to give me more information for Spectrum Tech (the magazine's regular technical specification centrespread) and how things work. And I get the feeling they haven't completely decided on how everything works, so if they need it in a later episode they can have an extra button that fires a secret missile. Go on the website, and look at all the technical details, and it says 'Still Classified' (laughs).



Is Your Best Friend A Mysteron?
William Potter: This is a one of the few chances we have to inject a bit of humour, multiple choice things, silly answers... Next issue we've got like 'Are You Tough Enough To Be A Spectrum Agent?' so it's like a flow chart, with 'What does S.I.G. stand for?', y'know...

The Photostrip Adaptation
Shaqui: Interesting that you've called the first strip 'The Mysterons' (the title of the original first episode)...
William Potter: Yes, I didn't feel obliged to stick to their titles as I was splitting the story up.
Kim: Where did you get the logo (seen at the top of the first page) from?
William Potter: That is actually one of the rare 2D logos they supplied us with. Everything that is in here is from the new Captain Scarlet. We're not allowed to do anything from the classic series. I mean, I'd love to have been able to reprint the classic comics so people can see them again - but we can't. I wouldn't even want to doctor them, to put them in the new uniforms.
Shaqui: You've tried to keep the layouts very dynamic - are there limitations to using screengrabs though?
William Potter: Yes, there are limitations to how far we can blow them up. We can't do any less than three rows (of images). We would have loved it if we had a big sharp image of Skybase there, to break out of the layout.
Shaqui: Because of the resolution of the screengrabs?
William Potter: Yes, exactly.
Shaqui: There's an interesting motion blur there (where Scarlet swings a punch - right).
William Potter: That was actually how the grab was done. Because it's all CGI, to show movement they do deliberately blur those images.
Shaqui: I thought perhaps you had done that.
William Potter: We would if we need to. There is one image where we've added blasts from guns. So we get the sharp image, and add the flare round the pistol.
Kim: What about the sound effects?
William Potter: The licensers are really keen on sticking with more techno-futuristic stuff, rather than something looking like comics, so these sound effects - the look of them is very different from what we did on Turtles.
Kim: Do you make up the sound effects?
William Potter: Yeah (laughs) I love doing that! I'm fully versed in comic lore, so the sound of a frazzle, or a gun being loaded... 'chik!'

That's another reason I'm very precious about this, because you saw the 'Introducing Comics' book I brought in? I rarely use it now but I don't feel that everybody working on the magazine knows comics as much as me. So I make sure they know how word balloons work - the tail has to point to the mouth, and not the nose. And sound effects - if it's a sound that's issuing from something, it comes from there and gets wider the further away it goes. Or a 'ka-boom!' can spread out over the top of an explosion. All those little details that might not be obvious to a designer, who's been used to doing packaging. I have to make sure they're really versed in this.

Shaqui: You have that experience as a comic writer and artist, but is it the designer who does the final layout of the strip?
William Potter: I get to look at it, and make comments though - and often it'll be the positioning of the sound effects that will be my greatest crticism. I come up with a plan, go ahead and write it, and I present rough layouts to the designer. Then they work with the resolutions, improve the design, make sure it all fits okay, and then I'll see it again. I'll change text if I feel it needs a bit more explanation. Other people will read it, to make sure that I'm not lost in my own world that I understand it, but no-one else does. And then it goes for approval. So I'm involved from beginning to end.

Shaqui: With regards to the frames themselves, do you find them limiting, being 4:3 format screengrabs?
William Potter: It depends on what we're supplied with. we don't have many great images of the first shows. (Some images are supplied as sharper, higher resolution 'beauty' shots) When we do, we'll exploit them to the max, and I've memorised what we have in the style guide, and any opportunity we have to use one of those sharp images we will, and we'll make the page explode. Compared to something like Turtles, we've got a lot more of a range we have with sharper images that we can use. So I think the layout is a lot more dynamic. At the same time, I have to keep eye out, as I know I may get some criticism from people who see after me, as to making sure the story is understandable to a younger age group.



In the adaptation of 'Instrument of Destruction', Will has also added his own touches, like thought bubbles.
William Potter: This is where I get away with adding some more dialogue and explanation stuff. Obvious that's not in the series (referring to a thought by Scarlet, at Black's funeral, that he will take care of Destiny Angel - see above). Because it's so well choreographed, action-wise, there is not a lot of dialogue, so I feel the need to add a bit of explanation for what's going on. And so far it's been okay - Granada Ventures are happy for me to do that. I'll try and introduce a few jokes if I see them, in the right place. I'm surprised the publishers let me use the word retrometabolisation, and stuff like that! It's like, 'can you find an easier word for the younger readers?'

Shaqui: Were you limited by the vocabulary you can use if aiming at five to ten year olds?
William Potter: I thought I would be, but due to the nature of the series - being a bit darker, about a war - and the look of the whole thing, it couldn't be as young as Mutant Turtles really. And the series, in terms of scripts, doesn't talk down to kids. It sticks with adult dialogue, and so it appeals to all ages. Even the publisher realised that the magazine is for, or hoping will sell to, the younger kids as well, who maybe just play with the toys and want to see the pictures. And perhaps only just starting to read their comics. But also we'll pull in a lot of readers who would have thought Mutant Turtles were a bit young. One thing we found when we tested Mutant Turtles, they lost out against Jackie Chan because they were non-human? Captain Scarlet, being more realistic, I think it'll appeal to a slightly older age span. We'll probably get some drawings from four year olds, because they seem keen to send us drawings - or their coloured in versions of drawing their parents have done! And hopefully we'll get some older readers as well. We did get letters in for Turtles from like 21 year olds, and original fans from when it first came out - 38 year olds, whatever. I think we'll probably get some letters from fans of the classic Captain Scarlet as well, and I'm quite happy for them to. I mean, I deliberately sought out people like yourself, and other fan websites and things, to find out what people are into. Because I consider myself an original fan - not an obsessive fan - but it becomes an obsession when I start working on it that I want to know everything about it. And do something that won't put off original fans, because I think the series is done in a way that pays homage to the original vision, because Gerry Anderson is directly involved with it.

If I could have anything, I'd love to able to reprint all those original classic Scarlet strips but at the moment there is not allowed to be any kind of crossover. We couldn't even do half the magazine as 'Classic Scarlet'. It wouldn't mean anything to the new readers, who would wonder why things have been given different names, and the uniforms are slightly different. I'm not going to worry about that now.

Shaqui: Have you been able to watch the series from beginning to end?
William Potter: I haven't seen the second thirteen episodes. I've got DVDs of the first thirteen episodes, with big watermarks all over the front of them! 'Copyright Indestructible' right over the top third of the screen. And I had to say 'these are no use to me - I can't print them in the magazine!' So my pension of duplicating these pirate DVDs has failed! (laughs) But the official DVDs are coming out in a box set, about the same time as our comic - the same week! I have had a sneak peek though. I have had the scripts for a while, and had images of the shows. So I've got an idea of what happens. It was important for me to know what happens, for future development, so I know which sub-plots are relevant - the ongoing relationship with Captain Scarlet and Destiny, his link with Captain Black... little things that you have to keep in there, because it'll be important later on.

I did get asked, 'can you make up a short story, for example, with what you have?', but to be able to invent an entirely new story, and use only images from the series is really, really time consuming, and a very difficult job to do. When you talk about what happens after episode twenty-six, then perhaps that is the thing you can do. You have to know every episode inside-out, and it's like 'those Vampire Jets are attacking the Skybase... again!' (laughs)

Shaqui: Having heard the magazine was aimed at five to ten year olds, we were expecting it to be similar to the Redan Thunderbirds title.
William Potter: That is for a much younger audience, a thing like that. I was always reticent about including colouring in, and things like that - it really lowered the tone. What works with magazines usually, is you aim at a slightly older age group than the expected readership. Plus, being 3D CGI, there aren't many opportunities for colouring in - unless you have an airbrush! Anything could happen... if sales aren't as good as they expect, it might come to a meeting and they'll say I've got to lower the age range of it. I hope not, because I've just tried to do a good series justice in the magazine.

Shaqui: What kind of free gifts do you have lined up?
William Potter: The first issue has got a Spectrum Shooter - which is a foam dart gun - which is surprisingly good actually! Even the people at Granada commented on how well it worked, using it around the office! It has a good range. There's going to be loads of black and red plastic. We've got, with issue 2, a working torch with a battery. Some of these things, we hope they look like they're part of a Spectrum kit for a younger reader. They're branded where we can afford it. If you look at the range of gifts on the front of comics, every summer there's a water pistol! And I'm sure they'll be a water pistol at some point.

Shaqui: A basket and ball game?
William Potter: We haven't done any of those yet. But when those things are put my way as suggestions... well, I can't really see that working with Captain Scarlet. Fencing, yes. Marksmanship, yes. But basketball? I can't see... Captain Blue's Basketball Game? (laughs) We try to be choosy where we can but there are obviously budgetary concerns. If it's a cool, techy spy-type thing, then I'll say yes.



Shaqui: As editor, do you actually have final say on the free gifts?
William Potter: Within reason, yes. I'll have meetings with the publishers, and we'll come up with a list of ideas - and then they'll go away, and come back and say, 'This is far too expensive. We can't afford to do that'. I know what things have been done before, which have worked. And it's not just me that'll approve them. I come up with suggestions, and I'll try and think up a funky Captain Scarlet-type name for them. A colour scheme or whatever, which will probably be black and red throughout. And make sure they work when samples come in. There are times I've sent back these magnetic dart games and said, 'It just bounces off! It's rubbish!' - and they've come back better. I find it unfortunate really, that in the market today, the sales of magazines are determined a lot by the gift on the front. Certainly when we've looked at sales for magazines we've worked on, they've peaked for certain gifts. Torches, for example. So we're going to do the torch again.

And as if on cue, Kim has reached the advert for issue 2, promoting said torch.
William Potter: Yep, there it is - the Spectrum Searchlight. And kids can read their comic under the sheets at night! But I want to make a really great magazine. I don't want it to just be a gift selling, with a piece of paper attached.

Shaqui: Do you think that's what the market almost is today?
William Potter: Well, some of them, you get a plastic bag with loads of toys, and you can't even flick through the comic to see what it's like! And I've been shopping with nieces and nephews, and they just see is the gift - they don't care what the magazine is. If they want the gift, they'll get the mag. But I hope - certainly the publisher hopes as well - that the license for Captain Scarlet is big enough to warrant a readership that will stay with it for its life. That will want to get the next issue. That will want to write in.

Shaqui: Has there been much interest with advance orders, in terms of wholesalers and distributors?
William Potter: They've been fairly positive, without seeing any of the magazine. It's really a case of the publishers and marketing people going in and presenting the plan and campaign, to get them to give us shelf space. I know it's being racked in Tesco, which is very good. The fact that the Turtles comic finishes, just as this one starts, means that we've been able to hopefully leap into that gap where it occupied, so hopefully we can keep all that racking we had. But I think it'll be up to me again, to go to every single newsagents in London, and put it to the front! It's timed right with the toys coming out, and the second part of the first series being shown. Hopefully we'll get a big wave of interest, and become a big Christmas seller.

Shaqui: What is the initial print run?
William Potter: I think it'll be about 100,000 for the first issue, but usually they settle down to about half that. Peaks and troughs.

Shaqui: Are there any peaks that you're hoping to pick up for?
William Potter: Other publishers... I know there are going to be some books coming out in February, from Penguin. The annual's not coming out until next year, which was a little bit of a disappointment, and there was a slight fear, that maybe people were worrying it was not a strong enough license or not. But then the fact that the toys are coming out. Gerry Anderson is doing loads of promotions for the second series. So hopefully it'll have a lot more presence. Certainly when you go into Argos and Woolworths, and see the toys. Kids will just get really enthusiastic about it. It's hard to tell. Magazines like this succeed or die on the strength of the license in the end. They buy the gift, but really, to stay at a certain level where it remains in reasonable profit, you need a good license.

Shaqui: How do you think the early screening of the series has perhaps affected things? For instance, children seeing it for the first time in the autumn won't have seen the opening story.
William Potter: To me, when it was broadcast on Ministry of Mayhem, I didn't realise it was an early broadcast at all. It was an early opportunity for me to see those episodes, to start working on it. I'm happy that it started a bit of chat... people were starting to hear about it. But like a lot of people, I didn't particularly like where it was... not knowing exactly when it was going to be on, to set my video. I didnt want to sit through the entire show to see it, and then with logos plastered all over it. The fact that the first half of the show has been shown twice, will mean double the audience, a wave of interest. I really won't know how it affects things, until we get some sales figures on the first issue on how popular it's become.

Shaqui: That can take some weeks, can't it?
William Potter: Issue 3 will be out before we get sales figures for issue 1. I'm working on issue 3 now, and it's six weeks before issue 1 is published. I'm getting a little ahead, but I need to with Christmas and everything coming up. Before Christmas, I'll have written the first seven or eight issues, and only three will have hit the shops by then. I can't predict how it'll sell. Fingers crossed I get to do as many as I can. We've got twenty-six episodes that we can use. Hopefully it'll succeed, and we'll get to tell the story of all twenty-six episodes, and by then we'll know that there's another series commissioned.

Photo: Will Potter's boyhood dream come true! Getting to meet Gerry Anderson himself, to sign a copy of issue 1, at the 'Countdown To Disaster' convention in September 2005. Picture courtesy of Will Potter.

Shaqui: I did wonder if the CGI artists might do 'specially posed stills' using characters and elements already created for the magazine?
William Potter: Well, they have things called assets. The back of the scripts I have, they'll list all the characters they need, so they also know who all the voices are. All the backgrounds they'll need, trees, stuff, locations, vehicles, and everything like that. So then these things are specially created. Virtually every episode has gone to a completely different location - whether underwater, other planets, arctic, whatever. So in twenty-six episodes, they've generated an enormous amount of work. So it's feasible they could generate some 2D stories from these. But I still think it would be really too expensive. Now they'll be going back to those assets, and hopefully delivering us Captain Scarlet in a thousand different poses. At the moment we've got about... thirty? They could generate brand new artwork for publications, I think, from what they have. I know that a lot of them are comic fans, and I have to make sure I deliver a big box of the first issue over to Pinewood, as I know they'll really want to read it. And hopefully, they'll get in touch and want to be involved and do some special stuff for us. I can't ask for any more from them yet, because they wrapped up production in July, but hopefully production will recommence on another series, and then they can think ahead, and think about supplying some stuff specially to us. And it's a possiblity we can include in future Captain Scarlets about how they made the show. I think it will be quite interesting for the readers to find out about designing it.

I get the impression, looking around Pinewood, looking around the things they have on their desks, looking at the details they put in their props, that a lot of the production crew are original Captain Scarlet fans. And like myself, people care so much about the original, and want to make Gerry really pleased with it, that they take a lot more care with it. Everybody I've met on the show has been a fan of his work put out over the years, and they want to make him proud, and what to make what they do on the show as rich and as exciting for new fans as it was for them. And it's the same for me.

You can find out more about William Potter, his work in comics and magazines, and his time with Cud, at his own site www.williampotter.com

And you can still see the original New Captain Scarlet magazine preview here.

New Captain Scarlet Issue Guide

Issue 2, on sale 2 November 2005
Free Gift: Spectrum Searchlight
Photo Story: Instrument of Destruction Pt.1: Second Part - Back From The Dead (adapted by William Potter)
Spectratech: The Cheetah
Character Data: Captain Blue
Poster: Meet the Agents
Feature: The Red Arrows
Price: £1.85.
Published every three weeks, by GE Fabbri/John Brown Junior.

The Gerry Anderson Complete Comic History would like thank William Potter for his time, and wish him the very best of luck for what we hope will be a best-selling magazine.


Any comments or notes about this interview, please contact technodelic@blueyonder.co.uk.

All text © The Gerry Anderson Complete Comic History, and its respective writers, and may not be reproduced without permission.
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