Project SWORD Annual ©1968
Pages: 96
Publisher: City Magazines Ltd & Century 21 Publishing Ltd
Printer: Jarrold & Sons Ltd, Norwich.
Cover art: Renato Fratini (?)

The Beetle
Writer: Angus Allan. Artist: Malcolm Stokes (10 pages, colour).
New York erupts under a massive volcanic eruption, and when it is found the thick crust must have given way to tremendous pressure from the Earth's core, a SWORD team set out to get a sample of the lava. Crossing the Atlantic by SeaSWORD, they are attacked by Casuals, before setting off in a Beetle and into the heart of the volcano...

Starring: Doctor Steven Morris
Casual-ties: An armed Casual group are almost wiped out by a neutron cannon, and the sole girl suvrivor is gunned down when she shoots two of Morris' team. Morris himself is killed, along with his team, in the volcano.
Notes:
• The Beetle is not one of the Project SWORD toy range but one of the later versions featured in the first Make A Model book as a card model, referred to as a 'Snow Train'.
• The futuristic SeaSWORD is not one of the toys, nor is the vehicle which takes Morris and his team to it.
• The shielded version of the Beetle was issued as a 'Thunderbird 7' kit by Imai in the late 1960s.
• Even with prominent female leads in strips/TV series like Lady Penelope, The Angels and The Girl from UNCLE, the sight of a woman not only brandishing a rifle but gunning down two men in cold blood (above) strikes us as very shocking for the time.
• Oops - this strip states SWORD is an acronym for Solar World Organisation of Research and Development.


Moon Crawler
Writer: Angus Allan.
Artist: Malcolm Stokes (6 pages, colour).
Surveying the Pennines in a Moon Crawler, Commander Janson and Professor Hickman are ambushed by armed ex-convict Mal Ramsden. Hickman is set free to deliver an ultimatum - Janson's life for free passage off the Earth... but then the professor discovers samples indicate the Pennines hold a volcanic potential...
Starring: Commander Bill Janson, Professor Marius Hickman
Casual-ties: Mal Ramsden.
Notes:
• A small version of the Moon Crawler only appears to have been available with the Project SWORD Moonbase Set, but variations have been issued by Imai as part of kits and, more recently, by Konami.
• The airboard evacuation force features none of the known SWORD craft, and though some are marked 'T1' like the craft seen in the story 'Queen Of Spades, they are not RTF1s.


Scramble Bug
Artist: Eric Eden
Notes: A double page cutaway and schematics


Apollo Rocket
Writer: Angus Allan. Artist: Unknown. (7 pages, colour).
In the Citizens' protection Centre in London, William Logan goes berserk under the tension of not knowing if he will be evacuated or not. While Logan is held in Medical Centre under sedation, Janson learns he is not eligible and will have to remain after the second evacuation.But then Logan unwittingly learns of this and escapes, threatening to explode the rocket base fuel tanks with a rifle...

Starring: Commander Bill Janson
Casual-ties: Harold William Logan, Jeff Yates
Notes:
• The Apollo Rocket features in the Project SWORD Cape Kennedy set - but no real explanation is given for its anachronistic appearance in AD3031.
• The artist on this strip gives SWORD staff a stylised 'S' symbol instead of the usual arrowhead design.


Queen Of Spades
Writer: Angus Allan. Illustrated by Malcolm Stokes (5 page text story).
A Scramble Bug is destroyed in earthquakes in Africa, igniting a vast tide of crude oil released to the surface. Sergeant Morris suggests a dangerous plan to seal the fissure, but it requires a volunteer...
Starring: Captain William Sinclair, Sergeant Sandy 'Mac' Morris,
Casual-ties: A Scramble Bug patrol is destroyed, and Sergeant Morris
Notes:
• The craft used is referred to as a 're-entry vehicle', single seater, Mark One. And Stokes' illustratraton resembles an RTF1 from the original Project SWORD strip.


Zero X
Artist: Eric Eden
Notes: A double page cutaway in full colour


Booster Rocket
Writer: Angus Allan. Artist: Malcolm Stokes (8 pages, colour).

The SWORD Spaceport on the Moon also doubles as a refugee camp for evacuees from Earth. But ex-financier Cain Danway and his assistant Lomax plan to return to London to recover a fortune in diamonds left behind. Smuggling themselves aboard a Booster Rocket ferrying supplies, they end up south of Paris when their weight alters the gyro course, and a pitched battle breaks out between local Casuals and SWORD forces sent to rescue them...
Starring: Commander Bill Janson, Cain Danway, Lomax
Casual-ties: Lomax, and presumably the entire band of French Casuals
Notes:
• The ANT vehicle is based on contemporary ideas for an all-terrain lunar vehicle, photos of which appeared in the ©1967 TV Century 21 annual. No SWORD toy was based on it though.


Moon Prospector
Writer: Angus Allan.
Artist: Tom Kerr (6 pages, colour).
Lieutenant Vickers and Sergeant Clay survey caves in the Grand Canyon to determine if they lead to the Earth's core, and could potentially be an outlet for pressure from the Earth's core. Instead, they discover a vast underground lake and, after an encounter with a prehistoric plesiosaurus, a tribe of hostile cavemen...
Starring: Lieutenant Jeff Vickers, Sergeant Chauncy 'Chib' Clay
Casual-ties: Er... Lieutenant Jeff Vickers and Sergeant Chauncy 'Chib' Clay (do you think it's not safe to be the star in a strip any more?)
Notes:
• While the strip is called Moon Prospector, it does not really feature, and is only visible - at a distance - in the first and last frames with a Scramble Bug.


Moon Bus
Artist: Eric Eden
Notes: A double page cutaway and schematics


Hovertank
Writer: Angus Allan (?). Artist: Malcolm Stokes (7 pages, colour).
Casual leader Keffer decides to lead an all-out attack on SWORD but one of his men, Tollan, objects to the massacre. During the assault, Tollan refuses to shoot escaping Lieutenant Connor in the back, and is shot and left for dead by Keffer. As Connor organises counter-forces, Keffer and his men take a hovertank, and close in on the SWORD Astrodome...
Starring: Lieutenant Connor, Sergeant Hannaway
Casual-ties: Keffer, Tollan, and a number of SWORD guards and Casuals.
Notes:
• Strangely, Lieutenant Connor is the only 'star' in a story not to get a photo and biography.
• The Hovertank is not one of the Project SWORD toy range but one of the later versions featured in the first Make A Model book as a card model.
• Connor uses a Moon Ranger, and Booster Rockets and a Moon Bus is seen in the background.


Operation Ark
Writer: Angus Allan. Illustrated by Malcolm Stokes (5 page text story).
On the southern shore of the river Ganges in Africa, Captain Thorssen and Lieutenant Singh attempt to save a cross section of Earth wildlife from the destruction of Earth...
Starring: Captain Wallace Thorssen, Lieutenant Ranbahabur Singh, Vice-Commander Nolan
Casual-ties: Lieutenant Ranbahabur Singh and his men are crushed in an elephant stampede. Then the SWORD base is savaged by them and other scared animals.
Notes: No SWORD craft actually feature in the story.


Survey Vehicle
Writer: Angus Allan.
Artist: Michael Strand (8 pages, colour).
Technician Samuel Brady is tried for unlawfully selling supplies to Casuals. Meanwhile, SWORD scientists on Mars have determined the South Polar Cap may hold the key to releasing the core pressure. Captain Mortensen is briefed to explode an Australian reactor at Antarctica but the continent was flooded during the first eruption - and the only man with expert diving skills is Brady...
Starring: Technician First Class Samuel Brady, Captain Mark Mortensen, Commander Bill Janson
Casual-ties: Samuel Brady
Notes:
• The Survey Vehicle is not one of the Project SWORD toy range but one of the later versions featured in the second Make A Model book as a card model, referred to as a 'Sand Flea'.
• Mortensen and Brady use a rather conventional looking bathescape to retrieve the reactor.
• A Moon Bus makes a brief appearance.


Moon Bus (again!)
Artist: Unknown
Notes: A double page illustration in full colour, with additional technical details

Project SWORD Make A Model Book SW1
The Snow Train and The Hover Tank
Pages: 24
Publisher: Century 21 Publishing Ltd
Printer: Unknown
Cover art: Unknown

Blood Ties
Writer: Angus Allan.
Artist: Malcolm Stokes - 4 b/w illustrations.
A man staggered... stumbled to regain his balance, and fell sprawling on the ground, his hands clawing ridiculously at the loose soil as though in an effort to hang on. Somewhere in the compound, the pre-fabricated sections of a store hut strained suddenly apart, and a complete window-fitment fell with a crash of glass... doors opened and swung of their own accord...
This is merely the first tremor in a powerful earthquake which strikes in the Swiss Alps, where S.W.O.R.D. Protective Encampment Europe Fifteen is based. Outside the main gates, a convoy of four Snow-Trains and four Escort Cars are also hit, and all bar Number One Snow-Train is destroyed, which remains precariously perched on the edge of a mountain chasm. Inside, only Lieutenant Tony Fowler and Sergeant Derry Daniels survive - the rest of the crew perished to fall when the centre section was ripped open. Trapped inside the cab, Fowler's nerve has cracked, and Daniel finds the radio is smashed and useless...
Vienna was destroyed during two nights of chaos but has been hastily resurrected as hutments and garage buildings to house the headquarters of S.W.O.R.D. Europe. European Commander Henry Delamere Fowler, father of the trapped Lieutenant, hears the report of the earthquake, and an immediate evacuation of the camp is required. But it is cut off by a surrounding chasm, and two bridging vehicles are prepared. Commander Fowler himself leads the rescue mission, with the unkinder elements in the force knowing of the younger Fowler's weakness.
Outside the remains of Innsbruck, the convoy is stopped by a helicopter, one of its officers warning of a two-hundred strong group of Casuals advancing up the mountain. Armament at the S.W.O.R.D. base is restricted, most detached to deal with a revolt on Notrth Africa, leaving only four Hovertanks and an infantry rocket platoon. Fowler is confident these can deal with the primitive weapons the renegades have.
The Casuals are led by a large Dutchman, Jaap Zeeders, but unknown to the commander, they have discovered a laser cannon turret, torn from one of the S.W.O.R.D. escort vehicles in the earthquake but in perfect working order! Zeeders lays plans to use the cannon to extort much needed supplies for his Casual force, and fate continues to favour him, as one of his men - back from a recon - reports he has found the trapped Lieutenant Fowler. The cowardly officer has promised a pardon for them all if they contact his father...
Number One Snow-Train, still perched precariously, becomes the leverage in a deadly bout of bargaining, as Zeeders threatens to destroy with the laser turret, if Commander Fowler does not agree to his terms...

Starring: Lieutenant Tony Fowler, Sergeant Derry Daniels, European Commander Henry Delamere Fowler, Japp Zeeders, Marcel Dutacq, Helmet Strasser, 'The Butcher'.
Casual-ties: An entire convoy, and heavy casualties are referred to within the camp itself.
Notes:
• It is revealed here that the Snow Train has the nickname of 'The Beetle', which featured in the first Annual strip.
• Both of the colour illustrations of the Snow Train and the Hovertank used on the cover appear in the Annual.

Both Angus Allan (presumably) and Malcolm Stokes were responsible for the text stories that were part of the two Project SWORD - Make A Model books also published in 1968. These too were very much in the flavour of the annual and, as the series was not based on a popular television series, each title included a potted abridgement of the In The Beginning and 3031 features called Project Sword - Now And Then, to explain the background.

Project SWORD Make A Model Book SW2
Scramble Bug and Sand Flea
Pages: 24
Publisher: Century 21 Publishing Ltd
Printer: Unknown
Cover art: Unknown

Out Of The Ice
Writer: Angus Allan (?).
Artist: Malcolm Stokes - 4 b/w illustrations.
Torrential rain hammers southern England, the latest in the series of natural upheavals to ravage Earth since the eruption of the core. In Project S.W.O.R.D.'s Astrodome headquarters, Commander Bill Janson hears a report from the orbital watch station that Australia - submerged in the first holocaust - has re-emerged from the sea. A violent volcanic blast has also seemingly destroyed Antarctica, melting the ice to leave a cap of baked, dry land surrounding a furnace. Events make sense; the ice has not just melted but evaporated, to cool in the upper atmosphere and fall again as a worldwide torrent that is flooding everything.
As the heavy rain wreaks havoc, Professor Marcus Goodall - an expert on weather and botany - determines the volcanic activity at the South Pole could be stopped by using carbon dioxide bombs, breaking the cycle of exploration and rainfall. With any drop by air or space craft ruled out, a desperate chance using six Scramble Bugs is launched, each equipped with apparatus to throw the bombs into the crater.
Jansen himself leads the mission of hovercraft used to transport the Bugs, making 'landfall' in the re-emerged south-eastern Australia to regroup and form a plan. But the first Scramble Bug out sinks in deep black mud, and the hovercraft have to make a bid for the pole itself. Heading out to sea again, the hovercraft then come under attack from a greater threat - cachalot whales driven mad by the heat - and one is lost. The mission heads further south, and eventually the whales cannot stand the heat. But the south polar 'landmass' itself is stinking, boiling mud, worse than Australia - the mission made apparently in vain.
A young corporal has the idea of using Sand Fleas, vehicles designed for moon exploration and using an inflatable wheel to buoy up across dust and mud. Helijets from S.W.O.R.D.'s Chile base bring the four available Sand Fleas to meet the hovercraft, and fitters toil against time to remove the bomb launchers from the Scramble Bugs and refit them. Under remote-control the four Sand Fleas make off across the mud to the massive volcano crater. The whales attack again, and the hovercraft have to open fire with everything they have. Dozens of whales are killed, but others survive to destroy another hovercraft. Jansen's command craft 'Defiant' is holed, and there is a struggle to keep it afloat long enough to detonate the bombs - even if it is the last thing they do!

Starring: Commander Bill Janson, Professor Marcus Goodall
Casual-ties: The entire crews of the hovercrafts
Notes:
• Professor Marcus Goodall is named after Angus Allan's friend and fellow freelance writer Marcus Scott Goodall.
• The Sand Flea appears within the annual, though called a 'Survey Vehicle'. One is also visible on the front cover.
• Some of the depictions of the SWORD hovercraft make them look similar to the 'Sea SWORD' seen in the first Annual strip.

Without any publicity photos, as there would have been from television series such as Captain Scarlet and Joe 90, full colour paintings of the craft were used. These stand out as unusual among the other annuals, which usually relied on coloured line work for the strips. One would assume that the box artwork of the actual toys would have used as a cost-saving exercise but comparisons show this not to be the case. So was there more money available for these? Howard Elson is uncertain, 'I really don't know. But there are no transparencies if you look, no big colour pictures as far as I can see, and these would have been done specially, and used in the same way as transparencies were.'



These colour illustrations were segued with the opening spread of each strip, making each a combined technical specification and introduction. Eric Eden also contributed a full colour cutaway - again unusual among those seen in other annuals - of the Zero X, again an which had already been seen, albeit only in black and white, in the 1967 TV21 Thunderbirds Spring Extra.

As with the hardware, there were no readily available publicity shots of the characters from the stories, most of whom only featured in a single strip. To compensate for this, Angus Allan and art editor Roger Perry devised an elaborate editorial in-joke to illustrate the 'biographies' which had become a growing feature of the Century 21 annuals, with a selection of staff from the company posing as the characters. Angus Allan recalls, 'No matter that the likenesses varied somewht from the arted characters!'



From top left to right (above):
Roger Perry (Art Editor, annuals) - as Bill Janson
Dennis Hooper (Chief Art Editor) - as Marius Hickman
Angus Allan (TV21 Script Editor, and main writer of the annual) - as Samuel Brady
A West Indian guy on Fleet Street (photographed with a telephoto lens!), as Chauncy 'Chib' Clay
Laurence (Laurie) Kuhrt (Sub Editor) - as Mark Mortensen
And bottom left to right (above):
Tod Sullivan (Assistant Editor) - as Wallace Thorssen
A cleaner at Century 21 Fim Studios, as Ranbahadur Singh
Len Flux (City Magazines) - as Sandy 'Mac' Morris
Howard Elson (Century 21 Book Editor) - as Jeff Vickers
Herb Ellis (a short-term sub-editor from Canada) - as Steven Morris
- and all, bar the two unidentified subjects, were - according to Howard Elson - '...wearing Bob Reed's red polar neck! If you look at the strips, most of them are wearing red, and that was where it came from. The book department was on the sixth floor, and these were taken on the roof of 167 Fleet Street.' And thus, Angus Allan is quoted as saying, 'At least some of us were immortalised!'

Roger Perry expands on the two 'non-staff' photos used, 'The Pakistani was an office cleaner who was employed at the Century 21 Studios. I'd gone over to Slough for some reason or and had spotted the man while on my rounds. Thinking that he might be suitable - particularly with the indented skull fracture - I requested that I might take his picture.'

'To get the shot of the coloured gentleman,' he continues, 'I rather think that Howard had come down to street level with me and had stood some 15 or 20 feet away. As the coloured gentleman approached, I swung the camera marginally to the left and had grabbed the shot we wanted (he, of course, was not asked if I might capture his image on emulsion). If my memory is correct, I captured three or four unsuspecting candidates in this way before choosing the one that was most suitable later on.'

Some of the features were supplemented by pictures from another rather bizarre source, as Angus Allan pointed out. 'If you possess a copy of the Project Sword annual, you'll see various stills are used among the line illustrations. These stills look suspiciously like - in a couple of instances - from 2001: A Space Odyssey!' At the time the annual was being worked on, even though the film had been in production since 1965, 2001: A Space Odyssey had only just been released in America, and would not be seen in the UK until later in 1968. As Howard Elson explains, 'The photos would have been sent to us. We were up with a lot of film companies. It was a good way of publicising their stuff to kids.' More photos from the film were used to illustrate the Saturn Probe series, which ran in TV21 and TV Tornado from early 1969.

Supplementing the 'fiction' of the SWORD related features is one which draws on the comtemporary outlook of space in 1968 - Moon Probe. 'That was done by the guy at the American Embassy, Roger Dunn.' Howard Elson surmises. A couple of space-related quizzes called Project Astro-Reflex and Project Scanback round out the edition. 'We might have done those,' he says, referring to the in-house editorial and art team, 'as that information was not that difficult to find out.

Looking back, Howard Elson recalls, 'I know they had great high hopes for Project SWORD to be a big sell out for merchandise, and this was in the days when merchandising was just coming in.' But as Angus Allan ruefully recollects, 'I wish I could say that the marketing experiment was an unqualified success - but it wasn't. It went to prove that, to make a real go of a marketing operation, you really do need the backing of a 'hit' TV series!'

Elson curcurs in this, 'It didn't have any television back-up, that was the main thing. With Thunderbirds, Stingray and all the others, the reason the magazine was so successful was because it was based on the fact it was on television all the time. With things that are on television, you see something and think 'I want to buy that', and Project SWORD didn't have that. I think it was a fairly good merchandising situation, but they just didn't have the outlets on TV. Why would someone go and buy a toy, or an annual, if it wasn't relative to anything they knew about.

But did not the Project SWORD stories in TV21, and the annual, advertise the toys as well? 'Well, you would have thought so.' Elson continues, 'But I don't think it worked. I sure it didn't, because we only did one annual, and I don't know how well the merchandise sold. But it didn't become a Lego, or a Barbie doll, did it? Nowadays that's the main criteria, you have to have television. But in the same way that TV Comic, and TV Express, which were the forerunners of TV21, their success was borne out on programmes that were on television. I think if Project SWORD had been on television, in any shape or form, then I think it would have had a chance. It was a very good idea but it just didn't work.'

The Gerry Anderson Complete Comic History wishes to acknowledge the close co-operation extended by all active members of the Space World Organisation for Research and Developement in the production of this feature.

The Gerry Anderson Complete Comic History would also like to thank:
Angus Allan
Howard Elson
Roger Perry
Bob Reed
David Nightingale
Keith Shackleton
Paul Woods
- for their valued contributions. Without their technical help and guidance our task would have been impossible.

Version 1.1 - 31.12.06


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