Supercar & Fireball XL5: Gold Key - 1962/63



Key Notes: A brief history of Gold Key
Gold Key was borne out of division - the separation of a successful partnership. Dell Publishing started in 1929, and may have been the first publisher to specialise in original comic releases instead of collected newspaper reprints. By 1938, Dell had enough of the market to enter into a partnership with Western Publishing, effectively becoming their comics imprint after their own line of comic titles failed. But when the companies went their separate ways in 1962, Western started Gold Key as their own continuation of the imprint. Gold Key continued to publish the licences they had built up over the past decades, notably Disney and animation company Hanna-Barbara, and introduced new material for their 'relaunch' year. This was a mix of their own creations such as Doctor Solar, Magnus - Robot Fighter and Space Family Robinson (which would later run as newly produced strips for Lady Penelope in 1966), and more licensed material.

Licences based on television series were not unknown by now, following on from a tradition of tie-ins to radio and film, with a large percentage of the Dell/Western titles being based on childrens' fare or cartoons like Howdy Doody, Crusader Rabbit or Deputy Dawg, or western, adventure and comedy series as diverse as The Adventures of Kit Carson, Ramar of the Jungle, Sgt. Bilko, and The Three Stooges. But none had so far been based on any British series shown in the States, until Gold Key acquired the licence to a puppet series from England which had been doing well in the ratings over the past year - Supercar. While how Gold Key got the rights remains unclear, one wonders if they became involved through Hanna-Barbara, as Charlton did with Space:1999 in the 1970s.

The Marvel of the Age
As none of the Gold Key issues at this point contain any credits, the creative team remain a matter of conjecture. Gold Key expert Alberto Becattini speculated the editor involved with the Anderson Gold Key titles 'might have been Bill Harris'. He bases this on the fact Mel Crawford, who later drew Steve Zodiac and the Fireball XL5, also did some Secret Agent X-9 stories for Harris when managing editor for the later the ill-fated King Comics line a few years later.

The scripts for all of the Supercar comics are attributed to the prolific Paul S. Newman, who also wrote Doctor Solar, among many many others for Gold Key. Considering how far the writer was from the production, in days long before home video, email or even faxing, Newman was probably only armed with a publicity outline of the characters and format, and some photos. He may have been lucky enough to see the show, and inside the front cover there is a four panel synopsis of the first episode 'Rescue' outlining how Jimmy and Mitch came to be with Supercar. The second frame shows Popkiss tightening a bolt on Supercar’s hull, while Mike stands in Supercar watching, and is clearly based on a press photo showing the puppets in a similar pose.

The final caption is 'This begins Jimmy’s and Mitch’s exciting adventure with Supercar'. From this comment it appears that the comics will be geared towards an audience of young boys, an exciting adventure series. The inside back cover talks about Supercar’s abilities: it can take off ‘like a helicopter’, hover, cruise at 1,500 miles an hour, dive under water ‘like a submarine’. It also states it is ‘jammed with gadgets like an underwater periscope and Clearvu’, and that it can be flown by radio. Unfortunately, rather than continuing to expand on the world of Supercar, the subsequent issues replaced them with syndicated facts features that usually ran in the Gold Key editions.

Newman managed to capture the style of the show reasonably well, even if the details are left begging. So while Dr Beaker is named Beeker throughout, the exterior of Black Rock laboratory looks totally different (a luxury of photo reference probably not provided) and Mitch the Monkey is more a useful pet than a mischievous hinderance, the plots are not wildly off the mark, and would not have been out of place in the run of British strips in TV Comic. It would also seem, by accident or design, Newman is basing his stories more on the latter episodes, where the Supercar team are known to the military - as opposed to the closely guarded secret of earlier stories - and on more than one occasion are they called upon to help in certain situations.

The artist for all four issues has been identified as the late cartoonist Ray Osrin, who died in 2001, by experts familiar with his style, and also confirmed by the artwork for the back inside cover selling on eBay in 2004. He gave the strip a caricatured look in line with most American 'funnies' at the time, not unlike Dennis the Menace in execution (the US blond version, not the spiky-haired UK character). He drew all of each issue, which consisted of two Supercar adventures and a continuing strip series Robert’s Robot, about a boy who invents a look-alike playmate. A series of single page text stories, usually with a moral of some kind, also ran through each issue.

The detailed painted covers of the first three issues are attributed to George Wilson, who again did so many for Gold Key it is difficult for him not to be responsible. Some sources cite Wallace 'Wally' Wood as possible artist for these, but this has been refuted by Bhob Stewart and Jim Vadeboncoeur Jr, co-writers of The Wallace Wood Checklist: Wallace Wood A2Z. Wood was responsible for the artwork of a later Fireball XL5 lunchbox, and his superb preliminary sketches for this still exist (left, courtesy of Bhob Stewart, from his book Against The Grain: MAD Artist Wallace Wood, p283). But it would seem that whoever did the artwork for the Supercar lunchbox (again, not Wood, according to Stewart) based the illustrations on the cover artwork of issue 2 (see notes, below) in the same way Gray Morrow's cover art for Space:1999 was for other merchandise. The fourth Gold Key cover is somewhat less detailed in execution to the first three however, and may have been by Ray Osrin as it bears some similarity to the strip's comic appearance.

Overall, the comics were entertaining reading but as pointed out the people writing had probably not seen the show, there were many inconsistencies but children would not have noticed.

Mike Mercury - Supercar
Mike Mercury follows the trail of a stolen space capsule!
Issue 1, dated November 1962. 36 pages, colour
K.K. Publications Inc. Poughkeepsie, New York, in co-operation with Golden Press, Inc.
Designed, produced, and printed in the U.S.A. by Western Printing & Lithographing Co.
Copyright 1962 by ITC Inc.
Cover Artist: George Wilson (?).

The Stolen Space Capsule
Writer: Paul S. Newman.
Artist: Ray Osrin.
16 pages, colour.
The story opens with Mike Mercury putting Supercar through a test (a stall/dive). The team then gets a call to find a stolen space capsule, which has been stolen by Masterspy and Zarin.
When Supercar takes off, we see the area around the lab as farmland, some green acreage and some brown fallow, with large deciduous green trees. Mike, Jimmy, Beaker and Mitch take off to find the capsule, located near Brazil. Mike tricks Masterspy into having Supercar fly into his secret cave on remote, having landed and got out before Masterspy and Zarin came out of the cave they were hiding in. Mitch runs into the cave as the steel door closes, and tries to open the door but is foiled, so Popkiss fires the rockets. Mike radios Popkiss to ‘build up fuel power’. The doors blasted open, the gang rush in to find the capsule and Mitch, but no Masterspy and Zarin - they have escaped. The last scene is Supercar returning the capsule to the ‘Army-Air Force Rocket-Launching Base’ by way of carrying it under Supercar on a giant hook.

Notes:
• Right on the first page we see Mike Mercury has a dry sense of humour ‘If Dr. Beeker’s new gadget doesn’t work, this is Supercar’s FINAL dive’.
• Dr. Beaker’s name in all of the comics was spelled ‘Beeker’.
• We also have Professor Popkiss referring to their computer as ‘the electronic brain’, and we are introduced to Beaker’s precise measurements ‘we’ll have the answer in two-tenths of a second’.
• The reference to ‘build up fuel power’ may be a typo, as what other power does Supercar have?


Lost
Writer: Unknown. Artist: Unknown. 1 page text story.
This was a children’s comic, and so part of the filler in between the two Supercar stories was a one page 'the moral of this story' type tale. This is about a brother (Timmy) and sister (Karen) lost in the woods. Timmy finds a stream and they follow it to a cabin, where they can call home. Karen remarks it was lucky Timmy remembered what their Dad has said about following water if lost.

Robert's Robert: An Amazing Friend
Writer: Unknown. Artist: Ray Osrin. 4 pages, colour.
This is a continuing mini-series about a boy Robert and his exact look-alike robot. Since the robot is impervious to heat, cold, Robert uses him in each story to save the day. This series opens with Robert and family moving to 'an American Missile Base'. It turns out there are no boys of Robert's age, so without his parents knowledge he makes a robot. The parent find out, there is a kitchen fire, and Robert sends his robot to put out the fire.


Magic Carpet Rescue
Writer: Paul S. Newman.
Artist: Ray Osrin.
11 pages, colour.
Dr. Beaker goes missing on an expedition to check ruins in Arabia. He was invited by King Sanu, who has disappeared and the throne taken over by his brother Darf. Darf has imprisoned Beaker and is holding him hostage in exchange for Supercar.
Mike, Jimmy and Mitch fly to Arabia and discover Beaker being held in a tower. Mike tries to pull out the bars while Beaker is telling him what happened. Soldiers come out and start firing at them hovering by the castle wall. Supercar blasts away. Jimmy cries "Wow! Just one blast of Supercar’s rockets and we jetted out of range of their guns!" We are indirectly told that Supercar has mighty rocket engines.
Mike has an idea to get Jimmy near the castle and a message to Beaker. Jimmy dresses up as an Arab boy and walks with Mitch towards the castle. Guards challenge them, Mitch lets out an ‘‘eerk!" and dashes between the two guards with Jimmy in pursuit. The one guard tells the other to "let him go. He is just chasing his pet! The boy is harmless!"
Mitch climbs the castle wall with pencil and paper, and Beaker writes a message to "check the temple ruins". They fly off and Mike uses Clearvu to see into the temple. They see King Sanu tied up. They also see guards. There is a hut nearby with horses inside and Mike dives by and stampedes them. The guards chase them and once the guards are in the open Mike uses Supercar’s engines to blast up a sandstorm and then holds them under gunpoint. Jimmy unties the King. They now have to plot a way to put the King back on the throne. The King says his brother had told the people he had been killed in the ruins. Mike has an idea.
Notices appear in the town that King Sanu is not dead and will return on a magic carpet. Mike flies Supercar in low on remote, the terrified people see a ‘flying carpet’ and when she lands the King himself. The people gladly help the King take back his throne. King Sanu holds a feast and then the team goes home.

Notes:
• This is reminiscent of the television episode 'Island Incident' where Mike and a deposed ruler of Pelota fly in low, and the people are terrified thinking Supercar is a flying carpet.
• Of course, the younger readers do not stop to think what would a boy and monkey be doing out in the middle of the desert in the first place.
• We are introduced to Clearvu being able to see through rock.
Characters
• Mike’s wry sense of humour
• Beaker’s precise measurements
• Mitch’s intelligence (he is not troublesome in this issue)
• Mike handling a gun.
Hardware
• Computer (‘electronic brain')
• Giant hook underneath Supercar
• Mighty rocket engines
• Clearvu
• Supercar flying on remote.

Reprints:
• Published in Mexico (Spanish language) as part of the 'Domingos Alegres' series, No. 623, dated 6 March 1966.

Mike Mercury - Supercar
Mike Mercury faces the challenge of his career as Supercar tries to free a nuclear submarine from the Polar Icecap!
Issue 2, dated February 1963. 36 pages, colour
Cover Artist: George Wilson (?).

The Rebel's Hideout:
Writer: Paul S. Newman.
Artist: Ray Osrin.
16 pages, colour.
Jimmy and Mitch are playing outside and Mitch has a box which Jimmy trades him a banana for. Inside there is an old statue, sent by the king of Shigun as a gift ‘to any American museum’, and asking for the Supercar teams’ help. The kingdom is being attacked by rebels. Beaker looks up the photo of the statue in one of his reference books, and it says the statue was last seen in 1453.
Supercar takes off and travels at a cruise speed of 1,500 mph with an ETA of 4.5 hours (distance of 6,750 miles). As Supercar takes off from the Black Rock lab, we see the building surrounded by some tall trees. The building itself is square.
They arrive in Shigun, and Supercar is fired upon before landing, damaging the stabilizers. Mike says luckily it can be repaired. They are having a glass of wine and the King explains that the rebels seem to always know before ‘General Hannu’s troops’ arrive and they vanish. The king is dressed in a jewelled turban and jacket, and they are seated on the floor around a table, suggesting the location is somewhere in northern Africa or Arabia.
Mitch jumps up on the chandelier above the table, and finds a hidden microphone. Mike writes on the tablecloth to keep talking, he will track down the microphone wire. In this case Mike is right-handed, although in the t.v. episodes he is left-handed. Mike and General Hannu leave and follow the wire down to the dungeon. The general bursts open the door, shots are fired, however the spy escapes into the jungle (again, there is no jungle in Arabia). Mike suggests that they check the palace staff, anyone missing would be the spy. It turns out to be the assistant gardener.
The next morning they take off and fly over the jungle, Mike uses Clearvu and finds rebel soldiers hiding in the bushes. He radios ‘headquarters’ and says ‘Bring co-ordinates 23-6’. Is this a reference to where the rebel solders are hiding? Or, to the co-ordinates of one of the king’s troop units? Two days later the rebels are on the run, but the Supercar team haven’t located their hide-out.
Beaker is inside questioning the king on where the statue came from, the king replies from a dealer who was sworn to secrecy. Outside, someone hits Mike (standing by Supercar) on the head with a pistol and knocks him out. You see a sailor hat fly off his head, but Mike never has worn one before. Mitch meanwhile is hiding or sleeping in Supercar, wakes up, fires the rockets which kicks up dust and blinds the soldier. Mike comes to and tackles him; the General runs up to question him and takes him into custody.

Beaker hides a radio-signalling device in the rebel soldier’s belt, they ‘forget’ to lock the cell door, and the soldier escapes to lead them to the hide-out. Mike, Beaker, Jimmy, and Mitch follow in Supercar, but the signal grows faint and vanishes. They turn on Clearvu and see a temple overgrown by the jungle, a pond nearby. Supercar dives into the water, and finds an underground entrance. They surface, get out, and are ambushed. Mike has a radio with him, and although under guard calls Professor Popkiss back at the base and tells him to turn on Supercar’s ultrasonic gun. Popkiss does so, the noise incapacitates the soldiers surrounding Supercar; Mike overpowers their guard, and instructs him to call in all the rebel bands ‘at once’.
The rebel bands arrive at the pond and are surprised by the General and his troops and are told they are surrounded, and to surrender. The rebels dive into the pond to try and swim into the hide-out, but are foiled by Supercar coming out of the underground tunnel. They have to surface and are captured. Beaker finds a niche in the wall of the underground temple that held the statue. It was sold to finance the rebels, but the irony is that it eventually brought Supercar to the rescue.
Notes:
Lab
• The lab in the comic is square.

• There are tall trees (looking like poplars) around the lab – not found in the Black Rock desert.
Characters:
• Mitch knows how to fire the rockets in Supercar.
• Mike writes right-handed, on television he shoots left-handed.
• Popkiss is back at the lab ‘base’ (where he uses remote-control to operate Supercar).
• They were there for 5 days in all.
Supercar:
• Supercar was cruising at 1,500 mph. On the television episodes speeds varied up to 10,000 mph
• Supercar travels underwater.
• Supercar has an ultrasonic gun, this device is not mentioned in the other comics
• Popkiss uses a remote control on Supercar


The Old House
Writer: Unknown. Artist: Unknown. 1 page text story.
Lynn and her 10 year old brother Jeff investigate a ‘haunted house’. Inside, afraid a door may close behind them, Jeff puts his pencil to prop it open while they explore. They come back, the pencil is gone! They hear a noise upstairs, and although Lynn wants to leave, Jeff pulls her upstairs as he wants to find his pencil. There is a tapping sound from inside a closet; they look in to find a chipmunk with the pencil. As they leave the house, a ‘passing boy’ exclaims ‘did you go into the haunted house?’ and they reply yes, but the call it ‘Chipmunk House’ and Jeff has the chipmunk in his pocket; his new pet.
Notes:
• I do not know if this story is supposed to have a ‘lesson’ like the story in Issue #1, except it may be that 1) there is often an explanation for mysterious occurrences or 2) there is no such thing as a haunted house.

Robert's Robert: The Missile Launch
Writer: Unknown. Artist: Ray Osrin. 4 pages, colour.
Robert’s father is a scientist at a military facility. In this adventure, Robert wants to stay home to watch a missile launch, and tries to send his look-alike robot to school in his place. His mothers foils that ruse, and says Robert can watch the launch after school. Robert’s Dad takes him to the ‘control bunker’ to watch the final countdown. The launch had been delayed due to cloud cover. Trouble shows up with 2 minutes to go. A vent inside the missile tube hasn’t closed and the controller says they have to send someone inside. Robert’s father says the only one that will fit is ‘one of the midget workers’. Robert offers to go: too dangerous. So they send his robot. The robot closes the vent and the missile is launched without any further problems.
Notes:
• The father’s comment on ‘one of the midget workers’. They would not dare say that today.
• Would the military allow a boy to go a see a missile launch? Be in the ‘control bunker’?


The Sabotaged Sub
Writer: Paul S. Newman. Artist: Ray Osrin. 11 pages, colour.
The ‘newest nuclear submarine’ gets jammed 200 feet below polar ice on its trial run. The men make it to the surface okay but there is heavy fog, so Naval Command calls Supercar’s secret base for help. Supercar takes off and flies ‘northward’; we can assume it was the arctic ice cap.
They use Clearvu and find the men, Mike lands and says that they cannot take the crew off the floe (why?). Beaker sets up a radio-directional beam to signal rescuers, a ship arrives an hour later to take the men off. Just as they lower a line, they become trapped by an iceberg. Beaker suggest Mike take off and uses Supercar’s engines to melt the ice.

After the boat is freed, the captain tells Mike that they had been sailing into a clear channel, so the Supercar team takes off and goes underwater to see if they can raise the submarine. Meanwhile, Masterspy and Zarin show up in a motorboat, Zarin makes the comment ‘It worked’ Is he referring to the iceberg? Their plan was to trap the sub, have the men rescued and sail off, and then raise the sub to take pictures of ‘the secret equipment’. Zarin sees on sonar that there are two submerged objects, one the sub and the other Supercar.
Masterspy throws a depth charge overboard, the blast knock Supercar’s crew unconscious; it also frees the sub which floats to the surface along with Supercar. Back at the base, Popkiss radios Mike and gets no answer. We then see him looking at the back of Supercar floating on the water (which point of view was he looking from?). He also can see Masterspy and Zarin boarding the submarine, camera dangling from Masterspy’s wrist. Popkiss must realize what Masterspy is up to. He again radios Supercar, Mike, Beaker and Jimmy are still out cold, but Mitch ‘geeks’ in reply. Popkiss opens the hatch and tells Mitch to “Go and get their camera!”

Mitch finds the duo, snatches the camera, and runs. Meanwhile, in Supercar, the crew comes to and Popkiss tells them that Mitch may need help. Masterspy and Zarin stop chasing Mitch and head off in their motorboat. Masterspy mentions a time bomb, something that the others must have overheard and they go and look for the bomb. Jimmy finds the time bomb, and Beaker defuses it. The group then turns their attention to catching Masterspy and Zarin.
Fog has closed in, and Mike uses Clearvu to find the spy’s boat, which has smashed into an ice floe. Jimmy and Mike climb over to investigate: both spys are gone. We last see them struggling over the ice, Zarin whining as usual (this time, that his feet are freezing). The Supercar crew returns to the sub, the captain is saying the salvage crew will take the sub back to port, and someone (we are given the impression it is Beaker) replies ‘I repaired the sabotaged inertial guidance system while we waited’. Supercar takes off for home, we see the crew of the boat watching, an American flag is prominently displayed on the side of the boat.
Notes:
• Mike uses Supercar’s engines to melt the ice. He also did this in the episode ‘Ice Fall’
• Mitch must be very smart, as he understood Popkiss’s instruction to go and get the camera from Masterspy.
• Popkiss again uses the remote, this time to open the cockpit hatch.
• The crew is either foolish or fearless, going to look for a bomb when they had the camera; they could have flown off in Supercar
• Beaker is a man of many talents: defusing a bomb, repairing the sub’s inertial guidance system
• Icebergs just do not appear, but we have ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ here
• The cover of this issue also provided the reference for a Supercar 'Orbital Food Container' lunch box (see above) and flask, produced by Universal. The reverse of the lunch box also shows the submarine visible on the cover.

Reprints:
• Published in Mexico (Spanish language) as part of the 'Domingos Alegres' series, No. 638, dated 19 June 1966.

Mike Mercury - Supercar
Supercar roars out of control into the fury of a raging volcano!
Issue 3, dated May 1963. 36 pages, colour
Cover Artist: George Wilson (?).

A Dangerous Rescue
Writer: Paul S. Newman.
Artist: Ray Osrin.
16 pages, colour.
The story opens with Mike Mercury, Dr. Beaker, Jimmy and Mitch ‘cruising’ over a Pacific Island at ‘twice the speed of sound’. Dr. Beaker wants to study the birth of an erupting volcano. The team watches the natives fleeing in their dugout canoes, and Mike comments the natives might be a lot smarter than they are.
They land on the water’s edge and Beaker says they are close enough. He wants Mike to put another instrument at the other end of the island. Mitch is jumping up and down and Mike comments he looks worried. Beaker says his instrument will let him know well ahead of any eruption. Mike, Mitch, and Jimmy take off. The scene is set, and we know something will happen.
Meanwhile, while Beaker is measuring, his seismograph goes crazy and the volcano erupts. He calls Mike, who is setting the other one in place, to come and get him ‘at once’. They fly off immediately. Rocks rain upon Supercar and Mike turns on Clearvu to see through the smoke. Mitch is holding his nose, they discover that the canopy is leaking and have to turn back. Mike lands and tells Jimmy to repair the canopy while he calls Popkiss. We see Jimmy and Mitch lifting the canopy off sideways; then Popkiss takes Supercar off while they do the repair.
Popkiss can see the volcano side but not Beaker. Suddenly a rock hits the remote control panel, and with the last bit of control Popkiss lands her on the sea. Mike swims out with a rope (since they were on the other end of the island, Popkiss must have had enough control to get back there), and Jimmy and Mitch haul them to shore. Canopy in place, they go off and ‘nine electrically detonated rockets roar’.

They see Beaker unconscious on the side of the volcano, overcome by fumes. But more trouble! The lava flow is headed right for him! Mike reverses Supercar and blasts a ditch to divert the lava. They land; get Beaker on board, and then Jimmy is overcome as well. Mike reaches for the controls and faints. Mitch sees what he was going to do and moves the control. Supercar rises and Mike regains consciousness in the fresh air, but realizes Supercar is turning and sees they are headed back to the volcano. He gets the vertical boost working and Supercar flashes away just as the volcano explodes.
Back at Black Rock, Popkiss expresses relief at their return; Beaker says that now with his instrument he can study the birth of a volcano; and Mike adds, ‘Yes, but at a safe distance!’
Notes:
• This island looks a lot like Tracy Island from Thunderbirds.
• The Spanish reprint title for this strip was Rescate Peligroso.
Characters
• Mike’s wry sense of humour
• Beaker’s love of instruments and precise measurements
• Mitch’s intelligence: he helps with the repairs, and more importantly uses the controls when Mike has fainted
Devices
• Clearvu
• Supercar flies by remote from the base
• The cockpit opens up sideways (right).
• The canopy lifts straight up from the cockpit. We do not see Mike remove the canopy on the TV episodes, nor the other Gold Key comics.
• Popkiss makes a remark to ‘sving the starboard stabilizer’
• Supercar is pretty heavy. Yet Jimmy and Mitch hauled her and Mike right up onto the beach.
• The comic mentions ‘nine electrically detonated rockets’. That would include the two outlets on either end of the body. On the television we only see flames/detonations from six of the jets in back.
Facts and continuity
• Supercar cruises at twice the speed of sound.
• Supercar has nine electrically controlled rockets. This included the very outside ones, which we never see fire on the TV show, where we only ever see six rockets fire.
• The boost levers in the comic are on the bottom of the Clearvu screen; on the TV they are under on the dash
• No mention is made of the second seismograph that Mike put at the opposite end of the island.
• The fumes would probably have killed them.


Robert's Robert: Sky High
Writer: Unknown. Artist: Ray Osrin. 4 pages, colour.
Robert’s Dad setting a weather balloon aloft, with Robert and his look-alike robot watching. The balloon fails to rise, and Robert’s Dad takes off some sand bags. The balloon suddenly rises and the cord catches the robot’s foot. Robert runs to try and free him, his Dad shouts to keep back, but Robert is afraid of losing his friend (in the opening story, the family lived where there were no other boys his age and he created the robot to keep him company). He can’t free the robot and climbs into the balloon. His Dad shouts at him to open the valve, let out the gas, and the balloon will come down. In no time the balloon is well above the clouds. Robert tries to climb the ropes to open the valve but he is too frightened by the height. He has his robot climb the ropes and let out the gas. But trouble! They descend rapidly, and Robert is afraid he will land in the water, but a sudden gust of wind blows the balloon over land and the rough landing knocks Robert out and under the basket, where he is pinned. He has the remote in hand and gets his robot to lift the basket off. The story ends with Robert handing the instrument canister to his Dad, who comments he should be angry Robert risked his life to save his robot but the robot ended by saving him.

Big Brain-Little Brain
Writer: Unknown. Artist: Unknown. 1 page text story.
A boy and his Dad get their computers cross-wired due to a telephone repairman’s mistake. Johnny and his friend Doug are admiring Johnny’s new ‘electronic computer’ when Doug suggests they try it out to solve some math problems. Johnny feeds in a problem, the computer starts and then boom! Lightning hits outside and the power goes out. They sit in the dark; the two boys wondering when the power will come back; the lights come on and the computer starts. Eagerly the boys look at the print-out, only to find it appears to be gibberish. Johnny calls his Dad at the work; he is having a problem with his computer; it is turning out simple formulas. They find out the computers’ wires have been switched by the telephone repair crew. Dad and two Air Force men rush over, get the secret missile problem answers, and the phone company changes the wiring back. Johnny now has something exciting for ‘show and tell’ at school.


The Mystery Satellite
Writer: Paul S. Newman.
Artist: Ray Osrin.
11 pages, colour.
An US military satellite circling the earth suddenly blows up. Back at the Black Rock Base, Mitch starts screeching and pointing to the radar screen. Prof. Popkiss goes over to look and sees a new satellite in orbit. The screen is much taller than he is so it must be 6 foot by six foot square at least. He uses the Red Phone ‘secret line’ to the Pentagon, and finds out that two American satellites have mysteriously vanished. The General asks the Supercar team to try and find out what is happening.

The team gathers around Beaker’s ‘electronic brain’. The result it gives is that the new satellite appearance and the disappearance of the two USA ones could be related (we laugh at this at it is an obvious result). Beaker wants to test the new space-drive on Supercar, and he, Mike, Jimmy, and Mitch climb aboard and blast off. Once again we see that the Black Rock base is square and surrounded by green fields and poplar trees.
Meanwhile, Masterspy and Zarin are also watching, as the new satellite is theirs. Masterspy says that if the Supercar team tries anything they will also be destroyed.
In space, Beaker tells Mike to make a 10 degree starboard turn. Suddenly Supercar starts to vibrate: here we have a terrible drawing of Supercar from the side. It may be to try and make the reader think it was coming apart, because that is what Jimmy cries out. It turns out it is the lack of air resistance to the thrusters in turning as they are in space. Once again they are underway and finally see the mystery satellite. As they close, trouble!
The satellite emits a pair of light beams and Supercar’s front catches fire. Mike dodges and finally escapes the beam but the fire is still burning. Meanwhile Masterspy and Zarin are jumping for joy. Mike dives into the ocean and the fire goes out. Beaker states that the satellite was directed by a radio signal nearby. Mike pilots Supercar underwater until they come to an island, where he surfaces and they all get out to have a look around.
As they walk inland, Zarin grabs Beaker; when the others turn around at Beaker’s exclamation of surprise, they see Masterspy holding a gun on him. Mike puts his hands up, and Masterspy comments that ‘certain foreign powers’ will pay plenty for the satellite. We see Supercar in the back with the canopy opened from the side – gull wing fashion. Masterspy is talking about his having both the satellite and Supercar and Mike replies that Supercar was damaged and won’t fly, hoping that Popkiss can hear them on the open radio channel, which of course he does. Zarin gets into Supercar for a test flight, and Popkiss uses the remote to give him a ‘vild ride’. Supercar lands and a very dizzy Zarin falls out. Masterspy says to Mike if he doesn’t fix Supercar, he will fix him! He then tells Beaker to ‘get to work’.
As Beaker is looking Supercar over, Jimmy whispers to Mitch to bite Masterspy’s gun hand. Mitch bites, Masterspy screams and drops the gun, and Mike snatches the gun. Masterspy and Zarin run back into their hideout and a steel door comes down. Mike wants to blast the metal door with Supercar’s rockets, but Beaker says the first priority is to get rid of the satellite. They take off again, and using Popkiss’ radioed information soon locate the satellite. Jimmy is afraid of what will happen if the ray hits them again. Mike is uncharacteristically silent; perhaps he knows what Beaker will do, or he is just concentrating on piloting Supercar. Sure enough, the rays come towards them - Beaker is holding a ‘magnifying reflector’ which bounces the rays back onto the satellite and it finally explodes.
They return to the island to deal with the spies only to find no sign of them. Back at the secret lab, they see that the US had put another satellite into orbit; one that ‘thanks to Supercar won’t be shot down’.
Notes:
• The Black Rock Base has a ‘Hot Line’ to the Pentagon
• Black Rock has no grass nor poplar trees as pictured.
• The lab is not square – on the TV show it is quite different
• Supercar has a space-drive.
• In one of the few frames depicting the underside of Supercar, there is no livery or lettering shown (right).
• The fire on Supercar changes from the left side to the right side!
• The place they dive into happens to be near Masterspy’s hideout, pretty coincidental
• Masterspy tells Mike if he doesn’t fix Supercar, ‘I’ll fix you’. Then he tells Beaker to do the work, and so he knows Mike is not the actual inventor
• They call the computer the ‘electronic brain’.
• The Spanish reprint title for this strip was El Satélite Misterioso.

Reprints:
• Published in Mexico (Spanish language) as part of the 'Domingos Alegres' series, No. 652, dated 25 September 1966.

Mike Mercury - Supercar
With a stranger at the controls, Supercar flies into the deadly crossfire of Amenrican planes and rockets!
Issue 4, dated August 1963. 36 pages, colour
Cover Artist: Ray Osrin (?).

Tricked and Trapped
Writer: Paul S. Newman.
Artist: Ray Osrin.
16 pages, colour.
The story opens with the Supercar Team getting a distress call from a blizzard-bound hospital; they have a serum destined for Eluthi Island in the South Pacific, where the nurse has a critically sick child on her hands.
Mike and Beaker get into Supercar and find Jimmy and Mitch already inside waiting. Instead of arguing, they take off, with Professor Popkiss detonating the rockets by remote. Soon they are into thick snow. Mike says he can’t see a thing and is switching to Clearvu. The picture of a looming mountain appears on the screen, Jimmy screams, Mike goes to full vertical boost, and they clear the mountain peak ‘by inches’. We see Mitch in the back seat, his eyes are round. He is not smiling for once!
They arrive at the hospital, Mike lands and someone brings out the box containing the serum. The team takes off again and blasts ‘westward across the Pacific’. They land at a plantation, where the nurse Nellie Lang starts to flatter Mike. She takes the box, Dr. Beaker offers to help, but she says it is taboo on the island for men to help the sick. Jimmy says ‘that is a kookie custom’ and the Dr. replies that he has seen ‘more astonishing taboos in my anthropological field work’. Mitch is eying a tree full of bananas.
Nurse Lang goes into the ‘hospital hut’, where she reveals herself to be ‘Agent N-5’ and radios to base that ‘Supercar is here!’ We turn the page to see Masterspy and Zarin at another radio; Masterspy tells Nellie to ‘Proceed with Phase Two of our plan’.
The native men come over to Mike, Jimmy, and Dr. Beaker, and say that as ‘the Gods have brought help’ they will feast. The team sits on the ground and the men bring in suckling pig and trays of fruit. Shortly after, Mike asks Nellie how the child is, and she says that she seems better, we have to ‘wait and see’. She then turns on the charm, batting eyes and laying her hands on Mike’s shoulders, and asks for a ride in Supercar. Mike says to wait until the others finish and she puts her arm through his and says it would be more fun ‘flying alone with you’. Mike agrees.

Mike gives her a sample of Supercar’s ‘supersonic paces’ and she asks if she can try flying her as she can fly a plane. Mike lets her, and suddenly Supercar spins out of control and is diving towards an American Navel base. Mike takes the controls and dodges fire from fighter jets, then more trouble as anti-aircraft rockets are fired. Nellie asks if there is anything he can do, does Supercar go underwater? Mike says yes and ‘prepare to dive’.
Supercar dives into the ocean and underwater they see a secret missile base. Mike wants to get out of there fast and Nellie tries to take the controls to see more of this fascinating sight. She agrees to let him surface.
Meanwhile, while standing outside the huts, Dr. Beaker and Jimmy watch Mitch jump from a tree towards seemingly thin air. Jimmy shouts ‘you’re going to fall!’ but Mitch grabs onto something and follows it down to the ‘hospital hut’. Beaker points out that there appears to be a radio antenna, and they (presumably) go to have a look.
Mike and Nellie return, Nellie walks off, Beaker catches Mike’s attention and shows him what is inside – a short wave set and NO patient! Mike exclaims she is a spy; she tricked him into flying over the missile base. They search for her but she is gone. Beaker deduces that since the radio transmitter isn’t very strong, she must have been talking to someone nearby, maybe on a boat. Off they go in Supercar to find that boat.
Mike does a brief vector search and locates the boat, which has Nellie, Masterspy and Zarin on board. Masterspy orders Zarin to fire on Supercar; Mike lowers the ‘magnetic grab’ while dodging the rocket fire. His guess is that the metal pin Nellie was wearing is a camera; the grab snatches it from her dress. Zarin does manage to hit the bottom of Supercar, but they make it back to the lab. Prof. Popkiss comments that she was an excellent photographer, and Mike adds that luckily for their country’s safety her talents were wasted this time.

Notes:
• The front cover painting of Supercar depicts it with only seven engines.
• The Spanish reprint title for this strip was La Enfermera (The Nurse).
Characters
• Beaker is multi-talented; not only the co-designer of ‘Supercar’, but an anthropologist. His expertises in anthropology are shown in numerous television episodes ('Talisman of Sargon’ for one).
• Mike is pretty focused on Supercar. Although Nurse Lang is batting her eyes and holding his shoulders, he doesn’t seem to think she is flirting with him, until she states right out ‘just us two’.
Devices
• Professor Popkiss detonates the rockets by remote while Supercar is in the launch bay
• Mike uses Clearvu to avoid hitting a mountain
• The canopy opens to the side, in issue #3 it comes straight up and off
• Supercar has a ‘magnetic grab’, which looks like a large u-shaped school magnet!
Facts and continuity
• The lab is referred to as Supercar Base
• They are willing to fly a mercy mission for a sick child
• They pick up the serum at a blizzard bound hospital, then ‘blast westward’ to the (south) Pacific. They would have had to turn south as well, otherwise they would have wound up in Hawaii area (assuming they started around Alaska)
• It takes a long time to roast a suckling pig; yet it was ready for the feast upon their arrival
• How they overcome the shock of hitting a wall of water at high speed when diving is never explained; in any of the comics or the television shows
• That the island happens to be close to a ‘secret missile base’ is odd.


Robert's Robert: The Fire Fighter
Writer: Unknown. Artist: Ray Osrin. 4 pages, colour.
This story opens with Robert’s parents taking him overnight camping ‘alone’. Robert says he isn’t alone, he has his robot! On their way out of the park, they spot a Forest Ranger, and ask him to keep an eye on Robert, without making it obvious he is watching out for him. Soon, the Ranger pays Robert a visit to say hello, and remarks that there are two of them camping, him and a twin brother, who has a bite on his fishing line. Robert says he is a robot; the Ranger is impressed and leaves. Next morning, when Robert gets up, he sees a brush fire going, and summons the Ranger, who goes back to his campsite to get a bulldozer. He starts to clear a fire line but the smoke becomes too thick, he has to quit. Robert says that his robot can do the job, and he clears the line, to the relief of the Ranger. When Robert’s parents pick him up, the Ranger said he didn’t need him watching over him, he had his robot!

Barney Solves a Problem
Writer: Unknown. Artist: Unknown. 1 page text story.
A boy invents a one-man flying platform from an old lawn mower. He is too heavy to test it, so he coaxes his dog Hero onto it. As the platform rises alongside a neighbour’s roof, Hero jumps onto the roof. Now Barney has to get him down, so his friend Billy puts his cat onto the platform. The idea is that if he raises the cat near Hero, Hero will jump onto the platform and both can be brought down. But the cat also jumps onto the roof. Barney asks Billy to get on, he’ll raise him to the roof, where he can get off and grab the two animals. All goes according to plan, Billy is on the roof when he mother sees him, shrieks, and calls the fire department. Barney quietly vanishes in all the fuss.


Captive of the Dragonmen
Writer: Paul S. Newman.
Artist: Ray Osrin. 13 pages, colour.
The story opens with a small ship steaming along the foggy China Sea. Suddenly they go on alert; a fast ship is on a collision course. They turn, however, the fast ship pulls up alongside, and they are boarded by pirates, the ‘Dragonmen’. They loot the ship and as they are leaving take a passenger hostage as well, in spite of protests by the captain.

At Supercar’s Base, Beaker sees a picture of the abducted man on the news, and says he is Professor Hardley, a top American Space Scientist. The newscast goes on to say unless the USA pays $1 million ransom, the professor will be handed over to ‘another power that is interested in his knowledge’. Beaker tells Mike if that happens their ‘man-in-space’ programme will be delayed. They decide to fly to Hong Kong to help.
In Hong Kong, they make their way to British Naval Headquarters, where two men are trying to pinpoint a transmission just received from the Dragonmen saying that time is running out for Hadley. The radioman says he can’t pinpoint the transmission, because it must be on a fast moving ship. Mike says no ship can be fast enough to dodge Supercar, and they set out to search for it. Soon they come upon dozens of junks, but unbeknownst to them the hydroplane is hiding within one of them. The Dragonmen then plan to sabotage Supercar, even though she is under heavy guard at the Naval Base.

The next morning, as the team is on their way to HQ, a man grabs Beaker, who is walking behind the team, and another man disguised as him takes his place. The others walk on; then Mike turns and sees Beaker is gone. Beaker soon catches up, with apologies, but Mitch jumps onto him and grabs the top of his head. Jimmy is horrified at Mitch’s behaviour. Mitch then pulls off the man’s mask, revealing the impostor, who starts to pull a gun. Mike tackles him and punches him, then raises his fist to hit him again, and so the man tells them where Beaker is being held. Mike, Jimmy, Mitch, and several naval officers gather outside the building.
The Chief Officer is afraid to rush the building in case Beaker is hurt; Mike asks him to give Mitch a smoke grenade and then tells Mitch to ‘Find Beaker!’ Carrying the grenade, Mitch starts peering in windows and climbs up to the floor where Beaker is tied to a chair. He chews the ropes off his hands, Beaker then throws the grenade into the room full of plotting Dragonmen; the resulting smoke and confusion allows him and Mitch to crawl to safety. The Naval men now take over.
They get a message that Hardley is ‘now being turned over’ to another power that has paid the ransom. The team take off in Supercar to see if they can find the hydroplane. Fog closes in, and Mike turns on Clearvu. They see the plane coming out from a junk, and go after them. The Dragonmen fire their anti-aircraft missiles, which Mike dodges, and then he dives into the sea. The Dragonmen start dropping depth charges. Mike decides to surface right under the hydroplane, and rams a pontoon with Supercar’s nose cone, causing it to crash. Mike lowers a life preserver to pick up Hardley. The team flies away with Hardley, and the Navy men collect the Dragonmen.
Notes:
• The Spanish reprint title for this strip was Los Dragones (The Dragons).

Characters
• Mitch can tell right away that Beaker is an impostor
• Mike has no qualms about tackling the impostor and then punching him
• Mitch knows simple commands and is smart to carry the grenade with him to Beaker
Facts and continuity
• Beaker knows Dr. Hardley, a space scientist. Dr. Beaker knows many top people in many fields.
• The unmasking of the fake Beaker is reminiscent of later scenes with the Hood from Thunderbirds.
• They ram a pontoon with the nose cone, which would have broken the pitot tube
• Supercar is very manoeuvrable, as Mike dodges anti aircraft missiles and depth charges
• The stylised pirates are also very similar to those seen in some of the TV Comic and TV Century 21 strips, notably Fireball XL5, and the concept of using a junk reappears in a future Stingray strip.

Reprints:
• Published in Mexico (Spanish language) as part of the 'Domingos Alegres' series, No. 664, dated 18 December 1966.

Steve Zodiac and the Fireball XL5
A lifeless planet becomes the nerve center of an invasion force headed for Earth!
Issue 1, (undated - January 1964)
Cover Artist: George Wilson.

The Moon Masters
Writer: Paul S. Newman.
Artist: Mel Crawford.
16 pages, colour.
At the nerve centre of Space City, Commander Zero uses the massive neutroni transmitter to send an urgent signal across millions of miles of space! This top priority message will change the course of a speeding space ship and will bring STEVE ZODIAC and the crew of FIREBALL XL5 face to face with THE MOON MASTERS.
The Moon is getting closer to Earth, and this is no natural phenomenon! As tidal waves threaten coasts and flooding rises, scientists have determined the Moon is being pushed by trans-space beam - originating on Planet 42. Fireball XL5 is ordered to investigate but the surface is just volcanoes and dead craters - how can there be any life there? But then the ship is caught in the field of the beam pushing the Moon, and has to use boosters to break free. Motion detectors pinpoint a lake-filled crater, and Steve and Venus investigate on jetmobiles. A field alarm alerts a squad of alien creatures who rise from the parting waters and fire at them. Playing dead, they are taken into the crater into the alien base to be examined by their leader Xerl. The aliens plan to invade Earth for its life-giving nitrogen but overhearing their plans, Steve makes a break for the Moon ray room, only to find the device shielded. Both he and Venus, who tries to help, are paralysed by Xerl's weapon. But Venus also had her radio on, and Steve is able to call Professor Matic and outline a plan. The Professor allows himself to be captured, and Robert is able to throw a trans-tanium flare through the parting waters into the base, which burns up the nitrogen. As the aliens pass out, Matic revives Steve and Venus and they sabotage the device. As helmeted guards investigate, Steve knocks them out and they escape just as the device explodes, destroying the aliens. With the beam destroyed, scientists calculate the Sun's gravity will return the Moon to its normal orbit in a few days.

Notes:
• In some ways, the plot is reminiscent of the first episode 'Planet 46' - threat from space, XL5 investigates seemingly uninhabited planet, Steve and Venus are captured - but this gives it feel very close to that of the series.
• The concept of the Moon being moved is also apparent in the episode 'Space Magnet'.
• Steve is shown wearing headphones with a mike in this and the second strip.
• Like Professor Popkiss in the Supercar comics, writer Paul Newman indicates Venus' French accent. For example, 'I insist zat you have more of ze food pills and zis coffee... '
• The alien's device is called a 'centrifugal impeller' which, according to Professor Matic, uses 'pulsing sound waves' to create centrifugal force on the Moon 'making it wobble and spin from its orbit'.

Trail of the Traitor
Writer: Paul S. Newman.
Artist: Mel Crawford.
16 pages, colour.
Night, and Space City sleeps in quiet, confident security, unaware of a stealthy figure slipping into command headquarters of the World Space Patrol...
Alarms sound, and Zero races from his quarters to find both guards stunned, and the vault has been blown - the tape of the Master Interplanetary Defense Plan has been stolen! As this could leave Earth open to attack from another galaxy, Zero orders all craft leaving to be checked. The only recent departure is Fireball XL4, but a check of the vocal prints reveals the pilot is not Lieutenant Norris as it claims to be. As the nearest patrol ship, Fireball Xl5 is sent to intercept, but Venus points out the ships are equally matched and it will be the skill of the astronaut who makes the difference. Venus picks up signals from the XL4 in code, revealing the spy to be Henders, who wants command of any captured planets in return for the tape. But when Fireball XL5 closes for intercept, XL4 is quicker and counters the missiles.

XL5 shudders under fire, and an alien ship appears from hiding in the rings of Saturn. Its stabilisers damaged, Professor Matic takes the main body of XL5 to one of the moons of Saturn for repairs while Steve and Venus continue their pursuit in Fireball Junior. XL4 has linked up with the alien ship but is then cut adrift and without control. Boarding it, they find the traitor shot, and before dying he reveals the aliens as coming from Planet 23 in the Betal Galaxy. Instinct tells Steve the aliens figured they would dock, and gets Fireball Junior away from Fireball XL4 as it explodes from a time bomb. With the main body of Fireball XL5 now repaired, they rejoin Professor Matic and pursue the alien ship only to find the vessel is protected against missiles. Matic has a heat ray, and aims it at the alien ship, but the aliens are also used to high temperatures, and have called in space fighters to deal with Fireball XL5. Then they all peel off and return to their planet - Matic's target was not the aliens but the tape, which has melted to a blob as temperatures reached five hundred degrees.
Notes:
• In a more 'space age action thriller' style story, Venus is more of a central character, and accompanies Steve on both missions, sidelining Professor Matic to some degree. This makes the story more like the series than its British TV21 counterpart.
• The stun guns looks like conventional pistols, and paralyse people where they stand. They also use the rather bizarre sound effect of 'CLANNNG!'
• The naming of the pilot of Fireball XL4 as Lieutenant Norris may be a Gold Key in-joke - Paul Norris was one of their regular artists. This has led some to believe he was also the artist on these strips.
• The views of Fireball Junior show it to have a smaller interior than in the series, and Professor Matic has a console there (left).
• This story suggests Fireball XL5 patrols within the solar system, in the vicinity of the planet Saturn.
• Robert apparently has the ability to translate coded messages.
• Oxygen pills are used when in space.

Reprints:
• Published in Mexico (Spanish language) as part of the 'Domingos Alegres' series, No. 611, dated 12 December 1965.

For reasons which are unclear (but would probably have been sales related), the expected fifth issue of Mike Mercury - Supercar failed to appear, and Steve Zodiac and the Fireball XL5 hit the newsstands instead later in the year. Unlike the first issue of Supercar, this contains no introduction, so it is up to the reader to pick things up as they go along. With an plot not unlike that of the series opening episode (aka 'Planet 46'), the first strip The Moon Masters allows the characters and format to be introduced in much the same manner. Trail of the Traitor is more of a standard pulp action adventure given some SF trappings, in a manner not too dissimilar to those strips which would later appear in TV Century 21.

It is believed both Paul Newman and George Wilson continued their contributions for scripts and cover respectively but the artist is still a matter of some speculation. Initially believed to be either Paul Norris or Frank Springer, Alberto Becattini is certain it is actually Mel Crawford who is responsible for the main strip. Crawford is also credited with the US Little Golden Book release for Supercar in 1962 (later reprinted by World Distributors in the UK) and while still alive and active as an artist, recalls nothing of the work after forty years.

Despite the success of Fireball XL5 in being the only Gerry Anderson series to be networked in America, the Gold Key issue remains a one-off. But it was translated into Spanish, and published by Western as just Steve Zodiac for the long-running imprint 'Domingos Alegres' (Happy Sundays) in Mexico in late 1965, with all four Supercar titles following in 1966. Central and South American readers (the issues seemingly distributed over most of the Spanish speaking continent) were able to enjoy the adventures of Mike Mercury, 'Profesor Pokis', 'Doctor Beker', 'Jaime' and his monkey Mitch. The Robert’s Robot strips were also included in each respective issue, though the text stories were not, usually replaced by an advert.



To conclude, the Gold Key tie-ins were a fair adaptation of their various series for the American comic market, and it is a shame the run was so short. Given the balance between capturing the style of each series, and trying to take the formats to a different level, it might have been nice to see how they fared with the other Anderson productions like Stingray, Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet...

Image: Another of Wallace Wood's sketches for the Fireball XL5 lunchbox, courtesy of Bhob Stewart


The Complete Gerry Anderson Comic Guide would also like to thank:
• Alberto Becattini - for his extensive knowledge of Dell & Gold Key comics.
• Christopher Irving - for his extensive knowledge of Dell & Gold Key comics as well.
• Jim Vadeboncoeur Jr, co-writer of the Wallace Wood Checklist, and this online biography of the artist
• Bhob Stewart, co-writer of the Wallace Wood Checklist - Readers who would like to follow up the work of Wallace Wood are invited by Bhob to read his blog at: http://potrzebie.blogspot.com
• Mel and Ginni Crawford
• William C. Barrow - Cleveland State University Library
• Michael Borth
• Fernando Franco
• and Harvey Rainess
- for their valued assistance and contributions to this feature.

Version 1.2 - 16.04.06



Any comments or notes about any of the strips, please contact technodelic@blueyonder.co.uk.


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