The British publisher Time Bomb Comics has signed a deal with Anderson Entertainment to produce comics based on the television properties created by Gerry Anderson. In the 1960s, Anderson and his wife, Sylvia, developed a number of television shows that used puppetry and animation in a combination they called Supermarionation (a portmanteau of “marionette” and “animation”). The most successful of these was Thunderbirds, which ran from 1964 to 1966. The Andersons also produced the live-action TV show Space: 1999.

Time Bomb will be kicking off this new licensing deal with comics based on three other properties: New Captain Scarlet, Space Precinct and Terrahawks, which will be collected in a 44-page, full-color, perfect-bound anthology, Spectrum, that will be crowdfunded on Kickstarter beginning on April 1.

New Captain Scarlet was a 1990s reboot of the 1960s show Captain Scarlet, using CGI technology instead of puppetry. The show is a space opera with the title character battling aliens called Mysterons. Terrahawks is about a group of humans defending the Earth, and Space Precincts is a police procedural set in outer space.

The creative teams for the new comics are writer Steve Tanner and artist Pete Woods (artist) on New Captain Scarlet,writer Richmond A Clements and artist James Gray on Space Precinct, and writer Dan Whitehead and artist Ste Pickford on Terrahawks. Gray will do the lettering for all three. The cover will be by Steve Pugh, whose work includes Animal Man, DC’s The Flintstones, Billionaire Island, and Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass.

Anderson died in 2012 at the age of 83 (see “R.I.P. Gerry Anderson”). The comics have been approved by Anderson’s son, Jamie Anderson, Managing Director and COO of Anderson Entertainment. The licensing deal was brokered by Larkshead Licensing.

"Spectrum marks the first licensed title released through Time Bomb Comics and I'm delighted it features characters and concepts that are truly warmly recognised around the world,” said Tanner, who is the owner and publisher of Time Bomb Comics, in the official announcement of the licensing deal. “Like many of my generation I grew up enjoying the television shows created by Gerry Anderson and I'm thrilled that we've partnered with Anderson Entertainment to create new stories featuring some of his most iconic shows.”