DC Thomson cancels Thunderbirds Are Go magazine

By John Freeman on November 23, 2016

The next issue of DC Thomson’s Thunderbirds Are Go magazine is to be the last.

Priced £3.99 and launched last October, the magazine was aimed at children aged six to 12. Each issue of the magazine contained adaptations of transmitted stories, mega make-its, jokes, comic adventures, Brains’ coolest gadgets and a Thunderbirds Are Go branded gift.

The cover of Thunderbirds Are Go Issue One, published by DC Thomson

Subscribers to the title received letters confirming that the magazine is being cancelled from DC Thomson yesterday, noting that if they did not contact the company to request a refund that the subscription would be transferred to another comic.

Bizarrely, the deadline for doing so is 23rd November – today. This doesn’t seem very fair to us and we suspect it may well be something you might want to check against your consumer rights if you did subscribe, particularly as DC Thomson doesn’t publish anything remotely similar.

Sadly, despite the growing following for ITV’s Thunderbirds Are Go TV show, rebooting the 1960s classic series Thunderbirds, the magazine just didn’t hack it for fans.

Although recent issues have seen some format changes and featured some great originated strip drawn by Martin Baines, the title was I think marred by a decision to launch last year with “comic strips” that were retreads of transmitted episodes of the show using captioned screenshots.

This approach didn’t work for the similarly-formatted New Adventures of Captain Scarlet magazine, either.

Reaction to the news has been mixed. One of the team who worked on early dummies noted what arrived on the news stands fell quite short of its potential.

Others complimented its early free gifts but many felt the content overall slight and not worth the £3.99 cover price.

It’s a shame the title has failed and does perhaps illustrate the benefits of some UK publishers who have only taken up the license for a popular TV show once it’s found an audience. Judging the right time to do this of course, before the show itself has run its course, is no easy decision.

DC Thomson’s other boys titles, produced by the same team, Danger Mouse and EPIC!, are unaffected.

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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.