Lady Penelope

The boy’s comic TV Century 21 began in January 1965 and initially was incredibly popular (with the young me) as most of the strips within it were related to Gerry Anderson TV shows of the time. By January 1966 a weekly companion comic for girls was available. “Lady Penelope” was the title and naturally Penelope Creighton-Ward was the star.

Like “TV Century 21”, “Lady Penelope” had a number of  strips that related to TV shows. The fact that two of the strips were “Bewitched” and “The Monkees” (my favourite shows then…actually come to think of it they’d probably be my favourite shows now if I was left in peace and quiet with a few boxed sets and some drinks…) meant that I begged and borrowed the comics when I could from a neighbour. Heck, I even bought a few issues from the local newsagents myself if the Monkees were on the front cover. So what if it was a girl’s comic. I used to buy DC’s “Love Story” if Neal Adams had drawn the cover !!

Alas although the comic lasted for 204 issues my interest in it had disappeared by issue 123 when there was a name change to “Penelope” and it lost the Gerry Anderson stuff and reverted to a more traditional girl’s comic.