The Merchandise GuideComics: Look-In
Compiled by Martin Willey
The Merchandise GuideAllen was born in 1936 and died in 2007 (wikipedia). Allen started as an office junior at comics publisher Amalgamated Press, eventually becoming co-editor with Alan Fennell of monthly cowboy comics. He then became a free-lance writer, often working for Fennell, who became editor of the Gerry Anderson comic TV21 (1965-1971), the associated Anderson annuals, and Look-In (1971-1975; he continued to work for the comic when Fennell left and art editor Colin Shelborn took over as editor). Fennell was also on the board of World Distributors who published many TV annuals, and Allen was the main writer on many of them, including the Space: 1999 annuals.
As a free-lance writer he was rarely credited, but he was named on the title page of the novelisation Thunderbirds Are Go (1966), and in the Look-In competitions he was also named. Despite all the TV work, he rarely met any actors or production people, but he did get to meet Martin Landau through one of the competitions, remembering him as "charming and interested" (Landau was a former newspaper cartoonist).
1938-2023, Wikipedia. Burns' first major work was on the UK annual for Champion The Wonder Horse in 1958, and he worked on many comics including TV21 (on "Catch or Kill", 1966-67) and Lady Penelope (on the title strip, 1967). He later worked on TV Action (the "UFO" and "Mission: Impossible" strips, 1972), and then Look-In, notably on "The Tomorrow People" from 1973 and "Kung Fu" from 1974, before starting the "Space: 1999" strip in 1975. He also did the strips for the 1975 Space: 1999 annual. Later on Look-In he worked on "The Bionic Woman" from 1976 and "Buck Rogers" from 1981. In 1991 he started with work on 2000 A.D. on the "Judge Dredd" strip, and in 1999 became one of the artists on "Nikolai Dante" and in 2014 "The Order".
Burns' colourful, dynamic style was distinctive and widely admired. He was a master of exciting layout, striking character poses and vivid, near abstract colour.
1930-2018, Wikipedia. Noble's first comic strip was for Robin in 1953 (a younger companion title to the more famous Eagle); in the 1960s he became involved in TV tie-in comics with "The Lone Ranger" in Express Weekly and later TV Action. In 1965 he began to draw for the Gerry Anderson comic TV21 first on "Fireball XL5" followed by "Zero X" and notably on the cover featured stories of "Captain Scarlet" from 1967. From 1971 he worked on numerous Look-In strips, notably "Follyfoot", "The Adventures of Black Beauty" and "The Tomorrow People", before swapping jobs with John Burns to take "Space: 1999". He was particularly fond of hi work on "Worzel Gummidge" (1980-1981).
Noble was very strong on characters and dynamic poses, and he could equally apply that energy to hardware.
1927-2012, Wikipedia. Putzu began working as artist for Italian film posters. In the 1950s he was brought to Britain to work on British film posters. From 1973 until 1981 he did the majority of the covers for Look-In, painting pop-stars, TV actors and film stars.
Copyright Martin Willey