Fireball XL5 Annuals

There were four Fireball XL5 annuals produced during the 1960's.

They are hardcover books with a mix of comic strips and text stories, puzzles and games.
Here's a brief rundown on each annual.
Fireball annual cover 1963

1963
92 pages
Authors Dennis Spooner and John Hynam
Artists Eric Eden, Eddie Paul and Gerry Embleton
7 Comic strip stories.
4 Text stories.
7 pages of puzzles and games.
Many of the stories in this annual are similar to episodes from the series - though they are not identical.
We don't know if they were based on the original pre-production scripts or just the result of lazy writers copying ideas from the show.
Dennis Spooner was also a script writer for the Fireball XL5 series.
Eric Eden and Jerry Embleton both did artwork for TV21 comic.
Eric Eden specialized in the XL5 strips for TV21 - he also did nice endpapers for the first two XL5 annuals.

Fireball Annual cover 1964 1964
92 pages
All stories and features by Alan Fennel
Artists Eric Eden, Eddie Paul, Gerry Embleton and Gerry Wood
7 Comic strips
4 Text stories
7 pages of puzzles and games
Alan Fennel was also a script writer for Fireball XL5 and also editor of the TV21 comic.
Eric Eden and Jerry Embleton both did artwork for TV21 comic.
Fireball annual cover 1965 1965
92 pages
Authors B. Motton & J. Dennison
Artists E. Eden, B. Walduck, R. Hamilton
7 Comic strips
4 Text stories
6 Puzzles & games
End papers are not signed.
fireball annual cover 1966 1966
92 pages
Authors S. Goodall, D. Motton and R. Maile
Artists T. Hurst, R. Hamilton H. Turner
7 Comic strips
4 Text stories
7 Puzzles and games
R Hamilton illustrated 'Agent 21' strips for TV21. Endpapers are not signed by the artist - though they are nice.
Oddly, in this annual, when in space the crew unaccountably wear goldfish bowl space helmets (no spacesuits). Very un-XL5 like.
TV21 cover The TV21 annual published in 1966 contains a very nice double page cutaway drawing of Fireball XL5.
Cutaway drawing of Fireball

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