Space Precinct #2

21 Nov 1995. Cover price £1.25.
36 pages. Full colour.
Manga Publishing Ltd.

Edited by Cefn Ridout.

Cover by John Erasmus.

Contents:

 2 Patlabor 2 The Movie in-house advertisement for videocassette.

 3 Gerry Anderson's Space Precinct 2040 introduction by Cefn Ridout. / Contents / Indicia

 4 Case Review The Last Warrior recap.

 5 The Last Warrior, part two, w: Ian Carney; a: John Erasmus, lettering by Annie Parkhouse.

17 Street Fighter II Animated in-house advertisement for videocassette.

18 Police Cruiser cutaway by Graham Bleathman.

20 The Anderson Tapes, part one, Gerry Anderson interview by Peter J. Evans; photographs (uncredited).

21 The Anderson Tapes The Anderson Series, part one, outline of Gerry Anderson television series'.

23 Breaking the Barriers in-house advertisement for Crying Freeman, The X-Files: Firebird, Dirty Pair: Dangerous Acquaintances, Gerry Anderson's Space Precinct 2040, and Tank Girl: The Odyssey graphic novels.

29 Arcadia w:/a: David Hine, lettering by Elitta Fell, colouring by Nigel Parkinson.

30 Roll Call Police Officer Jack Haldane fact file by Lee Brimmicombe Wood.

31 All Action Spider-Man Caps advertisement for Panini.

32 Book Guide The Deity Father recap by Jim Swallow.

33 Space Precinct Paperback Books to be Won! competition.

34 Episode Guide Protect and Serve recap by Peter J. Evans.

35 In the Next Issue of Space Precinct

36 Double the Pages! Double the Action! in-house advertisement for Mortal Kombat Tournament Edition.

A superbly evocative cover, capturing the leads in action - and in a manner which the series never quite achieved - the second issue builds upon the fantastic start to the series. It shouldn't be a surprise that The Last Warrior is building to be a very distinguished story, but the art is truly worthy of being placed alongside the classic sixties' strips. There's a great story as well, with solid characterization, an ear for dialogue, and some brilliant observations.

Graham Bleathman's cutaways are proving to be thoroughly enjoyable, with enough detail in the key to answer niggling concerns.

August 1995 and there's no end in sight to the heatwave that's gripped Britain this summer. And just when you thought it couldn't get any hotter, the sun pops out over rural Oxfordshire and Gerry Anderson's household starts to slowly broil. Gerry himself was preparing for his role as guest of honour at Worldcon in Glasgow a few days later, but despite the heat and his undeniably hectic schedule, the legend in his own primetime agreed to speak to Space Precinct Magazine about life, the universe and luxury cars.

The Anderson Tapes has a few revelations about the way the series made it to screen, and explains how Grove Television got involved. It is amusing to know that he wasn't particularly interested in SF, initially wishing to move away from puppets into "real" film-making, when his shows have outlasted nearly everything broadcast contemporaneously. A (brief) outline of the various programmes lists everything up to 1968's Thunderbird Six, though I would be more interested in the shows (like Space Police) which never quite reached television screens.

To the East of Demeter an imposing structure has bloomed like an exotic desert orchid in the arid wasteland. A wonderland known as Arcadia

Soon after its completion, the sons and daughters of Demeter City's elite are made an offer they can't refuse.

The wacky cult featured in Arcadia is in no way based on the Scientology cult.

Its leader, Bagaan, a red-skinned alien, offers the youths the means to travel to the boundless worlds of hyper-reality. After returning home, the son of a prominent city councillor demands to be taken back to Arcadia. Bagaan tells the youth's father that he has become hopelessly addicted to hyper-reality, and offers to de-program him in exchange for the man's support in relaxing gaming legislation in Demeter City.

There was an opportunity to explore the darker edges of Demeter in the comic, with stories which might not have passed network scrutiny, though instead of examining inter-species hostility, the effects of food, drink, and environment on differing physiologies, or political schisms created by differing outlooks on the universe, we get a story which could have been slipped into a late-period episode of The Avengers, or even The Champions.

A look at the first Space Precinct novel, The Deity Father, is an interesting piece of cross-promotion, and is seriously tempting me to go hunt for a copy. It is immediately followed by a competition in which twenty lucky readers had the opportunity to get their hands on a copy gratis. Slick.

As with The X-Files, there are one-page episode guides, of questionable use. Surely fans of the series will have been picking up either SFX or some other magazines covering the series, so replicating the information in the tie-in title is... odd.

Well worth its place in the Anderson canon.

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Space Precinct

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