THINGS ARE NEVER QUITE THE SAME AFTER 43, ARE THEY?

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Y'know, 43 is a number of significance when it comes to TV Century 21 - from my perspective anyway, even if no one else's.  Or maybe it was 42, but I think it was 43.  It all depends on precisely what date #43 went on sale.  It bears the date of November 13th, but I'm not sure how far ahead TV21 was dated - it may only have been a few days instead of a full week, but I associate the Fireball XL5 strip in that week's issue with the house we moved from on the 8th, so I'm assuming that's where I read it, not the house we moved to.

Does it matter?  Well, obviously not to you - why should you care? - but it does to me.  Could it be a coincidence that, while I recall every Fireball, Stingray, and Lady Penelope story up to the 43rd issue, not many of them ever made the same kind of impression on me after that, aside from the Stingray adventure in issues 45-51?  I do remember all The Daleks strips, though I sometimes mistakenly connect some of the ones after #43 with my old house before they were even published, but at least I haven't forgotten them.

"Right, so get to the point, you waffling bag of wind!" you may be thinking.  ("No 'may be' about it!" you cry.)  Well, those 43 issues represent the house I was living in at the time, the first primary school I went to (I often bought the comic en route), and pretty much the period of my life between January and November 1965 (or 2065 if you prefer).  Sunny summer days, snowy Christmases, atmos-pheric Hallowe'ens, and smoky Guy Fawkes nights (I speak in the plural, though we actually only had one full summer and a single Christmas in that house), all encapsulated in memory in those 43 issues.

It's possible the early issues made more of an impression on me due to the fact that it was a new comic, and the thrill of that gave it a momentum for close to the first year before levelling off somewhat.  Also, I was soon to discover the thrill of the Odhams Power Comics and their reprinted Marvel stories, and that was a pretty hard act to compete with, especially after The Daleks strip disappeared from TV21 after number 104.

Anyway, the above preamble explains why I'm showing you those first 43 issues, and justifies me going to the effort of laying them all out on the floor and photographing them.  Remember, I did it just for you Crivvies, so if you feel slightly tempted to leave a comment of appreciation, then don't hold back.  Oh, and I also have quite a number of subsequent issues in its various formats, which I'll doubtless get around to showing you some day.

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Incidentally, checking this post just before I press 'publish', I now wish I'd taken the photos the other way around.  By that I mean, the first three issues together instead of the last.  Oh well, they're all tucked away again back in their cupboard so I'm not digging them out to re-photograph 

Posted in: Cartoons