From the legendary creator, television and film producer, director, writer, and occasional voice artist Gerry Anderson, comes a new graphic novel from Time Bomb Comics. Based on an unreleased TV show, Project Sword is coming to Kickstarter soon.
An original graphic novel of the Gerry Anderson show which never was!
Time Bomb Comics is delighted to announce Gerry Anderson’s Project SWORD. This new full-length graphic novel, written by Lizbeth Myles (Big Finish’s Doctor Who, Blake’s 7 and Survivor) with artwork by James Gray (IDW, Star Trek, Gerry Anderson’s Space Precinct), is based on a 1960s Gerry Anderson TV series concept that was never fully realized.
Set in the year 3031, Project SWORD imagines a future reshaped by catastrophe when a colossal meteorite strikes Earth and burrows into its core. Rather than ending the world outright, it destabilises the planet. Vast regions sink beneath rising seas, volcanic activity tears at the surface, and civilisation faces a slow, frightening collapse. The responsibility for saving humanity falls to the Space World Organisation for Research and Development - Project SWORD.
The title is the latest release as part of Time Bomb’s successful ongoing licensing partnership with Anderson Entertainment Ltd to produce original comics based on series created by enduring fan-favourite Gerry Anderson. The Spectrum anthology showcased stories from the worlds of New Captain Scarlet, Space Precinct and Terrahawks. Unlike those, however, Project SWORD’s TV show was never released.
Unusually for the time, Project SWORD’s tie-in merchandise was launched ahead of the show to create excitement. Unfortunately, the series was never produced. For 60 years many Gerry Anderson fans have wondered what it might have looked like based on the details suggested by the toys produced, the serialised strips in TV21 comic weekly, and a one-off comic Annual.
“The creator brief was simple,” explained Time Bomb Publisher Steve Tanner, “to imagine Gerry Anderson’s Project SWORD as a popular contemporary TV show being produced today but still retaining the unique Anderson tone and style of old, and then create a faithful comics adaptation of one of its episodes!”
This approach has resulted in artist James Gray taking the original concept ideas and creating modern designs, vehicles and hardware inspired by Gerry Anderson’s sixties vision, but all approved by Jamie Anderson of Anderson Entertainment.
Speaking on how she rose to the challenge of building the world of Project SWORD, Lizbeth Myles said; “It was a fascinating challenge. Gerry Anderson has created many incredible worlds, but few exist as a single annual for an unmade telly show. Even with so little material, I wanted to be true to what there was, which meant drawing on nibbles of world-building, characters with only a panel or two, and epic vehicles that had pictures but were never in any of the annual’s stories.”
Time Bomb Comics will be launching a Kickstarter campaign for Gerry Anderson’s Project SWORD at the end of April, also feature exclusive reward content, through which advance digital and printed editions of the book will be available before the full release later this year.
The Kickstarter campaign can be found here:
