Project SWORD comes to Kickstarter: Time Bomb Comics Revives a Forgotten Anderson Classic

Time Bomb Comics has announced Gerry Anderson's Project SWORD. The graphic novel is written by Lizbeth Myles (Big Finish's Doctor Who, Blake's 7 and Survivor). James Gray (IDW, Star Trek, Gerry Anderson's Space Precinct) provides the artwork. It is based on a 1960s Gerry Anderson TV series concept that was never made.

The story is set in the year 3031. A colossal meteorite strikes Earth and burrows into its core. It does not end the world, but it shakes the planet to its core. Vast regions sink beneath rising seas. Volcanoes tear at the surface. Civilisation faces a slow, terrible collapse. The task of saving humanity falls to the Space World Organisation for Research and Development - Project SWORD.

This title is part of Time Bomb's ongoing deal with Anderson Entertainment Ltd. The deal lets them make original comics based on Gerry Anderson's series. A previous release, the Spectrum anthology, drew on New Captain Scarlet, Space Precinct and Terrahawks. Project SWORD is different - its TV show was never made.

Unusually for the time, Project SWORD's tie-in products launched before the show. The aim was to build excitement. But the series was never produced. For 60 years, Gerry Anderson fans have wondered what it might have looked like. The only clues come from the toys, the strips in TV21 comic weekly, and a one-off 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!"

Artist James Gray took the original concept ideas as his starting point. He created modern designs, vehicles and hardware based on Gerry Anderson's sixties vision. All of his work has been approved by Jamie Anderson of Anderson Entertainment.

Lizbeth Myles spoke about the challenge of building the world of Project SWORD. She 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 launch a Kickstarter campaign for Gerry Anderson's Project SWORD at the end of April. The campaign will offer exclusive reward content. Fans can get advance digital and print editions before the full release later this year.

The Kickstarter campaign can be found here.