The Return Of ….THUNDERCATS!

THUNDERCATS 001
Panini Magazines
Full colour
36 pages
£2.99


It has taken me a LOT of looking around since Tesco and Asda had no copies and the guy in W.H. Smith told me there had been no Thundercats comics “in years!” I eventually found a single copy that I almost missed as it was the usual plastic bag with toy and a very cheap sweet (really? In 2012 companies STILL put sweets in with these things!) and “magazine” -not comic but “magazine”- attached.
In case you need a reference for when looking:

Which, after you break it down into its components -

Nice looking cover.

Most of the old Thundercats fans are going to wonder what’s in this magazine? 

Well, “Meet The Thundercats” for those who have no idea who they are. Then a page on the Thundercats toys, of course.  There is a look at the Thundertank, no doubt a pre-launch toy.  A single page photo-strip using the toys (I thought that had died a death years ago) so an advert.  A reverse poster of the Thundercats and opp side Mumm-Ra. A couple of naffish games plus an intro “Your letters and pictures” pages and then an ad offering the chance to win  Thundercats toys -followed by another ad for next issue where you can get a free “Thunder Bow” (not real size!).

It’s a 36 pager and out of that only 13 pages are comic strip. This means 23 pages of “fluff”.  I say “fluff” because the strong-point of this magazine is the comic strip. It looks sort of Manga-ish so that ought to appeal to a lot of Manga fans. Not sure what the died-in-the-wool US style comic fans will think but I think it worth trying.

The script of “Safe Haven” is by Ferg Handley and seems okay to me. There is some very clean and neat looking artwork by Cosmo White -I’m guessing drawn on a computer?  Whatever, nothing wrong with it and it was a surprise as I wasn’t expecting to like it.  What makes the artwork stand out even more is the incredible colour work done by Kat Nicholson.  It’s bright. It’s colourful and it just takes the comic up to the next level.

With this quality Panini should be promoting the magazine using the artwork.  Instead the magazine is just sitting lamely (if you can find it) in amongst all the other mags-in-bags dross.  And there are plenty of people out there you WANT to see this -my 2 pager preview a week or so was leeched off/linked to by quite a few Thundercat fans/sites.

Why is Panini NOT promoting this????!!!!

I just sit here totally stumped.  A new “magazine” just chucked on the shelves with no announcements -Panini SHOULD be taking advantage of the UK comics press/web sites/blogs.

Worth trying to get for the comic strip!