Front Page (series)

Front Page was a comic strip published in TV Century 21 during the latter half of 1967.

It heavily played into the established format of the magazine, that TV21 was a genuine news organisation which reported on events within a futuristic shared universe where all its stories and articles took place. Front Page centred around the in-universe version of TV Century 21 from the 2060s, with fictional staff members Pete Tracker and Lens Sharpe, a reporter and photographer respectively, as main characters.

The series was perhaps most notable for helping to promote the television series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons prior to its premiere broadcast, just as comic strips titled The Angels, The Mysterons and The Mark of the Mysterons were doing in fellow City Magazines publications Lady Penelope, TV Tornado and Solo around the same time. Front Page's second story SPECTRUM marked the comic debut of Captain Black who had been introduced to readers of TV21 some months previously in a cover story. His mysterious return to Earth and subsequent disappearance which was left unresolved here would be explained in the first episode of Captain Scarlet a few days later.

Crossovers with the DWU
Owing to its place within the shared universe of TV21, which originally included The Daleks, multiple Front Page stories utilised elements from the Doctor Who universe. For example, The Premonitions recalled a previous Fireball XL5 crossover by referencing the Kaplan of Astra, a planet first mentioned in the television story The Rescue, while The Giant Seed featured Unity City, a location first introduced in The Daleks comic strip. Both stories also had cliffhangers which seamlessly led into the next.

The following Front Page stories contained DWU elements and are thus covered on this Wiki: