Time Tunnel: The Complete Series [Paperback]

Tom Gill (Author, Artist), George Wilson (Author, Artist)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 2009

It's back! The complete reprints of the Gold Key Time Tunnel comic book series, in full color and digitally remastered! This second volume of Hermes Press's complete reprints of all of the Irwin Allen sci-fi television series tie-in comic books, Time Tunnel: The Complete Series features documentary material, essays, blue prints from the show, and more!

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Hermes Press (October 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932563334
• ISBN-13: 978-1932563337
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,157,734 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A NICE FIND!, March 6, 2010

By 

Charlie Gee (Maine, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Time Tunnel: The Complete Series (Paperback)

As a young boy, I watched the TIME TUNNEL when it first aired on TV. The adventures of Doug and Tony lost in time really inspired my imagination and I was sorry that the show lasted only one season. Like many others, I never forgot it and was very glad when the shows were released on DVD. Today, through an older eye, some of the stories don't hold up as well but the episodes are still a lot of fun to watch.

I never knew that the series had appeared in comic book form until I stumbled upon this book being offered for sale on Amazon. I purchased it and am pleased that I did. The artwork is very good, the coloring impressive, and the storylines are interesting. There's Abraham Lincoln, Pompeii, a trip to Mars, and George Custer. As you might guess, it's a quick read, but, even so, there's plenty to savor. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the TIME TUNNEL tv series. As with VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, the book is well constructed and includes the great cover artwork for the two issues included, as well as some behind-the-scenes information and photos from the show.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding!, January 8, 2010

By 

Tim Lasiuta "Comic Fan 42" (Red Deer, Alberta) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Time Tunnel: The Complete Series (Paperback)

Time Tunnel Volume One

It, for all intensive purposes, was the pioneer Time Travel TV series. "Time Tunnel" was not a particularly successful series, yet it broke ground for shows like Star Trek, Dr Who, and Quantum Leap that built on `What if?'.

The TV series was amazing and built on an understanding that `modern' man has much to offer the past. Project Tictoc transported Tony and Doug into unfamiliar situations week after week. Western Publishing licensed the series in 1967/1968 and produced a short memorable run by Tom Gill and an un-named writer, probably Gaylord duBois or Paul S Neuman.

Both issues are represented in this volume and what amazes me is the absolute quality of the art and color reproduction. The art is crisp and solid, and the lettering reflects a near photographic quality. Sometimes it fades, and at other times it appears to have been altered and corrected. I know, for a fact, that the color from the original book did not look that good. Now it does. Dan Herman and his crew are very, very, good.

The cover artist, George Wilson, worked for Western Publishing and Avon books doing covers for the Phantom paperbacks in the 1970's. Tom Gill, one of comicdoms' finest amabassadors, illustrated both issues with his usual skill.

This is a fantastic book. I look forward to Voyage At the Bottom of the Sea in January.

[...]

Tim Lasiuta

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Geared toward collectors or anyone intersted in classic comics., November 16, 2010

By 

GraphicNovelReporter.com (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Time Tunnel: The Complete Series (Paperback)

While the Time Tunnel TV series lasted only 30 episodes and ran for less than one year, many science-fiction fans regard it with nostalgia, and as with many sci-fi properties of the era, there were product and comic book tie-ins that related to the show. Time Tunnel's life was brief but memorable and spawned two issues of a comic book series that have been collected by Hermes Press.

Readers who are familiar with the series already know that they shouldn't expect a great deal of depth or scientific insight from Time Tunnel. The modus operandi of much 1960s science fiction was bombastic pseudo-science and speculation about things that science didn't truly grasp yet (but desperately wanted to), and Time Tunnel embraces this apologetically: A couple of hapless scientists have thrown themselves into their "time tunnel," Quantum Leap-style, and hop around in time--usually, and very coincidentally, to historic moments at which they invariably hope to turn the tide, and constantly fail.

Or maybe they don't fail. Maybe their bumbling turns history in the precise direction that we now know it, playing into the "secret history" genre of science fiction. That's about as deep as these comics get.

Their approach to traveling in time breaks every tenet of time travel that science fiction fans hold dear: Don't mess up the past, don't tell people that you're from the future, and generally, don't be an idiot. Between the two issues collected here, the pair of scientists fight Native Americans, future Nazis, citizens of Pompeii, and just about everyone they meet. After they fail to stop the assassination of President Lincoln by yelling at anyone within earshot like lunatics, they proceed to their next encounter in another era and do the same thing. All of this has an excited, ebullient charm, as if two children were using history as a playground. Two relatively intelligent scientists sit back at headquarters, watching them trip through time but unable to communicate with them in any way. More often than not, the travelers get themselves into an impossible mess and are only rescued by disappearing back into the time tunnel at the very last moment.

If there's a deeper lesson in this, I'm not certain where to find it, but this kind of Silver Age excitement is hard to match. There's a purity of intent that transcends a directionless kind of storytelling.

The reproduction quality of these pages is slightly fuzzy, though Hermes has chosen to retain the off-center registration of some of the original published colors, lending it a feeling of authenticity. The scans of these original pages could definitely be clearer, but it doesn't prevent enjoyment of the comic.

While this collection is more strongly geared toward collectors, there's definitely an appeal for anyone who is interested in classic comics, or a very superficial (and likely incorrect) view of historical events. Violence doesn't extend beyond the typical guns and fistfights present in most fiction of this genre, and the appearance of futuristic Nazis bearing swastikas might need an explanation for younger readers, but at the end of two issues, I was left wanting for more, which can't possibly be a bad thing.

-- Collin David