The New People Comic Books

The New People was a forty-five minute drama that aired on ABC between September of 1969 and January of 1970. In the first episode, a few dozen college students are stranded on an island in the South Pacific. Although they have an abundance of food and other supplies (not to mention buildings, dune buggies and rifles) they have no way of contacting the outside world. Alone, they are forced to build their own society, a new society they hope will be better than the one they left behind.

After seventeen episodes, The New People was taken off the air. Despite the short amount of time the series was on the air, it produced a surprising amount of tie-in memorabilia. An original novel by author Alex Steele, They Came From The Sea, was published by Tempo Books in September of 1969. Additionally, Dell released a pair of comic books, the first in January of 1970 and the second in May of the same year.

Each of the comic books contains two original stories. From Issue #1 (January 1970): one of the new people claims ownership of an abandoned ship that washes ashore in “For the Guilt of One;” only one man is unaffected by an illness that strikes the island in “Sole Survivor.” From Issue #2 (May 1970): a man who doesn’t want the survivors to be rescued tries to sabatoge efforts to contact help in “So Close…So Far;” the survivors are shocked when a mysterious stranger begins stalking one of the women on the island in “Odd Man Out.”

Here are the covers to the two issues. Click on the covers to see larger versions.

Here is the first page from the first issue. To see a larger version and the next four pages, click on the image.

At least one of the issues was released in Mexico through publisher Organización Editorial Novaro, S.A. Issue #202 of TV Mundial (Worldwide TV), originally published August 7th, 1971, was a reprint of the second issue, with text in Spanish. According to the Yahoo! Babel Fish online translator, the title “Los Atrapados” means “The Catched Ones” in English.

Here is the cover to the Mexican reprint. Click on the cover to see a larger version.

Here the fifth page from Dell’s The New People Issue #2. Click on the image to see a larger version.

And here is the corresponding fifth page from TV Mundial Issue #202. Click on the image to see a larger version.

The first issue may also have been reprinted in Mexico. It is also possible that the Dell comics were reprinted in other countries as well. Copies of Dell’s The New People comics, of varying quality and price, are often up for auction or sale on sites like eBay.

Last Updated July 18th, 2008