Category: Dan Dare

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The Dan Dare Dossier


By Norman Wright, Mike Higgs, Frank Hampson, William Patterson & Don Harley, Keith Watson & various (Hawk Books)
ISBN: 978-0-94824-812-2 (tabloid HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Launching on April 14th 1950 and running until 26th April 1969, Eagle was the most influential comic of post-war Britain, and possibly in our nation’s history. It was the brainchild of a Southport vicar, the Reverend Marcus Morris, who was increasingly concerned about the detrimental effects of American comic-books on British children and wanted a good, solid, middle-class Christian antidote.

Seeking out like-minded creators he peddled a dummy edition around British publishers for over a year with little success until he found an unlikely home at Hulton Press, a company that produced general interest magazines such as Lilliput and Picture Post. The result was a huge hit which soon spawned age and gender-specific clones Swift, Robin and Girl which targeted the other key demographic sectors of the children’s market.

A huge number of soon-to-be prominent creative figures worked on the weekly, and although Dan Dare is deservedly revered as the star, many other strips were as popular at the time, with many even rivalling the lead in quality and entertainment value. Eagle’s mighty pantheon included radio and film star attraction P.C. 49, soon to be TV sensation Captain Pugwash, (BBC) radio cowboy Jeff Arnold/Riders of the Range and the inimitable Harris Tweed – who swiftly became stars of other media and promotional tie-in like books, puzzles, toys, games, apparel and comestibles as well as and all other sorts of ancillary merchandising.

At its peak Eagle sold close to a million copies a week, but inevitably, changing tastes and a game of “musical owners” killed the title. In 1960, Hulton sold out to Odhams, who became Longacre Press. A year later they were bought by The Daily Mirror Group who evolved into IPC. In cost-cutting exercises many later issues carried cheap(er) Marvel Comics reprints rather than British-originated material. It took time but those Yankee Cultural Invaders won out in the end. With the April 26th 1969 issue Eagle was subsumed into cheap ‘n’ cheerful iron clad anthology Lion, eventually disappearing altogether. Successive generations have revived the title, but never the success.

There is precious little that I can say about Dan Dare that hasn’t been said before and better. What I will say is that everything you’ve heard is true. Vintage Dan Dare strips by Frank Hampson and his hand-picked team of dedicated artists are a high point in world, let alone British comics, ranking beside Tintin, Asterix, Tetsuwan Atomu, Lone Wolf & Cub and the best of Kirby, Adams, Toth, Noel Sickles, Milt Caniff, Roy Crane, Carl Barks and Elzie Segar.

If you don’t like this stuff, there’s probably nothing any of us can do to change your mind, and all we can do is hope you never breed.

Accepting that there is a part of national culture which is Forever Dare, here’s a long overdue second peek at an item which will delight all boys (and many girls, even though they had their own comics back then!) of a certain age which – despite its own vintage – is happily still readily available through internet vendors. In fact there’s a true abundance of books to read out there, all economically priced, so why not go hog-wild in this 75th anniversary year?

The boldly colourful, magnificently oversized (333 x 242 mm), resolutely hardbacked Dan Dare Dossier was published in 1990 and offers everything any devotee could wish to know and see. It is completely packed with mouthwatering artwork and photos, tantalising examples of memorabilia, classic strips and even unseen/unpublished material by a phalanx of the original creators.

Heavily illustrated throughout, it all begins with ‘The Rise of Dan Dare’, detailing the history of science fiction, development of comics – especially Eagle – and by offering a potted biography of Hampson, his team and Dan’s serried exploits. Simultaneously, those great big pages present unseen monochrome strip adventure ‘Dan & Donanza’ by the master himself, wherein our doughty heroes go haring across the solar system in pursuit of a fallen dictator who has turned the moon into a giant bomb…

Following is an expansive itinerary of the major characters involved over the years in ‘Actors against a Solar Backdrop’ before ‘The Hardware File’ offers an eye-popping selection of plans, designs and extracted strip illustrations displaying the vast wealth of ships, kit and tech invented over the decades by the assembled strip-creators, paying especial attention to Space Transports and Dan & Digby’s venerable runabout Anastasia.

More bravura virtuosity is celebrated in ‘Aliens & Their Worlds’ as pertinent and beautiful clips and snippets highlight the amazing variety of extraterrestrial races and species.

Sharing a few pages with new black-&-white comedic strip ‘Digby – the Guinea Pig’ is a rundown of some of ‘The Artists’ who toiled collaboratively to produce the stunningly painted 2-pages-per-week (Hampson, Harold Johns, Eric Eden, Don Harley, Bruce Cornwell, Desmond Walduck, Frank Bellamy, Keith Watson and more); followed in turn by a fascinating trivia- and memorabilia-stuffed appreciation of the dauntless chaps’ five years on radio in ‘Dan Dare, Pilot of the Airwaves’…

Wisely taking a break from all that factual stuff, ‘Full Colour Adventure: Dan Dare in The Planulid’ reprints a rousing tale of a monstrous invasion of Earth (first seen in The Dan Dare Space Annual 1963) before the rousing envy/glee-fest resumes with a grand examination of the breathtaking wealth of ‘Merchandise & Ephemera’ the strip generated. On view is a procession of numerous ray guns and rocket pistols (none of which ever paralysed or disintegrated any of MY enemies worth a damn!); games; puzzles; buttons; badges; stencil-kits; clothing; models; action-figures; home picture-film strips and projectors; walkie-talkies; all manner of books and print novelties and so much more…

Adjacent and in parallel with a full ‘Dan Dare Chronology’ is the immensely rare and sadly unappreciated newspaper strip ‘Mission to the Stars’ by William Patterson & Don Harley, which ran every Sunday in The People from April to October 1964, all capped off by the demise of the dream thanks to changing tastes and commercial mismanagement, as detailed in ‘Changes – the Long Decline’…

Downhearted spirits are properly revived by another ‘Full Colour Adventure’ from The Dan Dare Space Annual 1963, specifically ‘The Planet of Shadows’ wherein our gallant lads uncover a lost civilisation on a new world, after which ‘Dan Dare – to Date’ describes our hero’s 1977 resurrection in the pages of apocalyptic, sardonically dystopian 2000 AD. The article tracks Dan’s reboot as a bombastic rebel, slow rehabilitation and transition to the newly revived 1982 Eagle, before neatly segueing into a delightful reprint of one of those 80’s retro-exploits as ‘Dan Dare by Keith Watson’ depicts a hazardous mission by the Space Fleet stars to transport Earth’s radioactive waste stockpiles to the depths of the void. It’s hard enough as is, but things get particularly dicey when arch-nemesis The Mekon raises his great big green head…

Big, bold, beautiful and ruthlessly nostalgia-driven, this epic tome will utterly enchant survivors and veterans of the baby-boomer years and sci fi fanatics in general, but it’s also packed with enough top-flight comics material to beguile any kid or newcomer to our medium in search of a little simple, awestruck wonder…
This edition © 1990 Hawk Books Ltd. Dan Dare © 1990 Fleetway Publications.

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Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future – The Venus Campaign (Complete Collection volume 1)


By Frank Hampton, George Beardmore, Eric Eden, Don Harley, Harold Johns, Greta Tomlinson, & various (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78586-292-2 (Album HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

There are quite a few comics anniversaries this year. Some of the most significant will be rightly celebrated, but a few are going to be unjustly ignored. As a feverish fanboy wedged firmly in the past, I’m again abusing my privileges here to carp about another brilliant vintage book, criminally out of print and not slated for revival either physically or in digital formats…

Launching on April 14th 1950 and running until April 26th 1969, Eagle was the most influential comic of post-war Britain, and possibly in our nation’s history. It was the brainchild of a Southport vicar, the Reverend Marcus Morris, who was increasingly concerned about the detrimental effects of American comic-books on British children and wanted a good, solid, middle-class Christian antidote.

Seeking out like-minded creators he peddled a dummy edition around British publishers for over a year with little success until he found an unlikely home at Hulton Press, a company that produced general interest magazines such as Lilliput and Picture Post. The result was a huge hit which soon spawned age and gender-specific clones Swift, Robin and Girl which targeted the other key demographic sectors of the children’s market.

A huge number of soon-to-be prominent creative figures worked on the weekly, and although Dan Dare is deservedly revered as the star, many strips were almost as popular at the time, with many rivalling the lead in quality and entertainment value according to the mores and developing tastes of that hope-filled, luxury-rationed, fresh-faced generation. Eagle’s mighty recurring pantheon included radio and film star attraction PC 49, soon-to-be TV sensation Captain Pugwash, radio cowboy Jeff Arnold/Riders of the Range and the inimitable Harris Tweed – who swiftly became stars other media and promotional tie-in like books, puzzles, toys, games, apparel and comestibles as well as and all other sorts of ancillary merchandising.

At its peak, the original Eagle sold close to a million copies a week, but inevitably, changing tastes and a game of “musical owners” killed the title. In 1960, Hulton sold out to Odhams, who became Longacre Press. A year later they were bought by The Daily Mirror Group who evolved into IPC. In cost cutting exercises many later issues carried cheap(er) Marvel Comics reprints rather than British-originated material. It took time, but those Yankee Cultural Incursionists won out in the end. In 1969, with the April 26th issue Eagle was subsumed into cheap ‘n’ cheerful iron clad anthology Lion, eventually disappearing altogether. Successive generations have revived the title, but not the success. Never as popular, a revived second iteration ran from 27th March 1982 to January 1994 (having switched from weekly to monthly release in May 1991).

However as we celebrate 75 years of post-empire wonderment, let’s just be clear on one thing. It’s Dan & Digby we all recall most fondly…

There is precious little that I can say about Dan Dare that hasn’t been said before and better. What I will say is that everything you’ve heard is true. Vintage strips by Frank Hampson and his team of dedicated artists are a high point in world, let alone British comics, ranking beside Tintin, Asterix, Tetsuwan Atomu, Lone Wolf & Cub and the best of Kirby, Adams, Toth, Noel Sickles, Milt Caniff, Roy Crane, Carl Barks and Elzie Segar. If you don’t like this stuff, there’s probably nothing any of us can do to change your mind, and all we can do is hope you never breed…

Breakneck pace, truly astonishing high concepts underpinned by hard science balanced with nonstop action leavened with wholesome music hall larks and some of the most beautiful and powerful art ever to grace a comic page makes the introductory exploit of Hampson’s Dan Dare as much a magical experience now as it was in 1950. Many companies have kept the legend alive in curated collections over the decades, and this 2018 Titan edition combines material from three of their 2004-2009 hardback collections.

Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future – The Venus Campaign merges and re-presents – on paper and digitally – the first two adventures of the strip that headlined groundbreaking, legendary Eagle. Spanning 14th April 1950 to September 28th 1951 for riotous rocket romp Voyage to Venus and followed by sequel saga The Red Moon Mystery as it appeared between October 5th 1951 and June 20th 1952, this tome introduces Colonel Daniel MacGregor Dare of the Interplanet Space Fleet and his batman Albert Fitzwilliam Digby – the truest of Brits who ever spacewalked – and an ever-expanding captivating cast to a eagerly anticipating nation.

The comics glories are preceded by an exuberant reminiscent Introduction by the artist’s son Peter Hampson, picture-packed background essay ‘The Genesis of Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future’ by Nick Jones, and bullet point biography of the series’ “Special Science Consultant” Arthur C. Clarke, all accompanied by a visual aid revealing ‘Who’s Who in Dan Dare’.

… And then it’s blast off as we learn in vibrant, vividly colourful 2-page chapters that Earth is slowly starving and must find new resources to feed its hungry billions. Space Fleet, despite three tragic losses, readies another exploratory mission to mystery planet Venus, where it is believed such agrarian resources may lie hidden beneath all-enveloping cloud cover. Earth’s last hope might be a strong-jawed, taciturn pilot and his podgy Lancastrian manservant…

Thus begins a fantastic, frenetic rollercoaster of action and wonderment, replete with all the elements of classic adventure: determined heroes, outlandish but deadly villains, fantastic locales and a liberal dose of tongue-in-cheek fun. Weeks pass and perils pop up and are dealt with in turn – everything from malfunctions, monsters, deadly new environments and hostile foes – but the clock is still counting down…

After a year of constant revelation, exploration and confrontation, Earth is still starving! Dan Dare and his team have not been heard from in weeks but humanity’s only hope is that the expeditionary force lost on Venus finds food and some way home!

The Colonel has his own problems. Surviving a deadly radiation barrier, ship explosion and crash, hostile terrain, drowning, enemy action and total separation from the rest of his team, he has learned that Venus is inhabited by two advanced races locked in a Cold War lasting for millennia. The situation is further complicated by the fact that one super-scientific side keeps slaves: partially and divergently evolved humans abducted from Atlantis on Earth millennia previously!

The ancient impasse on Venus ended the moment modern Earthmen penetrated the radiation screen bottling up the mysterious planet and got involved. Aiding apparently benevolent Therons against the ruthless reptilian Treens – malevolent emotionless myrmidons led by a genetically-created super brain dubbed the Mekon – leads to the vile mastermind advancing his long nurtured plans and launching an invasion of Earth!

Thankfully Dan and his crew are on hand, reunited and ready to stop him…

The victory segues straight into The Red Moon Mystery as Dan and his team – having broached the mysteries of Venus – move on to greater deeds. Attempting to top all that for sheer spectacle the creative cohort of Hampson and his associates (co-scripter George Beardmore and fellow artists Eric Eden, Don Harley, Harold Johns, Greta Tomlinson and others) delivered a splendid blend of suspense, tension and action as – thanks to an archaeological dig on Mars led by Dan’s uncle Ivor Dare – humanity is forewarned (barely) of impending supernal doom….

The ancient Martians were seemingly destroyed 200,000 years ago by an astral event involving a “red moon”, and as Dan & Digby ponder the fanciful story, their chief Sir Hubert Guest urgently despatches them into the deeper space to investigate a wandering object threatening to shatter the Earth colony on modern Mars. They press are calling the hurtling projectile the red moon…

Soon, all of Space Fleet is mustered to evacuate Mars but face an escalating crisis as the super-magnetic anomaly changes course and imperils the entire solar system before locking trajectories with Earth. When Dan leads a mission to survey the mystery asteroid prior to blowing it up, he uncovers a shocking secret beneath its surface, one that derails Space Fleet’s plan to save the world and humanity…

Gripping, trenchantly exploring humankind under pressure of global annihilation, beautifully illustrated and progressing at a breathless pace, this is a superb piece of End of the World drama, easily matching the best of post-war doom-smiths like John Wyndham or J. G. Ballard. It’s also got a happy, if portentous, ending…

Dan Dare, his faithful crew and the Eagle were a key part of British life from the outset and the secret is the sheer quality of the artwork and accessibility of the stories. Hampson & Co brought joy and glamour into the lives of a weary nation and this tome compellingly recaptures it all. The volume concludes with more picture-draped documentary material beginning with ‘An Interview with Frank Hampson’ as conducted by Alan Vince, biography ‘Tomorrow Man – Frank Hampson 1918-1985’ and the ‘Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future Checklist’…

Solid, cleanly wholesome entertainment, timeless and produced to the highest standards, this is a glorious tribute to unforgettable heroes of a forgotten future, deserving of and demanding your attention. If you’re into comics, you should own this volume. If you love a good read, you should seek out this book and its sequels. Simply put, if you’re just Decent and British, Dammit, you should love these stories! It almost makes one proud to be an Earthling…
Dan Dare and all related characters and elements depicted herein are © 2018 Dan Dare Corporation Ltd. All rights reserved.

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The Dan Dare Dossier


By Norman Wright, Mike Higgs & various (Hawk Books)
ISBN: 978-0-94824-812-2

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: For everybody with Stars in their Eyes… 8/10

Launching on April 14th 1950 and running until 26th April 1969, Eagle was the most influential comic of post-war Britain, and possibly in our nation’s history.

It was the brainchild of a Southport vicar, the Reverend Marcus Morris, who was increasingly concerned about the detrimental effects of American comic-books on British children and wanted a good, solid, middle-class Christian antidote.

Seeking out like-minded creators he hoiked a dummy edition around British publishers for over a year with little success until he found an unlikely home at Hulton Press, a company that produced general interest magazines such as Lilliput and Picture Post.

The result was a huge hit which soon spawned age and gender-specific clones Swift, Robin and Girl which targeted the other key demographic sectors of the children’s market.

A huge number of soon-to-be prominent creative figures worked on the weekly, and although Dan Dare is deservedly revered as the star, many other strips were as popular at the time, and many even rivalled the lead in quality and entertainment value. Eagle‘s sensational pantheon – which included PC 49, Captain Pugwash, Jeff Arnold/Riders of the Range and the inimitable Harris Tweed – quickly became stars as well of radio series, books, toys, games and all other sorts of ancillary merchandising.

At its peak Eagle sold close to a million copies a week, but inevitably changing tastes and a game of “musical owners” killed the title. In 1960 Hulton sold out to Odhams, who became Longacre Press. A year later they were bought by The Daily Mirror Group who evolved into IPC. In cost-cutting exercises many later issues carried cheap Marvel Comics reprints rather than British originated material. It took time but those Yankee cultural Invaders won out in the end. With the April 26th 1969 issue Eagle was subsumed into Lion, eventually disappearing altogether. Successive generations have revived the title, but never the success.

There is precious little that I can say about Dan Dare that hasn’t been said before and better. What I will say is that everything you’ve heard is true. The vintage Dan Dare strips by Frank Hampson and his hand-picked team of dedicated artists are a high point in world, let alone British comics, ranking beside Tintin, Asterix, Tetsuwan Atomu, Lone Wolf & Cub and the best of Kirby, Adams, Toth, Noel Sickles, Milt Caniff, Elzie Segar and Carl Barks.

If you don’t like this stuff, there’s probably nothing any of us can do to change your mind, and all we can do is hope you never breed.

Accepting that there is a part of national culture which is Forever Dare, here’s a long overdue peek at an item which will delight all boys of a certain age which – despite its own vintage – is happily still readily available through internet vendors…

The colourful, magnificently oversized (333 x 242 mm), resolutely hard-backed Dan Dare Dossier was published in 1990 and offers everything any devotee could wish to know and see. It is absolutely packed with mouth-watering artwork and photos, tantalising examples of memorabilia, classic strips and even unseen/new material by a phalanx of the original creators.

Heavily illustrated throughout, it all begins with ‘The Rise of Dan Dare’, detailing the history of science fiction, development of comics – and especially Eagle – and offering a potted biography of Hampson, his team and Dan’s serried exploits.

Simultaneously those great big pages present unseen monochrome strip adventure ‘Dan & Donanza’ by the master himself, wherein our doughty heroes go haring across the solar system in pursuit of a fallen dictator who has turned the moon into a giant bomb…

Following that is an expansive itinerary of the major characters involved over the years in ‘Actors against a Solar Backdrop’ before ‘The Hardware File’ offers an eye-popping selection of plans, designs and extracted strip illustrations displaying the vast wealth of ships, kit and tech invented by the assembled strip-creators over the decades and paying especial attention to Space Transports and Dan and Digby’s venerable runabout Anastasia.

More bravura virtuosity is celebrated in ‘Aliens & Their Worlds’ as pertinent and beautiful clips and snippets highlight the amazing variety of extraterrestrial races and species.

Sharing a few pages with new black-&-white comedic strip ‘Digby – the Guinea Pig’ is a rundown of some of ‘The Artists’ who toiled collaboratively to produce the stunningly painted two pages per week (Hampson, Harold Johns, Eric Eden, Don Harley, Bruce Cornwell, Desmond Walduck, Frank Bellamy and Keith Watson); followed in turn by a fascinating trivia and memorabilia stuffed appreciation of the dauntless chaps’ five years on radio in ‘Dan Dare, Pilot of the Airwaves’…

Wisely taking a break from all that factual stuff, ‘Full Colour Adventure: Dan Dare in The Planulid’ reprints a rousing tale of a monstrous invasion of Earth (first seen in The Dan Dare Space Annual 1963) before the rousing envy-fest resumes with a grand examination of the breathtaking wealth of ‘Merchandise & Ephemera’ the strip generated.

On view is a procession of numerous ray guns and rocket pistols, games, puzzles, buttons, badges, stencil-kits, apparel, models, action-figures, home picture-film strips and projectors, walkie-talkies, all manner of books and print novelties and so much more…

Adjacent and in parallel with a full ‘Dan Dare Chronology’ is the immensely rare and sadly unappreciated Newspaper Strip ‘Mission to the Stars’ by William Patterson & Don Harley, which ran every Sunday in The People from April to October 1964, all capped off by the demise of the dream thanks to changing tastes and commercial mismanagement as detailed in ‘Changes – the Long Decline’…

Downhearted spirits are properly revived by another ‘Full Colour Adventure’ from The Dan Dare Space Annual 1963, specifically ‘The Planet of Shadows’ wherein our gallant lads uncover a lost civilisation on a new world after which ‘Dan Dare – to Date’ describes our hero’s 1977 resurrection in the pages of apocalyptic, dystopian 2000 AD. Reimagined as a bombastic rebel, the article tracks his slow rehabilitation and transition to the newly revived 1982 Eagle, before neatly segueing into a delightful reprint of one of those 80’s retro-exploits as ‘Dan Dare by Keith Watson’ depicts a hazardous mission by the Space Fleet stars to transport Earth’s radioactive waste stockpiles to the depths of space. It’s hard enough as is but things get particularly dicey when arch-nemesis The Mekon raises his giant green head…

Big, bold, beautiful and ruthlessly nostalgia-driven, this epic tome will utterly enchant veterans of the Baby-boomer years and sci fi fanatics in general, but it’s also packed with enough top flight comics material to beguile any kid or newcomer to our medium in search of a little simple, awestruck wonder…
This edition © 1990 Hawk Books Ltd. Dan Dare © 1990 Fleetway Publications.

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Dan Dare: Rogue Planet

Dan Dare: Rogue Planet

By Frank Hampson & Don Harley (Titan Books)
ISBN 10: 1-84576-413-7 ISBN 13: 9781845764135

This volume of the stupendous saga of Britain’s greatest hero concludes the epic interplanetary adventure begun in The Man From Nowhere (ISBN: 1-84576-412-9), wherein Dan and a select crew journeyed to another solar system with Lero, an alien from the fantastic and beleaguered planet Cryptos. After a truly Herculean voyage Dan, Lex O’Malley and Digby have finally landed on the strange new world, but young cadet Flamer Spry has been lost!

The alien’s mission to Earth was to secure aid as Cryptos was menaced by the warlike Phants, inhabitants of the sister-world Phantos who invade and destroy Cryptosian civilisation every 10,000 years. But the mission is too late – the aggressors have already launched their attack!

What follows is a simply astounding war story as Dan and crew overcome insurmountable odds on two worlds to save a peaceful civilisation and end the cyclical threat of the awesome Phants.

Accessing the remembrances and tone of Britain’s recent “Spirit of the Blitz”, Hampson and co-writer Allan Stranks wove a colossal tale of triumph over adversity that was breathtaking in its scope. Children’s comics had simply never been this exciting, complex or compelling. And his art, with assistance from Don Harley, Eric Eden and Joan Porter set standards in graphic illustration that have never been equalled, let alone bettered.

Rogue Planet ran from 2nd December 1955 to 15th February 1957, in weekly two page instalments that electrified the children of Britain. It marked the beginning of a period of creativity that made Dan Dare a household name. These books are everything that the 1950s aspired to, and they still have all that power, quality and aspirational intensity today. Living in the future as we do, we can feel nothing but cheated that it is not how Hampson depicted it.

This volume also includes fascinating background, lavishly illustrated, on Frank Hampson’s lost classic The Road of Courage (ISBN: 90-6332-801-X) including details on the artist’s research trip to the Holy Lands.

© 2007 Dan Dare Corporation Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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Dan Dare: The Man from Nowhere

Dan Dare: The Man from Nowhere 

By Frank Hampson & Don Harley (Titan Books)
ISBN 10: 1-84576-412-9 ISBN 13: 9781845764128

The frantic pace of adventure never slows for the heroic and indomitable Dan Dare. When an alien spacecraft crashes into the Pacific Ocean, Dare, Digby, aquanaut Lex O’Malley, and Flamer Spry must face unbelievable new challenges in a new but equally unforgiving environment to rescue the outlandish passengers.

But that’s only the start. The interstellar refugees have come seeking assistance in a faster-than-light ship, from Cryptos, five light-years distant! Undertaking a heroic odyssey Colonel Dare and his comrades battle bizarre space monsters and terrible hardships before becoming embroiled in a dreadful war between the Cryptosians and the unstoppable, genocidal Phant warriors of the wandering planet Phantos.

This historic adventure ran from 13th May 1955 until November 25th of that year, and the shorter than usual run comprises the main tale in this volume. It was not however the end of the story. The epic continued and concluded as Rogue Planet, collected in the next Dan Dare book (ISBN: 1-84576-413-7), so you might want to pick up both at the same time.

But that’s not the end of this edition’s reprinted treats. In addition to the ever-informative text feature (a glorious Frank Hampson sketchbook) there are three short, complete, fully painted yarns taken from some of the Dan Dare and Eagle Annuals. ‘Mars 1997’ is a thrilling tale of interplanetary rescue, ‘The Robocrabs’ deals with an attempted invasion of Earth, and ‘Operation Silence’ is a Christmas story featuring a host of past friends and foes, including the malevolent Mekon.

Dare is as much a part of heroic Britain as King Arthur, Robin Hood or Richard the Lionheart. Moreover, these tales are undiluted by time or mis-repetition. What you see is original, genuine and pure. Pure entertainment, pure joy.

© 2007 Dan Dare Corporation Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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Dan Dare: Prisoners of Space

Dan Dare: Prisoners of Space 

By Frank Hampson & Desmond Walduck (Titan Books)
ISBN: 1-84576-151-0

Great Britain’s greatest hero returns in this collection of strips that originally ran in the Eagle from 28th May 1954 until 6th May 1955. When two young cadets from the “Astral Training College” have another of their slight mishaps it leads to another confrontation with an old enemy and endangers the entire Solar System.

Steve Valiant and Flamer Spry will one day be great pilots, if they don’t kill themselves first, or their tutors don’t do it for them. When an exercise goes wrong, the two boys and the crusty old civilian mechanic “Groupie” are sent hurtling up to the deep orbiting space station XQY. As if that’s not bad enough, once they get there it’s only to find that the satellite has been taken over by the monstrous Mekon, and his rebel Treens, as the first step in a plan to reconquer Venus and crush Earth.

It takes all of Dan Dare’s heroism, ingenuity and resourcefulness to once more save the day, and how he does so makes for some absolutely splendid old-fashioned entertainment.

This nigh year-long epic shows Hampson and his cohorts at the peak of their game, combining action, adventure and fantastic thrills with the traditional British fare of waggish schoolboy heroes. Charming and captivating, these stories are true treasures of English heritage.

© 2007 Dan Dare Corporation Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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Dan Dare: Red Moon Mystery

Dan Dare: Red Moon Mystery 

By Frank Hampson (Titan Books)
ISBN 1-84023-666-3

Dan Dare, his faithful crew and the Eagle were a part of British life almost from the outset and the secret is the sheer quality of the artwork and stories. Frank Hampson and his team brought joy and glamour into the lives of a weary nation and the gloriously lavish Titan books editions magically recapture it all!

The first two volumes saw our heroes broach the mysteries of Venus, meet and defeat the Mekon and his deadly Treens and literally save the world. Attempting to top that for sheer spectacle the creative team of Hampson and his associates (co-scripter George Beardmore and fellow artists Eric Eden, Don Harley, Harold Johns, Greta Tomlinson and others) craft a splendid blend of tension and action as a deadly wandering moon threatens to shatter the Earth! Gripping, beautifully illustrated and progressing at a breakneck pace this is a superb piece of end-of-the-World drama that matches the best of the post-war doomsmiths such as John Wyndham or J. G. Ballard. It’s got a happy – portentous – ending too!

Solid, clean wholesome entertainment that is timeless and produced to the highest standards, these books also contain a wealth of extra features that can’t fail to make the casual reader into a blithering fanatic like me. Get ’em for your dad, get ’em for the kids, and while we’re you’re at it, have some yourself!

© 2004 Dan Dare Corporation. All rights Reserved.

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Dan Dare: Operation Saturn 2

Dan Dare: Operation Saturn 2 

By Frank Hampson and various (Titan Books)
ISBN 1-84576-088-3

The concluding volume of Dan Dare’s adventures on the ringed planet, or more accurately on its inhabited moons, opens with the crew allying with the natives on Titan, attempting to throw off the yoke of the overlords of Saturn. The exploratory mission has discovered life on all the moons, enslaved to these rulers who have also subverted the science officer, Blasco, who has accepted their offer to rule Earth as their vassal. Our intrepid heroes must not only liberate these subjugate races but save their home-world too!

These strips first ran in the weekly Eagle comic from October 1953 to May 1954, and cemented the rise of this new heroic icon in the hearts and minds of British children and their parents. All concerned must have seen the echoes of the recently concluded War in the liberation of alien cultures and especially the scenes of Earth “Blitzkrieged” by robot-bombs as tense Space Fleet personnel scrambled squadrons from Fighter Command map-rooms. The colourful, compelling, cosmic drama seamlessly blended thrills, wonder and national optimism to create groundbreaking, unforgettable fiction.

Rounding out this magnificent comic reading experience are two short complete tales ‘Operation Triceratops’ and ‘The Planulid’, whilst this volume’s text section features an article by Steve Holland on the science of the series plus a fascinating “sketchbook” page illuminating how Frank Hampson prepared images for his burgeoning art-team to finish.

These thrill-a-minute stories rank alongside the greatest of our children’s fictions. The standard of art and story that was typical of Dan Dare has seldom been equalled, never surpassed and nothing has ever beaten it for longevity, vitality and sheer unwavering quality. They are worthy shelf-mates for the likes of Ivanhoe, The Narnia Chronicles, The Once and Future King or indeed any adventure story that makes it onto the National Curriculum Reading List. Buy them all and then start badgering your Local Education Authority to do the same.

© 2005 Dan Dare Corporation, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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Dan Dare: Operation Saturn 1

Dan Dare: Operation Saturn 1 

By Frank Hampson (Titan Books)
ISBN 1-84023-809-7

This volume of the adventures of Britain’s greatest star-farer sees Dan and his trusty crew sent to the fifth planet to investigate the origins of the mysterious, marauding “Black Cats”, tiny probes that bore through anything and have a nasty habit of exploding if approached. It’s danger as usual as the team discover new, exotic civilisations, and old passions among their own ranks as they bring with them a villain as nefarious as the aliens they encounter.

These stories are genuinely timeless classics of adventure, suitable for all ages and wonderfully free of the hyperbolic angst that permeates today’s entertainments. Long-time aficionados are well served by the added text features which this time include not only another lavishly illustrated interview with creator Frank Hampson, but also the Secret History of Dan Dare by Wallis Rigby. The star introduction this time around is from Phillip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials.

The strips first ran from February to October 1953, and rounding out the magnificent comic reading experience is a short complete thriller “The Double-Headed Eagle” reprinted from the Eagle Annual. The standard of art and story that was typical of Dan Dare has seldom been equalled, never surpassed and nothing has ever beaten it for longevity, vitality and sheer unwavering quality.

© 2005 Dan Dare Corporation, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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Dan Dare: Marooned on Mercury

Dan Dare: Marooned on Mercury 

By Frank Hampson (Titan Books)
ISBN 1-84023-847-X

Volume four of Titan’s high quality hardback reprints finds Dare and crew crashed on of Mercury after saving the Earth from the ravages of the Red Moon Menace. With breakneck rapidity (these stories were originally published at two pages per week, remember, so there’s no hanging about) they encounter the indigenous rock creatures and discover where the monstrous Mekon has been skulking since his last defeat.

The stories are clear-cut but engrossing with solid, comfortable, archetypical characterisations and the artwork, as Hampson and his team hit their creative peak is an absolute joy to behold. Nobody with a Sense of Wonder should be denied this stuff!

The extras include the continuation of an interview with Frank Hampson and a fascinating article discussing the retail market for his artwork, both lavishly illustrated, plus a Dan Dare Checklist and character profiles of the cast. These books can’t come out fast enough for my tastes.

© 2005 Dan Dare Corporation Ltd. All Rights Reserved.