Dan Dare Remembered




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Dan Dare by Keith Watson Long before Doctor Who took off in his TARDIS, British school children thrilled to the adventures of another space hero, Colonel Dan Dare, in the pages of Eagle, the Rolls Royce of British comics which graced news-stands throughout the land from 1950 to 1969. Eagle was the brainchild of the Rev Marcus Morris, a clergyman who disliked the violence he had seen in American comics and who created Eagle to entertain and educate the nation’s children, specifically boys.

Eagle featured a mix of features and both text and comic strip stories, but Dan Dare was to prove to be by far the most durable character to emerge from the publication.

The Dan Dare strip was created by artist Frank Hampson, who for many remains its definitive artist, but received little financial reward for his efforts, which caused him considerable upset throughout his life. Other artists to work on Dare included Don Harley, Keith Watson and Frank Bellamy. Bellamy, who would later become well-known for his work on TV21 and his Doctor Who illustrations in the Radio Times, radically re-designed many of the Dan Dare characters and hardware during his tenure on the strip.

Appearing in Eagle from issue one, Dan Dare was a space pilot of the future who had the valour and British-ness of a 1940s Spitfire pilot. Set in the 1990s, the long-running storylines of the strip saw Dan and his Interplanet Space Fleet colleagues visit faraway planets such as Venus and encounter numerous alien baddies, most notably the evil green Mekon and his people, the Treens.

Dan was aided in his adventures by a group of close friends and allies which included his faithful batman, the Wigan-born Albert Fitzwilliam Digby, and Sir Hubert Guest, Controller of Space Fleet. Whilst Eagle was aimed unashamedly at boys, there was a strong female character present in the form of Professor Jocelyn Peabody, whose quick thinking and intelligence would help Dan get out of danger on many an occasion.

Dan Dare - Friends and Enemies

Daniel McGregor Dare was the Interplanet Space Fleet's chief pilot. He was born in Manchester in 1967 but the 1980s Eagle comic would later reveal that Dan was a World War Two fighter pilot brought forward in time - the purists went mad! With his distinctive eyebrows, Dan was a man of honour who would rather die than break his word.

Digby Dan's sidekick, Albert Digby, was a chubby chap who provided comic relief in the Dan Dare comic strip but who was every bit as brave as Dan himself and was fiercely loyal to Dan and the Space Fleet. Dan named his spaceship the Anastasia after Dibgy's Aunt.

Sir Hubert Guest was the Controller of the Space Fleet. He himself was a veteran space pilot and had been on the first missions to the Moon and Mars. Always immaculate, he had a neatly trimmed military-style moustache.

Other friends and allies of Dan included Professor Jocelyn Peabody, Hank Hogan and Pierre Lafayette, two of the Fleet's best space pilots and an inseparable double act, and Sondar, a Treen who fought on Dan's side.

During his adventures, Dan and his friends encountered many enemies but none was as evil as the cold, logical Mekon and his Treens, reptilian inhabitants of Venus. The Mekon returned to plague Dan Dare time and time again, most recently in the Dan Dare animated TV series.

Many Eagle fans feel that the comic went into decline in the 1960s and the Dan Dare strip was downgraded as the years went on, disappearing from the front cover, no longer being printed in colour and (from 1967) suffered the final insult of appearing only as reprints of earlier stories. Eagle bowed out in 1969, when it was merged with Lion.

In the 1970s, a radically different version of Dan Dare appeared in the scinece fiction comic 2000AD. This version of the character has arguably polarised fan opinion more than any other incarnation of Dan Dare but it is not without its supporters. Featuring scripts by Pat Mills and radically different artwork by Massimo Belardinelli, (replaced later by Dave Gibbons), the story featured a Dan who had awoken from suspended animation to once again fight evil in the universe. It was a bold attempt but failed to hit the mark and was, perhaps mercifully, blasted out of existence.

IPC Magazines launched a new version of Eagle in 1982, combining traditional artwork stories with a new type of strip told in photographs, like the romantic adventures appearing in girls magazines of the time. Doomlord was the most popular story in the new format, whilst a new version of Dan Dare, the great great grandson of the original space hero, dominated the traditional artwork stories.

Drawn by Gerry Embleton, brother of Ron Embleton, also a comics legend, the new Dare was slated by traditionalists but loved by the audience it was intended for -- the school children of 1982. The story went from strength to strength when Scottish artist Ian Kennedy took over the reins, but sadly went into decline in the late 1980s as a succession of replacement artists somehow failed to nail the essence of the character.

In desperation, the producers of Eagle brought back the original Dan Dare, drawn by one of the strip's original artists, Keith Watson. The revival was a success and other artists such as David Pugh made a noble attempt to run with the baton before the New Eagle finally folded in the mid-1990s.

Prior to the cessation of Eagle, a highly-stylised version of the character, entitled simple Dare, appeared in the comic magazine Revolver. Written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Rian Hughes, the story was a satire of 1980s British politics and, whilst short-lived, developed a loyal following amongst comic fans who still rate it highly today.

There were attempts to get a new version of Dan Dare off the ground in 1996 when artist Sydney Jordan provided a new Dare story called Remembrance for the newly published The Planet newspaper but the publication sadly lasted only one issue.

Dan would finally find a new permanent home in the form of Spaceship Away, a professionally-published fanzine from Eagle fan Rod Barzilay which features new Dan Dare strips illustrated by, amongst others, original Eagle and Dan Dare artist Don Harley.

Finally, it was perhaps inevitable that a character as popular as Dan would make it on to television screens. There was an aborted attempt at a Dan Dare series by ATV and Zenith in the 1980s, but a CGI series, produced first by Netter Digital then by Foundation Imaging, appeared in 2002.

Poor scheduling in the UK was one of many possible factors which resulted in only one series being made. Dan Dare traditionalists were again critical of this new version, but the series featured deliciously retro designs and for my money at least was a fun programme which preserved at least some elements of the original Dan Dare character.

Dan Dare Spin Offs

• The popularity of Dan Dare lead to many items of merchandise being produced and a radio series from Radio Luxembourg also appeared, running for five years from 1951, five times a week and was sponsored by Horlicks.
Noel Johnson, who had played the role of Dick Barton on BBC Radio, played Dan Dare on Radio Luxembourg in the 1950s.. Johhson died in 1999. Rumours persist that a large number of the Luxembourg episodes exist in private hands.
• From 19 April to 10 May 1990, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a four-part adaptation of Voyage to Venus, the original Dan Dare story from Eagle. Actor Mick Ford played Dan Dare and Terence Alexander, best known to TV audiences for his appearances in Bergerac, played Sir Hubert Guest.

• Dan Dare on TV The first serious attempt to get Dan Dare on television was made by ATV, one of the old ITV companies, in the early 1980s. According to a press release at the time, the series would have been produced by American Leon Clifton (who had produced Evel Knieval's show at Wembly when the motorcyclist had famously attempted to jump 13 buses) and written by Phil Redmond, now well-known for creating Brookside and Grange Hill. Actor James Fox was in line to play Dan Dare, although New Avengers star Gareth Hunt was apparently also in the running. Likeley Lads actor Rodney Bewes had apparently been lined up to play Digby. Sadly, the project collapsed due to lack of finance but special effects wizard Martin J Bower who was to have worked on the series later commented that it would have been ' an unmitigated disaster'!
A second attempt to get Dan Dare on to TV screens was made in the early 1990s by Zenith, the company behind Inspector Morse. A short pilot was made but the project was not taken any further, much to the disaapointment of Coronation Street/Heartbeat star Geoffrey Hughes who played Digby in the pilot and had been an Eagle fan himself.
• Dan Dare finally made it onto TV in the twenty-first century the form of a slick, 26 part CGI series made by the Dan Dare Corporation. Traditionalists were horrified when Carry On Star actor Julian Holloway was hired to voice Digby as a Cockney rather than a Northerner!

• The satirical magazine Private Eye ran a parody of Dan Dare called Dan Dire, lampooning Labour leader Neil Kinnock, in the 1980s and The Times would later run a strip by political cartoonist Peter Brookes called ‘Dan Blair; Pilot for the Foreseeable Future’ which took the mickey out of Prime Minister Tony Blair.

• A less political send-up of the Dare character appeared in the form of Dan Barton by writer John Freeman and artist Andrew Chiu in the Eagle Flies Again comics fanzine from 2003 to 2006.

DAN DARE DATA

Famous Dan Dare fans (outside the world of comics fandom, that is) include: Stephen Baxter (author), Colin Baker (actor), Dr Alan Bond (Astrophysicist), Richard Branson (entrepeneur - the Eagle was his favourite comic as a boy), Michael Crawford (actor) Peter Davison (actor), Stephen Hawking (physicist), Terry Jones (animator and director), Brian May (guitarist), Michael Palin (Actor), Professor Colin Pillinger (Beagle 2), Phillip Pullman (author), Sir Tim Rice, Jonathon Ross (DJ, chat show host and general comics fan) Gavin Scott, (creator of Sci Fi Channel's The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne and the movie Small Soldiers and adapter of The Mists of Avalon and The Borrowers)

Official: www.dandare.co.uk
The Dan Dare Corporation Limited owns the global media rights to The Eagle comic and the comic strip "Dan Dare". The company also owns the rights to several other comic strips published in The Eagle, e.g. "Ghost Squad", "Computer Warrior", "Doomlord", "Manix", "Storm Force" and "Ultimate Warrior".
The book rights for Dan Dare are handled by Gordon Wise at Curtis Brown Group Ltd and merchandising products by Copyrights Group Limited, a Chorion company.
See our 2009 News Story: "Chorion Secures Rights to Dan Dare"

Fan: The Dan Dare Story
Detailed history of the character with a huge amount of information - over 100 pages. The site also features information on Eagle comic.
Webmaster: Nicholas Hill

Fan: Dan Dare Net
This website is intended to provide an introduction to Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future in what the author hopes is an enjoyable and informative manner. The site includes a complete history of the character, images, plus a comprehensive list of related web links. There's also a range of fully interactive "fun stuff" (games, puzzles and toys, some with a Dan Dare theme, some without.

Fan: www.dan-dare.org
Having run out of server space over at www.dan-dare.net, this 'sister' site is a "brief introduction to Dan Dare" site, with the .net site being the full-monty "interactive Dan Dare" site. There are some major image scans that aren't on the web anywhere else, plus some more fun and games along the lines of those at the .net site.

Fan: Dan Dare: Interplanet Space Fleet
Includes information on the character's merchandise, a listing of all adventures and more.
Webmaster: Brian Humphreys

Fan: www.dan-dare.org.uk
The owner of this site, a tribute to the work of Frank Hampson, is posting illustrations from various sources so there is much new-to-the-web material to see.

Fan: Darebar
A single page overview of the history of Dan Dare, the Eagle, and the creator of the character.

Fan: The Spanish Dan Dare
The Spanish Dan Dare, Diego Valor, appears to have enjoyed much greater popularity on the radio than as a comic strip. The success of the radio show was consequently projected to other media including comics. And, of course, the radio version came first.

Fan: Superbrits
Link: www.superbrits.co.uk/dandare

Dan Dare Info
The Eagle Comic was reprinted around the world, in many formats and many languages, yet information concerning this phenomenon has never been assembled in one place before. This site offers a look at these reprints by country and try to define the print runs and years of publication, and any other oddities that turn up, such as the "Great US Stamp Mystery".

Dare and Sondar in the animated Dan Dare Dan Dare: The Animated Show
Episodes: 26 x 22 mins (first 6 with effects by NetterDigital, 20 by Foundation Imaging. FI are creditted for all episodes - they 'tidied up' the first 6). All the stories are two-parters, so there are 13 stories in total. The series was bought by Channel 5 in the UK and also screens in South America on Fox.It is scheduled to be released on Region 2 DVD from June 2003 through Columbia-Tristar. In March 2003 einsiders.com claimed Columbia TriStar and Dan Dare Corp. are developing a feature based on this animated TV series.

The first two episodes introduces the characters (via a brief version of the first Venus story) and deals with the creation of Space Fleet and how Dan became a colonel.

• Read the Series Bible: Go
This is not intended as promotional material, but a guide to the characters and universe involved in the TV series. Fan Andrew Paul, who created the page says "This file, being the origin of the series, is somewhat outdated now as some things were changed during the two years of production. However, this is still a great insight into how the project started."

Effects artist Rowsby has the most interesting page I've found on the net so far about the production of the show. Peter Profetto's Dan Dare page on his Digital Treats site has by far the most stunning spacecraft visuals from the show.
Digital artist Chris Manbe has posted some clips from the new show on his web site. He was part of the Foundation Imaging team that worked on the series, having taken the show on board from the defunct Netter Digital. 3D graphic Larry Schultz similarly posted some images on his Splinegod site (direct link here). Dan Ritchie is another Dan Dare animator:he created various Lightwave renders for the show, as did Richard Khoo. Jose A. Perez. worked on the show as a modeller and texture painter. (Perez has also worked on Star Trek: The Motion Picture - The Director's Cut and Enterprise).
Roger Borelli was the Supervisng Character Artist on the show who went on to work for Digital Domain where heworked on several commercials. He's now working for Disney TV Animation modeling Characters, props, and sets.
Bob Forward was the highly-regarded producer on the show and mentions it on his site. He's a writer, producer and story editor whose credits also include Beast Wars and SkyJammers. He's cucrently working as a freelance writer on shows shuch as X-Men: Evolution and the new Stargate SG-1.
FX equipment providers Kaydara offer information on the production of the show on their web site here.

Dan Dare for ATV 1981 Dan Dare TV Show
This show never got off the ground but there are some interesting reference sites:click here for a dtb feature adapted from the Eagle Flies Again fanzine on this proposed show

• Mike Cosford has put two of his background designs for the show online. He's worked extensively in design and layout for commercials for the last 15 years, creating backgrounds, colour visuals, and storyboards.
• Model maker Martin J. Bower has put some of his model designs on his fascinating web site. Bowers was a regular contributor of model photographs to various comics in the past; he's one of the most highly prolific model makers and designers to the film, TV, advertising and publishing industry. From 1969 to the present day, he has so far produced almost 800 professional works.
Dan Dare fan David Britton tells me the models featured were made by Martin Bower in the early 1980's for Alan Vince, a long-time fan and friend of Frank Hampson. "I acquired them from Alan, eight years ago and they have been shown in a "Spacefleet Headquarters" display cabinet at the Eagle Exhibtions. The next time and probably the last, will be at the Muesum of Science and Industry Manchester from the end of September 2003 to mid January 2004. The Dan Dare exhibtion will be partner to the Mission to Mars exhibtion and we will incorporate the British Space programme 1955 to 1971."
• Wakefield Carter has compiled a fascinating guide to this aborted series which includes contributions from Brian Bolland and others on this site: www.2000ad.nu/spacefleet/atv/

Five Items of Iconic Dan Dare Merchandise

Long before Star Wars, Dan Dare fans rushed to buy merchandise based on their favourite space here. Here are five of the most memorable items

• Dan Dare Space Men set

A set of these six 90mm tall plastic figures of DD characters from Mettoy recently sold for £2280 at Chrsities, over nine times their pre-sale estimate. Another set of Dare figures made by the Cresent Toy Company sold for £1560.

• Mekon Pocket Watch

A lovely, chrome cased watch produced by the company Smiths, examples of this item can be found on ebay. A striking image of the Mekon appears on the face on a red background. Dan himself also appeared on a watch.

• The Dan Dare computer games

Primitive by today's standards, the three Dan Dare computer games produced by Virgin GAmes from 1986 to 1990 for the Commodore, ZX Spectrum, Atari and Amstrad still produce as much as a nostalgia buzz for the 80s computer generation as the 50s Dan Dare toys do for the former schoolboys of that decade

• Corgi Dan Dare car

A rare one this - very rare indeed because it was never released! This Dan Dare toy car was planned to co-incide with the release of the ATV TV show but, like the programme itself, it failed to materialiase. You can sometimes pick up the Corgi catologue from 1981, which featured a photo of the car, from ebay and specialist dealers.

• Dan Dare Planet Gun

There was so much fun Dan Dare merchandise released in the 1950s, but the Dan Dare Planet Gun, now georgeously retro, must surely rank as one of the best. It fired spinning missiles, well spinning bits of plastic anyway, and the illustration on the box was so iconic it wa released as a postcard a few years back.

The Dan Dare Theme Park
Plans to build a Dan Dare theme park in the UK came to naught, but this page features an image of the design - the site also carries info on some UK-based visual effects design for film and TV.

Dan Dare Artwork
London's Science Museum displays several original Dan Dare boards on display in an area entitled `Defiant Modernism 1930-1968'. The boards, from 1951 and 1953, are part of those purchased by the Museum at the 1993 Christie's auction house sale. Entry to the Museum is free.

Original strips online
Many Dan Dare strips have been re-published over the years. Everything up to Eagle Vol 13/9 was reprinted in the Hawk series (vols 1-11) and vol 12 (the best of the rest) reprints four of the remaining 15 stories between 13/10 and 19/3.
For reference see: www.2000ad.nu/spacefleet/dandare.html

Two of the 11 that have not can be found here:
Operation Earthsaver: http://members.aol.com/nicholashl/oes.htm

Operation Fireball: http://members.aol.com/nicholashl/fireball/fireball.htm

Ministry of Space
Created by Warren Ellis and Chris Moore, there are plenty of Dan Dare references in this SF tale set in a univese where Britain wins the space race. You can buy the collection from Amazon.co.uk by clicking here.
The script for the first issue is available from Warren Ellis's official web site and makes a few Dan Dare references for the styling: http://www.warrenellis.com/wfile/
ministryofspace01.rtf
(Rich Text Format document)

More Dan Dare on dtb