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Dan Dare
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Dan Dare is a British science fiction comic hero, created by illustrator Frank Hampson. Hampson not only invented Dan Dare and his entire world, he also put together the original team of artists and wrote the first two stories. Dan Dare appeared in the Eagle comic story Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future in 1950, dramatised 7 times a week on Radio Luxembourg.
The stories were set in the late 1990s but the dialogue and manner of the characters is reminiscent of British war films of the 1950s.
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Encyclopedia
Dan Dare is a British science fiction comic hero, created by illustrator Frank Hampson. Hampson not only invented Dan Dare and his entire world, he also put together the original team of artists and wrote the first two stories. Dan Dare appeared in the Eagle comic story Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future in 1950, dramatised 7 times a week on Radio Luxembourg.
The stories were set in the late 1990s but the dialogue and manner of the characters is reminiscent of British war films of the 1950s. Dan Dare has been described as "Biggles in Space" and as the British equivalent of Buck Rogers. Dan Dare was distinguished by its long, complex story lines, snappy dialogue and meticulously illustrated comic-strip artwork by Hampson and other artists, including Harold Johns, Don Harley, Bruce Cornwell, Greta Tomlinson, Frank Bellamy and Keith Watson.
Presently, two new Dan Dare publications are available. A recently completed mini-series of Dan Dare has been launched by Virgin Comics. It is written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Gary Erskine and is a completely new and somewhat darker intrepretation of Dan Dare. Spaceship Away is presently (February 2009) in its seventeenth edition and is aimed at the now adult fans of the original Dan Dare of the 1950s and 60's. It features all new classic Dan Dare strips in full colour, edited by Rod Barzilay and drawn by Don Harley, Tim Booth and Keith Page. The writing and art closely follow that of the original 1950's Eagle (see below: The 2000s) and is of very high quality.
Publication history
Eagle
Dan Dare appeared on the cover of the first issue of the weekly comic strip magazine, Eagle, on 14 April 1950. There were two large colour pages of his story per issue. The artwork was of a high quality, the product of artists in a studio called the Old Bakehouse in Churchtown, Southport, Lancashire. The Eagle's founder, the Rev Marcus Morris, was vicar of the Southport church of St James at the time. It had scale models of spaceships, and models in costume as reference for the artists. Occasionally, Eagle incorporated "centrefolds" of the fictional spaceships, such as Dan's ship the Anastasia, reminiscent of cutaway drawings of aircraft in aviation magazines or even Eagle itself. The storylines were long and complex, sometimes lasting more than a year. Later, artwork was produced at a studio in Hampson's house in Epsom, Surrey, where his production line techniques were continued.
Attention was paid to scientific plausibility, the science fiction luminary Arthur C. Clarke acting as science and plot adviser to the first strip. The stories were set mostly on planets of the solar system presumed to have extraterrestrial life and alien inhabitants, common in science fiction before space probes of the 1960s proved the most likely worlds were lifeless. The first story begins with Dan Dare as pilot of the first successful flight to Venus.
Hampson's working habits twice caused him to suffer serious breakdowns in health, leaving his assistants to continue the series. The first occurred after two episodes of "Marooned on Mercury" (1952), which was taken over by Harold Johns, from scripts by Rev. Chad Varah. Hampson returned to start the following story, "Operation Saturn" (1953), but suffered a relapse after 20 weeks. Principal art was taken over by new chief assistant Don Harley, who completed the story and its successor, "Prisoners of Space" (the only series to feature extensive work by an artist outside the studio, finishes being provided by Desmond Waldeck.
Hampson returned full-time in 1955, starting "The Man from Nowhere" trilogy, which took Dan and his companions outside the Solar System for the first time.
The quality of the strip and its popularity remained high throughout the 1950s. In the late fifties Eagles new owners objected to the cost of the studio and the complexity of the stories. The conflict caused Hampson to leave the strip in 1959, in the middle of a long plot that saw Dan searching an alien planet for his long-lost father. Production fell to Frank Bellamy, whose modern 3-dimensional style contrasted with Hampson's, despite efforts to smooth the transition by alternating the two pages of the weekly strip between Bellamy and the team of Don Harley and Keith Watson, and freelance artist Bruce Cornwell.
Characters
Dan Dare was surrounded by a varying cast, initially:
Dan Dare (full name Colonel Daniel McGregor Dare) was chief pilot of the Interplanet Space Fleet. He was born in Manchester, England, in 1967 and educated at Rossall School. Although not a super-hero, he sometimes pulled off exceptional piloting and often proved extraordinarily lucky. He excelled at jiu jitsu, but he most often found non-violent solutions to predicaments. He was bound by a sense of honour, never lied, and would rather die than break his word.
His lean-faced character was recognizable by the outer tips of his eyebrows, which were wavy. His uniform looked like a typical British Army type (Frank Hampson used his own World War II army uniform as a model), though a lighter green. In place of British rank insignia it had coloured stripes and circles on the shoulderboards. His cap badge was a vertical, antique rocketship in a circle with one five-pointed star on either side. Initially, Dare was to be portrayed as a chaplain.
Digby (Albert Fitzwilliam Digby) was Dan's Wigan-born batman. Rotund and sometimes bumbling, he provided comic relief. He was fiercely loyal and the only character apart from Dan to appear in every story. His favourite recreation was sleeping and he was fond of traditional English food.His nearest relative was his Aunt Anastasia, after whom Dan named his spaceship. Sir Hubert Guest, Controller of the Space Fleet, sent Dan on missions, and occasionally joined him. He was a veteran pilot, having been on the first mission to the Moon and led the first mission to Mars. Professor Peabody (Prof. Jocelyn Mabel Peabody), the only major female, was the brains behind many of the team's most inventive plans. Hank Hogan and Pierre Lafayette, stereotypically American and French, were two of the Fleet's best pilots and an inseparable double-act. Pierre was primarily a pilot, Hank more a mechanic. Sondar was a Treen, a reptilian inhabitant of northern Venus. Originally a servant of the Mekon, he reformed after Dan spared his life during a traumatic episode that also caused his first experience of strong emotion, which the Treens suppressed. He became governor of northern Venus when the planet was placed under UN rule at the end of the first story, but nevertheless joined Dan on later adventures. He was also a talented spacecraft designer, and designed Dan's personal spaceship. The Mekon, super-intelligent ruler of the Treens, was Dan's arch-enemy. He escaped at the end of each story to return with an even more inventive scheme for the conquest of Earth. Christopher 'Flamer' Spry, freckle-faced student at 'Astral' space academy, who accompanies Dan Dare on many later missions. Flamer was based on Hampson's son, Peter Hampson.Lex O'Malley, bearded Irish submarine commander, who accompanies Dan Dare on later missions.
With the exception of Digby, all the supporting cast were dropped after 1960, but two years later, Keith Watson and writer David Motton were allowed to introduce a new supporting cast, who remained with the series throughout the rest of its run.
Colonel Wilf Banger, handlebar moustache, pilot and designer, an impulsive and volatile character. Banger designed and built the Tempus Frangit.Technician Nutter Cobb, red-haired, broken-nosed. Banger's assistant, a Digby to his Dare.Major Shillitoe Spence, balding, pencil moustache. A prim, fussy administrator.
Vehicles
Spacecraft of various designs were presented as the product of inhabitants of various planets. The vehicle most identified with Dan was the winged Anastasia. Designed by Sondar, it employed both Venusian and Earth space drives. Later, an alien ship was adopted and renamed the Zyl-bat. There was also an experimental time-travelling ship called Tempus Frangit (Latin: it breaks time or time breaks).
There were land and air vehicles – in the first stories, cars conform to styling of the time, while some flying machines were based on the design of helicopters of the mid-twentieth century. Also of note was Lex O'Malley's ship, the Poseidon, a versatile craft that could operate as a jetfoil as well as a submarine.
London Transport used overhead monorails and helibuses in early stories. Ground transport cars were also drawn with gyroscopes and single wheels.
South of the Fire Zone the Atlanteans had applied their technology to peacful agricultural purposes including dedicated agriculturals land and flying machines. They perfected low friction/ low energy consumption means of transport including vacuum tube transport for long distance travel.
Spaceports
There is evidence that the Spacefleet spaceport in Earth is west of Formby in Lancashire on a semicircle of land built into the Irish Sea by landfill.
Spacesuits
Spacefleet spacesuits had a corselet plate like on Siebe Gorman standard diving suits. Their suit had no life-support backpack; the life-support gear was between two layers of the helmet.
All or most Dan Dare comic pictures were drawn from models or posed humans. As a result, the Spacefleet spacesuits in space hang in folds like the boilersuit in which the models posed and show no sign of gas pressure. After the first Venus war, Spacefleet spacesuits had propulsor backpacks copied from a Treen or Theron design.
Some other spacesuits such as Blasco's have life-support backpacks.
The 1960s
In 1960 artwork was taken over by Frank Bellamy, Don Harley, Keith Watson, Gerald Palmer, with Bruce Cornwell, and the look changed, with the colourful, rounded rocket ships replaced by angular silver craft, and changes to the space suits and insignia. The changes were never wholeheartedly taken up, however, and the look was erratic from then on. In 1962 the strip was removed from the front to the inside of the comic, in black and white, and was drawn by Keith Watson. Over the remaining years the strip varied in format and quality, eventually returning to the front page in colour, until it ended in 1967 with Dan retiring to become Space Fleet controller. Strips from the 1950s were reprinted until 1969, when Eagle merged with Lion. For a while the reprints continued in black and white in Lion.
2000AD
In 1977, Dan Dare appeared again in the first issue of 2000 AD The first story had the character revived from suspended animation after two hundred years to find himself in a different world. The Mekon had also survived but otherwise the cast was different, as was the tone of the strip (heavily influenced by the punk movement, as was much of 2000 AD) and the personality of the title character. The strip was initially illustrated by Massimo Belardinelli, whose Dare owed nothing to the original apart from the wavy eyebrows. After a brief run, the series was dropped, but returned later, this time in a more realistic style by Dave Gibbons. In the latter series Dare was launched on a deep space mission in the style of Star Trek. In a series of adventures, Dare encountered planets in need of aid and united them in opposition to the evil race who controlled that part of space. The strip was again dropped, the final episode showing the demise of Dare's ship, with a space-suited Dare drifting in space.
In the 80s Dare returned to 2000AD in a story also featuring an aging Mekon, who framed Dare for murder. This re-imagining of Dare casts him almost as a superhero. Dare escapes to a planet that is home to an amphibian-like race which claims he is their Chosen One. He receives a semi-mystical glove that can shoot energy beams. The series proved popular for a couple of years until it was dropped in 1981.
In 1997, to celebrate their 20th anniversary, 2000 AD published two issues with additional free comics, the first a reprint of the first issue of 2000 AD, which starred Dan Dare. The second free comic was a speculative issue called 3000 AD which contained strips partially based on the first issue of 2000 AD. One strip was entitled "The Return of Dan Dare", which also featured the return of the Mekon.
The New Eagle
In 1982 Eagle was re-launched, with Dan again its flagship strip. The new character was the great-great-great-grandson of the original, and the only surviving original was the Mekon. The initial artist was Gerry Embleton, who drew the Dan to resemble the original exactly, but he was quickly replaced by Ian Kennedy, who gave the hero a younger look and blond hair.
The opening Dan Dare story was an epic, lasting 18 months, written by Pat Mills and John Wagner. It opened with a flashback to the unseen final defeat of the Mekon by the original Dan, after which he was sealed inside an artificial asteroid and exiled into space. Centuries later he was accidentally freed and returned to conquer Earth. A few years later Dan returned from space to find Earth under Treen rule and set out to free the planet. His new cast included Lt Helen Scott, leader of the Earth Resistance, and Valdon, a renegade Treen similar to the earlier Sondar. One controversial was a lengthy flashback which retconned the original Dan to be a veteran of World War II and to have travelled through time to the era in which his adventures in the original Eagle took place - an attempt to explain why a hero in the age of space travel had a 1950s outlook on life.
After this initial storyline other writers were used and different supporting characters came and went, including Professor Pinkerton, a female scientist similar to Professor Peabody, and a new Digby (again, a descendant of the original). The Mekon was generally the foe in alternate stories.
In 1987 the strip received became more like a space opera, with increasing violence. Now drawn by John Gillatt, Dan took on a tough-guy look. He led space commandos and packed a hi-tech gun reminiscent of that carried by Judge Dredd.
Revolver
In 1990, a strip entitled Dare, written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Rian Hughes, was serialized in Revolver. It presented bleak and cynical characters and was a not-too-subtle satire of 1980s British politics. Spacefleet had been privatised, the Treens were subjected to racist abuse in urban ghettos, Digby was unemployed, Professor Peabody committed suicide, and Dare's mentor Sir Hubert Guest betrayed Dare to the Mekon and his quisling British Prime Minister, Gloria Munday (whose appearance and demeanour appear modelled on Margaret Thatcher.) Ultimately, Dare destroys London, the Mekon and himself through a smuggled nuclear weapon.
The Planet
In 1996, The Planet published its first and only issue. Inside was a new and unfinished Dan Dare story, "Remembrance", drawn by Sydney Jordan featuring a slightly older Dare and apparently set some years after the original Eagle strips.
Spaceship Away
In 2003, Dan Dare reappeared in The Phoenix Mission, in a new magazine called Spaceship Away. The first strip had been drawn by Keith Watson prior to his death, as a private commission for Eagle fans. It was taken over and completed in Spaceship Away by Don Harley. The Phoenix Mission, set after the Man from Nowhere Trilogy, is a deliberate imitation of the 1950s version, to the point of drawing each page as the front of the 1950s Eagle. The story was written by Spaceship Away Editor Rod Barzilay and has been followed by a longer sequel, Green Nemesis. featuring the Mekon, which is continuing at present. Both series features writing and drawing in the same style as Frank Hampson. Don Harley began Green Nemesis on his own but has subsequently been assisted by Tim Booth, who has also drawn later episodes alone. On Green Nemesis,Booth draws in direct emulation of Harley, but uses his own Hampson-influenced style on Gates of Eden, a serial set at the time of the first Treen/Theron food shipments to Earth. Keith Page (New Eagle) writes and draws Rocket Pilot, which began by following Sir Hubert Guest's earlier career, but which is now segueing into the time of the first Kingfisher expedition to Venus. The magazine also runs one-page Dan Dare spoofs such as Ray Aspden's Mekki and Our Bertie , Eric MacKenzie's Dan Dire and Andy Boyce's Dan Bear . It also features new Dan Dare text stories by Denis Steeper set in the period immediately after the Eagle's original strips when Dan is Controller-in-Chief of Space Fleet. Although the Spacefleet uniform is the old one, its cap badge has changed. The rocket has been replaced by the sideways-flying eagle logo of the defunct magazine.
Virgin Comics
In 2008 Virgin Comics published a 7 issue Dan Dare mini-series written by Garth Ennis, with art by Gary Erskine. Virgin also acquired the film, television and video game rights. Virgin's Richard Branson is a fan of the character. The series is set several years after the original strips. Space Fleet has collapsed along with the UN due to nuclear war between China and America; Britain survived due to defensive shields made by Professor Peabody, and has become a world power again as a result with the Royal Navy taking Space Fleet's role. Peabody is the Home Secretary to a Prime Minister modelled on Tony Blair, who has sold Earth's defence out to The Mekon out of fear of overwhelming odds. Dare, assisted by Digby (who sacrifices himself in battle) leads a spirited defence of both Earth and his honourable principles.
In other media
Radio
Radio Luxembourg serial
The New Adventures of Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future aired five times a week on Radio Luxembourg for five years from July 2, 1951. Dan's voice was Noel Johnson, who also played Dick Barton on BBC radio. Each episode started with the command "Spaceships Away!". The 15-minute show was sponsored by Horlicks and on March 3, 1952, the 106th episode of Dan Dare was heard that Monday night with different episodes on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7:15pm.
BBC Adaptation
From 19 April - 10 May 1990, BBC Radio 4 aired a four-part adaptation of Voyage to Venus, dramatised by Nick McCarty and directed by Glyn Dearman. The cast included Mick Ford (Col. Dan Dare), Donald Gee (Digby), Richard Pearce (the Mekon), Terence Alexander (Sir Hubert Guest), Zelah Clarke (Prof. Peabody), William Roberts (Hank Hogan), Sean Barrett (Pierre Lafayette), John Moffatt (Kalon), Shirley Dixon (Mrs. Digby), Ben Onwukwe (Volstar), David Goudge (Sondar), Margaret Courtenay (Aunt Anastasia), Brian Miller (Urtag), David King (Dapon)
Television
In 2002, Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future became a computer-generated TV series produced first by Netter Digital then by Foundation Imaging, running to 26 22-minute episodes. The series drew on several comic book incarnations. It started on Nicktoons UK on 5 November 2005 at 6.30pm. Two abortive attempts had been made to make a live-action series, in 1981 and 1991.
Computer Games
During the 1980s Dan Dare starred in three computer games for the Commodore 64/128, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Atari computers. The first was a different game on each system; the second and third were shoot'em-ups. All three were based on the 1950s strip rather than the contemporary comics.
Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future (1986, Electronic Arts, re-released by Ricochet)Dan Dare II: The Mekon's Revenge (1988, Virgin Games, re-released by Ricochet)Dan Dare III: The Escape (1990, Virgin Games)
In 1989, Dan Dare was re-launched in a return to original character, the first story drawn by Keith Watson and later ones by other artists. They initially kept to the look of the original but the character was again updated in 1990. It ran until the last issue of Eagle [then a monthly publication] in January 1994.
Characters inspired by Dan Dare
Characters inspired by or based on Dan Dare have appeared throughout British popular culture. One example is Wing Commander Leyton in British Summertime by Paul Cornell, which juxtaposes the utopian future portrayed in the original comics with the Britain of today. The Doctor Who New Adventures novel The Dying Days by Lance Parkin features a British astronaut named Alexander Christian, named after an earlier, unpublished version of the character.
In 1971, British comedian Kenny Everett satirised Dan Dare with his own space hero, Captain Kremmen. Everett was a fan of Dan Dare in his childhood and made references to this in his own science-fiction stories.
In the 1980s, Private Eye published Dan Dire, Pilot of Future?. Dire was based on politician Neil Kinnock, the question being whether he'd ever become Prime Minister. Dire's enemy was the Maggon, a combination of the Mekon and Margaret Thatcher.
In the early 1990s, the British satirical TV show Spitting Image ran sketches called "Dan Quayle, Pillock of the Future?", poking fun at the US Vice-President.
Marvel Comics created a Dan Dare-esque character in their Captain Britain line in the 1980s. The character was Roy Risk, one of the British heroes killed by The Fury.
In the late 1990s, following the Labour Party's ascent to power, the Saturday edition of The Times printed a strip by political cartoonist Peter Brookes called "Dan Blair; Pilot for the Foreseeable Future", the major characters represented by noted political figures. This ran from September 1997 until January 1999.
In his Afterword to Ministry of Space, Warren Ellis lists Dan Dare as one of the inspirations for the story, in which Britain forges an ambitious space programme in the decades following World War II. Sir John Dashwood, the central character of Ministry of Space, is a cynical version of Dan Dare himself.
Captain Jack Harkness, the Doctor Who and Torchwood character, has several similarities to Dan Dare. The script for the episode "The Empty Child" in which Captain Jack makes his first appearance describes him as having "the jawline of Dan Dare, the smile of a bastard".
Dare makes brief appearances in the steampunk comics Scarlet Traces: The Great Game (where he and Digby are officers in the British invasion of Mars; Mercurians, Treen, and Theron are also briefly seen) and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier (where, along with Jet Morgan and Jet-Ace Logan, he is one of the first pilots in the post-Ingsoc space program).
Captain Eager in the film Captain Eager and the Mark of Voth bears several resemblances to Dan Dare but is now older, a little out of condition and slightly damaged by the passing of time.
Other References
The musical group Art of Noise has a song tribute called "Dan Dare".
In 1967 the Pink Floyd song "Astronomy Domine", from the 1967 album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn references Dan Dare ("Stairway scare, Dan Dare, who's there").
In 1975, Elton John released the album Rock of the Westies, which included "Dan Dare (Pilot of the Future)". In it, John laments that he won't be joining Dan on his rocket and reveals that he prefers The Mekon.
In 1979, David Bowie referenced Dan Dare in his song "DJ (song)".
Collected editions
Most of the 50s and 60s strips were reprinted by Hawk Books between 1987 and 1995.
- 1) Pilot of the Future
- 2) The Red Moon Mystery and Marooned on Mercury
- 3) Operation Saturn
- 4) Prisoners of Space
- 5) The Man from Nowhere
- 6) Rogue Planet
- 7) Reign of the Robots
- 8) The Phantom Fleet
- 9) Terra Nova trilogy
- 10) Project Nimbus
- 11) Solid Space Mystery
- 12) The Final Volume
Stories left out were :
- Operation Earthsavers (v13, 10-23)
- The Evil One (v13, 24-32)
- Operation Fireball (v13, 33-42)
- The Web of Fear (v13, 43-52)
- Operation Dark Star (v14, 1-9)
- Operation Time Trap (v14, 10-38)
- The Wandering World (v14, 39 - v15, 13)
- The Big City Caper (v15, 14-22)
- The Singing Scourge (v16, 30 - v17, 6)
- Give Me The Moon (v17, 7-26)
In 2004, Titan Books began collecting the series from the beginning of the Hampson run in dust-jacketed hardback editions. Collected thus far:
Voyage to Venus Part 1 (96 pages, April 2004, ISBN 1840236442) Voyage to Venus Part 2 (96 pages, September 2004, ISBN 1840238410) The Red Moon Mystery (96 pages, October 2004, ISBN 1840236663) Marooned on Mercury (96 pages, January 2005, ISBN 184023847X) Operation Saturn Part 1 (96 pages, April 2005, ISBN 1840238097) Operation Saturn Part 2 (96 pages, July 2005, ISBN 1845760883) Prisoners of Space (112 pages, November 2005, ISBN 1845761510) The Man From Nowhere (96 pages, April 2007, ISBN 1845764129) Rogue Planet (144 pages, August 2007, ISBN 1845764137) Reign of the Robots (112 pages, April 2008, ISBN 1845764145) Phantom Fleet (104 pages, March 2009, ISBN 184856127X)
The 2007 series had the first three issues collected into one hardback volume, released in April 2008 (ISBN 0981520022), but the whole series was collected into a single volume by Virgin Comics later in the year, with Dynamite Entertainment also making the omnibus available early in 2009:
Dan Dare (hardcover, 208 pages, Virgin Comics, September 2008, ISBN 0981480837, Dynamite Entertainment, February 2009, ISBN 1606900277)
See also
External links
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