Latest Spaceship Away features new Don Harley paintings

Issue 26 of the Dan Dare-inspired Spaceship Away is now at the printers and will soon be winging its way to subscribers and stockists.

Along with the regular strips the issue features three new Don Harley paintings, including a fabulous centre-spread of Frank Hampson working away in his studio under the watchful eye of Dan and the Mekon.

There are also three articles focusing on the audio versions of Dan Dare - Phil Harbottle and Penny Fabb review Dan Dare on Radio Luxembourg; Rod Barzilay hears from cast and crew of the 1990 BBC Dan Dare radio drama; and John Freeman tells us about the "Dan Dare Pilot That Never Flew", along with comments by actor Colin Baker.

Jeremy Briggs interviews Tom Kelly about his Dan Dare Musical that premiered nine years ago and there is some interesting feedback on previous issues in Chat-Back (which includes the late Bruce Cornwell's last ever sketch).

"Models from Dan Dare's World" also offers readers a look at Sid Clark's Treen "Green Magnet" fighter.

There is also the second and final part of the "Pre-Emptive Strike" Dan Dare adventure by John Freeman & Mike Nicoll, plus an Eric Eden painting in Readers' Corner, along with some details from "The Horlicks Spaceman's Handbook" relating to the Radio Luxembourg article.

Finally, Tim Booth's oil painting of Professor Peabody adorns the back cover.


Spaceship Away is available at selected British comics shops and directly from theSpaceship Away website. The cover price for the 2012 issues is £7.95 each which includes UK postage if ordering from the website. An annual subscription for the three issues is £21.50 for UK residents and non-UK subscriptions are available from the website.

• The Spaceship Away website, which includes ordering details for the 2012 issues as well as back issues and binders, is here

Spaceship Away Themed Issues For 2012

Des Shaw, editor of the impressive Dan Dare A4 magazine Spaceship Away has been in touch to show us dummies of the covers of the three issues that are due in 2012. Dare fans looking at them will see that this year there is a theme to the issues.

In addition to the new full colour Dan Dare and reprinted Garth and Journey Into Space strips, Spaceship Away will continue its usual selection of articles on different aspects of Dan Dare and Eagle comic but, in 2012, it is planned that each of the three issues will feature something on the first three Dan Dare stories that ran in Eagle in the early 1950s.

For Issue 26, due in March, it will be Voyage To Venus, the first Dan Dare story that began in Eagle Volume 1 Number 1 in April 1950 which took Dan and his colleagues to Venus and their fateful first meeting with the Mekon.

Issue 27, in July, will cover the second story The Red Moon Mystery set on Mars which began in Eagle in October 1952, while issue 28, due in November, will feature the third story Marooned On Mercury which began in June 1952.

The cover of each issue features a new painting by original 1950s Dan Dare artist Don Harley featuring a scene from each of the three stories, an "extra frame" if you like. The Voyage To Venus image shows Space Fleet Controller Sir Hubert Guest giving the order to send a rescue ship to Venus that effectively set in motion the entire Dan Dare saga. The image from The Red Moon Mystery is Dan saying good-bye to his archaeologist uncle Ivor who is working at the remains of the long gone Martian civilisation, while the image from Marooned On Mercury shows the point in the story when Dan and his friends see a Mercurian out of its protective armour for the first time.

The first of these themed issues, number 26, will include an exclusive interview with playwright Tom Kelly, the writer and lyricist of 2003's Dan Dare The Musical, which adapted the Voyage To Venus story for the stage.

Spaceship Away is available at selected British comics shops and directly from the Spaceship Away website. The cover price for the 2012 issues is £7.95 each which includes UK postage if ordering from the website. An annual subscription for the three issues is £21.50 for UK residents and non-UK subscriptions are available from the website.

The Spaceship Away website, which includes ordering details for the 2012 issues as well as back issues and binders, is here.

Spaceship Away goes Christmas Crazy!

Spaceship Away 25 cover by
Don Harley

The latest issue of the Dan Dare-inspired comic magazine Spaceship Away is on sale now from the title's official web site and selected comic shops and its content harks back to the days when a comic's editorial team really made the most of the Christmas holiday, offering a tie-in cover from veteran artist Don Harley and more.

Issue 25 - kicking off the magazine's ninth year in print - include a glorious Sydney Jordan scripted, Don Harley drawn Dan Dare Christmas comic story; more adventures of the Daily Mirror hero Garth; a further Journey Into Space episode (Bruce Cornwell takes over the artwork part way through); a two page Don Harley Dan Dare strip; and the continuation of Tim Booth’s “Parsecular Tales”.

Features include an article by Dan Dare artist Desmond Walduck, a new painting by Don Harley from the original Eagle story “Prisoners of Space”; an item about Spacefleet H.Q. by Charles Evans-Gunther; a fabulous Ian Kennedy centrespread, featuring three versions of Dan Dare (he worked on all three); news of another Frank Hampson find; another model by Sid Clark from ‘Dan Dare’s World’; and the board from the Dan Dare’s Race in Space game. (Time to get your dice and counters out at Christmas - what fun!)

Ian Kennedy's stunning Dan Dare
centrespread for Spaceship Away 25

The issue, which features a gorgeous Christmas cover by Don Harley, is topped off with a new Bruce Cornwell painting on the back cover.

Coming in the new year is the final episode of “Pre-Emptive Strike”, an all-new Dan Dare tale by John Freeman and Mike Nicoll (who are already at work on a further classic Dare story for the magazine), along with more artwork from Graham Bleathman, Don Harley and Gerry Embleton.

• Order Spaceship Away Issue 25 from the official web site here

Spaceship Away 22 soars to the shelves

Spaceship Away Part 22, the comics magazine inspired by Eagle and featuring all-new Dan Dare advntures is now available from publisher Rod Barzilay.

This issue features a simply glorious wrap-around cover from Ian Kennedy and the Dan Dare adventure, Green Nemesis, has more pages than usual. Plus there's the usual selection of great comic strips including the start of a new Journey into Space tale, more of Frank Bellamy's Garth, coloured by John Ridgway, and another fine cutaway from Graham Bleathman.

Features include an article and more artwork from Eagle and Dan Dare artist Don Harley; while artists Bruce Cornwell contributes his own full Venus Shuttle colour cutaway development page from 1950 and Tim Booth gives an insight into his world.

Continuing the exploration of the history of Britain's favourite space hero, Pat Mills gives readers a behind the scenes, low-down on the later Dan Dares; Gary Erskine talks about the Virgin Dan Dare; and Rian Hughes is answering questions about his Dare, written by Grant Morrison. It's another cracking issue, so order now!

• To get Spaceship Away delivered to your door, simply go to www.spaceshipaway.org.uk and follow the links. Spaceship Away is also available in some specialist magazine shops.

Spaceship Away Turns 21

The new issue of Spaceship Away, the science fiction comics magazine inspired by and featuring the original Dan Dare, includes some stunning exclusives sure to appeal to fans of the original version of the Eagle space hero created by Frank Hampson.

Wrapped in a glorious new Dan Dare cover featuring ever major character from the strip from veteran artist Don Harley (click on the image above or here for a larger version), the issue also includes a glorious tribute to Keith Watson's work on Dare by Chris Weston, as part of a retrospective of the artist's contribution to the legend.

Garth: The Bubble Man - superbly coloured by John Ridgway - continues and, while there are two Dan Dare strips to enjoy this issue, proves the highlight of this issue's strip content for me, along with a cutaway of the Tempus Frangit vessel by Graham Bleathman.

In something of a coup for the magazine, this issue carries coverage of a little known news piece about the making of Dan Dare made by the BBC in the 1950s, complete with photographs of the event, and also features some incredibly rare Dan Dare art by Frank Hampson created for the BBC Nationwide magazine show in 1975.

• To order the issue online visit: spaceshipaway.org.uk

Complete Frank Hampson Story Book Announced

PS Publishing has just released details of Tomorrow Revisited: The Complete Frank Hampson Story, scheduled for release in April - the 60th anniversary of Eagle.

Written by Alistair Crompton, with art contributions from Don Harley and Andrew Skilleter, the book charts the life and work of Dan Dare creator Frank Hampson, published to coincide with the sixtieth anniversary of the launch of Eagle.

But this is more than a plain biography: the book is simply crammed to the gunnels with superb examples of Hampson's best work, printed in full colour from original art boards, so you can see all the amazing detail and painstaking backgrounds Hampson was so good at creating.

Along with plenty on Dan Dare, also featured is information on seven other strip cartoon characters, intended for Eagle, available in print for the first time, together with backgrounds of how they were drawn and some of the intended story-lines.

Tomorrow Revisited, which will cost £29.99, also contains sketches from Hampson's notebooks, and some of the many hundreds of photos he took to help him create his strips.

In addition to the regular release, a slipcased limited edition (£69.99) is also being produced as a cloth bound hardback full colour book; and a deluxe leather bound hard back edition (Limited to 100 copies, priced at £295.00) housed in a leather bound Presentation Case, which comes with a certificate of limited availability signed by Alistair Crompton, Andrew Skilleter and Don Harley; a unique original illustration by legendary Eagle artist Don Harley; and a Frank Hampson illustrated Homage by Andrew Skilleter.

• Until April 2010, the bookshop version of Tomorrow Revisited: The Complete Frank Hampson Story is on offer at 10% off.


• For full details and a preview of some of the pages from the book visit http://store.pspublishing.co.uk/acatalog/info_480.html

Spaceship Away Soars Again

The latest issue of Spaceship Away, the science fiction comics magazine inspired by and featuring the original Dan Dare has just gone to the printers and will be on sale in all its usual outlets, and online, soon.

This issue, with a superb cover from veteran Dan Dare artist Don Harley, continues two ongoing Dan Dare stories, "Green Nemesis" by Rod Barzilay and Tim Booth, and "The Gates of Eden" by Tim alone, a brand new Dare adventure strip, set a year and a half before “The Red Moon Mystery”.

"Garth: The Bubble Man" by Frank Bellamy, beautifully coloured by John Ridgway continues this issue, as does "Journey in Space: Planet of Fear" written by by Charles Chilton, and drawn by Ferdinando Tacconi. Also featured is the first part of "Homecoming", an Ex Astris story by John Freeman and Mike Nicoll.

Feature wise, there's a report on the recent Spaceship Away day event and full information on Alistair Crompton's new book on Dan Dare creator Frank Hampson, Tomorrow Revisited, out later this year. Graham Bleathman providea a cutaway of Dan Dare's spaceship, the Anastasia, and there are some images of the original models used in the creation of the Dan Dare strip back in his original Eagle days, and an update on Day2Day Trading's new Dan Dare action figure which we've reported on here.

• To order the issue online visit: spaceshipaway.org.uk


• While we're on the subject of Dan Dare, comic fans may like to know he's invaded France... sort of. A page of "Dan Dare: The Man From Nowhere", first published in Eagle Volume 6, Issue 21, cover dated 27 May 1955 is currently n display at the Comics Museum in Angoulême. downthetubes readers Chris Weston and Sean Phillips helped out with the identification of the piece for the Museum after an appeal for info from Paul Gravett.

Spaceship Away 18 Arrives!

After a few printing delays, we're pleased to report that Spaceship Away Part 18 - the British comics SF magazine inspired by space hero Dan Dare - is now available, and most prepaid subscriber issues have been posted.

Apart from its regular three Dan Dare strips - with Keith Page's Rocket Pilot prequel story reaching a conclusion this issue - artist Bruce Cornwell writes about his work on the Dan Dare comic for Eagle, artist Don Harley provides artwork of the 1960 Dare team and both Gerald Palmer and Harley have delivered an impressive 1960's Dan Dare centrespread while illustrator Gragam Bleathman provides a Zylbat spaceship cutaway and top Commando and Starblazer artist Ian Kennedy a painting of Dan Dare's ship, the Anastasia.

The issue also sees the final part, for now, of Ex Astris by John Freeman and Mike Nicoll, but the the strip will return to the Magazine next year - and this time, it will be for an ongoing run. (more on this on the Ex Astris blog)

It looks like it's going to be an interesting year ahead for the SF comic magazine: in addition to continuing Dan Dare stories and more, Issue 19 will see the arrival of the Daily Mirror's classic strip Garth, coloured by John Ridgway - a story that has never been reprinted in the UK.

• Spaceship Away Part 18 is being distributed to existing subscribers. For more about the issue, click here

• To order Spaceship Away, click here

Bellamy, Noble Art Up for Auction

Rare wartime Beanos and The Dandys and artwork by Frank Bellamy, Don Harley, Ken Reid, Mike Noble and Dudley Watkins form just part of the British section of the latest auction from London-based Comic Book Auctions.

While best known for his Thunderbirds art for the 1960s comic TV Century 21, Frank Bellamy also drew some Captain Scarlet pages and it is the cover of Issue 192 that features in this auction, offered with a copy of the self same issue of the comic.

Described as being in Poster paint on board measuring 15 x 11.5 inches, the lot is expected to fetch £550-650.

Also offered is another page from TV Century 21, this time from Fireball XL5 drawn by Mike Noble. The page is from what continues to be a popular story among TV21 fans, in which Steve Zodiac and crew face off the menace of what seem to be living snowmen, the page taken from Issue 38, published in 1965, Measuring 21 x 17 inches, the art is signed by Noble and expected to fetch anything up from £300.

The Dan Dare art on offer features work by Desmond Walduck for Eagle Volume 5, No 7 in which Vora, Blasco and The Rootha attack Dan's rebel stronghold with their cosmic-ray armoured Black Cats. Another page, this time from Eagle Vol 12 No 30, is the scond page of the Dan Dare story for the issue published in 1961 by Don Harley and Bruce Cornwell, in which
Dan and Digby land on a strange platinum planet and have to run for their lives.

Deseperate Dan art by Dudley Watkins, Keyhole Kate original artwork drawn and initialled by Allan Morley for a 1949 issue of The Dandy, Clever Dick by Leo Baxendale and Faceache by Ken Reid are among the other art offerings, alongside a huge range of comic titles spanning decades of British comics history including issues of Lady Penelope, sister title to TV Century 21 (including a rare 1966 Lady Penelope Summer Extra), Champion (from 1922), a complete year of the 1928 editions of Film Fun in two bound volumes, starring Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton and Mr E - Man Of Mystery, wartime issues of The Beano and The Dandy -- rare finds, given that much paper was recycled for the war effort -- and much more.

• Bids on lots will be accepted until Tuesday 10 March at 8.00pm GMT

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