Spaceship Away 28 Available In Time For Christmas

Spaceship Away, the A4, full colour glossy magazine that covers original Dan Dare as well as a selection of other classic strips, has released issue 28 in time for Christmas.

Priced at £7.95, including UK postage, the 44 page issue features a new Marooned on Mercury cover from original 1950s Dan Dare artist Don Harley as well as a special one off Christmas Dan Dare story entitled The Tannenbaum Caper in which Eagle's Dan Dare and the Daily Express' Jeff Hawke meet for the first time. This fully licensed strip was written by Jeff Hawke creator Sydney Jordan and illustrated by Don Harley.

The other comic strips in the issue include the latest episode of the Dan Dare story Parsecular Tales written and drawn by Tim Booth, the continuing reprint of the Jet Morgan/Journey Into Space strip Shadow Over Britain! from Express Weekly illustrated by Ferdinando Tacconi, a Ron Turner strip The World That Dissolved published for the first time in colour, and the continuing reprint of the Garth story Finality Factor from the Daily Mirror also published in colour for the first time.

Spaceship Away continues its features on little known Dan Dare spin-offs with a piece on the pilot episode for a live action Dan Dare TV series featuring Robert Bathurst as Dan and Geoffrey Hughes as Digby. Other features include an appreciation of artist Ferdinando Tacconi, who passed away in 2006 along with a tribute to him from Jeff Hawke's Sydney Jordan, a career spanning interview with Sydney himself, and a piece on that other 1950s comic strip spaceman Swift Morgan whose adventures were illustrated by Denis McLoughlin.

The centrespread of the issue is a special preview of the new cutaway by Graham Bleathman of the J Series Space Station from the original Dan Dare strip in 1950s Eagle which will be featured in the Dan Dare Spacefleet Operations Manual due to be published by Haynes in 2013.

There are more details of Spaceship Away on the Spaceship Away website.

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

Jeff Hawke's Cosmos Vol 6 No 3 Now Available

The new issue of Jeff Hawke's Cosmos has just been released with its usual selection of complete stories from artist Sydney Jordan's Daily Express strip, detailed background notes on the strips themselves as well as other articles.

Volume 6 Number 3 features full length reprints of the Jeff Hawke strips Overland from 1966/1967, Cataclysm from 1968 and The Bees of Daedalus from 1971 complete with introductions written by Sydney Jordan and Hawke's Notes on each strip written by Duncan Lunan. Editor William Rudling provides a Hawke's Wings factual feature on the Woomera rocket range in Australia that features in some of the Hawke strips while Andrew Darlington's Space Heroes feature covers DC Thomson's 1950s character Nick Swift Of The Planet Patrol who featured in Adventure beginning in March 1952.

After six years of continuous publication Cosmos is rapidly coming to the end of the original Jeff Hawke strips and there has been some debate as to whether the magazine will continue with Jordan's follow on strip Earthspace. This featured the similar character of Lance McLane and was syndicated in some newspapers as Jeff Hawke. Editor William Rudling tells us that he has decided to continue Cosmos with the Earthspace stories and, having read some of them recently, we here at downthetubes can say that Hawke fans will not be disappointed with them.

Attendees at next month's Bristol International Comic and Small Press Expo will be able to see copies of Cosmos as William Rudling will have them there alongside Jeff Hawke's creator Sydney Jordan who will have original Jeff Hawke art boards for sale.

Jeff Hawke's Cosmos Volume 6 Number 3 is available from the Jeff Hawke Club. The subscription rate for Volume 7 is £22 for UK members which provides three issues of the 88 page, A4 magazine and access to the back issues and specials that the club has previous published. There are more details on the Jeff Hawke Club website.

Sydney Jordan lined up for Bristol Comic Expo appearance

Along with a host of special events and Expo exclusives, including a huge 2000AD panel featuring the likes of Patrick Goddard, Gordon Rennie and Sean Phillips, a preview of the new Alan Moore: Storyteller book by Gary Spencer Milidge, a special STRIP Magazine launch promotion with John Freeman, Jim Campbell, Jim Alexander and Jasper Bark - and much more - it's now confirmed that Sydney Jordan, the creator of the great Daily Express newspaper strip Jeff Hawke, will again be at the event in May.

"Last year's Bristol International Comic Expo was a great success for the Jeff Hawke Club and we're coming back this year," says the club's organiser, Will Rudling.

Sydney Jordan will be on hand to talk about Hawke and his other comics work along with Will Rudling,  Editor and Founder of the Jeff Hawke Club, and master model maker Chris Tubb.
 

Jeff Hawke original artwork will be on sale. 

The Club has almost completed reprinting all the early Jeff Hawke stories in its magazine, Cosmos, and is beginning to shift its emphasis on his transformation into Lance McLane/ Jeff Hawke. 

"We will be reprinting the Earthspace strips and subsequent stories in sequence," says Will. "The scenario is of a post-apocalyptic Earth struggling to survive and is very timely. Jeff and his android companion, Fortuna encounter fantastic adventures and deal with environmental issues. 

"This shows Sydney’s unique interpretation on the subject and the amazing plots he creates. It’s incredible how relevant they are now and so prophetic, they were since written 35 years ago!"

• For more about the Bristol International Comic Expo go to www.fantasyevents.org/bristolcomicexpo/index.html 

• Jeff Hawke's Cosmos is on sale by subscription, which costs £20 per year for three issues. Subscriptions can be sent to The Jeff Hawke Club, 6 The Close, Alwoodley, Leeds LS17 7RD, United Kingdom. Web: www.jeffhawkeclub.com