Thrill Power, 1957 Style, in the new Eagle Times

The new issue of Eagle Times, Volume 26 Number 1 - the magazine published by the Eagle Society - features an interview article by downthetubes writer Jeremy Briggs entitled "A Thrill Of A Lifetime In 1957".

"The Thrill Of A Lifetime article in this Eagle Times has perhaps the most unusual back story any comics article that I have ever written,"  Jeremy tells us. "It began late on the Sunday afternoon of the 2012 Hi-Ex comics convention in Inverness when an older gentlemen called Bob Pegg spotted artist Graeme Neil Reid wearing a Dan Dare t-shirt.

"If Graeme had not have been wearing that t-shirt, if Bob and Graeme had not been so chatty to each other, if Graeme had not known that I wrote articles for the Eagle Society, and if I had not have been in shouting distance of Graeme at the time, then this article would not have happened.

“This is the story of a 12-year-old Yorkshire schoolboy who won a competition in Eagle comic in 1957 to fly both him and his father to Africa for an all-expenses paid holiday in what today is Zambia, Zimbabwe and Kenya.

"That would still be a major prize in any comic or magazine today - imagine what it was like over half a century ago for a schoolboy who had never been further from home than Wales, let alone even seen an intercontinental airliner."

Other features in this 25th birthday issue include -

Dan Dare Pilot of the Future on Radio Luxembourg - a review of the radio serial, sponsored by Horlicks, that aired five days a week on 208 Medium Waveband from 1951 - 1956. The article includes a story listing and is accompanied by a short article on the origins of the malted milk product known as Horlicks.

Serial Thrillers: The Adventure Serial on British Radio - a review of Charles Norton’s new book about four immensely popular series from the Golden Age of British Radio: Paul Temple, Dick Barton, Dan Dare and Journey into Space.

P.C.49 and the Case of the Circular Tins - a further adaptation from one of Alan Stranks' famous radio stories

An obituary of Charles Chilton MBE (1917 - 2013), the renowned radio writer and producer, and writer of the 'Riders of the Range' strip that ran in Eagle from 1950 until 1962, plus a report on the funeral service held on 11th January, 2013, to commemorate his life.

How I learned to stop worrying and appreciate the genius of John M Burns - a look at the career and varied work of one of the artists who drew Dan Dare for new Eagle in 1990.

When is a Hampson not a Hampson? - on the particular challenge and difficulties of reliably attributing Eagle Dan Dare artwork to its original creator and lead artist, Frank Hampson.

Charles William (Bill) Nuttall - Artist - a former Eagle letterer (Eagle Society member David Gould) provides a biographical review of the early career of lettering artist and illustrator, Bill Nuttall, and his personal recollections of working with Bill at Eagle from the mid-1960s.

Mann of Battle: Part 1 - a look at the World War II strip that ran weekly in Eagle from 1962 - 1964, written by Alfred Carney Allan and drawn initially by Luis Bermejo, then for most of its life by Brian Lewis.

Dan Dare Holiday Special 1990 - the third in a series of articles about Eagle-related holiday specials, this one looking at the only Dan Dare-specific special to be published.

Interviewing Marcus Morris - a photo-illustrated article recounting a visit in 1987 to the home of former Eagle editor Marcus Morris

Lion, King of Picture Story Papers - a review of Steve Holland's recent book about Eagle's 1950s' rival - the comic that eventually swallowed Eagle in 1969.

• Membership of the Eagle Society is via Annual Subscription to Eagle Times magazine, which is published four times annually. The subscription rate for 2013 is: UK £27 Overseas £38 (in £s Sterling, please) Postal applications to: Keith Howard 25A Station Road Harrow Middlesex HA1 2UA United Kingdom If you wish to pay by Paypal (to the eagle-times hotmail address below) we request an additional payment of £1.50. Enquiries: eagle-times@hotmail.com. 

• More info: http://eagle-times.blogspot.co.uk

Eagle Times reaches 100th issue

(Via the Eagle Times blog): The 100th issue of Eagle Times, the journal of the Eagle Society, is available now.

The picture on the cover of the issue  (Volume 25 No 4) is from the Dan Dare story 'Operation Saturn', art by Desmond Walduck (from Eagle, Vol 4 No 38, 24th December 1953).

The man at the rear of the picture has an obviously intentional resemblance to Dan Dare's creator, Frank Hampson...

In the issue:

• PC49 and the Case of the Christmas Ornament - a seasonal short-story featuring radios (and Eagle's) police hero, from the radio stories by Alan Stranks
• Christmas Customs from Hulton Press shows how Eagle and Girl magazines presented the traditions of Christmas in strip form in 1955 and 1953, respectively
• It Wouldn't be Christmas... revisits an article in the first Eagle Annual, in which Chad Varah told of the origins of some of the familiar Christmas Customs
• 'Starring Bayford Lodge', takes a look at how Frank Hampson used locations in his own home and, sometimes, members of his own family in his art, with examples from some of his post-Eagle work
• A Look at Luck - part 6, concludes an examination of the French Foreign Legion strip by Geoffrey Bond and Martin Aitchison, which ran in Eagle from 1952 - 1961
• A PC49 radio script: 'The Case of the Haunting Refrain', reproduces the final part of an Alan Stranks-written performance script
• 'From Under the 1950s Christmas Tree, Eagle Bagatelles' - a seasonal look at 1950s pin-ball games from the makers Chad Valley and Mettoy, featuring Dan Dare and Riders of the Range
• ''Eagle Summer Special (1966) - a (not so seasonal!) review of the second (of two) Eagle holiday special issues that appeared in the 1960s 
• 'Dan Dare Projected, Part 3: The Films' - this final part looks at the many 'Dan Dare' film strips that were available in the 1950s for use with the viewers and projectors previously described
• 'Churchill Revisited' - report of a visit to an exhibition held at the J.P. Morgan Library and Museum in NewYork (June - September, 2012), where the recent U.S. reprint edition of Clifford Makins' and Frank Bellamy's Life of Churchill, The Happy Warrior was found in the bookshop
• 'Report on the Eagle Day' provides an illustrated account of the event held at Great Staughton, Cambs, on 23rd September, 2012
• 'Remembering Terra Nova' - has a re-look at the Dan Dare story from 1959 that saw the last Dan Dare work of Frank Hampson and the arrival of Frank Bellamy as lead artist
• Rivals of Jeff Arnold - Hopalong Cassidy. A look at the origin (1904) and development of the character (from the 1930s through the 1950s) in film, radio, television and comics of the fictional cowboy hero, created by Clarence E. Mulford and played on the screen by William Boyd.
• Looks Familiar? (Dans in all but name) - on the Captain Jet Harrison Space Explorer Space Gun from Retro Toys and Games, and its seeming likeness to the Merit Dan Dare Planet Gun of the 1950s
• Writing a Lament - the writing of a musical accompaniment to Lament to a Dead Swan, which, as a 1954 schoolboys poem, won a prize from Eagle's Special Investigator, Macdonald Hastings
• 'The Intrepid Cowpuncher' discusses the feasibility of Dan Dare being (albeit in the fictional world!) a descendant of Buffalo Bill - as he joked in the 'Red Moon Mystery'

• To get a copy, join the The Eagle Society via Annual Subscription to Eagle Times magazine, which is published four times annually. The Subscription rate for 2012 is: UK £27; Overseas £38 (in £s Sterling, please). Postal applications to: Keith Howard, 25A Station Road, Harrow, Middlesex HA1 2UA, United Kingdom.

If you wish to pay by Paypal (to the eagle-times hotmail address below) we request an additional payment of £1.50: eagle-times@hotmail.com

Dan Dare art, Marvel UK collections up for auction

The Summer 2012 auction at Compalcomics is open, with nearly 200 British comic-related lots up for biding, including Dan Dare art by Frank Hampson, a limited edition Dan Dare bust and collections of 1980s Marvel UK titles such as Captain America and Forces in Combat.

Compalcomics last auction in March saw Dan Dare and Eagle powered into the stratosphere with £555 pad for The Eagle Club letter and Membership Card, £565 for Dan’s interplanetary figures boxed set by Crescent Toys and £390 for the Horlicks Eagle Rocket Cup and badge.

In their latest catalogue they highlight the second part of a collection with a Frank Hampson Dan Dare artwork, one of his earliest boards, from Eagle Volume 1 No 33, pubishd in 1950, in which Dan's memory is restored by Volstar the Theron. Hampson's artistic devotion to detail is perfectly illustrated from Volstar's Venusian habitat down to Daniel McGregor Dare's argyle socks!

Also on offer are high grade bound volumes of Eagle from 1951-1959. There’s a super Super-sonic Space Pilot Gun, brilliantly boxed, a rare Dan Dare bust – one of only 20 cast, and an affordable double-page artwork by Carlos Cruz from 1987 featuring the Mekon and Dan in battle at London’s Natural History Museum.

There’s further original art of Beryl The Peril by Davy Law. David 'Davy' Law (1907-1971) found international fame by introducing Dennis The Menace to unsuspecting Beano readers in March 1951. He also penned Beryl The Peril, Captain Hound and the accident prone nitwit, Corporal Clott. Law's artwork rarely comes to market, so this lot, a page from The Topper, will attract plenty of attention.

There's also art from Look and Learn's The Trigan Empire by Don Lawrence, Grendel by Ron Embleton, Oor Wullie by Dudley Watkins and a six board complete Bionic Woman story by John Bolton pubished in Look-In, in which Jaime Sommers is bequeathed an ancient key – but faces mortal danger as she encounters the evil clan of Uncle Ebeneezer in The House of Six Locks!

This aucton's rare British comics selection includes The Dick Turpin/Spring-Heeled Jack Library from 1902, The Beano Comic No 1, The Beano Book No 1 and Beano and Dandy bound volumes from 1949 and 1950, Lion 1-45, Misty 1-23 - and Tiger No 1, pubished in 1954, with free gift Space Gun and 6 press-out Flying Saucers, all in their original bag.

The US section offers Classics Illustrated #43-74, mainly first editions, and the first tranche of our DC Comics one-owner collection spanning one hundred lots including Superman from 1948-1955, Action, Adventure and Superboy from 1959-1970s, Showcase #9 and #10 and Lois Lane #1-6.

Our favourite item - which may attract interest from beyond the comics community given his now international status as a fine artist - is a Rolf Harris self portrait, dedicated to a fan in the 1960s. Oh, and the DC Superheroes Pen Set from 1977!

• Bidding closes on Tuesday 5th June at 8.00pm UK time. Catalogue at: www.compalcomics.com/catalogue/index.htm. There are 316 lots in this catalogue.

• If you have a question about any of the items in the catalogue, please send an email to Compalcomics director Malcolm Phillips at comicbookATcompalcomics.com

Rare Dan Dare merchandise, Comic Cuts Number 1, up for auction

The Spring 2012 auction at Compalcomics is open and includes some terrific Dan Dare artwork and toys, an issue of Eagle signed by Dan Dare co-creator Frank Hampson, Trigan Empire art by Don Lawrence and the first issue of Comic Cuts - published in 1890.

There are 203 lots in this catalogue and Dan Dare rules the interplanetary airwaves with a wonderful collection of comics, artwork and toys.

Offered are two magnificent Eagle artworks from "Operation Saturn", copies of Eagle No 1 and No 52 signed by Frank Hampson, the impossibly rare Dan Dare Figures Set in original box by Crescent Toys and the Horlicks Dan Dare Spaceship Cup and lid which you could only get if you sent off 6d and a jar label in the early 1950s. It’s in mint condition.

A Space Pistol, and Eagle and Girl Table tennis Set (surely proof of the popularity of the tites in the 1950s), interplanetary Stamp Folder, Eagle Membership Card and letters are some of the other lots from this high grade collection featured in lots 74-93.

Other key artwork boards on offer showcase The Trigan Empire by Don Lawrence, full of action, Thunderbirds by Frank Bellamy, Oor Wullie in a terrible tangle with his pet mouse, Wee Jeemy and a Kit Carson cover from Cowboy Picture Library in 1958.

For those intrigued by the origins of British comics there's the first issue of Comic Cuts, publishd in 1890, alongside a 1901 Sherlock Holmes’ Hound Of The Baskervilles, all episodes collected from Strand Magazine in a bound volume.

Also offered is a very battered Beano No 1 at No Reserve, Beano Books 1 and 2, the first Beezer with free gift Whizz Bang, plenty of early Cowboy Comics to ride the range and Playhour 1 with free gift Red Indian Head-dress to fight them off.

Meet the Saint features in number one of Super-Detective Library and Robin Hood, Black Arrow, Battler Britton and Spy 13 in Thriller Picture Library.

If it's rarities you're after, then Lot 128 has the original printer’s dummy copy of Buster No 1 along with the actual first issue

There's also a bound set of the first 250 issues of 2000AD,  Bionic Woman art by John Bolton from Look-In, Faceache art by Ken Reid and much more, but the Dan Dare items realy need to be checked out by fans.

 
The US section offers an early run of 1940s Classic Comics from #1-42 including key first editions along with Fantastic Four #1 and a good run of Silver Age DC comics.

• Bidding closes on Tuesday 13th March at 8.00pm UK time. To go directly to the main page for this catalogue click here: www.compalcomics.com/catalogue/index.htm

Merry Christmas - Don't Eat Too Much!

As you sit down to your Christmas dinner, or alternatively are recovering from it, we couldn't resist showing you this illustration of a Christmas meal in Tudor times taken from The Stories Of Our Christmas Customs which was first published by Ladybird in 1964.

If you think the bearded gentlemen serving the boar's head looks a little familiar that is because the artist for this book was Dan Dare creator Frank Hampson and the model he used for the man was his father, Robert 'Pop' Hampson, who was also the basis for Sir Hubert Guest, Controller of Dan Dare's Space Fleet.

I wonder how many Dan Dare fans realised the similarity at the time?

Merry Christmas.

Ladybird Books © Penguin Books Ltd

Dan Dare art up for sale on eBay

A page of Dan Dare artwork from the original Eagle is currently up for sale on eBay, on offer from American comics creator and editor Scott Dunbier.

The art is a page from the story The Phantom Fleet, first published in Eagle 50 (volume 9) in 1950.

Written by Alan Stranks, the artists credited for this story are Dan Dare co-creator Frank Hampson, Keith Watson and Desmond Walduck, but the Scott says "there’s probably more Duck here than Ham".

In the story, radio and television transmissions are being disrupted throughout the Solar System by an unknown force. Spaceships are disappearing. After a rocket ship carrying Sir Hubert Guest goes missing, Dan and crew set out to discover what has happened to it.

They find a fleet of huge alien craft containing peaceful aquatic creatures called Cosmobes who are fleeing from another aquatic race, the warlike Pescods, whose "Crimson Death" weapon destroys all metals on contact.

Attempts to destroy the Pescods' pursuing fleet fail, and they dive into the Earth's ocean and begin to build themselves a city. Fortunately for Earth the Pescods' settlement is on top of the submerged volcano Krakatoa, and when it erupts due to seismic disturbances from the pesky Pescods, they are all destroyed.

A panel from the offered Dan Dare page

The art measures 9.5 x 12.5 inches on large illustration board; the art is in nice shape but has some staining (perhaps no surprise given the many horror stories told down the years about how such art was treated by some publishers) and shows some age.

Scott previously bought and sold original comic art since the early 1980s, but "gave it up full time in 1995 to work in comics publishing."

While we were on eBay, we also came across seller "alanb1109", who regularly sells copies of Eagle and has announced he is about to offer quite a substantial collection in coming weeks.

Could be worth keeping an eye on.

• View The Phantom Fleet art here on eBay

• Dan Dare comics checklist (GoogleDoc, corrections, additional information welcome)

Latest Issue Of Eagle Times Now Available

L Ashwell Wood was Eagle's premier cutaway artist providing over 600 different painted cutaways for the weekly comic between 1950 and 1969. While some of these paintings have been reused in the recent Eagle reprint books published by Orion to date none of Wood's original pencils for these Eagle cutaways have ever been published.

Earlier this year downthetubes' Jeremy Briggs discovered the pencils for L Ashwell Wood's cutaway of the Royal Navy destroyer HMS St Kitts which was published in Eagle Vol 1 No 46 dated 23 February 1951. These pencils are published for the first time, alongside the final version of the cutaway as printed in Eagle, as an A3 centrespread in the new issue of Eagle Times. In addition to the centrespread, Jeremy supplies a detailed article on L Ashwell Wood's nineteen year career with Eagle comic.

Amongst other features in this new issue of Britain's longest running comics fanzine are the first part of A Look at Luck examining Eagle's Luck of the Legion, the French Foreign Legion strip written by Geoffrey Bond and drawn by Martin Aitchison, an examination of the real XCH-4 hydrofoil which inspired Frank Hampson's hydrofoil designs in the Dan Dare story The Man From Nowhere, and writer Alan Vince's memories of working for David Hunt, the first editor of new Eagle in the 1980s.

There are more details about Eagle Times Volume 24 Number 3 on the Eagle Times Blog.

An annual subscription to Eagle Times magazine, which is published four times per year, is via membership to the Eagle Society. Details of how to subscribe are also on the Eagle Times Blog.

In Review: Tomorrow Revisited

Steve Winders reviews Alastair Crompton’s new book about Frank Hampson


Published by PS Artbooks at £29.99
Hardback 214 pages

The Book: This is a lavishly coloured celebration of the life and work of Frank Hampson, the creator of one of Britain’s most popular and enduring comic strip characters, the space hero Dan Dare, who appeared in the famous Eagle comic.

Many significant examples of Hampson’s stunning detailed colour artwork are reproduced from the original illustrations in better detail than I have ever seen them before. There are also many photographs of Hampson’s studio, including members of his team posing in costume for pictures for the strip, models of spacecraft and preliminary sketches, some of which are works of art in themselves.

Alastair Crompton brings a lifetime of enthusiasm for Hampson’s work to his text, which examines his career and subsequent life and also explores the character and motivation of this remarkable artist.

The Review: Formerly an advertising copywriter, Alastair Crompton tells Hampson’s story with great clarity and makes all his points forcefully. His personal views are most evident in his attitudes to the various Dare adventures. He enthuses about the first story and he analyses strengths and weaknesses of other early adventures very well, relating them to changes of writer and other developments behind the scenes, such as Hampson’s frequent periods of ill health when he was forced to withdraw from work.

However, while acknowledging the outstanding quality of the artwork he is dismissive of the later stories written by Alan Stranks, such as The Man From Nowhere trilogy. Of this epic he merely writes “… but the story, by Stranks, was not so good.” From these comments a reader would be left unaware that Stranks was a highly regarded and experienced writer of successful radio programmes and comic and newspaper strips, or that many fans regard his work on ‘Dan Dare’ as excellent. While it is entirely appropriate that Alastair should express his own views in his book, I expected more analysis here.

Unlike many other works about Eagle and ‘Dan Dare’, factual errors in this book are negligible. Alastair explains the complicated takeovers that Eagle suffered at the end of the 1950s clearly and accurately, although he writes in his acknowledgements that
“To avoid confusing my readers, I have named the owners of Eagle from 1961-9 as Mirror Group, although the paper continued to carry the Longacre imprint.” In fact, the Longacre imprint was dropped in 1963 and the publishers listed as Odhams. He is nevertheless entirely correct in stating that the real owners were the Mirror Group and he covers this whole period of Eagle and Hampson’s life very well.

Alastair focuses prominently on Hampson’s crucial relationship with Marcus Morris, the originator of Eagle, which he helped him to create and tells the story of the background to its development in great detail. Later he compares Morris’ future success after Eagle with Hampson’s comparative failure and frustration, providing a valuable insight into the characters of the two men.

He does however devote an unnecessary chapter to a future comic project which Morris considered but dropped and which did not involve Hampson at all. While worthy of mention, this project could have been adequately covered in a couple of pages.

Much more relevant to the subject are the examples of Hampson’s work after Dan Dare which are featured here. There are pages from his final Eagle strip The Road of Courage, which tells the story of Jesus and then starter pages from eight other strips he worked on later, none of which ever achieved publication, being locked away in the publisher’s vaults for many years after Hampson left the Mirror Group in acrimonious circumstances. Each strip is accompanied by Alastair’s informative comments.

Finally there are examples of Hampson’s version of the famous newspaper strip Modesty Blaise, produced when he was invited to submit samples with a view to becoming the regular artist. For various reasons his work was not favoured by the writer Peter O’Donnell and Jim Holdaway took on the job instead.

This is Alastair’s second book about Frank Hampson, following his The Man Who Drew Tomorrow twenty five years ago; hence the title. It is a complete rewriting of the first book and incorporates a great deal of previously unavailable material.

I know that he was not entirely satisfied with his first effort. He should be delighted with this!

• Buy Tomorrow Revisited from amazon.co.uk

Artist Brian Lewis profiled in new Eagle Times

The latest issue of Eagle Times for Winter 2010 is on available now and has the usual intriguing mix of Eagle comic-related goodies to offer, including a profile of the artist Brian Lewis, whose work included strips for Eagle, 2000AD, Countdown and House of Hammer.

Items include:

• Not all Lancashire Lads and Lasses - a brief article on the genealogy of ('Dan Dare' creator) Frank Hampson

• The Life of Another Brian - memories about the brilliant illustrator Brian Lewis, who among his prolific output drew 'Home of the Wanderers' and 'Mann of Battle' for Eagle in the 1960s

• The Incredible Shrinking Fish - a critical examination of the giant sea creatures that appear in the classic 'Dan Dare' story 'The Man From Nowhere'

• Sammy: Swift's Space Fleet Cadet - takes a look at the strip in Eagle's companion paper Swift that was drawn by 'Dan Dare' artists Bruce Cornwell and Desmond Walduck, and drew heavily on the imagery of 'Dan Dare'

• From Under the 1950s Christmas Tree - taking a look at the various Eagle and 'Dan Dare' stencil sets that were available for children in the 1950s

•  Visual memories of the 37th World Science Fiction Convention, Seacon '79, which was held in Brighton in 1979 - with guests who included Frank Hampson and Arthur C Clarke.


For a full list of contents, visit the Eagle Times blog. The issue also includes a review of Dan Dare - The Biography by Daniel Tatarsky and the Eagle Annuals between 1961 and 1971, published after the takeover of Hulton Press.

• Membership of The Eagle Society is via Annual Subscription to Eagle Times magazine, which is published four times annually. The Subscription rate for 2011 is held at the 2010 rate (UK £23, Overseas £34 - payment in £s Sterling, please).

Early applications for 2011 (ie before 31st December 2010) are offered a discount saving of £2 off the above rates. Postal applications to: Keith Howard, 25A Station Road, Harrow, Middlesex HA1 2UA. If you wish to pay by Paypal the Society request an additional payment of £1. Enquiries: eagle-times@hotmail.com

Radio 4 to air Eagle: The Space Age Weekly

A panel from Dan Dare: Prisoners of Space recently used
by the Daily Telegraph

(with thanks to Tony O'Sullivan): It looks like there is treat in store for Eagle fans just before Christmas. BBC Radio 4 will be broadcasting "Eagle: The Space Age Weekly" on Thursday 23rd December at 11. 30am.

In the show, Tim Rice explores the lasting appeal of the Eagle that as downthetubes readers well know, ran in two main incarnations between 1950 and 1994. He touches on the impact of its flagship character Dan Dare, regarded by some as  the greatest British sci-fi hero of the 20th century, and the life of its creator Marcus Morris, who initiated it in reaction to"horrific" US comics with their "disturbing" storylines. (The programme notes, for example, how Dan Dare was originally envisaged as a space chaplain before becoming the popular astronaut).


It also examines the work of illustrator Frank Hampson, who introduced technology years ahead of its time, arguing he knew the space age was on its way while serving in the Second World War. He made the Dan Dare strips as realistic as possible by dressing his team in spacesuits and uniforms, basing the look of the fictional characters on his colleagues.

The programme also reveals the stories' educational value and, along with Dan Dare, looks at other Eagle offerings which ran as comic strips.

The show will include contributions from author Philip Pullman and Morris's daughter Sally, who wrote Living with Eagles, a biography of her father's life, back in 1998, which was published by Lutterworth Press – and Eagle Society member David Britton.

Sir Tim Rice is of course a lifelong Eagle fan and introduced the Titan Books collection of Dan Dare: Prisoners in Space.

Tomorrow Revisited: Frank Hampson Book Launch announced

The long-awaited art book Tomorrow Revisited by Alastair Crompton, focusing on the career of Dan Dare creator Frank Hampson, is to be launched at Chris Beetles Art Gallery on Tuesday 30th November 2010.

Announced back in February and originally planned for release to mark the the 60th anniversary of Eagle back in April, Tomorrow Revisited tells the life story of Frank Hampson and, although there are shades of Alastair’s first book, The Man Who Drew Tomorrow, the text has been completely  re-written, covers much not in the earlier work, and has been read and authenticated by Peter Hampson, the artist’s son.

Tomorrow Revisited also contains many pages of Dan Dare art, reproduced from Hampson’s originals, so it reproduces better than in the original Eagle comic. The book also features reference photographs, experimental sketches and try-out drawings where Hampson is designing aliens and hardware, and other material used in creating the strip.

Although Road of Courage, which told the life of Jesus, was Hampson's last full-length strip, after he quit Dan Dare Hampson went on to create seven other strip cartoon characters intended for Eagle, or, in two cases, a national newspaper. These strips are printed for the first time in this new book, together with some of the  intended story-lines.

Tomorrow Revisited costs £29.99. In addition to the regular release, a deluxe leather bound hard back edition (Limited to 100 copies, priced at £295.00) housed in a leather bound Presentation Case is also being produced, which comes with a certificate of limited availability signed by Alastair Crompton, Peter Hampson, Andrew Skilleter and Don Harley; a unique original illustration by legendary Eagle artist Don Harley; and a Frank Hampson illustrated Homage by Andrew Skilleter.

The Chris Beetles Gallery is in the centre of St James’s, London's best known art dealing district and is acknowledged as showing the greatest stock of Illustrators and Cartoonists work in the world. Original Hampson artwork from the first Dan Dare story for Eagle will be on display and for sale.

• Tomorrow Revisited: Book Launch 6.00pm until 8.00pm, 30th November 2010, The Chris Beetles Gallery, 8 & 10 Ryder Street St. James's, London SW1Y 6QB. Telephone: 020 7839 7551

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

Southport College Celebrates Eagle Anniversary

Southport College - where Dan Dare co-creator Frank Hampson studied art - is hosting to a Dan Dare exhibtion celebrating 60 years of Eagle until the end of the month.

"When you enter Southport College’s Library Learning Centre you may notice two figures perched on high behind the reception counter," says the College’s Library Learning Centre Officer, Sammantha Browne in a web post. "Dan Dare and his arch-enemy the Mekon turn sixty this year. Internationally famous, they are the ‘founding members’ of several appreciation societies across the globe.

"Dan Dare was the brain child of Frank Hampson, who enrolled at Southport College in 1947 for a course on illustration. But he was not the fresh-faced teenager you might suppose. 29 and married with a son, Frank had witnessed at first hand the ravages of war, seeing active service in Dunkirk and Normandy. He joined the Royal Army Service Corps and rose to the rank of a junior officer, but he always wanted to be a pilot with the RAF. Some may say he achieved this vicariously through his creation of Dan Dare."

The exhibition, which opened today on the the 60th anniversary of the launch of Eagle comic, details Frank Hampson’s biography, including his time at the College, the history of Eagle, its Southport connections and the legacy of Dan Dare. Members of the Eagle Society were on hand to mark the exhibit's opening.

Sam asks that if readers have any fond memories you would like to share of Dan Dare, the Mekon or Eagle comic, please email her at library@southport.ac.uk and she will pin up your messages for others to enjoy.

Eagle Anniversary News Items


• BBC Liverpool: Southport College celebrates Dan Dare 60th anniversary

• Southport Vister: Exhibition to mark 60th anniversary of comic book hero Dan Dare


• Liverpool Daily Post: Dan Dare, the comic star who put Southport on the interstellar map

• Lancashire Magazine: Future Perfect
Sixty years ago the genius of two men turned the seaside town of Southport into the centre of the universe. Mark Gorton explains how and why.

• Dan Dare bust image courtesy of Southport College. Used with permission

60th Anniversary of Eagle - Part 2

The famous cover of Eagle Issue 1 is well known to comic fans everywhere, but what lay inside for the 1950s boy?

As we celebrate 60 years of Eagle today, Richard Sheaf steps back to this week in 1950 to find out what readers found in this brand-new comic...


Like the proverbial curate’s egg Eagle Issue 1 is good in parts. Your 3d got you 20 pages of comic, of which eight were in beautiful photogravure colour but the stories and artwork were of a variable quality. Take just the front page: the first frame of Dan Dare is a masterpiece of design, colour and layout - but the third frame is about as lifeless as can be. Like the rest of "the new national strip cartoon weekly", it was still finding its feet.

Turning over the front page, we get to the first black and white page and the spot in Eagle that BBC Radio's PC49 would make his own for a decade.

His adventures are already being scripted by Alan Stranks (as they were on the wireless) but the artist is not John Worsley, who ultimately made the strip his own - in fact it’s Strom Gould (who would also later draw the Storm Nelson strip, before handing it over to its more famous illustrator, Richard Jennings) and follows the story of Police Constable Archibald Berkeley-Willoughby as he patrols his beat in London.

Having a strip which readers would have heard of was presumably a sort of insurance against the unknown quantity that the rest of the comic presented. For anyone familiar with John Worsley’s densely packed strips - an example features below - which almost smelled of London, this looser, bigger, blander version of PC49 can come as a shock. Another example then of a strip finding its feet.

Pages 4 and 5 are mainly taken up with that boys comic stalwart (at least up until then) the text story. This one is called “Plot Against the World” as was written Chad Varah (who would later find worldwide acclaim as the founder of the Samaritans organisation, but who at this point was simply a colleague of editor Marcus Morris).

Also nestling at the foot of Page 5 was the very first instalment of Captain Pugwash.

While Frank Hampson would famously lose the copyright to his most famous creation, Dan Dare, somehow John Ryan would hold onto his copyright to Pugwash. He also spent many years drawing the adventures of Harris Tweed for Eagle but began with Pugwash (an introduction to editor Marcus Morris had been a wedding present to Ryan from a friend) and, indeed, Mrs Pugwash too.

The character is a long way from looking like the jovial, avuncular figure that would be recognisable to millions once he debuted on BBC TV in 1957 (having also featured in a comic strip for the Radio Times). At this stage, instead he looks like a rather sallow character with a rather impressive Zapata moustache to go with his stubble.

Turning the page we have half a page of cricket coaching tips from Leary Constantine ("This week – the stance") and a full page article on "The Spies who Saved London" by Bernard Newman and then a whole page on how radar works from Professor Brittain – so the educational ethos of Eagle was established from early on, even if Professor Brittain would normally only get half a page to himself in future.

Heading towards the centre pages now, on the page that Jeff Arnold and the other ‘Riders of the Range’ would occupy magnificently for so many years. However, before Jeff Arnold there were Seth and Shorty – cowboys. And that would be where the similarities between the two strips would end. Seth and Shorty was one of the worst strips published in Eagle, as the opening panels above reveal, complete with classic lines such as:

Frame 1 - Man 1 (Seth even though he is addressed as Wal in frame 3) “The redskins hev broken out of their reservation”
Frame 2 - Man 1 again “Come on!! Let’s find the boss”
Man 2 (presumably Shorty but who knows) “Gosh!! Won’t he rage!”

And the strip finishes with the line “Doggone! Sure this range is gonna hum!”

There is a certain car-crash awfulness to this that means you can’t take your eyes off it, even though it’s just terrible.

Into the centre pages now and there is a glorious Leslie Ashwell Wood cutaway drawing of the new gas turbine – electric locomotive, setting the standard for years to come. Underneath that is the strip Skippy the Kangaroo by Danet, Dubisay and Genestre which sounds like a French reprint strip. It too is terrible, and was replaced by Tintin (his first appearance in English) and then, latterly by Luck of the Legion.

Over the page and there two more (half page) education features – "Heroes of the Clouds" by Kenneth McDonagh and "Discovering the Countryside" by John Dyke (this week: the hedgehog). More half page features on the next two pages – Real Life mysteries, making your own model racing car and Sporting personalities (this week: Stan Mortensen). Educational features come thick and fast here but they definitely feel like padding – so perhaps it was no surprise that Eagle soon dropped from 20 pages down to 16 pages a week.

The Eagle Club and editor’s page was then followed by another text strip, this time entitled “Lash Lonergan’s Quest” it was written by Moore Raymond and was set in the Wild West.

On the inside back page, Frank Hampson draws his third page of the issue with Rob Conway (the strip had been called Secret City in the dummy versions that Frank Hampson and Marcus Morris had put together) and rather than being the “RAF in space strip” (Dan Dare) is instead the “young RAF in England” strip in the shape of the air training corps. Again, some of the frames are brilliant – just look at how much work has gone into the engine behind the cadet on the right hand side of the opening frame, above - but some of it is very flat and incredibly lifeless.

That, of course, might have something to do with the volume of work that Hampson was putting into the issue, the inside back page was also by him -- an advertising strip for Walls ice cream and featured the adventures of Tommy Walls, the lad who has adventures but always, somewhere long the way, time for a tub/cornet/slab of walls ice cream. The early stories are all standalone stories and featured Tommy gaining superhuman powers from his ice cream...

Later strips would feature longer strips and the ice cream as a treat / reward rather than the equivalent of the magic potion in Asterix.

The back page featured the first of Eagle’s famed adaptations of real lives – usually adventurous lives, sometimes religious and taken from anytime in history. It all began here with the life of St Paul (although initially he is plain Saul of Tarsus before his conversion of the road to Damascus).

So, all in all then, all the right ingredients are there to make Eagle a great success over the next decade – Dan Dare, the police strip, the western strip, the educational features, the cutaway drawing and the real life back page strip – they just needed some time to settle in and become the Eagle that people would think of as being the classic 1950s comic that is remembered - especially today - so fondly...

• Eagle and Dan Dare are © the Dan Dare Corporation. Pugwash © the John Ryan Estate. Tommy Walls © Walls Ice Cream.

60th anniversary of Eagle - Part 1

With the 60th anniversary of Eagle fast approaching (14th April 2010) now seemed like a good time to have a look at what that iconic front page of Eagle magazine might have ended up looking like.

Shown here are two of the dummies that Eagle's founders, Frank Hampson and Marcus Morris, put together to sell the idea of Eagle to a sceptical publishing world (Click the covers for larger images).

Both images shown space hero Dan Dare prominently (albeit in purple, so the strip doesn't quite yet have that 'RAF in Space' vibe) and have strips that would make it into the first issue of Eagle (The Great Adventurer and Rob Conway - as Secret City was renamed).

Who can say what became of Ernie and Joe of Strawberry Farm, apart from the fact that they were never seen again.

As the launch date got closer, so further issues had to be mocked up to show what the magazine would look like. The image here shows what a transformation has taken place since the initial dummy magazines were put together.

This is much closer to what the eventual second issue would look like but there were still a number of alterations to be made. Space Fleet are all still decked out in gorgeous purple rather than RAF green, the Eagle bird has yet to make it onto the front cover, the famous Eagle font has yet to be designed by Ruari McLean and the Dan Dare logo is not quite ready.

Eagle Times Celebrates 60 Years

The latest issue of Eagle Times (Volume 23 No 1) is now available from the Eagle Society and, naturally enough, is an issue dedicated to the impending 60th anniversary of The Eagle on 14th April.

The issue includes an examination of the career of Sergeant Bruce, whose single-episode exploits ran for nearly four years in the 1960s Eagle, firstly as 'Sergeant Bruce, C.I.D.' and then in 'Can You Catch a Crook?'; a tribute to Geoffrey Bond (1920-2009), best known as the writer of 'Luck of the Legion' and who wrote the 'Justin Tyme' strip for Eagle Times; reminiscences of some of Ron Embleton's 'discarded' artwork; and a look at the life and career of Paul Trevillion, better known for his sports illustrations and his work on 'Roy of the Rovers' for Tiger, who drew some of the 'Can You Catch a Crook?' and 'U.F.O. Agent' strips in the 1960s Eagle.

Of particular interest to downthetubes fans, will be our very own Jeremy Briggs' feature on Jim Stalwart, Dan Dare artist Bruce Cornwell's 'forgotten' Space Captain, whose exploits graced the pages of the Junior Mirror in 1954.

Also featured is a revisit to the Eagle connections with Ladybird Books, including some examples of the work of Roy Worvill (writer) and covers by the artists Robert Ayton, Frank Hampson, Frank Humphris and Martin Aitchison, including a Humphris 'Ladybird' Rough, showing the sketch which led to one of the full-page illustrations in the Ladybird book.

• Membership of the Eagle Society entitles you to copies of Eagle Times, which is published four times annually. The Subscription rate for 2010 is: UK £23, Overseas £34 (in £s Sterling, please). Apply by snail mail to: Keith Howard, 25A Station Road, Harrow, Middlesex HA1 2UA United Kingdom. Enquiries: eagle-times@hotmail.com

Classic Bible Stories from The Eagle

Some of Britain’s finest English comics artists of all time, including Frank Hampson (co-creator of Dan Dare) and Frank Bellamy (creator of Heros the Spartan and one of the key artists on another comic, TV Century 21) also produced strips for the classic British comic Eagle based on stories from the Bible.

I'm pleased to report that Titan Books is collecting these stories for the first time ever in collector editions of Classic Bible Stories - the first book edited by myself on sale now, produced with more than a little help from David Leach and the rest of the Titan Books team, and Spaceship Away's Dez Shaw, the latter doing all the scans of the comics pages. This volume comprises Frank Hampson’s critically-acclaimed Road of Courage, the life story of Jesus, and Mark: The Youngest Disciple, drawn by Giorgio Bellavitis.

A second volume, comprising The Shepherd King (written by Clifford Makins and drawn by Frank Bellamy) and The Great Adventurer, the story of Saint Paul (written by Chad Varah, drawn by Frank Hampson) is scheduled for Easter 2011.

While planned background feature material - including images of the sculpted head of Jesus Hampson used as reference, right) - was dropped from the publication, the strips themselves, I think, speak for themselves and Dez's scans are superb given the age of the source material.

The Road of Courage (Credited as being written by Marcus Morris and drawn by Frank Hampson) ran in Eagle from Volume 11, issue 12 to Volume 12, issue 14 (19/03/60 – 08/04/61) and comprises 56 episodes. Told in a way that focuses on the human rather than the miraculous or religious, it features every major incident in the biblical life of Jesus including the flight from Egypt, Jesus’ early life (based on apochryphal gospels), Jesus’ fights against the Pharisees, Palm Sunday, throwing the money lenders out of the temple, the Last Supper and Jesus carrying the cross and rising from the dead.

The Road of Courage has only been published in a collection once before (in 1981, by Dragon’s Dream) as The Road of Courage – The Story of Jesus of Nazareth. It was also published in Dutch and French. That collection is long out of print and commands a considerable premium on ebay etc. when copies are for sale.

Mark, The Youngest Disciple (Written by Chad Varah the founder of the Samaritans, who died in 2007 and drawn by Giorgio Bellavitis (who died very recently, see Bear Alley for more details) ran in Eagle from volume 5, issue 46 to volume 6, issue 26 (12/11/54 – 01/07/55) over 34 episodes. The timeframe over which this tale is told is different from every other normal back page Eagle “True Life” story. Normally, they covered a lifetime but in the case of Mark, the tale spans just over seven weeks, from Maundy Thursday (the Thursday before Easter) until Whit Monday (seven weeks after Easter). Even then, most of the action takes place on just a few days.

The story is based around Mark rushing around Jerusalem getting into scrapes as he follows Jesus through this momentous time in Jesus’s life, opening with the Last Supper before moving quickly to Judas’ betrayal of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. It features the trial of Jesus, setting Barabbas free, Jesus carrying the cross, his rising from the dead, the founding of the Christian church and the first baptisms, ending with Peter agreeing to let Mark work with him as a missionary.

Hampson's Road of Courage is a superb piece of work, his art the inspiration for an upcoming animated feature based on the story from Bill Melendez Productions; and Mark, The Youngest Disciple is, for me, a gem well deserving of republication, drawn by a fine Italian artist who went on to become a world-renowned architect. I hope you'll give it a try.


CLASSIC BIBLE STORIES

JESUS – THE ROAD OF COURAGE / MARK: THE YOUNGEST DISCIPLE
By Frank Hampson, Marcus Morris, Chad Varah, Giorgio Bellavitas

Dan Dare Movie in the works?

(via Bleeding Cool): Comics and entertainment web site Bleeding Cool has picked up on a report on reviews site Pajaba that British-born actor Sam Worthington has been cast as the lead in a new film -- Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future.

Worthington's most recent project, Avatar, may be familiar with our readers: he also stars in the soon-to-be-released Clash of the Titans remake, pictured above.

Before we get too excited, Pajaba's source - the anonymous "Hollywood Cog" - would appear to be someone working at a Hollywood casting agency. Web site CHUD, commenting on casting rumours for Spider-Man 4 last year, notes: "The Hollywood Cog is privy to lots of stuff, and he reports every bit of it. I bet that most of what he reports is 'true' in the broader sense - an agent did say that so-and-so was up for a part - but he's reporting decontextualized office gossip."

Whether the actual casting report is true or not, the story does suggest a Dan Dare feature film, based on "the most successful comic property in the history of the UK" may be in the works - although there have been many rumours of Dan Dare feature films before, including one directed by Ridley Scott with designs by Rian Hughes.

Picking up the rumour, film magazine Empire notes Pajiba’s sources have been spot on about several stories, so they’re inclined to believe a film incarnation may be in discussion, "even if the movie itself vanishes into a development wormhole|.

The animated Dan Dare series - shot in CGI and the work of Dan Dare copyright holders the Dan Dare Corporation - may well have prompted this latest rumour as film studios like Warner Brothers, who are apparently producing the film, race to duplicate the success of James Cameron's Avatar.

Pajaba says the project has been 'slow to develop' - which could imply the studio is struggling to pick the right 'Dan Dare' setting for the movie: the fabulous but scientifically inaccurate original created by Frank Hampson and Marcus Morris for Eagle, complete with the Mekon and life on Venus; Grant Morrison and Rian Hughes bitter satire, Dare, from the 1980s; or even the most recent re-imagining by Garth Ennis and Gary Erskine.

While Dan Dare remains a rumour, as we previously reported a film based on another Frank Hampson-created Eagle comic strip - Road of Courage, the story of Jesus - is in the works as an animated project from Bill Melandez Productions.

News Stories elsewhere:

• Pajaba: Sam Worthington Signs On to Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future

• Bleeding Cool: Avatar Star Sam Worthington Is... Dan Dare?

Compalcomics Auction offers rare Beanos, Frank Bellamy Art, Dick Tracy 1

The Spring 2010 auction at British comics auction site Compalcomics is now open.

The catalogue for the auction - one of four held every year - includes a rare copy of The Beano Issue 5 (expected to sell for between £550-600) published in 1938 - and other early issues of the comic - a complete set of Beanos from 1945, an unbroken run of Giles books (Volumes 2 - 21), two Young Marvelman annuals, a Four Feather Falls Snap Game (one of Gerry Anderson's early TV shows) and much more.

Two complete years of bound copies of Eagle are on offer: Volume 9 from 1958 includes the free gift BEA 16 page supplement given away with Issue 36., the comics of course including Dan Dare by Frank Hampson and Winston Churchill by Frank Bellamy. Volume 10 includes two competition leaflets with Dan Dare on Safari In Space by Frank Hampson, then on a Trip To Trouble by Frank Bellamy, both stories of course recently republished by Titan Books.

A copy of the 1953 Dan Dare Space Book is also on offer - a volume that includes some superb cutaways by Frank Hampson and crew, and is expected to sell for over £80

Artwork collectors are sure to be interested in various art by Dudley Watkins, Paddy Brennan and the Frank Bellamy board above, a spread for Heros The Spartan from The Eagle centre page spread Vol 16: No 20, published in 1965. Signed by Bellamy, the art sees Heros saved from The Living Dead by Zathran, ex-commander of the Black Guard. There's also a fabulous depiction of the Battle of Culloden on offer from ace Commando artist Ian Kennedy, some Garth strips by Martin Asbury, and a 1980 page of Faceache by the ever brilliant Ken Reid.

For music fans, also offered is a a major collection of Melody Maker. Comprising four yearly lots from 1960-1963, there are only a few issues missing and the condition is very fresh. They are publisher's file copies, each year with its own stamped file. 1963 has The Beatles first front cover. Poptastic!

1930s bound volumes are also among the lots with 1-20 of Modern Boy with its elusive No 1 free gift ‘George V' engine in tin plate and war year runs of Champion, Detective Weekly, Hotspur, Knock-Out, Thriller and Wizard. With the aforementioned Beano 5 there are a couple of Dandy Monster Comic and Magic-Beano Book beauties, all early years along with complete runs of Beano and Dandy comics from 1945. The 1950s offer bound volumes of Lion, Tiger, Radio Fun, TV Fun and School Friend – all high grade. Bunty, Lion, TV 21 and Valiant as well as those magnificent Melody Makers bestride the 1960s.

The auction's US section profiles a rare copy of Dick Tracy No 1 from 1937 with a good run of Batman early issues, many CGC graded. The Silver Age is dominated by runs of Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, The Avengers and X-Men and Two-Face returns in Batman #234 CGCd at 9.4.

• Bids will be accepted until 8 PM UK time Tuesday 2 March. To go directly to the main page for the catalogue, visit: www.compalcomics.com/catalogue/index.htm

• You can now access Comic Book Auction's 11 year, 45 catalogue run of comics, annuals and artwork in our searchable database. Over 15,000 lots of comic titles, prices, issue numbers, years and grades all readily available. Just go to the top of the main page, click on ComicSearch and find what you need.

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.