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.

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.