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.
Currently, one new Dan Dare publication is 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.
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, a clergyman who had known Marcus Morris in Southport. 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 Eagle' s 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.
- 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 peaceful agricultural purposes including dedicated agricultural 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 cha
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