1989: THE ORIGINAL DAN DARE RETURNS TO EAGLE

From August 1989: another EAGLE landmark... the return of the original DAN DARE.

It's safe to say that the new Eagle was ever quite sure what to do with their biggest brand.  The relaunch started with Daniel Dare, action-packed gandson of the original Pilot of the Future.  The reboot was partly down to the fact that a TV version of the character was in pre-production (the ATV series went nowhere because of changes within the ITV system... possibly a lucky escape as the plan seemed to be along similar lines to CAPTAIN ZEP: SPACE DETECTIVE) and partly down to trying to put some clear blue water between the incarnations.  As if kids actually cared... as long as the strip was good.

They even decided to mess around with the original from afar by suddenly making him a WWII pilot who was sucked into the future (ala the plot of the BIGGLES movie) by a Treen mishap.  Thus the Mekon accidentally created his own greatest foe.  Bad day in the office.

After The Return of the Mekon played out, the character and the strip seemed to get a little lost.  Subsequent stories couldn't match the epic scope of the first outing and it all became a little average.  They even teamed New Dan and Old Dan together for one adventure.  I forget how they did it.  One ill-advised reboot saw the character sporting a lot of Magnum-esque chest hair as a 'Space Commando'.  Surely Starfleet would not have approved.  Which might have been the point.

This particular reboot not only saw the original character return but also one of the original art team with Keith Watson taking over the strip.  It's unlikely, beyond novelty value, that kids cared but maybe Fleetway were hoping some nostalgic dads might grab an issue... and some nostalgic journos would devoite some time to the oft-overlooked weekly.

This is also the cover that the Dan Dare copyright holders are mostly likely to turf out whenever a Dare revival is mooted... and the press are happy to run with it.

1983: ON SALE THIS WEEK: THE EAGLE ISSUE 58

It's a snatch raid!

On sale thiis week back in 1983: EAGLE issue 58, cover-dated 30 April (remember: the date on the cover represented the 'off-sale' date rather than the day the comic hit newsagents).

By this point, the DAN DARE strip had regained its traditional starts-on-the-cover status, officially maintaining the three-pages-a-week count.  I always considered this to be a bit of a con (and not just because it saved the time, trouble and expense of designing a decent cover each week) as the cover splash demanded strong, bold visuals which - although eyecatching - often didn't add much to the overall story.  Effectively an expanded panel subbing for what would have been a full page of traditionally structured art under the previous layout.

I suspect deadlines and weekly churn played their part and the art remained top-notch throughout.  There was just a need to deliver less panels per week.  Although, look at the detail in that first panel... lovely stuff.

The Dare strip had - at this point - drifted away from the core Return of the Mekon storyline into an extended astronauts-in-training flashback which couldn't hope to measure up to the Mekon and Earth occupied by the Treens. But it was still a lot better than some of the dross - and reboots - that would follow over the next decade.

But, just like the whole photostory era in general, there is still innovation to be found.  Check out the successful inclusion of well made (and well lit) model work into the art!  Another benefit (soon to be lost) of the superior printing used during the early run.  I wonder if the editors of the other weeklies looked on enviously... or whether they were thankful their titles weren't carrying the additional overheads.

1983: THE ORIGIN OF DAN DARE'S MEKON IN THE EAGLE

From January 1983: the origin of a species.... and a great dictator.

The second part of DAN DARE's look back at the origins of the Treens and their bulbous-headed overlord: the mighty Mekon.

Once again, Ian Kennedy's art really pops off the page thanks to the superior print quality EAGLE enjoyed during 1982-83 before the newsprint reboot.

I would be the first in line to buy a nicely put together compilation of this material.  Although I bet the three-page format, including the centre-spread, would be a pagination nightmare to compile.

1983: DAN DARE RECOUNTS THE ORIGINS OF THE TREENS IN EAGLE

From January 1983: EAGLE issue 44 takes a brief break from the ongoing RETURN OF THE MEKON storyline (albeit now running under the Fireflight title) to recount the history of the Treens.  Script by Pat Mills, amazing art by Ian Kennedy.

The revived DAN DARE strip (featuring - for TV licensing reasons - the grandson of the original Pilot of the future) often played fast-and-loose with the continuity of the original strip so I have no idea if - and how - it fits together but readers in 1983 wouldn't have been much the wiser escept via the hazy memories of their own parents (the original Eagle, a shadow of its former self, shuttered in 1969) and the - rather nice - compilation books of the original strips published around this time.

I've long maintained that the RETURN OF THE MEKON strip (along with the photostory era of DOOMLORD... which STARLOGGED has covered in the past) really needs to be reissued in a decent format.  And I think these three pages demonstrate that.

1970: DAN DARE LION COVER (IPC)

From 1970: the only time that official Pilot of the Future DAN DARE graced the front cover of LION after the EAGLE (original flavour) merged the previous year.

1982: DAN DARE by LOOSE TALK: THE VIDEO

From 1982: The DAN DARE video by Loose Talk in all its low-fi glory.

1982: THE DAN DARE RECORD IN EAGLE

From 1982: Dan Dare in the Top 20?

Errr... Probably not. Although they must have shifted at least a thousand copies courtesy of this massive EAGLE giveaway.

Top marks to pop chancers Loose Talk (not in the same league as Queen, apparently) for spotting a marketing opportunity (the article basically admits as much) and going for hit. Hitching themselves to the EAGLE relaunch and the publicity around the return of Dan Dare.

This apparently did get some national TV and radio airplay although I don't recall seeing or hearing it at the time. The song is OK but the cheap as chips video suggests the minimum of record company commitment. The band, decked out in MOONRAKER and SPACE: 1999 castoffs, prance about accompanied by some of the excellent artwork from the revival itself. Things get really exciting when the blue screen is deployed, 

When the producers of the curiously forgotten DD animated series were looking for a track to accompany the show's end credits they opted for Elton John over Loose Talk. Imagine. 

1977: 2000AD ANNUAL 1 (Fleetway/ IPC)

From September 1977: the very first 2000AD ANNUAL, from IPC's Fleetway imprint.

Yup... that REALLY is Dan Dare on the cover!

The galaxy's greatest comic always played fast-and-loose with the Pilot of the Future but this interpretation really demonstrates how far Tharg was willing to deviate from the established formula.

The Fleetway annuals that accompanied most of IPC's weeklies (even the long-defunct ones) were assembled by a different team which allowed, by (bad) luck or (bad) judgement, the spin-offs to sometimes only enjoy a passing resemblance to the 'mothership'.  A situation compounded by finite budgets (which meant that much dipping into the combined IPC vaults was required), key creators already committed to the remorseless weekly schedule of the core title and, in 2000AD's case, an annual that (because of extended lead times) had to be put together alongside the earliest regular issues.  

This was one of the two earliest spin-offs from the weekly: IPC also issued a DAN DARE POSTER MAGAZINE one-shot circa August '77.  See here for more.  

It total, 14 2000AD annuals appeared cover-dated between 1978 (published 1977) and 1991 (published 1990).  Another four appeared as softcover "yearbooks" dated 1992 - 1995 (published 1991 - 1994 respectively).  The sudden decline in the sector sealed the fate of what had been a sure thing throughout the Star Age.

The following year (cover-dated 1979) Tharg added a DAN DARE ANNUAL to his hardback offering.  Although still hindered by Fleetway's set-up, the spin-off was actually better than the core title.  A second outing followed a year later before it became obvious that Dare, by now the subject of a possible TV adaptation and a mooted move to a revived EAGLE, was not going to become 2000AD's breakout character.  

The first JUDGE DREDD ANNUAL appeared in late 1980 with a 1981 cover date.  A total of eleven were published with the late appearing in 1990.  Four Yearbooks appeared between 1991 (cover-dated for the following year) and 1994 (for 1995).

1990 saw a concerted effort to elevate Rogue Trooper from the strip ensemble to make him the comic's next big star.  Unfortunately, he failed to break out and the ROGUE TROOPER ANNUAL 1991 was the only one to appear. 

1981: DAN DARE: PILOT OF THE FUTURE and the DAN DARE TV SHOW

From 1981: a softback collection of old DAN DARE strips (possibly derived from the old annuals and specials... can anyone confirm or deny?) published by Hamlyn.

I think this was, quite possibly, my first exposure to the Pilot of the Future.  Even through I only acquired a copy decades later.  I remember seeing this in Chelmsford's branch of WH Smith and being suitably fascinated.  I was too young to have read the DD strips that had appeared a few years earlier in 2000AD (finally due to be reprinted next year... hurrah!) but I may have already have heard of the character thanks to the appearance of the (ultimately unrealized) Dare "car" as an upcoming release in a Corgi toy car catalog (the continuity of events is more than a little blurred at this point).

All this activity was because ATV were actively developing a TV version of the character and early licensing deals were being signed.  The TV version never happened, presumably parttly down to costs and viability but also, I'd guess, because of the behind-the-scenes changes at the ITV broadcaster.  

ATV's parent company ACC had taken a considerable financial kicking (insert reference to RAISE THE TITANIC and "lowering the Atlantic" here) in its attempts to expand into film making (there were plenty of flops but THE MUPPET MOVIE was a hit).  ATV's ITC subsidiary had all-but-abandoned TV series (after amassing a huge, and perennially lucrative, back catalog over several decades) in favor of film.  But film making had drained the company's coffers and forced out boss Lord Grade as the company struggled to find fresh backing.  

ATV itself, a mainstay of the ITV network since the 1950s, was also going through radical change that was not of its own making.  The broadcaster had originally held broadcast franchises in London and the Midlands and had made the former Neptune film studios in Elstree (just north of London) their main hub for TV production (ITC's shot-on-film series tended to be based either at the nearby Elstree or MGM film studios or at Pinewood) with another base in Birmingham.  

However, it the franchise realignment of the late sixties, ATV had lost their London license in exchange for a seven-day contract in the Midlands.  But production had stayed in Elstree.  This, along with the film operation and great success at flogging product to the US market, left the perception that management were far less interested in servicing their own UK region.  

The enforced solution was that ATV would have to divest itself of the Elstree centre (it was briefly mooted as a potential base for ITV's new breakfast television service, but TV-am won the franchise battle instead, and eventually sold to the BBC to house EastEnders) and build a new production base in Nottingham.  They were also forced to change their name (to Central Independent Television) and their shareholding (ACC bowed out altogether, taking the bulk of the ATV programme archive with them, in favor of remaining in the film business).

The unrealized prospect of the ATV adaptation also forced the 1982-launched EAGLE to create a new DAN, the great grandson of the original, rather than revive the original.  The subsequent revelation that the original had been a WWII flying ace inadvertently transported through time by the Treens (oh the irony) was also apparently concocted to tie-into the TV show. 

1977: FRANK HAMPSON IN SPIDER-MAN (Marvel UK)

Frank (DAN DARE) Hampson needs no introduction to any connoisseur of British comics but his work for MARVEL UK is often overlooked.

He'd already contributed one centre-spread for SPIDER-MAN's weekly in 1976 and followed-up with this lovely spread from SUPER SPIDER-MAN AND THE TITANS issue 206 (cover-dated 19 January 1977).

Unlike its predecessor, it's got bugger-all to do with the Marvel Universe (despite some tenuous attempts to link it to the previous piece) and owes a lot more to his most remembered creation.

It's in the "super" landscape dimensions because, of course, SPIDER-MAN was being published in the "TITANS" format during this period.

I have no idea how Hampson got the gig and who commissioned it.  Did he pitch to Marvel or was someone, in Sevenoaks or New York, a fan of his work.  The British weeklies, still two years away from the Marvel Revolution, were still being prepared and packaged by the New York Bullpen whilst the British outpost dealt with more administrative functions.

1977: MARVEL UK FRANK HAMPSON HOUSE AD

COMING SOON TO STARLOGGED...

The second (I can't locate my copy of the first at the moment) of Frank Hampson's two specially-comissioned MARVEL UK centre spreads.

Here's the (non-Hampson) House Ad from SUPER SPIDER-MAN AND THE TITANS issue 205, cover-dated 12 January 1977.

1984: THE EAGLE COLLECTION: DAN DARE (IPC)

My occasional EAGLE COLLECTION (full-page pin-ups occasionally published in the weekly during 83-84) posts make a comeback with this really nice DAN DARE page from the issue cover-dated 21 January 1984.

1986: DAN DARE COMPUTER GAME ADVERT (Virgin Games)

Here's an EAGLE advert (from the issue cover-dated 27 September 1986) for the DAN DARE COMPUTER GAME, based on the Frank Hampson original rather than the current Eagle incarnation.

I remember having this game (or - actually - a copy) for the Spectrum Plus (on cassette... which took ages to load and always threatened to screw-up) and it did - indeed - provide a few hours of entertainment.  It was - as I recall - a platform (is that the parlance?) game with a blocky Dan blasting equally blocky Treen troops on an alien space station.  I also recall - possibly at the very start - having to pilot the Anastasia.

I was a bit crap at games (nowt changes) so I have no idea what happened after that.

1985: MRS THATCHER: PRIME MINISTER OF THE FUTURE from the EAGLE (IPC)

It can't have escaped anyone's notice that former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher past away yesterday.  She was a divisive old bird and I don't intend to get into a debate about her politics here but I do feel that her inevitable passing also marks the end of an era.

I was reminded of this instalment of DAN DARE from the EAGLE (15 June 1985) which suggests that she may still make a comeback as PM.  Is there a little test tube of her DNA stashed away in a government warehouse somewhere.... waiting for the day the Thatcher Clone can lead us again?  Hmmm....

1977: 2000AD's DAN DARE POSTER MAGAZINE (IPC)

Here's one of the earliest spin-off's from Tharg's Command Module: the DAN DARE POSTER MAGAZINE published in July 1977.

The one-shot repurposed Bellardinelli artwork lifted from the weekly: the cover comes from Prog 7, the interior strip was a cut-and-shunt job, assembled from the earliest issues of the weekly and the fold-out poster itself was reworked art originally found on the centre pages of Prog 12.

Sales - presumably - didn't meet expectations as it took Tharg's droids another 16 years before they took a punt at a second "Poster Prog". A run of poster magazines (dedicated to Judge Dredd, Nemesis the Warlock, Rogue Trooper, Slaine and Strontium Dogs) appeared between 1993 and 1995.  That year also saw a brief run of five poster magazines dedicated to the JD movie.

1982: EAGLE LAUNCH ADS (IPC)

It's back to the spring of 1982 and IPC's big launch: the revived EAGLE.

Last seen being devoured by LION in 1969 (although, predictably, the spin-off specials and annuals contented to appear well into the next decade), this mix of the old (a more-faithful-than-Tharg's reinterpretation of DAN DARE) and the new (photo-stories, an idea purloined from IPC's teen girls department and intended to counter the distractions of TV and video games) was clearly a bigger priority for the massive publisher than some of its other here-today, gone-tomorrow punts.

The pricy-to-produce photo-strips, along with the better printing required to make them work, didn't last long (the last issue in the original format was cover-dated 17 September 1983) but the comic itself continued (although, towards the end, it dropped to a cancellation-dodging monthly schedule and largely consisted of reprints) until 1994, making it (almost) last-man-standing in IPC/ Fleetway's once booming comics group.

I've covered the first 18-odd months of the Eagle in earlier posts, and I've got provisional plans (IE I acquired a bunch of back issues a while back) to extend that coverage into the newsprint era, but these are a series of house ads that appeared in other IPC weeklies around the time of the relaunch, beginning with this small teaser ad which first appeared in IPC boys comics dated 6 March 1982.

20 March 1982

3 April 1982 

10 April 1982

17 April 1982

1 May 1982

1982: THE (NEW) EAGLE ANNUALS (IPC/ Fleetway)

A mainstay of the Christmas season throughout the eighties (and into the nineties although - I must confess - I'd stopped reading by then) was the EAGLE ANNUAL, published under IPC's Fleetway flag (and latterly published by the newly reconstituted Fleetway themselves).

The first annual, smartly targeting the 'dads' with a stunning Mekon cover, appeared in September 1982, around six months after the weekly's return to the shelves.

Looking back, what I find most fascinating about this run is that they all (bar the last) prominently feature the comics' most bankable star, DAN DARE, and they all demonstrate how IPC/ Fleetway were constantly updating/ refining/ revamping/ wrecking* the character.

It all starts to look a little desperate as the years pass but I think this accurately reflects what was happening in the weekly (latterly monthly) itself, which seemed to be in a perpetual state of decline from mid-decade onwards but somehow managed to stay afloat for almost another ten years before finally succumbing to a collapsing market in 1994.

The other strips in each edition broadly reflected the ever-evolving contents of the weekly (albeit sometimes lagging some months behind because the annuals had such long lead-times) although the ever cost-conscious Fleetway mandarins were not adverse to sneaking-in the odd reprint from the non-Eagle archives to bulk-out the page-count.

The last annual - sorry, Yearbook - appeared in the last quarter of 1991.  The new emphasis on celebrity also reflects what the regular comic was doing as it tried to stay relevant.

Presumably sales on the annuals had dropped sufficiently far for them to have ceased to be economical after '91.  Again, this reflects a market that seemed to be in terminal decline as buyers turned their backs on the traditional stocking-stuffer.  Throughout the eighties, a large part of my birthday (September, just in time for the first annuals to hit WH Smith) and Christmas wish-lists were annuals so - maybe - I was single-handedly responsible for keeping the industry afloat.  And its demise in the early nineties.

The early editions followed the formula of the weekly: a generous offering of photo-strips alongside traditional comic strips and feature pages.  The pricy-to-produce photo-strips were subsequently dropped.

Surprisingly, the original run of the Eagle Annual had only ended in 1974 (with the 1975 edition), six years after the long-lived weekly had been gobbled-up by LION (in 1969).

* Delete as applicable.

1983

Published September 1982

The Dan Dare strip here, and the one in the earlier 1982 Holiday Special, don't reflect the ongoing Return of the Mekon continuity of the weekly.

1984

Published September 1983

1985

Published September 1984

1986

Published September 1985

1987

Published September 1986

1988

Published 1987

1989

Published September 1988

1990

Published September 1989

1991

Published september 1990

1992

Published September 1991

1977: THE FIRST 2000AD ANNUAL (IPC/ Fleetway)

This - believe it or not - is Dan Dare, as visualised by Gerry Woods.  Confusingly, he looked nothing like either the classic Frank Hampson original or Tharg The Mighty's flawed reinterpretation.  

This is the first 2000AD ANNUAL, published in September 1977 (mere months after Tharg launched his stellar new weekly in February '77) for the Christmas market.  As is the industry convention, the date on the cover is for the following year.

Because of the inevitable publishing lead-times and deadlines, work must have begun on this hefty 128-page spin-off much earlier in the year (or even late 1976), just when the weekly was just hitting newsagents for the first time.  That said, most of the early prog-stars are present: Judge Dredd, Tharg's Future Shocks, Flesh, the Harlem Heroes, Invasion, M.A.C.H 1 and - of course - the pilot of the future himself.  

The 2000AD ANNUAL appeared every year until the 1991 edition, published in 1990.  From the following year (cover-dated 1992) it morphed into the soft-cover 2000AD YEARBOOK.  Four more volumes followed, the last published in September 1994.

The first (of two) 2000AD-era DAN DARE ANNUALS appeared in 1978 (cover-dated 1979) with the second released the following year.

Dare lost his place in Fleetway's publishing schedule to JUDGE DREDD in 1980 (cover-dated 1981).  The Lawman's book appeared alongside the main 2000AD Annual for 11 editions, also bowing-out in 1990 (with a 1991 cover-date).  Four further softcover Yearbooks appeared through the early 1990s.

The 2000AD/ Judge Dredd annuals/ yearbooks were cancelled after the 1994 editions, ironically the year before Fleetway believed the Judge Dredd movie would unleash a torrent of merchandising.  The end of an era.

1982: EAGLE 30TH ANNIVERSARY - PART ONE

Thirty (!) years ago this week, IPC's big new launch of 1982 hit newsagents shelves in a (relative) blaze of publicity.  The EAGLE (1950-1969), and Dan Dare (last seen slumming it, albeit in-name-only, in 2000AD) were back!

The relaunch was radical stuff.  Traditional comic strips (notably Dan Dare and The Tower King) were still in the mix but the big selling point was photo-strips, a storytelling device previously reserved for girls' romance mags.  And the photo-strips required better paper and printing to make them readable.

Of course, it wasn't rocket science to realise the limitations (and the inherent costs) of such new-fangled storytelling techniques.  Which is why IPC cut costs (and production standards) 18-months later and relaunched EAGLE as a traditional comic with bog-standard (and quality) paper and printing already familiar to readers of 2000AD, TIGER and BATTLE.

Despite the early set-back, the EAGLE soldiered on into the 1990s (albeit in a much diminished, and monthly, form in the final years) becoming almost last-man-standing in the boys comic field (having absorbed SCREAM!, TIGER, BATTLE, M.A.S.K and WILDCAT along the way).

By the time it finally slipped away, most of its reprinted content was accumulated from other titles despatched to the Fleetway vaults.

To celebrate the anniversary, Slow Robot presents, over the coming days, all the covers from the photo-story era (and the first few from the bog-paper period for the sake of completeness).

And - something else as well...

ISSUE 1

27 MARCH 1982

FREE GIFT: PLASTIC SPACE SPINNER

ISSUE 2

3 APRIL 1982

FREE GIFT: GOLD EFFECT EAGLE BADGE

ISSUE 3

10 APRIL 1982

Last numbered issue

ISSUE 4

17 APRIL 1982

ISSUE 5

24 APRIL 1982

ISSUE 6

1 MAY 1982

ISSUE 7

8 MAY 1982

FREE GIFT: MEKON POSTER

ISSUE 8

15 MAY 1982

ISSUE 9

22 MAY 1982

ISSUE 10

29 MAY 1982

- MORE SOON -