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Dare is Back
11/05/2004 . Source: Jessica Martin 
Titan re-print the old Dan Dare classics as graphic novels. In March 2004, Titan Books will begin publishing a new hardcover, library edition series of graphic novels collecting the classic British comic strip Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future, taken from the old boys' adventure comic 'The Eagle'.
The first volume, Voyage to Venus, Part 1, collects the first half of the debut Dan Dare adventure, introducing the infamous alien villain, the Mekon.
Alongside the comic strip, there's also new bonus material. Dave Gibbons, Watchmen artist, provides a foreword, while an article uncovers the behind-the-scenes story of the genesis of Dan Dare, featuring rarely seen artwork and photos, including classic merchandise and collectibles.
There's also a guide to the comic's characters, and limited edition variant cover edition, starring a never-before-seen piece of Frank Hampson artwork.
Who is Dan Dare, ask our non-British readers?
Well, Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, was created by artist and writer Frank Hampson, and debuted in the first issue of British boys' adventure comic 'The Eagle' on April 14th 1950. Over the course of the next 50 years, Dare became one of the most recognised fictional characters in the UK, inspiring numerous toys and games, spinning off into countless items of merchandise and collectibles, and eventually becoming the basis for a (rather naff) CGI cartoon.
The Dan Dare comic strip was revolutionary for its time. Hampson compiled reams of research material on rockets and equipment, and all of the panels were first posed as photographs, with studio artists standing in for the characters, much in the same way that Alex Ross now constructs his artwork. Dan Dare would also proveed rather influential, inspiring everyone from Grant Morrison (New X-Men) to Dave Gibbons (Watchmen) to Chris Weston and Warren Ellis (Ministry of Space).
The creator, chief artist and writer of Dan Dare for nearly ten years, Frank Hampson brought a previously unheard of realism to comics. Assembling a team of artists around him to help with the crunching weekly deadline, Hampson devoted most of his waking hours to his creation, putting in 20-hour days and usually working out each episode over the weekend, producing rough pencils and sometimes inks and even coloured pages, ready for the start of the week.
In 1959, Hampson was switched from Dan Dare to another Eagle comic strip - the story of Jesus Christ. He left The Eagle in 1961 and went on to illustrate a series of Ladybird books for young readers. In 1975 Hampson received the Yellow Kid lifetime achievement award at the Lucca comics convention in Italy, pronounced the best writer and illustrator of strip cartoons since World War II, and in 1976 he received a special Ally Sloper award from the British Association of Comics Enthusiasts. Frank Hampson died in 1985.
Here's what some British notables we contacted had to say about Dare ...
"[Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future] was a rich mix, a potent brew of adventure, humour, fantasy, futurism and just plain fun. The weekly fix of rainbow ink was just what I and as many as perhaps a million other colour-starved kids craved."
Dave Gibbons (Watchmen etc)
"Reach for the stars, space-cadets and salute Dan Dare: the greatest
comic strip character of all time. If only the future had turned out as great as Frank Hampson envisaged it!"
Chris Weston (Ministry of Space, The Filth)
"Frank Hampson is one of the unsung geniuses of the Twentieth Century."
Terry Jones (Monty Python, Brazil etc)
You go Dan!
:wink:
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