Here, in this thirteenth article, is a beautiful two-page comic, a delicate and spectacular tribute to Dan Dare, written by Paul Goodenough (founder of Rewriting Earth, producer of the beautyful book “The Most Important Comic Book on Earth”) and illustrated by Xavi Reñé, who kindly allowed us to publish it as a contribution to this Special.
In addition to their work, you’ll find a short interview in which they introduce themselves and express their perspective on our futuristic hero.
Happy reading, and see you next week with a new article.
Mario Benenati and Daniele Tomasi, editors of the DAN DARE SPECIAL PROJECT
Note: this Special Project, like all others on this digital magazine, is non-profit and just for informative purposes, as the images used which are © of the rights holders.
The Italian association FUMETTOMANIA FACTORY – APS, which has been operating nationwide since 1991—while never neglecting the activities carried out within its headquarters in Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto (Messina, Sicily)—has the aim of promoting, disseminating, and enhancing themes related to the language of comics.
Fumettomania’s mission is to attract young people of all ages by promoting projects dedicated to them, addressing current and engaging topics, using comics, which emerge as an autonomous art form that embodies the linguistic code of literature (words), its modes of consumption, but also the sequentiality of cinema and the figurative focus of traditional visual arts.
The Association’s commitment—35 years after its foundation (on May 14, 2026)—is to continue spreading comics culture and to continue its cultural and social projects in the area with workshops for young enthusiasts and schools, solo and group exhibitions dedicated to comics, illustration, and related fields, comic book presentations, and meetings with authors.
DAN DARE – TWO-PAGE COMIC BY PAUL GOODENOUGH AND XAVI REÑÉ
– by Daniele Tomasi –
Lets introduce two creative people, the first using words, the second using drawings, as their bios tells.
Paul Goodenough is an Emmy-nominated and award-winning campaign strategist, writer, producer and entrepreneur – working across broadcast, comics, digital, games and publishing.
He’s also the founder of Rewriting Earth, a global storytelling project uniting 300 activists, celebrities, scientists, comedians and more across the planet to create stories to raise the money and awareness to save multiple species from extinction. They’ve helped save over 625 species, reached over 1/2bn people and generated over 1.3m signatures to enact global and national policy changes. Paul is a notable collaborator, co-writing and producing stories with creators including Taika Waititi, Cara Delevingne, Adam McKay, Idris Elba, Richard Curtis, The McCartneys, Beckhams, Ricky Gervais and many, many more.
He’s also a best-selling author in his own right with credits including the Sunday Times Book of the Year: The Most Important Comic Book On Earth, Sherlock Holmes, 2000AD, Doctor Who, How To Train Your Dragon alongside a host of writing for international comedians.
Paul is also the designer and founding member of BAFTA Albert (calculator and sustainability accreditation used by Netflix, NBC Universal, Warner Bros, BBC, IMG,Sky etc) and an ambassador for Sea Shepherd, World Land Trust and Naturewatch Foundation.
To follow and contact him use @paulgoodenough in Instagram, and paul-goodenough-1266493 in LinkedIn.
Xavi Reñé is a Spanish illustrator specializing in nature, contributing to many projects and publications: European Life Project: Tritó Montseny (Spain 2017), Guía de campo de las abejas de España (Spain 2019), Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane (Australia 2017-2019).
He has worked on various projects for international organizations, including: NakaweProject, Sea Shepherd, Rewilding Europe and Rewilding Portugal, CITES-UNEP, CPWSpain, Madagascar Whale Shark Project, Mammal Society UK, CoExistenceCrew, Discovery Paris Shark Week, as well as several organizations in Costa Rica. He has also participated in the #Stopthekill campaign in the United States and the #StopFinningEU campaign in Europe.
As an illustrator, he participated in the charity album Solidarité Nepal (France 2015), also the cover for the book Big Bat Year (United Kingdom 2023), the children’s album La revolta dels Burots (Spain 2023), and the picture book El sentit de tot plegat (Spain 2024).
He contributes to magazines such as Viridis Magazine, Resurgence & Ecologist, l’Artesenc, and Petit Sàpiens.
In the field of comics, he is the author and collaborator on several works: writer of Destino Sadabad (Spain 2016), color assistant on The Long and Winding Road (Belgium 2016) and Corto Maltese, Sous le soleil de minuit (France 2018), artist for El Barranc de l’infern (Spain 2024) and Naïa, la voix de l’océan II: Les ombres d’étrurie (France 2026).
To see his art and contact him use @wildlife_erra in Instagram, and Xavi Reñé in LinkedIn.
They contributed to this Special Project with a short story narrated using Comic-Art, also allowing the publication of the work-in-progress, that you’ll find in the last section of this article, a kind gift that all Dan Dare fans and Comic-Art lovers will strongly appreciate.
Before the comic, lets read a brief interview about themself and Dan Dare.
TWO WORDS WITH PAUL GOODENOUGH AND XAVI REÑÉ.
Daniele Tomasi: Are you a professional in the world of Comic-art or in other artistic fields?
Paul Goodenough: For my sin, yes! I write and produce across comics, tv and film. Recently I’ve delivered a 2000AD story, and I’m writing and executive producing a feature film with Leonardo DiCaprio and my dear friend, the late Jane Goodall who passed away recently.
Xavi Reñé: I have done various works in both comic and illustration formats, working and collaborating on different projects where I have been a scriptwriter, illustrator, and even a colourist. In the field of comics, I mainly worked for countries such as France and Spain in around 8 books and a lot of small collaborations.
DT: Dan Dare has several versions: the original by his creator, Frank Hampson, and his team; the one in the 2000AD magazine; the one in the new Eagle magazine; the miniseries of recent years. Which is your favorite?
PG: For me, it changes. Hampson’s Dare will forever be “my” Dare. But there’s just something about the Eagle run in the 90s that I always go back to – a certain hopeful innocence about those stories keeps bringing me back in – and I loved David Pugh’s art which helps of course!
XR: Being honest, Dan Dare is one of those mythical heroes in the history of comics, but I became more focused with Frank’s work recently. I was more familiar with the adventures of the Flesh saga, for example. Dan Dare is one of these characters who marked an era and are still there. This only happens with the big ones! So, if you ask me from a more romantic point of view, I will always say that the original work is the best: it has something special and is always a source of inspiration for later generations!
Of course, the new versions of any comic book myth are always very interesting, as each author incorporates something new, adding elements of their own style, way of working or vision. This opens up endless possibilities for exploring how far the character can go. And I find this fascinating!
DT: Considering the current tastes of the entertainment audience, if you had the opportunity to work on the character – in comics, animation, film, video games, or radio – would you keep the classic version of the characterizations or try something different? Perhaps applying revisionism?
PG: I’ve thought about this a lot, and I would love to. I have a very specific route I’d want to take, which would be a continuation of Dare. Where all his former adventures and history remains, and he’s now an older man trying to struggle against the weight of his own name and legend.
In the version in my head, he’s actually based a lot on Jane (Goodall); who suffered terribly with what she called “the other Jane” – which was this perfect caricature that the world had of her. An impossibly perfect version of the real Jane that the public and media had dreamed up, that someone she had to live up to.
It’s something I have a lot of experience in with my friends who spend a lot of time in the public eye.
So with Dare, I’d want him to be caught between two worlds. One, where he’s a figurehead for hope, an intergalactic symbol who has to tread the political and social line; and two, a grizzled old fighter who wants nothing more than to get behind the sticks again and fight the good fight, experience the adventure and just be himself.
I think we could have a lot of fun with that…
XR: I think I would do my own version, with my own way of seeing things, with a different visual narrative and tempo, but keeping a little of the essence of the classic, since my style is rather classic, without going into very detailed realism.
But the good thing about today is that we have a wide variety of artists, with very different styles, styles that a few years ago seemed unthinkable for a comic book. By mixing the world of comics with illustration, some real wonders have appeared, works with great potential. Books with groundbreaking styles that offer completely different visions from the more traditional drawing of the classics.
So, it would be great to see the character in all these facets. I mean, like a great tribute book with short stories made by different artists with very different styles.
That would be something very nice to see!
The Dan Dare homage
The work-in-progress
_________________
Sketches
Pencils
Shadowing
PAUL GOODENOUGH sites are:
XAVI REÑÉ sites are:
All images © right holders
Dan Dare © Dan Dare Corporation – https://www.dandare.com/media
“The Dan Dare Corporation owns the global rights including Film, Television, Radio, Social Media, Publishing and Merchandising to the Eagle Comic and associated strips including Dan Dare – Pilot of the Future.”
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NOTE:
To access the index and links to all the articles in the SPECIAL PROJECT DAN DARE, visit this page with the introductory article:
Italian version: https://www.fumettomaniafactory.net/speciale-dan-dare-pilota-del-futuro/
English version: https://www.fumettomaniafactory.net/fumettomania-presents-dan-dare-pilot-of-the-future/
EXTRA
BIOGRAPHY
DANIELE TOMASI is a multifaceted creative in the field of ComicArt, acting as artist, letterer, colorist, editor.
With the DTE brand, “the smallest publishing house in the world”, he edited and published three volumes of the “DebbieDillinger” series (where he is even the artist), the first number of “TetroTeatro” magazine (author of texts and drawings), the digital magazine “Continua…” (a free-distribution magazine with comics of various genres and authors, seven issues so far) and three issues of the magazine “Gli Archivi del Fumetto” (new issues and large-format volumes are planned).
He has created comics and illustrations for various Italian publishers (Tunuè, ProGlo, ComixCommunity, UndergroundPress, BotteroEdizioni, Pegasus/Comicus, Antani, Apache, AltaFedeltà).
He has worked as graphic designer for Italian publishers ProGloEdizioni, GreencomService, Shockdom, Palabanda Edizioni and Chimbe.
He has made lettering for Black Velvet and RW Edizioni.
He organizes courses about the Language of Comics.
In Internet you can see some of his artworks on the website danieletomasi.altervista.org , see other works and read some of his thoughts and opinions on the blog danieletomasi.blogspot.com , read for free some of the DTE publications in issuu.com/dteditore, read for free a fake storyboard of the “Spider-man” movie by James Cameron downloading the pdf (screen or print resolution) from the site spidercameron.altervista.org , write to him at the e-mails danieletomasi@gmail.com and dteditore@gmail.com
