This is the fourth part of this first article in the “DAN DARE, Pilot of the Future” SPECIAL, an eight-part series of a long piece focusing on the story of Dan Dare and his creator Frank Hampson. The article was published eleven years ago in an issue of the digital magazine “Terre di confine,” which kindly allowed us to publish it. At the bottom of the article there is a note with all the information about the magazine and the rights holders of this material.
The previous sections outlined Dan Dare’s history, from the conception and initial development of the character and the magazine he spearheaded, Eagle, to the start of publication; the creative process and the creators’ enthusiasm; the great success with readers of all ages; a summary of the stories developed in the first decade of publication.
In this fourth part we’ll see that, unfortunately for his creator, Dan Dare’s editorial management is deteriorating, which will slowly impact the character’s success and Hampson’s health.
We wish you happy reading and look forward to see you when part five will be on-line next week.
Mario Benenati and Daniele Tomasi, editors of the SPECIAL PROJECT DAN DARE
Note: this Special Project, like all others on this digital magazine, is no-profit and just for informative purposes, as the images used which are © of the rights holders.
DAN AND FRANK, TWO BRITISH HEROES – part 4: Apotheosis and catastrophe (c) – by Gianfranco Sherwood
Presenting the story of one of the most fascinating science fiction characters ever drawn, and of his brilliant and unfortunate creator.
In the early years of Eagle, Hampson, exhausted by the hard work, was forced to leave the drawing board for two long periods, during which he could only coordinate his team. Although Harley’s contribution gave him then the toils eased, other pains remain, paradoxically caused by the success of the magazine. There are now hundreds of commercial licenses granted, especially to toy manufacturers, linked to the characters of the magazine to promote products that Hampson judges to be of very low quality.
Obviously, the most requested is Dan Dare, who between 1951 and 1955 is the protagonist of a radio serial broadcast with success by Radio Luxembourg, for which the author receives a lump sum of only 250 pounds: in fact, since he does not have the rights to the character, the river of money that it produces (we are talking about a million pounds a year, a huge amount for the time) does not even touch him.
Despite all this, Hampson is gratified by a job he loves, by an excellent salary, and by a certain artistic freedom (which Hulton is only too happy to grant to a team capable of procuring such profits). It is true that he is embittered by the fact that he cannot realize the projects that seem to him to be the logical development of the saga: an animated film and a Sunday strip to be proposed in the USA, with texts adapted to the tastes of that public – and it would only be the beginning of an artistic and commercial adventure comparable to that of Walt Disney, even foreseeing a theme park. However, he does not despair of being able to convince the publisher to indulge these ambitious ideas of his.
But here comes the twist: in the spring of 1959, Sir Edward Hulton, convinced that television was an invincible enemy for small publishers like him, sold the company to Odhams Press, one of the English publishing giants of the 1950s. Morris and Hampson see their future in the balance. And rightly so, because the new owners immediately decide to downsize Dan Dare‘s staff.
Even the character’s look, according to them dated, must be drastically renewed, and his stories must be short and not very in-depth, mistakenly believing that readers now only like what requires a minimum level of attention. The conditions are unacceptable and the artist abandons the creature to which he has dedicated ten passionate years of life. His last tables appear in Eagle issue 27 of 1959.
Odhams then entrusts Frank Bellamy with the graphic part of the comic, while the plot conceived by Hampson and Stranks is distorted and made mediocre by Eric Eden, denying fans the wonders that Hampson had in store for them. Bellamy is a designer of rare talent, but he does not like that work and accepts it for only one year, just the time to complete the renewal required by Odhams, which consists in the abandonment of internal coherence (nobody pays attention to model sheets, models, etc. anymore), in less attention to detail and in the trivialization of plots and characters.
Dan Dare remains visually appealing, but it no longer has the allure of when it was a masterpiece. It is now just a well-drawn comic that disappoints old readers without attracting new ones. After Bellamy, two excellent artists, former collaborators of Hampson, take care of it, namely Don Harley and then Keith Watson, who however can do nothing against a senseless editorial policy and the consequent disaffection of readers.
Odhams, despite not having understood that Dan Dare is only valid if created with the Hampson method, still takes it into account. More generally, it does not impose a draconian climate in the editorial offices of the four magazines, where the change of ownership goes almost unnoticed.
But Fleetway Publications, which absorbed Odhams in 1961 – these were years of great turbulence and centralization for English publishing – cared little or nothing about the character: Eagle was now just one piece of an empire that included more than 200 periodicals, newspapers and magazines for kids. And the world was changing quickly too: London was on the verge of discovering the miniskirt and becoming swinging, the Beatles were learning the trade in Hamburg and soon the James Bond phenomenon would explode at the cinema.
In an attempt to chase readers’ tastes (while Hulton, according to the ideas of Hampson and Morris, created them) Fleetway accumulated error after error, aggravated by a liberal obsession with savings made at the expense of employees; the meager salaries and the arrogance of the new managers made the best collaborators run away, and so the quality of the editorial parts also worsened, while the characters who had made Eagle famous were replaced by others who were increasingly worse.
Thousands of letters arrive from readers demanding the Eagle of the past: in vain. With sales plummeting, the 992nd and final issue of the weekly appears on April 26, 1969 (the three twin magazines have been closed years before), now reduced to a shadow of what it once was.
Of all the characters from the origins, Dan Dare is the only one to resist until the end, among a thousand troubles and served by inadequate scripts. In March 1962 it is moved to the inside pages and printed in black and white. Then it regains color and the front page in March 1963, before being demoted again in July 1965.
In June 1966 it is reduced to a plate, and at the beginning of the following year the reprints of Hampson’s works (once despised as obsolete) take over until the closure, at that point a pitiful euthanasia of a publication that has become unwatchable and whose circulation is reduced to 5% of the beginning.
When this happens, Marcus Morris has long been gone: in October 1959 Odhams had practically forced him to leave the direction of the magazine. It is a bitter epilogue; however, Eagle and Hulton are destined to represent only a chapter of his life. Morris has now decided that editorial work is his true vocation: his priesthood has been reduced to the recitation of a few sermons, and over the years his faith will also become lukewarm to the point of bordering on agnosticism. On December 31, 1959, the National Magazine Company hires him as editorial director and managing director designate, with the task of promoting the Hearst group’s magazines in England. Years of professional and economic gratification will follow for the former priest.
Hampson’s life will have a completely different development. Odhams, questionable in its methods but not unreasonable, has no intention of losing the artist. Morris still has a commitment with that publisher, the screenplay for the biography of Christ, and Hampson, who wants to get Dan Dare out of his head, agrees to draw it, as long as he can do it his way; Odhams then agrees to send him to Palestine to do some research.
The result is The Road of Courage, where the author offers, in the span of 56 episodes, a life of Christ of dazzling beauty, availing himself of the help of Joan Porter, a colorist and his assistant already with Dan Dare (the only one of the dispersed team who is still allowed to help him).
As is his habit, there is no detail, historical reference or place that is not the result of infinite research. But it is in the representation of faces that the artist gives proof of an inimitable introspective capacity. If there was still any need, The Road of Courage definitively attests to the greatness of his genius. Unfortunately this is also his swan song.
Unable to get along with the managers of Fleetway and desperate for the way they treat Dan Dare, in the summer of 1961 he leaves Eagle. More than a choice, it is an obligation: for Hampson it is difficult to work on other people’s subjects, and the ideas that he proposes for some time to Fleetway and other publishers do not find a response or, if they do, die immediately because the author can no longer stand the pressure of what he considers only ruthless market logic.
Something has broken forever in his soul, and he is a tired, disappointed and dejected man who, when only 43 years old and in the prime of his artistic maturity, leaves the world of comics behind him.
After that, the genius who has delighted millions of readers vanishes into thin air.
[ending with part 5]
______________________________________
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.”
All images are used for informational purposes only and are © their respective owners.
The opinions expressed in the article by the author do not necessarily reflect those of the Fumettomania Association, which aims to offer a platform that always guarantees the right to free expression through its website.
___________________________________________________
SPECIAL PROJECT DAN DARE, MARGINAL NOTES
Article No. 1 – Part Three
Italian version: https://www.fumettomaniafactory.net/dan-e-frank-due-eroi-britannici-parte-3-apoteosi-e-catastrofe-b/
English version: https://www.fumettomaniafactory.net/special-dan-dare-dan-e-frank-two-british-heroes-part-3-gsherwood/
Article No. 1 – Part Two
Italian version: https://www.fumettomaniafactory.net/dan-e-frank-due-eroi-britannici-parte-2-di-gianfranco-sherwood/
English version: https://www.fumettomaniafactory.net/special-project-dan-dare-dan-e-frank-two-british-heroes-part-2-by-gianfranco-sherwood/
Article No. 1 – Part One
Italian version: https://www.fumettomaniafactory.net/fumettomania-presenta-speciale-dan-dare-pilota-del-futuro-prima-puntata/
English version: https://www.fumettomaniafactory.net/special-project-dan-dare-dan-e-frank-two-british-eroes-part-1/
Article No. 0
Italian version: https://www.fumettomaniafactory.net/progetti-di-fumettomania/contenuti-web-extra-dal-2012-in-poi/dan-dare-il-pilota-del-futuro/
English version: https://www.fumettomaniafactory.net/fumettomania-presents-dan-dare-pilot-of-the-future/
Source:
TERRE DI CONFINE magazine n. 2 – Aprile 2014
First publication: April 17, 2014 – ISBN 9788898585113
Un-periodical magazine about fantastic realized by Associazione Culturale TERRE DI CONFINE
in collaboration with PLESIO Editore
©2014 A.C. TERRE DI CONFINE
Largo S. Carlo 3/13, 33085 Maniago (PN)
redazione@terrediconfine.eu – www.terrediconfine.net
©2014 PLESIO EDITORE
Via Plutarco 38, 47121 Forlì (FC)
info@plesioeditore.it – www.plesioeditore.it
• All rights reserved •
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
