This fifth part concludes the descriptive text of the first article in the SPECIAL PROJECT “DAN DARE, Pilot of the Future“, a long piece focusing on the story of Dan Dare and his creator Frank Hampson, 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, we include 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 creation of the character and the magazine for which he was the flagship, Eagle, to the start of publication; explained the creative process and the enthusiasm of the creators, the comic’s great success with readers of all ages, a summary of the stories developed in the first decade of publication, and the decline of the comic, especially in terms of the stories, due to poor editorial management.
This fifth part discusses Hampson‘s final years and the editorial vicissitudes of Dan Dare, which was revisited several times in different versions that never quite reached its original splendor.
There are still three parts of the original article to complete this initial material we’re presenting to you. These include bibliographical information on the sources for this article, a complete chronology of the classic Dan Dare stories, and finally a list of their reissues by English publishers, complete with all the covers.
We wish you happy reading and look forward to seeing you next week for part six.
Mario Benenati and Daniele Tomasi, editors of the DAN DARE SPECIAL
DAN E FRANK, TWO BRITISH HEROES – part 5: Admirers and heirs – 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 1964, the authors of the fanzine Astral, an offshoot of the Dan Dare Club founded by a group of enthusiasts, began writing to Hampson, informing him of their activities. His only painful response revealed the echo of a personal tragedy, the true extent of which would only be known later.
Gripped by a spiral of depression, aggravated by the fact that his original plates, the fruit of so much work and now the property of the International Publishing Corporation (which took over from Fleetway), were poorly preserved, and that oblivion seemed to have fallen upon him, the author attempted suicide and was saved only by Dorothy’s early return home. The pettiness of the I.P.C. reached the point of denying him the slightest availability on his creation, he was even forbidden to give Dan Dare sketches to fans.
To make a living, Hampson began illustrating books for Ladybird Books. He produced seven at a rate of one a year. In 1970, while he was finishing research for the eighth – a biography of Churchill – he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He recovers, but is no longer able to devote himself continuously to drawing. He then works first as a graphic designer at Ewell Technical College and then as a drawing teacher at Epsom School of Art. He also resumes his studies at the Open University to obtain the title of Master of Art. But these are years of hardship and the Hampsons are forced to sell parts of their house.
To the resentment that the artist feels towards the publishers, is added that for Morris, accused of not having done anything to save Eagle or to defend Dan Dare. As far as we know, these are unfounded accusations: no one could have opposed the maneuvers of the Fleet Street giants. It is more likely that Morris’s real fault, in Hampson’s eyes, is having left behind what for the designer remains a torment.
The difference in character also plays a part in this: Hampson has remained a rigorous man, incapable of giving up his principles (an example is his loyalty to his wife, whereas Morris, on the contrary, has no qualms about collecting several extramarital affairs) while the former parish priest, once so severe with regard to what he considered American rubbish, has then ended up, for a lucrative salary, promoting magazines such as She and Cosmopolitan.
The artist’s resentment for the injustices suffered increases in 1975, when a new law on copyright would allow him to reclaim his works but the I.P.C. informs him that it does not know where the original material has ended up.
Also in 1975, a ray of light also appears: Rinaldo Traini, in his capacity as director of the Lucca comics exhibition, invites the English comics expert Denis Gifford to Italy, and the latter asks Hampson to accompany him. In the Tuscan city there is a person who, having worked in England and particularly appreciating the real Dan Dare, is anxious to meet the artist: Hugo Pratt.
When the Italian cartoonist learns from Gifford of Hampson’s bitter story, he is horrified and works to have the artist awarded the Yellow Kid prize as the best post-war illustrator and scriptwriter. It is an unexpected satisfaction, but Hampson does not benefit much from it, except for a brief interest from the English press.
Two years later, the Science Museum in South Kensington commissions two mural panels with his characters to be placed in a new wing dedicated to children. As usual, the artist gives his best.
In the meantime, something also happens to Dan Dare.
In 1973, the I.P.C. published Dan Dare Annual 1974, a hardback volume reprinting the adventures ‘The Red Moon Mistery’ and ‘Safari in Space’, with many of the plates mutilated but splendidly reproduced (in Italy the volume is translated by the publisher Dami).
In 1977 the celebratory text The Best of Eagle appeared, edited by Morris, who in the preface, while going into a thousand details about the history of the weekly, does not seem too eager to highlight Hampson’s fundamental contribution; however, the volume features some plates from ‘Voyage to Venus’.
In February 1977 I.P.C. launched the weekly comic 2000 A.D., filled with characters overflowing with brutality and cynicism, at least one of whom, the mocking Judge Dredd, would later become famous; the periodical also contained a so-called Dare Dare, in reality the violent degenerate clone of the real one, which the readers’ rejection condemned to a rapid end.
In 1979 Dragon’s Dream, founded by illustrator Roger Dean, published the first of three volumes with the reprint of the trilogy ‘The man from Nowhere’. The format is smaller than the one used in Eagle, but offers better reproduced tables; in the first volume even the initial panels of the episodes are redrawn by Harley on Hampson’s sketches to erase the eagle logo and make the narration more fluid; it is a successful experiment, which however does not continue in the 2 subsequent volumes, in which the removal of the logo is obtained by arbitrarily moving or enlarging the panels. The reprint is not actually successful and an announced fourth volume with ‘Safari in Space’ will never see the light; but Dragon’s Dream also has time to publish a wonderful edition of ‘The Road of Courage’.
In short, something is changing with regard to the real Dan Dare and Hampson. But not in the minds of the I.P.C. executives, who on various occasions expressed sarcastic opinions on Eagle and the artist’s work, defined as moralistic and naive. As proof of their obtuseness, when the producer Lew Grade announced that he wanted to dedicate a television series to the character (which was never made), they rushed to put together a new Eagle, which came out in 1982, proposing, in addition to horrible serialized photo novels, the adventures of a great-great-great-grandson of Dan Dare. Although decently drawn by Gerry Emberton, they rightly left readers indifferent, and the new magazine gets by as best as possible.
In 1989 the publisher finally lets go of aggressive clones and remote descendants. A headline on the front page announces the return of ‘The Original Dan Dare’. It is a story of 18 tables in 6 episodes that finally refers back to the real character without shame. Well written and, above all, excellently drawn by Keith Watson, it does not look out of place with Hampson’s works. Unfortunately it is only a parenthesis, because then the unreadable stories start again. When that Eagle magazine closes, in 1994, no one misses the great-great-great-grandson. Fortunately it is also the last attempt to ‘modernize’ the character, perpetrated by the publishers who have sunk him.
Meanwhile, in 1988, another testimony to the growing interest in Hampson’s work and in the magazine that had hosted him, the fanzine Eagle Times was born, still published today, an unmissable source of information for fans.
In 1990, Revolver magazine published Dare, The Controversial Memoir of Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, a miniseries in 8 episodes, later collected in a single volume, written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Rian Hughes. It tells of a retired Dan Dare who discovers horrible things about his government, colluding with the Mekon. Although it is an excellent story, well done and respectful of the author and the character, it is worth more as a pamphlet against Margaret Thatcher’s liberalism.
In 2007-2008, Garth Ennis proposed his hypothesis on what could have happened to the real Dan Dare and to England after the adventures told by Hampson. The screenwriter’s iconoclastic propensity for excess makes one fear the worst, but the 7-episode miniseries Dan Dare is instead an excellent work, engaging and epic (noteworthy are the space battles drawn by Gary Erskine), which analyses the nature of the hero, described as the synthesis of the best British ethical aspirations, almost never realized during the mostly dark history of the island: a return to the origins aware of today’s miseries. In addition to the Mekon, in fact, the enemy to beat here is also the head of the government. It is to be hoped that Ennis’ work, also published in Italy by Magic Press Edizioni, constitutes the definitive reflection, in terms of sequential art, on the character. It would in fact be difficult to say more and better.
A tribute that aims at mimesis is instead the one proposed since 2003 by Rod Barzilay with the fanzine Spaceship Away, a publication in splendid colors sent three times a year only to subscribers. Initially based on stories by Dan Dare, drawn by Keith Watson and, after his death, by Don Harley, today it also offers other characters, including Hal Starr by veteran Sydney Jordan.
The goal, achieved, is to recreate the Eagle of the best years. At the beginning of each episode the logo with the eagle appears, and the continuity and contextual details of the saga are scrupulously respected. Hampson would certainly have appreciated it… but unfortunately his life came to a painful epilogue many years ago.
In 1982 a stroke deprived him of the use of speech and limbs. He later recovered his speech, but remains confined to a wheelchair. He continued his studies, determined to finally become a Master of Art, yet another touching demonstration of an unfailing dedication to art. On July 8, 1985, at the age of 67, he died of a heart attack. Dorothy moved to another house and the entire archive of references ended up in the garbage!
If he had lived a few more weeks, the artist would have at least had the joy of seeing his biography The Man who Drew Tomorrow published, written with skill and affection by Alastair Crompton, which constituted the beginning of the rediscovery of his work.
In fact, in 1987, Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future was published by Hawk Books, the first volume of a deluxe edition that offers in the original format all of Hampson, Bellamy and Harley’s Dan Dare and a good part of Watson’s. Ignoring the lack of critical apparatus and the fact that some early plates are reproduced in an unsatisfactory way, given the unavailability of the originals, the 12 volumes of the series, completed in 1995, are the best that has been seen in relation to Dan Dare. Hawk also prints a precious The Dan Dare Dossier full of data and material otherwise unobtainable.
In the new century, Titan Books has been re-proposing, since 2004, the reprint of the saga. The format is reduced and the early plates retain the defects of the Hawk edition, but the critical apparatus is notable (among other things, we can read a long interview given by Hampson to Alan Vince in 1974 never published before). Overall, they are recommendable volumes.
Finally, we must mention the three computer games inspired by Dan Dare that appeared in the late 80s, and a CG animated television series from 2002, dignified but lacking in any unque charm. After all, transposing the hero and his world to the screen is an undertaking that only a director of great talent and versatility could attempt. It is therefore not too sad that the rumors of a film starring Avatar’s Sam Worthington that circulated in 2010 have not yet been followed up.
Perhaps Hampson would be surprised to see how much importance is given to his work today. His 1,000 or more original plates – conveniently disappeared from the I.P.C. archives only to reappear for sale at Christie’s auctions – are worth thousands of pounds and are studied in art schools. And well-known English architects and designers admit to taking inspiration from his drawings.
But there are many famous people who declare a debt of gratitude to Dan Dare. For all of them, the answer that Stephen Hawking gave to those who asked him how the character influenced him is valid: “Why am I in cosmology?”.
Speaking of influences, there is a curious one that dates back to 1964, when Stanley Kubrick began filming 2001: A Space Odyssey. At his side, as screenwriter, is Arthur C. Clarke. The director, a maniacal perfectionist, reads and consults everything he could possibly need for the film. In one of the most famous scenes, we see the stewardess of the PanAm shuttle walking in zero gravity along the 360° of a circular wall: a similar scene can also be seen in the first panel of the Dan Dare episode of May 19, 1950.
And there is another, more surprising, similarity: the most famous and celebrated sequence of the film is the one in which the killer ape throws the bone up high, which then becomes a spaceship. Clarke writes that no one knows how Kubrick got the idea. Well, in the Eagle Annual 1963 there is a short story by Dare (‘The Robocrabs‘) almost certainly drawn by Harley and perhaps scripted by David Motton, in which, in the fourth panel of the first page, there is a drawing of a chipped flint superimposed on an artificial satellite, against the backdrop of space. The caption says: “… while on Earth mankind progresses from stone tools to space technology“. Hard to believe that this is just a coincidence.
Frank Hampson was not only the author of a comic strip of extraordinary beauty and it is not by chance that his fame, far from fading, has actually increased over time, fueled by the enthusiasm of those who grew up reading his works, many of whom are now artists, engineers, architects, scientists…
His intentions – to promote hope, love of beauty, understanding, curiosity – have been fully realized.
[bibliographic sources in part 6]
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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.
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SPECIAL PROJECT DAN DARE, MARGINAL NOTES
Article No. 1 – Part 5
Italian version: https://www.fumettomaniafactory.net/dan-e-frank-due-eroi-britannici-parte-5-ammiratori-eredi-di-g-sherwood/
English version:
Article No. 1 – Part 4
Italian version: https://www.fumettomaniafactory.net/dan-e-frank-due-eroi-britannici-parte-4-gestione-editoriale-di-gianfranco-sherwood/
English version: https://www.fumettomaniafactory.net/special-project-dan-dare-dan-e-frank-two-british-heroes-part-4-by-gianfranco-sherwood/
Article No. 1 – Part 3
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 2
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 2
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
