ERIC EDEN BIOGRAPHY BY ANDY B

To compliment the Swordcast and to fill in the background of artist and writer, Eric Eden, reader and contributor Andy B has kindly sent in an abridged article he wrote for the Eagle Times some years ago. 

So without further ado, I hand you over to Andy.

Eric Eden was born in Lewisham, London in 1924. His father became chief bookbinder for the civil service in Manchester, so the family moved to Southport.

From an early age, Eric liked painting. He took his school certificate a year early, and was admitted to the Southport School of Art, where he studied for 2 years.

When Frank Hampson was beginning work on the Eagle comic and Dan Dare, prior to its publication, (all was kept very quiet, so other publishers would not be aware of what was going on), he introduced Eric to the team at “The Bakehouse”, the first Dan Dare studio. Eric, a keen cycling enthusiast, always arrived promptly on his bicycle, which he used to ferry packages or information to and from the Bakehouse. He also helped with laying out the measurements for pages onto art board or paper, and discussed lettering and model-making with the team. Eric became increasingly involved with the work of the Bakehouse team, and accompanied them when they moved to a new studio at Epsom in 1950.

Eric initially worked on a strip cartoon “The Great Adventurer” based on the life of St Paul (although Eagle tended to underplay the fact that it’s editor, Marcus Morris was a clergyman, there was nevertheless a strong moral element in the comic). From here he became involved with Frank Hampson’s technical and mechanical designs for Dan Dare, including some merchandising ideas. 

During work on the second Dan Dare story, the “Red Moon Mystery”, Eric had a disagreement with either Frank or the editorial staff about the hours the team were required to work. This is not surprising as there are accounts of them working long hours, even overnight to finish a page. As a result he was dismissed, and found work in an advertising agency.

In the mid 1950s, with a new Dan Dare story, ”The Man from Nowhere” about to start, Frank Hampson’s main assisitant/artist, Joan Porter, suggested Eric could be rehired to help with work. Eric had not been keen on working in advertising, so he returned to the Dan Dare studio. His time in advertising had had some benefit, though, as he had mastered use of the airbrush. 

One of Eric’s roles was to produce detailed drawings of spacecraft and alien creatures as a studio reference. Some models were produced after discussions with Frank Hampson, others were entirely his own work. 

Eric also posed for some of the photographs that were used to help with the realism of the artwork, posing for characters such as the Naval officer Lex O’Malley. 

As an artist, Eric seems to have left the Dan Dare studio about the time the story “Phantom Fleet” was about to start, so his last artwork and airbrush work is probably in the story “The Ship That Lived”. In the next story, a Hulton Press staff artist, Gerry Palmer did the airbrush work.

A short way into the story “Safari in Space”, Frank Hampson left the Dan Dare studio to work on a back page story based on the life of Christ, and the scriptwriter for the later Dan Dare stories, Alan Stranks died. Eric stepped in as scriptwriter, and wrote the stories up to 3rd March 1962. Eric also worked on stories in Eagle Annuals, such as the 1963 space annual stories shown in this blog. 

On 10th March 1962, Dan Dare was moved from his place on the cover of Eagle to the inner pages, in black and white. The artist was now Keith Watson, who had worked on Dan Dare in the 1950s, and later on Captain Condor in the Lion comic. This was the first time one artist had taken on the whole of Dan Dare, so Keith looked to Eric for help. Eric drew machinery, backgrounds and buildings for the strip, and sometimes provided airbrush work. 

When an editorial decision was taken to move Dan Dare back to the cover of Eagle, in full colour, Keith was not keen to take the colouring on. The first couple of covers were coloured by artists at Hulton Press, but the result was not too good, so Eric was hired to colour the pages. In 1963-4, the team of Watson and Eden produced some really dramatic and very memorable covers for Eagle, filling most of the front page with a single image.

At the same time as he was working with Keith Watson, Eric was also illustrating Fireball and Supercar Annuals, producing occasional strips and colour illustrations. 

Eric continued to assist with Dan Dare until he got the job illustrating “Lady Penelope” for the new TV21 comic. This is probably his best strip cartoon work, with fine lines, clean colours and as you would expect, excellent hardware. When Lady Penelope was transferred to a girl’s comic of the same name, Frank Langford took over the strip, and Eric did short stints on “The Daleks”, where he drew some very Dan Dare-like spacecraft and some meticulous depictions of daleks. He also covered for Mike Noble, on Zero X, when Mike took a holiday. 

Eric assisted Keith again on Captain Scarlet for TV21, and Joe 90 for the Joe 90 comic. The same team also worked on at least one other strip, “Undersea Agent” for The Daily Mirror Book for Boys, 1970. 

The most recent strip cartoon work of Eric Eden’s seems to be Dan Dare in the Eagle Annual for 1971. It is not his best work, as Eric always had problems with figure illustration, being happier with hardware and backgrounds. 

The picture above shows Eric at the top right as an inhabitant of Venus

This was a difficult time for the artist, and he is said to have found it increasingly difficult to meet deadlines. The answer came when he applied for a job at the British Museum, where he became an illustrator at the Department of Mediaeval and Later Antiquities. One of his main responsibilities was to illustrate the three-volume report on the Anglo Saxxon burial at Sutton Hoo. He also became well known for drawing cartoons of the staff, and producing birthday cards. 

Eric had to leave the British Museum due to ill health. He planned to retire to the country to indulge in one of his other passions, “self sufficiency” and organic gardening, but sadly he died in 1983, aged 59.

Eric is remembered as a quiet man, with a dry sense of humour. He was generally patient, save when he had a deadline to meet. Perhaps the most surprising thing is that, despite his skill at designing spacecraft and the like, he had a dislike of modern machinery. The family home never had a vacuum cleaner or washing machine, and although he had a phone, he was never seen to use it. The only machine he really liked was his bicycle!

(adapted from articles in the Eagle Society quarterly, “Eagle Times, Autumn 2000-Summer 2001.)