EAGLE REMINISANCES

I've been been leafing through some old photos I took of the various Eagle and Dan Dare events that took place since 1990, here in Southport.

In those days I had just an ordinary Instamatic camera so the quality isn't up to much but as an addendum to the Churchtown Bakery post I did a while back here's some pictures which a few of you might find interesting.

This is former Dan Dare artist Greta Tomlinson unveiling the Bakery Eagle plaque in 2000. Dan Dare's creator, Frank Hampson based Greta's likeness for Prof. Jocelyn Peabody in the comic strip.

The day was well attended, and living in the house that's attached to the Bakery, is a Mr  Kendrick and his family, who have lived there for many years, and originally rented the Bakery to Frank Hampson way back in 1950. Here's a photo of MrKendrick chatting in the back garden with Greta, and another lady.

The perils of the Instamatic camera! I took this picture inside the Bakery, and sadly it failed to flash, but rather than leave it out, it did show what limited natural light there was in the place. The two windows you can see are  high up at the back and the side.

This is an old sink in the corner of the Bakery, and as far as I'm aware it's still there today. I wonder if Frank and the team washed their brushes in it.

I actually painted and provided the simple advertising board seen in the top photo (and the curtains and curtain rail come to that!!) which I re-used later in the year for an Eagle Society meeting. I added painted illustrations of Dan Dare and Rider of the Range cowboy, Jeff Arnold, and altered the wording to suit. For good measure I included the address of an old website I used to run with my mate Andy, a fellow comic fan.

I met up with former Dan Dare artist Don Harley at that meeting who turned up with Greta and the late Chad Varah, who wrote for the Eagle, and is probably best known as the creator of The Samaritans.