Hello Woodsy
in 1974 I purchased a page of original artwork, the second to last page drawn by Frank Hampson for Dan Dare. It was from the story Terranova which I used for my email name many years later.
At some point in the late 70's I went to a book dealer near Crystal Palace in south London. He had bound volumes of Eagle that had been the publishers reference copies. He also had a large stack of original art boards from Dan Dare.
These had all been thrown in a skip when the new publisher moved to a new building and discarded them! I bought some bound volumes and some original art.
Around 1990 I was in a comic book store in NYC with my daughter who was about six years old looking for suitable titles for her, she settled on Archie, at the checkout behind the register I saw a paperback volume of Dan Dare.
It turned out to be the first of the Hawk Book reprints. I put myself on their mailing list and on future visits to the UK I would pick up the volumes as they were published.
The figure was a 12" Brian Bishop USAF Thunderbird action figure made by Dragon Models. He looked so much like Dare I couldn't resist buying it. I had thoughts of changing heads with the Day2Day one.
Terranova47
NYC
USA
Just perfect! Love the little proto Dan's in the bottom of the last picture! -Mark J
ReplyDeleteFabulous art and book collection TerraN. I bet that dealer couldn't believe finding that original DD art in a skip! What were they thinking! Reminds me of similar tales of Century 21 stuff getting skipped when their offices and studios closed. I never see any skips!
ReplyDeleteI've heard of a similar skip find, perhaps the same one, where Keith Watson's later DD artwork was dumped.
ReplyDeleteHope you are keeping them out of the light, as I expect you know, those colours fade!
I can't believe that this sort of stuff gets dumped!
ReplyDeleteIt's a strange world Woodsy. When accountants set policy it is purely profit that matters. While I was the beneficiary along with many others in being able to obtain materials that would normally have not been available to me, it is a great shame that the archive was destroyed as an entity.
ReplyDeleteBack in the early 90's I was working for The New York Daily News when after reading The Man Who Drew Tomorrow and discovering that Frank Hampson had wanted to sell Dan Dare in the US I approached the editor with the idea of printing the then current stories in the Sunday paper's Color Comic Section. I showed him the Hawk reprint and gave him a LP of Rock of the Westies for his daughter. It contains the homage to Dan Dare sung by Elton Johns written by Bernie Taupin.
At that time Dan Dare and The New York Daily News were both owned by Robert Maxwell. Recent issues of Eagle were sent from London but they didn't impress the editor. I blame Elton Johns for Dan not making it to the US.
Incidently, the newspaper was always loosing circulation and couldn't understand that if you get kids reading the comics you'll keep them as readers. They could have had access to the great strips in 2000AD. No wonder it kept loosing money.
This was the same management who when Maxwell took over the paper cut back on staff. They fired and eliminated the Video Department that had kept film then video records of events such as concerts and street fairs sponsored by the newspaper. What would have been a treasure trove of social history was thrown in a skip on orders of an accountant. This same accountant I heard years later was fired for embezzling from the company.
You certainly tried TerraN. The Pilot of the Future nearly made it to America! Yep, bean counters have taken over. It must be tough in the Newspaper business these days. Maybe printed news is on the way out.
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