RED MOON ANNIE

To celebrate the 70th birthday of Eagle, here's a few photos of my old scratch-built  Dan Dare Anastasia model I built way back in the early eighties when my only reference at the time was a 1974 Dan Dare Annual which featured a reprint of the second Dan Dare story, 'The Red Moon Mystery' originally published from October, 1951 to June , 1952.

In that story, the 'Annie' is finally abandoned in space by Dan Dare, Digby, and Prof. Peabody.

Sadly, my model has had a few knocks over the years, in particular the lower half of the starboard wing fin which has broken off, and the once clear acetate has yellowed.

But, in spite of that I thought I dust it off and take a few snaps.

In the Eagle comic, having been left in a Sargasso sea in space, the Anastasia is revived some four years later during 'The Reign of The Robots' story but this time with a slightly different and possibly more familiar hull window lay out.

Here's a close up of my 'Red Moon' layout. My lack of reference at the time meant I had to take a few guesses at some of the internal detail.

The Anastasia remained for most of the following stories until artists, Don Harley and Bruce Cornwall introduced a new craft, the oddly named Zylbat. However, when that was inadvertently destroyed by Space Fleet, once again the Anastasia returned as Dan Dare's personal spacecraft.