A new comic
featuring Southport’s iconic space hero, Dan Dare has just been published by
Titan comics.
Written by
Peter Milligan, and based on characters created by the late Frank Hampson
(miss-spelt in the comic as Hampton), with art by Alberto Foche, it’s another
brave attempt to update the fifties space hero.
There are
three different front covers, although the art on this version by Chris Weston
is the best in my opinion as it obviously pays homage to Frank Hampson’s
original character.
Chris Weston
was the artist who worked on the excellent 3-part Ministry
of Space comic.
And what do
I think of the first instalment? Well, I’m always glad to read a new Dan Dare
adventure. The artwork is clean and
fresh, and the writing isn’t too wordy. The beginning, although updated of
course, reminded me of the very early Captain
Condor stories in the Lion comic during the early fifties, when space pilot,
Captain Condor is a freedom fighter, at war with the solar system’s evil
Dictator.
There’s some brief cynical political rhetoric
(although it’s considered, and doesn’t bear some of that heavy satirical bias seen in the dark dystopian short-lived 2000AD spin-off Revolver comic version from 1990. Coincidentally, writer Peter Milligan
wrote the Rogan Gosh strip in that
rather avant-garde publication.)
The story continues
along a pace touching on the relationship between Dan and his arched nemesis,
The Mekon (Not that any of this is a criticism, but, again I was reminded of
other stories I’ve read dealing with the relationships say between Sherlock
Holmes and Moriarty, or Batman and the Joker)
As we all know,
there have been a few attempts to update Dan over the years, starting with
2000AD in 1976, which had him depicted as a generic space adventurer, and later more like an action hero Hans Solo type.
Later the New Eagle comic tried to give it a retro feel, and during the run even
used original Eagle comic artist Keith Watson who produced some beautiful fifties
looking artwork. Sadly, it was short lived.
This splash page by Oliver Frey, from the 1983 Eagle Holiday Special.
Virgin
Comics published a seven part run in 2007, which seemed to owe more to the
2000AD depiction than the Eagle original.
And now we
have a new kid on the block. Here’s the synopsis from Titan Comics:
“For the first time in human history,
the solar system is at peace and Dan Dare, pilot of the future is bored out of
his mind – and praying for something to break the monotony of peace”
Being a bit
of a purist that doesn’t strike me as something the fifties Dan would consider.
Britain as a nation was slowly recovering from the war, when he was created and
Frank’s vision of a utopian and bright future was just what the comic readers
wanted. I guess in line with today’s cynical thinking that just doesn’t seem to
appeal now, and it would be naïve of me to think otherwise. Modern writers obviously
have to write for a modern audience, and it must be difficult to retain fifties
ideals and put a modern slant on a character more associated with another age.
However, some
things don’t change, and even Dan’s original exploits had their fair share of that
all-important drama.
The synopsis
continues;
“When an unknown vessel of biblical
proportions arrives in the solar system and obliterates a moon of Saturn as a
show of strength, Dan finds himself thrust back into a new adventure that
threatens not just Earth, but all life in the entire universe!”
Nothing new
there then, but we love a good old fashioned alien invasion. I’ll certainly be
picking up the next issue.
