The Pilot of The Future is now consigned to museums and bad Saturday morning cartoons. Leon Hewitt and Barry Renshaw look to re-educate themselves on Space Fleets Finest at a recent exhibition.

Click image left to open the slide show.

DAN DARE EXHIBITION, Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester,
27 September 2003 to 18 January 2004
Report by Barry Renshaw

Sad as it is to admit, my recollections of Colonel Daniel MacGregor Dare, that stiff upper lip of Space Fleet and the last line of defence against the green Treen Menace, comes from the Eighties Eagle reprints and later ‘re-imaginings'. I am, unfortunately, one of Thatcher's children. Depressing isn't it?

Our initial recollections of the character are therefore not the bright future visions of the 1950's, but of his ‘great great grand son‘, Marshal Dan Dare. He was apparently determined to build his own team of space commandos called the ‘Eagles' (see what they did there, very clever) and shoot up the galaxy with his Peacemaker, recruiting the likes of Zapper Lawrence, a computer whizz-kid from the 20th century; Apsilon Stelth, a diseased, dying bounty-hunter; Tremloc, a mutant blue Treen and wanted criminal who was offered a pardon if he would join Dare's crew, and then the token one-dimensional female character who never had much to do, S.P.S. trooper Velvet O'Neill. It really couldn't get much further away from Frank Hampsons' original creation.

For those of you too young to remember, "DAN DARE- PILOT OF THE FUTURE" was created by Hampson, and it appeared in the first issue of the weekly British boys' magazine EAGLE on April 14, 1950. The magazine sold 900,000 copies with its maiden printing, an almost inconceivable number compared to today's dwindling sales.

EAGLE was founded by the Rev. Marcus Morris (who took on the role of editor) together with Frank Hampson from ideas they had worked on in 1949 and early 1950, as a response to the influx of ‘morally questionable' horror comics like EC from America, and to promote hearty Christian values. DAN DARE was the amalgamation of two other characters: ‘Lex Christian‘, a chaplain working in London's East End, and ‘Dorothy Dare‘, female detective. On the suggestion of Hampson's wife, it became "Chaplain Dan Dare of the Interplanet Patrol", the first parson in space. The "Chaplain of the Future" became the "Pilot of the Future", and the strip quickly became a 1950's phenomenon, helping to shift over 750,000 copies a week, and spawning radio shows and merchandise the likes of which only STAR WARS is comparable to in modern times.

ABOVE: First panel from CHAPLAIN DAN DARE

DAN DARE appeared on the first two pages of Eagle in full colour every week, and they were devised and illustrated by Hampson with the assistance of his team of hand-picked artists and fellow scriptwriters in the makeshift studio at The Bakehouse in Churchtown, Southport. Production standards for the series were incredibly high: Hampson created a huge reference library of photos, diagrams, illustrations and models to ensure complete consistency and realism; Arthur C. Clarke was famously a scientific advisor to the team in the early years. ( For a full in-depth history of this period, see Mike Burrows fantastic article in REDEYE 2 ).

Hampson left DAN DARE in 1959 and was succeeded by a host of other creative teams, until the EAGLE's demise in 1969. After that, various incarnations of the magazine and the character appeared, with differing degrees of success. But the original run is still considered by most as the Golden Age of both EAGLE and DAN DARE.

The exhibition itself focuses on this era, and the Museum of Science and Industry is a fitting place for the many models and reference materials made by the Hampson studio, as at the time, DAN DARE presented a serious attempt at a consistent scientifically accurate vision of the future (or 1996 as the series started). Complimenting that vision, the exhibition runs side by side with a Mars Explorer Exhibition, including models of the Pathfinder and various interactive things. Majority of which are in French for some reason. But anyway.

The Dare Exhibition itself starts with an atmospheric entrance, a bust of the fearless pilot dramatically lit, and sitting underneath a large representation of the EAGLE emblem. As you turn round you see the Mekon himself up in the corner. Reproductions of covers line the walls while a few gloriously massive ten-foot posters on the opposite wall allow you to see the incredible amount of detail the artists put into the work. Contrasted with EAGLE's contemporaries of boys comics like HOTSPUR and ADVENTURE, it's easy to see how such an explosion of colourful futuristic vision captured so many post-war imaginations

RIGHT: The bronze bust of DARE and the MEKON model.

How this vision of the future was created was for me the highlight of the exhibition. Hampson went beyond just taking reference photographs, as far as making near full size models, elaborate sets and costumes to ensure accuracy and consistency. To capture a ripple of cloth, a particular sheen, Hampson went to extraordinary lengths. A few comparative photos from the time show just how realistic his style really is, between the actors and the printed page. There is even an overly spacious mock up of Hampson's drawing board, complete with reference material, pipe and copies of ANVIL magazine on the shelf.

ABOVE: The mock-up of the Hampson studio

Turning the corner alongside later artwork from Hampson's successors, like Frank Bellamy and others, are reproductions of Hampson's models of the ANASTASIA and Treen bombers, comparing the predictive science with modern day realities of sweep wing aircraft and Channel Tunnels. Further on in glass cases are examples of the massive merchandise the character generated.

The exhibition then tapers off to British involvement with the exploration of space through the fifties and sixties, then into the somewhat less satisfying Mars Exhibition, but a gorgeous catalogue with reproductions of many of the exhibits is available from the gift shop. We managed to nab the last collectors' pack, which features a set of postcards, a catalogue and an original EAGLE, in this case dated 1958. Bargain for fifteen quid.

I came to realise as we exited into the gift shop just how iconic Dare actually is of 20th century British culture. DR WHO is his only real equal. As quintessentially Queen and Country as the BBC, red post boxes, bobbies on the beat, and bowler hats. Whereas America have SUPERMAN and STAR TREK, both of which continue today, you have to wonder why Dare and his like disappeared in the first place. Why are they now relegated to mere political satire, skit shows or commemorative stamps, and why is it so hard for them to return to modern life? A discussion for another article, perhaps.

While we enjoy the past and lament the future that Hampson so beautifully illustrated but never came to pass, we can hope that some day Dare returns from museums, exhibition spaces and bad cartoons, and takes his rightful place as a pilot of our future.

-BAZ

DAN DARE EXHIBITION, Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester,
27 September 2003 to 18 January 2004
Report by Leon Hewitt

Between 27 th September 2003 and 18 th January 2004, Manchester's museum of Science and Industry played host to an exhibition of Dan Dare artwork and memorabilia. Sadly, this was possibly the last time such an exhibition was to be displayed. Quite apt then, that it should be held in the Northwest where Dan Dare's creator, Frank Hampson, and Reverend Marcus Morris, founder of the Eagle comic (home of the Dan Dare strip) first met.

ABOVE: Left, copies of covers from EAGLES contemporaries; right, the dummy cover.

The organisers claimed this exhibition to be their largest and most comprehensive, so we visited with much anticipation. We were greeted at the entrance by a bronze bust of Dan Dare himself (surrounded by fliers for a local comic mart!) A short corridor, serving as an introduction to Dan Dare and the Eagle, led to the main exhibition area. An advert from the 1950s put the Eagle in its historical context and showed the comic's three sister titles: Girl, Swift and Robin. The rest of this area illustrated the early years of the comic, mainly with pages from the Dan Dare strip drawn by Frank Hampson. Of particular interest were examples taken from the 1949 dummy issue. These included the proposed cover and two pages from an early incarnation of Dan Dare. This strip was entitled, “Chaplain Dan Dare of the Inter-Planet Patrol”, and I couldn't help but wonder whether this was a reflection of Reverend Morris' purported desire to imbue his new comic with Christian values and why the strip's title was changed.

The main exhibition hall was filled with yet more pages taken from throughout Dan Dare's run in the Eagle. Many of the pages on show were drawn by his creator, but there were also several from the other artists that worked on the strip once Hampson had retired, notably Frank Bellamy and Keith Watson. What could have been a dry presentation of comic artwork was enlivened by the inclusion of some of the photo-reference that Hampson worked from. From the major characters to the spacecraft Dare and his crew travelled in, everything was staged by Hampson to ensure the strip was as accurate as possible. It was fascinating to compare the photographs he took to the finished artwork and you can't help but come away from such exhibits impressed by the effort that went into producing the pages. Sadly, though, there was no sign of the Mekon, so it is left to our imaginations who or what posed for Dare's arch foe.

RIGHT: Recreations of the models used as reference by Hampson

Aside from the comic art on display, the exhibition also presented us with a recreation of Hampson's studio in Epsom. This full-size set was dressed with many items that belonged to the artist, loaned to the exhibition by Peter Hampson. These artefacts included books, models and even his jacket, casually draped over the back of his drawing-chair. Quite how accurate a representation of the artist's working space this was we can never truly know, it did seem a lot ‘roomier' than I would have imagined. It was interesting nevertheless and gave the viewer more of an insight into the man behind the comic strip.

Of course, no exhibition of comic art would be complete without some examples of the merchandise that the strip spawned. Indeed a lot has been written about the difficultly in displaying comic art successfully in galleries and museums, since the pages lose something when removed from their context in a continuing narrative. It is hardly surprising that curators often resort to displaying the novelty items associated with the strip. It was a credit to this exhibition that such exhibits formed such a small part of the show (just a few display cases at the end in fact). What was displayed featured everything from cosmic ray guns to jigsaws (touchingly completed with pieces missing).

ABOVE: Examples of DAN DARE mania.

All in all this was a fitting tribute to one of the few British comic strip icons. My only concern was the lack of explanatory text to accompany the exhibits, so I couldn't help but wonder how much people got from the exhibition. Would they have just passed a cursory glance over the pictures from the old comics their grandparents used to read? Would they have hurried along to play with the interactive European space programme section that the Dan Dare exhibits were shown alongside? Is this was the case, then it is a shame, since it is exhibitions like this that can bring the rich history of British comics to a wider audience.