A must-have Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future book

If you're a Dan Dare fan, a comic-book fan or a general sci-fi fan, here is a book that I totally recommend you to get a copy of:

Dan Dare: Spacefleet Operations Manual (Haynes Owner's Workshop Manual)

(The link will take you to an excellent illustrated review of the book in the Mail Online website)

Whether you love Amazon or hate it, as usual they seem to have the best deal on the book, in this case at the Amazon.co.uk site.

Complete Dan Dare story reprints online

If, like me, you enjoy reading classic comic strips, then these free Dan Dare reprints (courtesy of DanDare.org.uk and the Dan Dare Corporation) will be right up your street:

From 1954: Dan Dare - Pilot of the Future in Operation Triceratops

From 1960: Dan Dare - Pilot of the Future in Moon Run

From 1965: Dan Dare in Space Rocks

From 1968: Dan Dare and the Moon-Eaters (also available here)

From 1969: Dan Dare and the World of Thought

From 1970: Funfair of Death (also available here)

From 1982: Return of the Mekon

Pixar movie trailers and clips (plus others)

I have been adding lots of new videos to my main YouTube channel recently, and as a result there is now an impressive collection of 180 videos in total.

To make it easier to use the channel I have created a number of playlists that group related videos together, and here are some of the best and most popular ones:

Pixar and other CG movie trailers collection

Pixar: Luxo Jr. cartoon collection

Pixar: WALL-E video collection

Pixar: Up video collection

Pixar: Toy Story 1, 2 and 3 video collection

2009 sci-fi and fantasy movie trailers collection

2010 sci-fi and fantasy movie trailers collection

Dan Dare video collection

Harry Potter video collection

The Twilight Saga video collection

Dan Dare books and magazines you should buy

Further to my earlier post about Dan Dare's 60th Anniversary today, and in response to a few subsequent reader's questions, here are links to where you can buy some truly great Dan Dare and Eagle books and magazines:

Classic 1950s and 60s Dan Dare full-colour story reprint books

Garth Ennis and Gary Erskine 2008 Dan Dare story reprint book

Spaceship Away Dan Dare magazine

Eagle Times blog and magazine

Classic 1960s Eagle full-colour Bible Stories reprint book

If you're a comics fan then I thoroughly recommend you to get hold of as many, if not all, of them as possible - you won't be sorry because they are all super-high quality publications!

Today is Dan Dare's 60th Anniversary!

On April 14th, 1950 the first ever issue of the Eagle comic appeared in newsagents in Britain, and its star feature was the now classic sci-fi comic-strip series "Dan Dare - Pilot of the Future".

Dan Dare was created by the late, great Frank Hampson, recognised by his peers in his own lifetime as one of the world's greatest ever comic-strip artists. Every week he and his studio team produced fantastic space adventure stories for the Eagle comic with amazingly detailed and realistic colour illustrations. Almost one million copies of Eagle were sold every week at the height of Dan Dare's popularity in the 1950's, and the character has continued to be very popular in a variety of "rebooted" forms ever since.

Rather than fill up this blog with further illustrations and details of the history of Dan Dare, which would require many pages, please follow these links instead - I think they will prove to be very interesting to you, and will give you an idea of just how brilliant Dan Dare was, and still is:

A complete brief history of Dan Dare

Some original Dan Dare comic-strip reprints in full

A "Dan Dare through the years" picture gallery

An extended alternative Dan Dare gallery

A showcase of original Dan Dare artwork samples

To commemorate Dan Dare's 60th Birthday, I have commissioned a brand new Dan Dare Flash online game called "Dan Dare MatchIt", which is a fun picture card matching memory game. You can play it online here:

Dan Dare 60th Anniversary MatchIt Flash online game

The game is completely free to play and distribute, so if you would like to add it into your own web space or site, you can download the .swf Flash game file and an example .html page (with useful notes) to run it here:

Dan Dare 60th Anniversary MatchIt game download

Enjoy! :-)

(See also here)

Dan Dare movie: Sam Worthington confirms role

According to MTV.com, TotalFilm.com and others, Sam Worthington, whose recent films include "Terminator: Salvation", "Avatar" and "Clash of the Titans", today confirmed he will be appearing in a feature film based on Frank Hampson's classic sci-fi comic strip creation "Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future". The actor hasn't as yet confirmed what role he will be playing in the new film, but I think it will be very surprising if it's not the title character.

Although Dan Dare first appeared in the Eagle comic 60 years ago almost to the day (April 14th, 1950 in fact), amazingly this new Dan Dare movie will be the first ever appearance of the famous spaceman on the "big screen". So far he has only ever appeared in comic strip stories, computer games, TV adverts and a CGI cartoon TV series.

It seems that the film will be based on the 2007/2008 Virgin Comics reboot of the character by Garth Ennis and Gary Erskine (pictured above), rather than being based directly on the 1950s and 60s original (pictured top). Perhaps not entirely ideal for Dan Dare purists, but better than nothing I suppose. One thing is for sure, this film has an awful lot to live up to - Dan Dare is considered to be one of the world's best ever comic strips by industry professionals and genre fans alike.

To find out all about Dan Dare, visit my sites at Dan-Dare.net, Dan-Dare.org and DanDare.org.uk.

(See also here)

The Virgin Comics "Dan Dare Omnibus", plus other Dan Dare books

Way back in January of this year I posted an entry in this blog about an at-the-time forthcoming omnibus edition of the 2008 Virgin Comics "Dan Dare" series by Garth Ennis and Gary Erskine that would contain every episode of the story.

Well, I only just now managed to get hold of a copy of the book (Dan Dare Omnibus, hardcover, published by Dynamite Entertainment, ISBN 1606900277) because I had great trouble tracking it down, but I have to say it was well worth the effort in the end. The book is beautiful, consisting of very high quality paper and colour printing, and the story is really very good when read as a complete graphic novel, which it becomes by virtue of it being "all in one place" in the book.

I thoroughly recommend you to get a copy of it for yourself if you're a Dan Dare, sci-fi or comic-book fan. Buy it from Amazon.com here

Also for sale in Amazon.com is the ongoing Titan Books series that reprints Frank Hampson's classic original 1950s "Dan Dare" stories - find them here

And while I'm on the subject of Dan Dare reading material, why not visit this site to subscribe to a fantastic periodical Dan Dare magazine: Spaceship Away

Find out more about Dan Dare online by visiting these great free sites: DanDare.org.uk, Dan-Dare.org and Dan-Dare.net.

Dan Dare Virgin Comics Omnibus Book

Next month sees the launch of a lovely new hardcover book from Dynamite Entertainment that collects together all seven issues of the 2007/2008 Virgin Comics "Dan Dare" series that was written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Gary Erskine. It is available for a discounted pre-order here:

http://westfieldcomics.com/product/08120514

Join the queue after me, I already ordered one! :)

Possible future Dan Dare comics

Following the completion of the 7-part Dan Dare series that was produced by Virgin Comics from November 2007 to July this year, and the subsequent demise of Virgin Comics in September, it seemed unlikely that there would be any further new Dan Dare adventures for the forseeable future.

However, as reported by Newsarama.com yesterday, it seems that there will be more to come from the veteran spaceman in the near future:

(Quote)
Dan Dare will fly again.

Virgin Comics acquired the rights to produce a new Dan Dare comic last year, written by Garth Ennis. When the company dissolved earlier this year, the possibility of new Dan Dare in comics seemed remote at best. Dynamite Entertainment announced that it will collect the issues of the Virgin Comics series in February, and until now has remained mum on the possibility of future projects. The publisher has confirmed for Newsarama that they have landed the rights to publish future comics projects starring Dan Dare.

"I am delighted to be working with Nicky [Barrucci, Dynamite President] and his team, on the collection of one of my favorite series in years, and very happy indeed that Dan Dare has found a great home in Dynamite,” Ennis said.

Barrucci said that Ennis championed Dynamite to Colin Frewin, the CWO of the Dan Dare Company, which allowed the publisher to get its foot in the door with the company, and ultimately come to terms on the agreement.

Frewin: “It is exciting news that Dan Dare is joining Dynamite Entertainment alongside fellow classis strips like Battlestar Galactica and Lone Ranger. Dynamite is exactly what Dan Dare needs for global distribution.”

Dynamite Associate Editor Joe Rybandt commented: “Each and every month, I’d hit my local comics shop and pick up the new issue of Dan Dare -- this is Garth firing passionately on all cylinders and to be a part of “rescuing” this work and presenting it in a new form is a great thing for me and all the fans like me...”

The upcoming collection of the Dan Dare series that was originally published by Virgin will contain all seven issues of that series (corrected for the new publication), and a cover gallery. No publication date for new Dan Dare was given.
(End quote)

Virgin Comics buyout and renaming

Virgin Comics, which published the recent adventure of Dan Dare that ran from November last year until July this year, was the subject of a management buyout on the 24th of this month and has been renamed to "Liquid Comics".

It is unclear at this time what will happen with regards to any possible further Dan Dare stories.

Virgin's Dan Dare comic in a new book + a free gift!

Virgin Comics have just announced that they are compiling the first three issues of their Dan Dare comic into a special hardcover edition, complete with all Gary Erskine's artwork together with all the different cover artwork. The price is $13.99, and you can order it from here: VirginComicsStore.com

For a limited time they are offering a free Dan Dare iPod skin worth $15.00 with every order of the book (see here for details of the skin). Nice!

Meanwhile, the seventh and final issue of the Virgin Comics series will be out next month - don't miss it!

Dan Dare online at the Science Museum, London

Further to my post in April about the wonderful new Dan Dare Exhibition at the Science Museum in London, there is now a really interesting online story about the exhibition that you can read here at the museum's offical site: Dan Dare and the Birth of Hi-Tech Britain.

Who wants to see a Dan Dare movie get made?

Me, for one! I would love to see someone take a chance and make a Dan Dare movie. It's long overdue - Dan is an all-time classic science-fiction character, and his arch-enemy The Mekon is one of the best alien "bad guys" ever created (see my DanDare.org.uk site, which is all about them both, if you don't believe me).

Really, there should be a trilogy of movies based on Frank Hampson's mid-1950s trilogy of Dan Dare comic-strip stories that comprised "The Man From Nowhere", "Rogue Planet" and "Reign of the Robots" (the last movie would also need to include the follow-on short story that was also produced by Frank called "The Ship That Lived", for the sake of full story-arc closure).

These 50 year-old stories are of such a high standard, and were so far ahead of their time when they were created, that they would need very little alteration to bring them fully up-to-date. They could be real classic movies if produced by someone like Steven Spielberg.

There is an excellent article about this very subject over on the Coventry Telegraph newspaper's blog site, written by David Bentley. If, like David and me, you feel that there should be a Dan Dare movie, there is a potential way for you to help get one made: read David's article and then leave a comment at the end of the article saying that you want a Dan Dare movie to be produced - this will show the people who have the ability to get such a project off the ground just how much we all want one.

You can read the article and post a comment here: Dan Dare revived in new exhibition and comicbook - now we want a movie!

Dan Dare Exhibition at the Science Museum, London

An interesting new exhibition entitled "Dan Dare and the Birth of Hi-tech Britain" opens on the second floor of the Science Museum in London this coming Wednesday (April 30th). It runs until Sunday October 25th next year and admission is free (to the whole museum except the IMAX cinema).

Here is what the official page for the exhibition at the Science Museum website says about it:

(Quote)
Dan Dare’s rocket fleet roars high over Venus to trounce his arch foe – the power-mad Mekon. Meanwhile, back on Earth, another extraordinary future is unfolding – one which laid the foundation for Britain’s hi-tech consumer society.

After 1945, though war-weary and broke, Britain found huge pride in wartime advances such as radar, penicillin and the jet engine. Discoveries like these were now tipped to kick-start world-beating industries, bring prosperity and bankroll the emerging welfare state.

In an age before globalisation, products from rockets to radios sprang from local roots. Together they reveal a fascinating ‘lost world’ of British design and invention – a glimpse of a time when the TV in the corner was a Murphy, not a Sony.

This exciting new temporary exhibition explores the role played by technology in creating post-war Britain.
(End quote)

There is an excellent article about the exhibition in yesterday's Times newspaper entitled "How the 1950's hero Dan Dare helped shape history with Utopian visions" and sub-titled "A new exhibition suggests that the Eagle’s Dan Dare had an influence way beyond his time" - you can read it here.

For more information on Dan Dare and his arch-enemy The Mekon, visit this one of my Dan Dare websites here.

Virgin's Dan Dare digital comic has moved...

...to a new URL (with reference to my previous post about it, which you can read here).

You can now read the new adventures of Dan Dare from Virgin Comics online here.

More online goodies from Virgin Comics

I took a much more in-depth look around the Virgin Comics website today, and I was amazed to discover the brilliant range of comics that they are producing - I'm an instant fan of the brand! And it feels like Christmas all over again, because it turns out that two more of their titles are available as online digital comics in addition to the lovely new Dan Dare comic I highlighted in my blog post yesterday.

They are both brilliant, and they are "Voodoo Child" by Nicolas Cage and his son Weston, and "Devi" by Shekhar Kapur.

Check them out now - I feel sure you will be as impressed with them both as I am. Seriously well done Virgin Comics! :-) Acquiring the real "hard copy" comics to read in their true format will be a leisure-time priority for me on my next trip back to the UK.

A special Dan Dare mention

While I'm in full-on "Dan Dare" mode at the moment, I feel that a special mention should be made of Colin Frewin, someone to whom us Dan Dare fans owe a great deal of thanks. Colin runs the Dan Dare Corporation, the company that owns the global media rights to all that is Dan Dare. Without Colin's massive personal investment in Dan Dare since 2001 we would never have had the highly entertaining 2002 Dan Dare CGI cartoon series, and without Colin's active involvement we wouldn't currently have the new Virgin Comics series and the Titan Books 1950's story reprint series to enjoy. Cheers Colin! How about a Dan Dare movie next? :-)

Virgin's Dan Dare comic on the web, and other Dan Dare publications

Well, it's a very welcome surprise for me to see that Virgin Comics are posting episodes from their new monthly Dan Dare comic on their website - see the Official Dan Dare Digital Comic. Given that currently I'm in central rural Thailand thousands of miles from anywhere that I'm likely to be able to actually buy the real comic, being able to catch up with it online is a real treat! My thanks to Sir Richard Branson - "you're a right proper gentleman and no mistake, Sir Richard!" :-)

I have to confess that I quite like this latest and newest version of Dan Dare, so far anyway... However, I still think that Frank Hampson's original 1950 creation is the only version that really "cuts the mustard" in terms of the quality of artwork and storytelling. And please bear in mind that I grew up with the late-1970's 2000AD comic's "punk" version of Dan Dare, I didn't become fully familiar with the original version until the late 1980's, so I'm not biased towards the original through a nostalgic longing for it! :-) See these extensive Dan Dare Picture Galleries and Artwork Showcases to get an idea of what I mean - you can view imagery from all the different versions of Dan Dare through the years. I reckon anyone with a real eye for artistic quality will favour the Frank Hampson original over any subsequent version.

Lamentably forgotten by the popular press (plus myself in this very blog - doh!) during the August/September 2007 fanfare over the Virgin Comics announcement that they were bringing Dan Dare back into print in new comic-strip stories, was the fact that Dan Dare was actually already appearing in new comic-strip stories at the time. We all overlooked the fact that "Spaceship Away", a superb officially endorsed fan magazine, had been running (and indeed still is running) new "classic style" Dan Dare stories since its first issue back in 2003. Some of these new stories are lovingly illustrated by original 1950's and 60's era Dan Dare artists, so they really are true to the original Frank Hampson vision. So, if like me you have a desire to read as much Dan Dare as possible, visit their website over at SpaceshipAway.org.uk to find out how to subscribe to this unique thrice-yearly magazine.

There is also a Dan Dare (and Eagle - the comic that originally featured the Dan Dare stories) fan club if you are interested in finding out more about the classic original 1950's and 60's era. Take a look at their very informative weblog over at the Eagle Times Blog, which also includes details of how to subscribe to the fan club and receive their excellent quarterly magazine.

Dan Dare returns!

It appears to be true then, going by all the news appearing on the web (e.g. The Times Online, August 29, 2007) - Dan Dare is finally set to return in new comic-strip adventures for the first time in a great many years! Hoorah!! Dan Dare is my favourite of favourites.

Apparently, Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Comics company is to publish a new Dan Dare comic-book starting this November. I hope it sticks as closely as possible to the spirit of Frank Hampson's original 1950 creation rather than re-invents the character as other newer versions have done. It seems very likely it will be of a high standard anyway, what with Sir Richard having been a boyhood fan of the original Dan Dare, and with renowned comic-book author Garth Ennis writing the new series. Happy days indeed for this Dan Dare fan, that's for sure!

See my Dan Dare websites for more information about the original version of the character: Dan-Dare.org, Dan-Dare.net and DanDare.org.uk.