Broken Frontier

I bow my head in shame. As a long-time admirer of Don Lawrence whose painterly style of comics-making graced the pages of TheTrigan Empire and Storm, I find there to be an immense attraction to the kind of British soft sci-fi that has filled the pages of many magazines through the Fifties onwards up until the Nineties; 2000 AD being the most obvious heir to the ground paved by the British sci-fi classics. And yet, this is the first time I have read Dan Dare, the infamous and meticulously illustrated British stalwart sci fi hero. Pilot of the future! That’s a great tagline right there.

In the same year as Albert Einstein launched his General Field Theory, Frank Hampson launched Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future in the British weekly comic The Eagle; fully taking advantage of the coming spacewave that catapulted sci-fi to the frontal lobes of the populace in an era that is the heyday of sci-fi greats like Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Robert A Heinlein and AE Van Voght. And I am hooked! This is exemplary stuff and still holds up in the present as an intelligent and well-crafted book.

Dan, Lex, Digby, Flamer and new friend Stripey return from saving the Crypts — ten years after they departed! But in their absence, the unthinkable has occurred: Earth has been conquered by the mysterious Elektrobots! Now Dan and his crew must solve the mystery of these robotic menaces, and liberate the people of Earth! But who is the Elektrobots’ master? And what of the Selektrobots, even more advanced robots? The answer points to an old enemy — and a thrilling showdown!

Allthough the space age technically began in 1957 with the launch of the Soviet "Sputnik 1" satellite, the revolution had already begun in Britain with Dan Dare, pilot of the first successful flight to Venus. Reading through this volume, I’m amazed at how snappy the dialogue is. It rings true, gives a different voice to all the characters and does double duty as a sceneshifter. Often in the case of older comics, dialogue and captions overflow the pages with clutter and unnecessary exposition, however, in Dan Dare, their function is to give voice to the characters and let the art do plenty of the talking itself.

And the art is truly a thing of beauty. It is easy to see where Don Lawrence got at least a part of his inspiration. Later artists like Chris Weston (he himself a former student of Don Lawrence) also are heavily inspired by Hampson’s work. I’m reminded especially of Warren Ellis and Chris Weston’s Ministry of Space miniseries that seems like an ode to the world and design of Dan Dare, although with a dark twist.

Frank Hampson, along with artists Eric Eden, Don Harley, Joan Porter and Desmond Walduck who all were part of his studio, producing the Dan Dare strips, give us a fully fleshed out sci-fi world with (in this day and age at least) retro-space ships, alien species and a British Empire, looking at the stars. Dan Dare, he with the satanic brow, is the quintessential Brit in this world: long face, strong chin poised in the air, all tally-ho in the face of danger.

Titan Books has packaged the various storylines (the Frank Hampson Dan Dare ran from 1950 to 1960) in thematic books. The latest being Reign of the Robots. The production values are very high, from thick, high-grade paper to an excellent colour reproduction. In a very wise move, Titan has chosen a matte offwhite paper instead of a white glossy allowing the muted colourpallette to have a really nice retro-feel. The cool retro graphic design on the cover and insides further advance the feeling of entering a different world.

For a Dan Dare-first timer, I must say that this is an impressive package of quality comics. Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future: Reign of the Robots presents crisp painted artwork with an impressive storyline being told in an intelligent manner. Exotic locations, space graveyards, alien overlords and danger by the dozen. Dan Dare, you made a man out of me. 

###
Dan Dare, pilot of the future: Reign of the robots is the tenth volume in this hardback series published by Titan Books. It is available in stores in May 2008 and carries a retail price of $29.95

note: not all images are from the actual book itself but are representative of the artwork of Frank Hampson. Dan Dare is copyrighted by the Dan Dare Company Ltd.