2000 AD Online Forum

General Chat => Books & Comics => Topic started by: Jade Falcon on 21 March, 2018, 09:29:44 PM

Title: 80's Dan Dare
Post by: Jade Falcon on 21 March, 2018, 09:29:44 PM
I'm not 100% sure if this is the right place, but was any of the Dan Dare from the 'new' Eagle ever reprinted in trade form?  I know there were mixed opinions about it, and I do have some Dan Dare collections, both the Hawk and Titan ones of the original Dan Dare and the Garth Ennis one, but I did remember enjoying the 80's one.
Title: Re: 80's Dan Dare
Post by: Michael Knight on 21 March, 2018, 09:57:07 PM
Hi Jade. Like you i long for the 'New Eagle' Dan Dare to be reprinted. Its one of the strips that got me into comics and 2000AD
Title: Re: 80's Dan Dare
Post by: The Enigmatic Dr X on 21 March, 2018, 10:17:21 PM
Not that I know. But I do love the line about a laser "cutting through you like a knife through your Earth butter"
Title: Re: 80's Dan Dare
Post by: TordelBack on 21 March, 2018, 10:21:33 PM
Thirded. Easily my favourite comic strip prior to discovering the sordid delights of the Maison de Tharg.
Title: Re: 80's Dan Dare
Post by: Richard on 21 March, 2018, 11:13:16 PM
I don't know about that. You might have fond memories of it, but it was 30 years ago and memories get rose-tinted. I just bought a few '80s Eagles a few weeks ago, and Dan Dare was shit.

If Rebellion owns the rights to Eagle now, they do far better to reprint Doomlord and House of Daemon.
Title: Re: 80's Dan Dare
Post by: JOE SOAP on 21 March, 2018, 11:21:38 PM
Quote from: Richard on 21 March, 2018, 11:13:16 PM
If Rebellion owns the rights to Eagle now, they do far better to reprint Doomlord and House of Daemon.

They don't. Dan Dare Corp. owns Eagle originated characters.

http://www.dandare.com/strips.htm

http://www.dandare.com/media.htm
Title: Re: 80's Dan Dare
Post by: Professor Bear on 22 March, 2018, 01:34:05 AM
Quote from: Richard on 21 March, 2018, 11:13:16 PM
I don't know about that. You might have fond memories of it, but it was 30 years ago and memories get rose-tinted. I just bought a few '80s Eagles a few weeks ago, and Dan Dare was shit.

It got off to a good start with Pat Mills and John Wagner scripting for Ian Kennedy, but it had its ups and downs over the years, feeling like filler in the post-Mills period but often being well-served with artists like Kennedy, Oliver Frey and Cruz.  Currently reading my way through the Eagle, I thought a lot of DD was mince reading it as an adult, but can distinctly recall being freaked out as a kid by the flesh-eating jellyfish story, and being totally bummed when Chinese Digby was murdered by an alien body snatcher type who gets away scot free at the end of the story while Dan just sits there like a wanker making bad jokes to a hot boffin.  I suspect - whisper it - we might be too old to be the ideal audience for this stuff, but (Catch 22) we're probably the only ones a collection would ever be marketed towards.

I did like how the strip went for broke circa 1987, with Dan dying and being reborn as the leader of a crack team of space badasses fighting the Mekon in modern day London: the Cruz artwork, that brilliantly chunky Eagle logo, the shameless pulpishness of the story - but I wouldn't call it art so much as charmingly thick-headed.
Title: Re: 80's Dan Dare
Post by: TordelBack on 22 March, 2018, 07:00:35 AM
Heh! Yuo, it went downhill fast,  but after an odd start the early stuff,  from Return of the Melon through Fireflight and the flashback training/space-exploration stuff,  and even the next couple of stories (after the move to big paper) were pretty great. The end of that run,  where Dan goes a bit nuts and tries to beat the Mekon to death as they float about in orbit,  that was progworthy.
Title: Re: 80's Dan Dare
Post by: IndigoPrime on 22 March, 2018, 07:58:49 AM
DDC owns other bits, too, like Computer Warrior.
Title: Re: 80's Dan Dare
Post by: matty_ae on 22 March, 2018, 03:25:00 PM
I scanned them all in and had these books made

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXTpmtL9Dqw

There's a few issues commercially. There's a lot of 3 page episodes where the double page can't be moved. And also quite a few speech bubbles in the 'crease'

All 7 books are on my YouTube channel if you just want a nosatalgia hit
Title: Re: 80's Dan Dare
Post by: Bad City Blue on 22 March, 2018, 07:17:24 PM
Garth Ennis did a great Dan Dare revival a few years back, well worth picking up IMO with great art from Gary Erskine
Title: Re: 80's Dan Dare
Post by: Jade Falcon on 22 March, 2018, 10:52:37 PM
I've got the Garth Ennis one, I agree it was great.  I see there's yet another 'remake', but the artwork on the cover doesn't exactly inspire confidence.
Title: Re: 80's Dan Dare
Post by: maryanddavid on 22 March, 2018, 11:58:39 PM
The Return of the Mekon and Fireflight with Ian Kennedy's glorious with Mills and Wagner's cracking script its up there with the very best.
Interestingly while Dare is owned by DDC, Mills and Wagner own 'The return of the Mekon',  it was originally a film pitch that they dusted off and worked in the Great Grandson element and the WW2 bits at the then film rights holders request.
Title: Re: 80's Dan Dare
Post by: abelardsnazz on 23 March, 2018, 05:33:36 PM
My first Tooth was the Sci-fi special 1984 because Ian Kennedy drew the cover. I have fond memories of reading Dan Dare at the time, so would be interested for nostalgic reasons even if the stories don't stand up.
Title: Re: 80's Dan Dare
Post by: Colin YNWA on 27 March, 2018, 07:56:25 AM
Quote from: Bad City Blue on 22 March, 2018, 07:17:24 PM
Garth Ennis did a great Dan Dare revival a few years back, well worth picking up IMO with great art from Gary Erskine

I'll say, love that comic. I also really enjoyed the recent Pete Milligan take and hope we get more of that.
Title: Re: 80's Dan Dare
Post by: Proudhuff on 27 March, 2018, 12:21:47 PM
Its normally at this point somebody posts a picture of DD getting rodgered by the Mekon's probe, and Big Ben in a glass case  :-[
Title: Re: 80's Dan Dare
Post by: Colin YNWA on 27 March, 2018, 08:44:06 PM
Quote from: Proudhuff on 27 March, 2018, 12:21:47 PM
Its normally at this point somebody posts a picture of DD getting rodgered by the Mekon's probe, and Big Ben in a glass case  :-[

Keep the contents of your 'special collection' to yourself.