bring back dan dare !

Rosso · 16 September, 2003, 06:01:37 AM

One of the things I think is interesting about Dan Dare is all the different incarnations of him that are floating about in comic book limbo. Do they ever meet up together? Do the later incarnations suffer any kind of identity crisis over the fact that whilst they have the name and memories of a certain character they are clearly different people?

Last of the V8's · 16 September, 2003, 10:53:55 AM

That would be cool. Like the 5 Dotors.

Paul Cornell · 16 September, 2003, 02:39:18 PM

I love Dan Dare (mostly the original Frank Hampson version, but all of them really) with my entire being. He's my ideal hero. The original Eagle strips have an underlying reality about matters of life and death that you only really get soon after the war. Dare won't kill unless he absolutely has to, but when he does, he does, and he and his crew don't feel the need to talk about it afterwards.

My current SF novel, British Summertime (out now from Victor Gollancz) is about a Dan Dare-ish figure, a pilot from the future with Dare's outlook and culture, being stranded in the present. So... that'd be a plug, then.

Jared Katooie · 16 September, 2003, 03:14:15 PM

One of the few heroes to have brown hair.

Fact.

Current SF novel? I am curious as to whether there are others and where I might obtain them.

J.

Mikey · 16 September, 2003, 04:04:15 PM

Oi!No!Pilot of tyhe future he may be,but if he came round my house with his spaceship I'd say Oi!No!Park it somewhwere else ya mimsy!

No Dan Dare you fools!Listen to Odds,Bou and Me.

Yeah,Paul-I read the excerpt on Infinity+Intriguing...

M.

Wils · 16 September, 2003, 04:18:19 PM

IMO, rehashing Dare again would be a huge mistake, although some decent reprints of the early New Eagle Dan Dare strips would be more than welcome. There was some lovely art and I remember some cracking stories (one with a huge bloke in black armour with a floating sort of shark-type-thing that chases Dan and some bint with colour changing hair immediately springs to mind).

And they should collect Doomlord as well. :)

Slippery PD · 16 September, 2003, 04:26:33 PM

A no for me too. Always felt Dare was kinda like a modern Biggles, with all that class system and english parody rubbish thrown in. Somethings are meant never to return, like Hotshot Hamish, mighty mouse and billy boots!!!! And blake's Seven, I wish theyd leave that alone too...

Yer "dont spoil me memories" Slips

Dudley · 16 September, 2003, 04:41:45 PM

Watcha talking about? Mighty Mouse was GREAT!

more seriously, if anyone was to bring them back, the only way to do it would be to have exactly the original Dan Dare & crew, but place them in an ultraviolent & perverse future. Dan regularly shocked by what he discovers, the crew going through hell, but at the end of the strip good ol' British pluck saves the day and all is right again. Hover on the line between satire & pastiche, and it could be a good 'un. Is that what Paul's novel does?

Paul Cornell · 16 September, 2003, 05:27:41 PM

Jared, thanks for asking! And Dudley, that would be how I'd do it as well. I think Dan's values would still stand up. The novel does quite a lot of that, albeit the main focus is the character exploring our present in comparison with his idealised future. The novel is British Summertime (the previous one being called Something More) and is out from Victor Gollancz (and thus available in most big bookshops) in trade paperback, with a regular paperback coming in February. You can also find them on Amazon.

Something More ISBN: 1-85798-959-7 (paperback)
British Summertime ISBN: 0-575-07369-1 (trade)

Sorry for this plug, but a freelancer has to make a living!

Capt.Zeep · 16 September, 2003, 06:27:17 PM

One of the few heroes to have brown hair.

Eh? Wasn't he a Ginga?

Q. Which comic featured the post-modern Dan Dare, feeling guilty over war crimes against the Treens etc? I've a feeling it was early '90s, could've been Revolver...I quite likesd the ironic, retro-future-ish feel of that strip, though admittedly I didn't read more than a couple.

Mikey · 16 September, 2003, 06:30:58 PM

It was Revolver-last couple of episiodes were in Crisis when it folded.

JamieB · 16 September, 2003, 06:32:21 PM

That was DARE, first printed in CRISIS, by Grant Morrison and Rian Hughes. It was later released as a TPB (by Fleetway, IIRC) and as a four-issue series by Monster Comics in 1992.

J-Bo-less-said-about-THAT-Mekon-scene-the-better-1

Mikey · 16 September, 2003, 06:40:16 PM

Dare was in Revolver surely?I do distinctly remember Crisis having the last couple-or do I??

Tiplodocus · 16 September, 2003, 06:51:13 PM

Yep, Revolver definitely but it folded before they got to the last episode and that was printed in Crisis.

davidbishop · 16 September, 2003, 07:05:23 PM

Egmont Fleetway sold all remaining rights to Dan Dare in 1999 or 2000, so to bring the character back to 2000 AD would require a licensing deal and all other sorts of hassle.

My advice - don't hold your breath.

As for the Grant Morrison/Rina Hughes Dare, an absolute cracker. IIRC correctly, the scene where the Mekon buggers our Dan was a bit more... penetrating... in the original script.

davidbishop