Latest Spaceship Away is an early festive treat

Spaceship Away 52 - Cover

The latest issue of Spaceship Away – Issue 52 – is on sale now, featuring a Christmas-themed Dan Dare cover illustration and centrespread by Ian Kennedy.

Inside, there’s the usual mix of strips, including the continuation of the all-new “classic” Dan Dare story “Voyage of the Ankum” by John Bailey, drawn by William Naylor and coloured by Martin Baines, with events taking a potentially sinister turn this episode.

The representation of the Jeff Hawke story “Selena”, also continues, drawn by Sydney Jordan, originally published in the Daily Express in black and white, but published in colour in Spaceship Away; and we’re also treated to the third part of “Target – Earth” by John Richards, drawn by Harry Winslade.

As usual the magazine, edited by Des Shaw, also carries a number of features. Jeremy Briggs offers a detailed guide to a perhaps little-known adjunct to Dan Dare continuity, the variously-titled “Sammy” strip from Swift. Aimed at younger readers – both boys and girls – artists Bruce Cornwell and Desmond Walduck employed designs for Eagle’s “Dan Dare” strip in the art for this strip, published regularly between 1957 and 1959, with later Annual appearances, too.

Meanwhile, Andrew Darlington explores the very different Britain of April 1950, the month Eagle was launched, offering a guide to what else was on sale and contemporary events, putting the launch of the groundbreaking comic into interesting context.

It’s another entertaining issue, with “Space News” too, that points to renewed interest in the possibility of living in the clouds of Venus.

• Order Spaceship Away on subscription – and back issues, too – from the magazine’s web site here

Limited copies of Spaceship Away 52 are also available from eBay here price £8.95



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