The cover of the first issue of the short-lived Indian version of Eagle – Falcon Issue One
Dan Dare’s first appearance in India, in Falcon Issue One, originally published in Eagle and Boy’s World Vol 15 No 43, dated 24 October 1964, page one of “The Mushroom” part 1 of 16, art by Keith Watson.
We’ve covered some of the reprints the original Dan Dare experienced across the globe in the past on downthetubes and Richard Sheaf wrote a detailed guide to many of them In the Titan Dare collection, Safari in Space. But until now, I hadn’t quite appreciated quite how much exposure Dan enjoyed in Asia. We’re very grateful to another of our contributors, King Viswa, for additional information.
In the 1960s, it was the famed southern Indian media house Dalton Publications who brought Dare to that huge country.
Dalton had a film production house, producing some of the biggest box office hits and published comics as well.
1947 cover for Chandamama
1948 cover for Chandamama
Some of our readers may already know Dalton as the initial publishers of Chandamama, a highly-regarded, beautifully illustrated monthly children’s magazine featuring myth and magic tales, launched in June 1947 by noted film makers B.Nagi Reddi and initially edited by his friend, Chakrapani, then by Kodavatiganti Kutumba Rao for 28 years, right up until his death in August 1980.
A 1985 edition of Chandamama
Eventually printed in over a dozen different languages, including English, with sales of over 200,000 at its height, Chandamama remained in publication until 2011, and was last owned by Geodesic Information Systems Limited, a company that sought to bring it into the digital age. Those plans were never realised, after Geodesic was found defaulting on outstanding loans and was ordered to be wound up by the Mumbai High Court.
A number of copies of Chandamama are available to read on the Internet Archive.
Dalton’s initial attempt to bring Dan Dare to India came to an end in 1968, but another attempt was made when they began to publish Walt Disney comics, Batman and Superman comics in the mid 1980s.
The second page of Dan Dare’s first Indian publication in Falcon, originally published in Eagle and Boy’s World Vol 15 No 43, dated 24 October 1964, page two of “The Mushroom” part 1 of 16, art by Keith Watson.
The first appearance was in Falcon, the official Tamil, tabloid format version of the Eagle. Priced at 75 Paise (three quarters of one rupee, the Indian currency), the first issue was launched on 1st January 1968 and published in Tamil, English and Hindi.
The Dan Dare stories published were all 16 parts of “The Mushroom” and the first 6 (of 23) parts of “The Moonsleepers” from Eagle and Boy’s World Volumes 15 and 16 in 1964 and 1965. All of these had art by Keith Watson and all would have appeared on the front cover of the UK publication necessitating the first page of each week’s pair to be cropped at the top to remove the UK comic’s logo and the resulting space filled in Falcon with an advert.
Falcon was sold not only in India but Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, East Africa and South Africa.
Sadly, the comic lasted just 22 issues; sales simply did not justify its continuation, and its short life and format, which makes it difficult to preserve, mean copies are something of a rarity.
Although King Viswa sadly lost his own copies of Falcon (along with the rest of his comics collection) to a flood in December 2015, a friend of his has very kindly provided some scans, not only of Dan’s first Indian appearance but the cover and story pages from the last issue, too.
Let’s hope some of the modern incarnations of Dan Dare – the new Audio Adventures and Titan Comics new Dan Dare comic – also gain the attention of Asian fans of the space hero!
• Did you first read the adventures of a British comic hero in another country or language? Why not let us know, below?
The cover of Falcon Issue 22 and, below, the title’s “Dan Dare” spread
Dan Dare from Falcon issue 22, originally published in Eagle and Boy’s World Vol 16 No 11, dated 13 March 1965, page one of “The Moonsleepers” part 6 of 23, art by Keith Watson.
Dan Dare from Falcon issue 22, originally published in Eagle and Boy’s World Vol 16 No 11, dated 13 March 1965, page two of “The Moonsleepers” part 6 of 23, art by Keith Watson.
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The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
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