Dan Dare‘s appearances outside EAGLE across the decades since his debut have been various – in audio adventures, advertising and animation – but how many of you recall his appearance in a newspaper strip story, “Mission to the Stars“, which was published in Sunday issues of The People in 1964? The strip was the work of writer William Patterson, perhaps best known for his stories for Sydney Jordan’s “Jeff Hawke” strip, published in the Daily Express, and drawn by Don Harley, one of the great “Dan Dare” artists.

The strip was announced in the then broadsheet newspaper’s edition of 26th April 1964, followed by a 29-week run from 3rd May – 15th November, concurrent with the ongoing publication of episodes of “Big City Caper“, “All Treens Must Die” and “The Mushroom“, written by David Motton, drawn by Keith Watson, in Eagle and Swift.

The introductory article not only talked up Dan Dare but EAGLE, too – which is hardly surprising since both The People and EAGLE were both Odhams Press tittles, by then both owned by The Daily Mirror – noting its worldwide influence.

Throughout the run, EAGLE was promoted as part of accompanying copy although, strangely, it doesn’t appear the strip was publicised during its run in EAGLE, although it did carry promotions for both a “free gift” issue and the launch of WHAM!

While accompanied by “Story so Far” catch up copy, “Dan Dare: Mission to the Stars” doesn’t seem to have really been much of a priority for the editorial team. There were no other strips, and when “Dan Dare” ended its run, its illustrated replacement in the issue of 22nd November 1964 was a handful of pocket cartoons, alongside the usual mix of news items, gossip, sports reports and horoscopes. No reason for the strip’s departure was given at the time.

To date, the strip has only been republished in English in Hawk Books’ The Dan Dare Dossier, published in 1990, the publisher clearly utilising newspaper clippings rather than original art to represent the story, but making the best of the reproduction as they could, given the print quality of its original run – which doesn’t look that great, judging from copies held by the British Library used in its British Newspaper Archive project.

Willie Patterson’s story, pitting Dan and company against a robot-led civilisation that has hijacked the starship Copernicus isn’t a bad little adventure, but it’s by no means as high concept as his work on “Jeff Hawke”, and perhaps no wonder, despite interest in science fiction and the space race at the time, the strip didn’t continue.

Don Harley’s art on the project, given the limited format, is to his usual high standard, although his robot villains, which look a little reminiscent of Doctor Who‘s Daleks and Mechanoids, could, perhaps, have been more scary, given the story was presumably being aimed at an older audience.

You can find copies of The Dan Dare Dossier on eBay for a reasonable price if you’re curious, or subscribe to the British Newspaper Archive and read the strip as it was originally presented in The People in 1964

Head downthetubes for…

• On downthetubes: In Praise of… Comics Writer William (Willie) Patterson

• downthetubes: In Memoriam: Dan Dare and Thunderbirds comic artist Donald “Don” Harley

• British Comic Characters Profiled | Dan Dare

• Read our list of currently available Dan Dare collections

• Dan Dare collections and related books on AmazonUK (downthetubes Affiliate Link)

• Read our checklist of Dan Dare comic stories published to date, compiled by John Freeman, Jeremy Briggs, Richard Sheaf and Steve Winders (Google Doc, further information always welcome)

Mission to the Stars: Reviews

• Martin Crookall’s review of “Mission to the Stars”

“To be honest, it’s a dull and uninspired story, unable to rise above the central improbability of robots, with no apparent creator but themselves, turning out to be identical to cheap, dictator obsessed human villains…”

• Win Wiacek’s review of The Dan Dare Dossier

“Big, bold, beautiful and ruthlessly nostalgia-driven, this epic tome will utterly enchant survivors and veterans of the baby-boomer years and sci fi fanatics in general, but it’s also packed with enough top-flight comics material to beguile any kid or newcomer to our medium in search of a little simple, awestruck wonder…”

Dan Dare © Dan Dare Corporation

• About the Author
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John Freeman

John  is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of  comics such as 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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Categories: British Comics, British Comics - Newspaper Strips, Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Features

Tags: Dan Dare, Don Harley, Eagle, Mission to the Stars, Odhams Press, SF Comics, The People, Willie Patterson