Eagle Times soars again, exploring lost Dan Dare play

The latest issue of Eagle Times, the journal of the Eagle Society, is available now, and offers a tremendous mix of features about the still fondly-remembered British weekly comic, and more.

Eagle Times Volume 37 No. 2 - 2024 - Cover

While much of this issue’s focus is on the Society’s annual “Eagle Dinner” event, which featured talks by comic creators Mike Collins and David Roach, there’s plenty more to enjoy, too.

One highlight has to be Steve Winders fascinating feature on a “lost” Dan Dare play, Dan Dare: A Space Adventurefeaturing Alex Leppard as Dan Dare, Mary Sheen as The Mekon and Maurice Colbourne from BBC TV’s Howard’s Way as Sondar, which was staged at London’s then new Half Moon Theatre in 1972.

We’ve previously highlighted this production on downthetubes, in coverage of an article by Jeremy Briggs for Spaceship Away back in 2017, but Steve has expanded on that research with additional background information about the theatre, cast and more.

A poster for Dan Dare: A Space Adventure. Art by Caroline Struthers
A poster for Dan Dare: A Space Adventure. Art by Caroline Struthers (now Caroline Irving)

Ever eclectic in its content – never a bad thing for a fanzine, in my opinion! – we’re also treated to such items as a feature on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway today, which was the focus of an Eagle comic feature seventy years ago, back in 1954, when it was still in public ownership; and a smashing article about “Storm Nelson”, exploring the character and the artists who worked on his adventures, Bellavitis and Richard Jennings. Since the strip has, perhaps surprisingly, received little attention from fans in the past, it’s great to see it in the spotlight here. Both these items are by David Britton, and entertaining reads – the author not short of throwing a couple of barbs at modern society into the mix in his first item!

Eagle Times Volume 37 No. 2 - 2024 - Sample Page
Eagle Times Volume 37 No. 2 - 2024 - Sample Page
Eagle Times Volume 37 No. 2 - 2024 - Sample Page

As I’ve said many times previously, if you’re a fan of the original Eagle, both Eagle Times and the Society blog are excellent companions to the title, and my thanks once again to the team for this latest issue.

If you’re an Eagle comic fan, I heartily recommend this magazine, deserving, I feel, of wider circulation.

• Membership of The Eagle Society is via Annual Subscription to Eagle Times magazine, which is published four times annually. Please make cheques payable to the ‘Eagle Society’. The current subscription rate (unchanged since 2018) is UK £30, Overseas £40 (all payments required in £s Sterling)

Postal applications to: Eagle Society Membership Secretary, Bob Corn, Mayfield Lodge, Llanbadoc, Usk Monmouthshire NP15 1SY | Web: eagle-times.blogspot.com | Enquiries: membership@eagle-society.org.uk

If you wish to pay by Paypal (from your Paypal account to the e-mail address above) – The Society request that you make your payment as a GIFT)

Eagle Times Volume 37 No. 2 – 2024 Contents
Special Eagle Dinner Issue

• Keep Young and Beautiful
The text of Steve Winders’ address to the Eagle Society at the Cardiff Gathering in 2024
• Railway Wonders: The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway by David Britton
2027 marks the 100th anniversary of the line, looking back at the 1954 Eagle feature and looking at the line today – poking his nose at some of changing society’s weirder rewriting of the past along the way
• These are a Few of my Favourite Things by David Gould
An article some of the best parts of Eagle, including the strip, “Dan Dare – The Red Moon Mystery” and some Dan Dare cast
• Eagle Society Annual Gathering – Cardiff 2024
A report by Reg Hoare, noting David Roach’s talk, presenting a huge range of British comic art to attendees, proved “one of the most popular keynotes ever”
• Talking Up a Storm, Again, by David Britton
A look back at Eagle’s often overlooked sea adventurer and the artists who drew the strip
• The Half Moon Mystery
Steve Winders reports on a ‘Dan Dare’ play performed in London in 1972 and tlls the story of the people who staged it and their remarkable theatre
• The Case of the Shivering Samaritan Part Two
An Adventure of Archie Berkley-Willoughby of Scotland Yard by Steve Winders
Postbag



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