“Dan Dare”, and other Eagle strips, have been reprinted across the globe, but Britain’s best-known comic hero made his debut in Italy in 1954. Here’s a brief guide…
Eagle’s “Dan Dare” made his first international appearance in Italy, initially republished, in the short-lived comic Disco Volante (“Flying Saucer) in all ten issues published between January through to March 1954.
As with Eagle, Dan claimed the front-page spot, whilst “Luke” (“Luck of the Legion”) and “Jeff” (“Riders of the Range”) were also included. Disco Volante’s masthead emulated Eagle, but utilised a flying saucer in its design, rather than the familiar eagle.
After this short run, “Dan Dare” resurfaced in the weekly comic Il Giorno dei Ragazzi (“The Day of the Children”) appearing between March 1957 until December 1968 – a total of 549 editions. A superbly produced comic, the title was actually a weekly give-away with the daily newspaper Il Giorno (“The Day”), inserted each Thursday, which is why copies bear no cover price. Is its run a re4cord for a free weekly comic paper, we wonder?
The exeunt DanDare.info site noted: “The quality of the paper used, the reproduction, the inking and general attention to detail are absolutely top notch and would have made even Marcus Morris happy.”
Dan remained on the front cover of Il Giorno dei Ragazzi until 1963, when he was replaced by “Willy West” drawn by Italian artist Nevio Zeccara, who’s probably best known for drawing Star Trek comics for Gold Key, and who also who also drew “Battler Briton”, for Thriller Picture Library, and “Phantom Force 5” for Buster, both tiles published by Fleetway.
“Willy West” emulated “Dan Dare” in its SF concept, but lasted just six months before our favourite space pilot took the prime slot again, remaining the comic’s star for the rest of its run.
Nevio also drew another strip, “Gigi Strip” for Il Giorno dei Ragazzi, in 1967, and continued his association with the title until the end of its run.
Il Giorno dei Ragazzi featured many of the Eagle‘s major adventure characters and reproduced many of its centre spread cutaways. The strips included “Jeff Arnold” (“Riders of the Range”), “Luck” (“Luck of the Legion”), “Kid Tempesta” (“Storm Nelson”) and many others. However, the title utilised Italian humour strips such as the popular “Coco Bill”, rather than Eagle strips such as “Harris Tweed”, presumably because of the complexities of translating British humour for the Italian readers.
The comic must have been successful, prompting British toy makers J & R Randall (trading as Merit), who produced a number of Dan Dare related toys for the UK market during the 1950s and early 1960 to rebox them for the Italain market, repurposing art by Walt Howarth, who’s probably best known for his Doctor Who annual work.
Separate to his appearances in Italian comics “Riders of the Range” was also reprinted in Italy in the 1960s in a pocket-book format with colour covers, alternate pages presented in colour. Jeff Arnold ran for 34 monthly issues, between 4th August 1963 and 15th June 1964.
After Il Giorno dei Ragazzi ended its run, Eagle reprints did not feature in Italian comics again until Milan-based Edizioni Boss Periodici launched L’Avventuroso (The Adventure) in 1973.
The title, which took its name from an earlier series of comics published in the 1930s and early 1940s, would be published under various different names and in different and sometimes confusing formats (in terms of documenting what “Dan Dare was featured) through the 1970s. In addition to “Dan Dare”, various volumes featured a variety of British newspaper strips, such as “Garth” from the Daily Mirror, drawn by Frank Bellamy, “Jane – Daughter of Jane”, “Paul Temple”; “The Trigan Empire”, by Mike Butterworth and Don Lawerence, first published in Ranger and Look and Learn, along with American strips such as Milton Caniff’s “Steve Canyon”.
Dan Dare also appeared in his own annual in 1976, Dan Dare – L’eroe del Cosmos), a a reprint of the British 1974 Dan Dare Annual. It was republished a year later by Les Humanoides Associes as Quatre jours pour Sauver la Planete.
He was also included in the limited-edition book, Almanaco della Fantascienza in 1998, printed for members of the Associazione Nazionale Amici del Fumetto (“National Association of Friends of the Comic”). Offering a general look at SF stories, Dan’s strips were published in black and white. The book also included “Space Masters”, Doctor Who, and Star Wars. Only 800 copies of this book were printed, and it is quite hard to come by.
Another “Dan Dare” collection of note is the 2012 Dan Dare L’integrale, from Magic Press, collecting the Virgin Comics Dare story by Garth Ennis and Gary Erskine, translated by Stefano Formiconi, with input from Alessio Danesi, who now works for Saldapress as a Rights Manager. The cover appears to have been modified slightly for its Italian publication.
in 2014, 001 Edizioni published Viaggio su Venere. Dan Dare il pilota del futuro, two hardcover collections of the first Dan Dare adventures, translated by P. L. Gaspa, under their Nova Express imprint, which were also published in Spanish. These collections were based on the Titan Books edrst stories, and are fairly easy to find from Italian and wider European online booksellers.
Italian Artist Draws Dan Dare
In addition to “Dan Dare” strips appearing in Italian comics, one Italian artist to date has officially contributed to his mythos. Together with writer Pat Mills, Massimo Belardinelli resurrected the character for early issues of 2000AD.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised by Dan Dare’s popularity in Italy. After all, it was in that country his creator was honoured, back in 1976.
As his son Peter Hampson relates: “For many years, the very name Dan Dare remained an anathema to Frank Hampson, never to be mentioned in his presence. However, the space hero had a band of followers who were dedicated to his creator. Attempts to contact him were usually firmly ignored, but then, unaccountably, towards the end of 1973 he began, just occasionally, to respond. At about this time his work on Dan Dare was beginning to be appreciated by a whole new generation of strip cartoon artists, particularly in Europe, which was undergoing something of a renaissance in the genre.
“In 1975, Hampson was invited by Denis Gifford to attend the major bi-annual awards festival in Lucca, Italy, the ‘Mecca’ for devotees of strip cartoons. With some misgivings, he decided to go, taking a selection of original artwork with him. He had no expectation of anything special, and so was amazed when on his arrival he was feted and presented with the Yellow Kid Award, (the only English artist to have achieved this) and honoured with a further award which had been created especially for him, acknowledging him as ‘Prestigioso Maestro’, “The best writer and illustrator of strip cartoons since the end of World War Two.” High accolades much deserved.
Head downthetubes for…
• downthetubes – British Comic Characters Profiled | Dan Dare
Which includes information on further international appearances of “Dan Dare”
• Buy Dan Dare: He Who Dares by Pete Milligan and Alberto Foche (AmazonUK Affiliate Link)
Dan Dare returns in an all new adventure, written by Peter Milligan, in which he faces a sinister new foe sent by a deadly ancient evil that threatens not only all life in the solar system, but the very galaxy itself!
• In Review: Dan Dare – He Who Dares – review by Andrew Darlington
• Giorno Pop: Il Giorno dei Ragazzi, Fumetti in un Quotidiano
• Lambiek: Nevio Zeccara (1st December 1924 – 8th April 2005)
• The Frank Bellamy Blog: Dan Dare in Italy
• European Ray Guns: A Catalogue
REPRINT GUIDES – IN ITALIAN
• Associazione Franco Fossati – Disco Volante
• Associazione Franco Fossati – Il Giorno dei Ragazzi
• Associazione Franco Fossati – L’Avventuroso
The information in this article was, in part, originally collated by Steven Taylor for the now offline DanDare.info web site (Wayback Machine version here)
My thanks to Marcello Vaccari for corrections to the text, the result of errors in translation. An earlier version of this article incorrectly cited artist Alberto Foche as Italian: he is Spanish
Dan Dare ©️ The Dan Dare Corporation
- About the Author
- Latest Posts
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.
Categories: British Comics, Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes News, Features
Creating Comics: An Interview with Comics Laureate Bobby Joseph 
In Memoriam: Comic Artist Dave Taylor 
Creating Comics: An Interview with Henry Widdicombe 
Loving the Alien: An Interview with Charlie Adlard