Dan Dare
 | Average Customer Rating: Recommend Dan Dare was once a hero. He brokered peace with alien races, pushed the frontiers of space, and saved the planet from total annihilation… repeatedly. But now, his Space Fleet has disbanded, the United Nations has crumbled, his friends scattered to the solar winds. Britain is once again the world power, but Dare, disillusioned and disappointed in his once-precious home country, has quietly retired. But there's… Product details and pricing info |
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1 Customer Review Posted
- A well crafted opener to a new Dan Dare series
- Most Americans are unaware of the fact that from the end of WW2 to the early 1960s the British were arguably equivalent to, or even more advanced in some areas, than the US in terms of R & D into jet propulsion and rocketry technologies.
What is perhaps most remarkable about British advances in these fields is that the nation was under severe economic duress for this period of time. During its postwar `Austerity' era, monies for R & D in the UK were but negligible fractions of those being expended in the US. Most efforts into jet engine and rocket engine development were done with very modest budgets, by comparatively small research teams (such as de Havilland, makers of the ill-fated Comet jet airliner), working under monetary constraints that counterpart US aerospace giants (like Boeing) simply didn't have to contend with. One advantage the British did enjoy was the absence of the intense inter-service rivalries that hamstrung American efforts at developing a space program.
It's therefore more than a little interesting to speculate on how modern aviation and space travel might have been altered, had Britain had greater resources to invest in these areas at mid-20th century. Who knows, the first satellite into earth orbit may have been of British origin, and the Union Jack might have been the first flag planted on the surface of the moon....?!
The `Dan Dare' comic remains the best expression of this quasi steampunk / alt - history concept. It first appeared in the British weekly magazine `Eagle' in 1950 as a color (er, colour ?) strip, authored and illustrated by Frank Hampson. Dan was a square-jawed, self-effacing rocket ship pilot who worked for the `Interplanet Space Fleet' and in so doing enjoyed all sorts of adventures in the solar system and beyond. Hampson, and later Frank Bellamy, were adept at rendering both human figures and space vehicles with a very clean-lined and attractive style, and the series became quite popular in the UK throughout the 50s and 60s. After ceasing regular publication in 1969, `Dare' was revived in 1977 and since that time has appeared more or less continuously in various comic book, radio, and television incarnations. Many of these iterations have tried, with mixed success, to update the setting to a more contemporary tone. Other recent comics and graphic works dealing with SF / space travel themes often pay homage to the Dan Dare `style' in their illustration and plotting, such as the Dark Horse graphic novel `Scarlett Traces: The Great Game', Vertigo / Alan Moore's 'The Black Dossier', and Image Comics / Warren Ellis's `Ministry of Space'.
A new Dan Dare series has recently been launched, courtesy of Sir Richard Branson's Virgin product line, and this hardbound graphic novel is a compilation of the first three issues. The series is written by veteran Garth Ennis, and illustrated by Gary Erskine. The Ennis script returns to the themes and settings of the original series, envisioning an era in which the UK is at the forefront of space technology after a nuclear war between the USA and China has left both nations prostrate (the concept of the clumsy and feckless Americans triggering some sort of awful disaster, which in turn restores England to world pre-eminence, is particularly cherished among Brits).
Ennis states in his introduction that he is consciously avoiding casting this iteration of Dare as a cynical, even brutish anti-hero, and instead will portray him as a man of decency, restraint, and moral standing, channeling a bit of the British national character displayed during Austerity times.
The series opens with Dare subjecting himself to voluntary exile on a remote asteroid, the result of a snit with the current PM, a rather unsavory fellow. When the Mekon (an alien mastermind serving as the central villain in the original series) launches a devastating attack on the Earth space fleet, it's up to Dan to devote himself anew to Queen and Country and save the day. The book ends on a cliffhanger note, with Dare and a detachment of space marines confronting the SF equivalent of the 1879 Rorke's Drift battle from the Zulu War. There is lots of stiff-upper-lipping under these circumstances (no Brit adventure is complete without our heroes calmly discharging their rifles while murmuring "could do with a cuppa right about now, love" or "bit hairy at the moment, eh, Algy ?" while waves of slavering, homicidal aliens come within scant feet of the defensive square).
The artwork is well done, although I found myself wishing the spaceships and other techno trappings had a bit more of a `retro' appearance than the modern, Chris Foss - inspired style used here.
Ennis's plot involves some conspiracies and moral ambiguities, as well as devotion to necessary pacing and backstory, and is thus more literate than most stories appearing these days. I'm looking forward to the next installment in the series. - 2008-06-30, 3 of 3 people found this review helpful, Rated:
