Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Prog 1 - DAN DARE


The first ever 2000ad center spread!

Not really much to say on this strip. Dare seems to be the weakest in the 2000ad line-up, which is surprising because Dare was probably the main draw for a lot of adults to buy this comic book for their kids.

I'm sure fans of the 50's Dare opened up the center pages and recoiled in horror to what they've done with their childhood hero. Can't blame them really. This version of Dare was eons apart from the 'original'. Apart from Dares trademark eyebrows, and the presence of SASA, everything about the character had changed!

For information on the 'original' Dan Dare...click the link below.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Dare

A shame really...but again it was the late 70's and 2000 was trying to be cutting edge, which I think they acheived for the most part.

Apart from this not being your fathers Dan Dare...the art by Belardinelli, even though his characters are quite stiff, is unbeatable when it comes to drawing anything cosmic.

In this strip Dare and his compatriots are passing Jupiter when there ship loses power and the crew are all killed save for Dare who manages to escape. The Fleet controller removes Dare from command because of the loss of the ship. (He doesn't believe Dares story of alien interference.)

Dare takes matters into his own hands and stows aboard another cruiser that's due to pass by Jupiter to get to the truth! And we end the first chapter on the usually 2000ad trademark cliffhanger!

As you can see below...the New 'Drokk' swearing Dare(that always seems so out of place for me to read Dan Dare using a 2000ad swear word!) is a far cry....
from the 'Original' clean cut, stiff upper lip Dan Dare.

2 comments:

Tom Mix 1969 said...

This Dare has never been collected has it? I'd like to read it, but I'm not going to try and get those early progs just for that.

Ian Hewitt said...

I'm still sorry the 1982 Eagle-Dare has never been reprinted...

You're lucky to have these early 2000 A.D.'s, I didn't discover the Galaxy's Greatest until Prgp 505....