Forgotten Dare returns with the Mekon

Good to see the 'forgotten era' of Dan Dare will be back in print next month in 'Dan Dare: The 2000 AD Years Vol 1'. The first issue of 2000 AD came out when I was a humble art student and it became cult reading in the common room. Dan Dare had become a hero for the seventies, a more violent testosterone driven man than the old school Brit of the original Eagle comic.

Then came the return of dare's arch enemy,The Mekon, and a stunning cover by the late Mike Western. A few years later, I worked with Mike's son Pete Western, who got his dad to draw me my very own Mekon (see above).

Although the later Dan Dare 2000 AD strips by Dave Gibbons have been reprinted, this new graphic novel from 2000 AD will feature the first two stories for the first time since the seventies.


http://www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2015/upcoming-dan-dare-the-2000-ad-years/

A Welsh Whitewashed Cottage

The whitewashed end to this Welsh cottage was part of my childhood. It had electricity, but not water. A chemical toilet in the stinging-nettle garden, no bathroom, two small bedrooms and a tiny kitchen at the bottom of the stairs. My parents rented it for one shilling and sixpence a week, or seven and a half new pence. 

Corner of the Bookshelf

The bookshelf is a good place to start to retrieve old memories. You might remember where you bought a book and what else was happening in your life at the time. Maybe you read the book on a long journey or an exotic beach. A book can bring back so much more than the author intended.

In the sixties, my parents rented half an Edwardian house in Aberystwyth, another couple lived on the top floor. They had a daughter called Susan, who was my age.  

Inspired by Princess Margaret’s televised royal wedding, and at the tender ages of four, Susan and I got married, while siblings and friends threw privet-leaf confetti over us. It was a brief union lasting no more than half an hour.

Susan’s greatest influence on my life wasn’t as my short-lived spouse, but was because she had a large collection of Eagle comics. She would to meet me on the turn of the stairs with her pile of comics and introduce me to the colourful world of Dan Dare. 

Thunderbirds and TV21soon replaced Dan Dare, but I rediscovered the 50's space hero as an art student. I started collecting crumbling Eagle annuals, picked up from charity shops, and later glossy reprints of those original strips, read before I'd even started school.