Eagle Times Vol 24 No 4

Winter 2011 Contents

• From Under the 1950s Christmas Tree, Pepys Card Games - a seasonal look at the numerous Pepys games, which included some based around characters from Eagle ('Dan Dare' and 'Jeff Arnold') and Girl
• The Case of Christmas Presents - PC49 appears in a seasonal short-story
• A Look at 'Luck' - part 2 of a continuing series examining the French Foreign Legion strip by Geoffrey Bond and Martin Aitchison, that ran in Eagle from 1952 - 1961
• Working with David Hunt, part 2 - memories of working on 'Dan Dare' projects for the "New" Eagle editor in the 1980s
• Rivals of Eagle, takes a look at The Boy's Own Paper, the long-running boys' story paper, which lasted 88 years - from 1879 - 1967
• The first part of a series on Visual Memories of Eaglecon 80 - the only London comics convention ever held solely for Eagle enthusiasts
• PC49 and the Case of the Frightened Flower Girl - the conclusion of a new adaptation of one of Alan Stranks' radio plays
• Rivals of Jeff Arnold - the 9th in the series takes a look at 'Happy Daze', a comedy western strip drawn by Bill Holroyd for D.C. Thomson's Topper comic
• 'Dan Dare' Figures (from the 1950s to the present day) - begins by taking a look at those produced in the 1950s by the Crescent Toy Company and Eaglewall Plastics/Kentoys 
• Ron by Ron - a lighthearted look at some of Ron Embleton's appearances in some of his own artwork 
• L. Ashwell Wood, Cutaway Maestro - an addendum to the article in Eagle Times Vol 24 No 3, covering the Inside Information series, Odhams Books and the reprinting of Eagle cutaways in foreign publications 
• Eagle Annuals 1971-1975 looks at the annuals that continued to appear after the original Eagle's demise as a comic
• 'Sammy' in colour - a strip from Eagle's companion paper, Swift, which was translated and reprinted in colour in the Dutch paper Arend - shown for the first time in English and colour
• A short biographical piece on David Motton, the 'Dan Dare' writer of the 1960s, who  recently retired
• A report and photographs from the Eagle Society Annual Gathering at Midgham, Berkshire, 6th - 8th September, 2011

Spaceship Away - Part 25

It's been a while since we featured Spaceship Away on this blog, but the recent arrival of Part 25 on my doormat prompted me so to do. Spaceship Away is a three times a year, full colour, 40-page A4 glossy magazine that publishes new "old-style" 'Dan Dare' strip stories  and articles along with other science fiction strips. With three issues a year, Part 25 marks the beginning of Spaceship Away's 9th year of publication, albeit the Autumn issue and therefore the last of 2011. 

The issue sports a Christmas-themed cover by veteran 'Dan Dare' artist Don Harley, with Dan, Digby (laden with Christmas presents) and Stripey arriving back at a snowy Spacefleet HQ as a group of Spacefleet carollers sing in the background. The cover picture heralds, inside, a two-page 'Dan Dare' Christmas story, 'Missiles and Mistletoe', written by Sydney Jordan and drawn by Don Harley, and which opens with an almost identical scene to the cover. Further on the 'Dan Dare' strip content continues with the sixth episode of 'Parsecular Tales' (written and drawn by Tim Booth) and 'Dan and Digby's Happy Landing'; a two-pager by Don Harley.

Other content includes the articles 'Desmond Walduck: "A Worthy Earthman"' by Alan Vince and 'Spacefleet Headquarters' by Charles Evans-Gunther. There is a new piece of artwork by Don Harley, featuring Dan Dare and the four Spacefleet cadets from 'Prisoners of Space', and the centrespread, by Ian Kennedy, features the Mekon and three varieties of Dan Dare that Kennedy drew for the "new" Eagle in the 1980s. Oh, and there's a board game: 'Dan Dare's Race in Space' - provide your own dice and counters. The back cover features a new painting by Bruce Cornwell of the Anastasia space-plane flying over Spacefleet HQ.

Plenty, then, for the Dan Dare fan, and the non-'Dan Dare' strip content includes the second episode of 'Finality Factor', which is a 'Garth' story by Jim Edgar and Martin Asbury, originally drawn by Fank Bellamy, and (now) coloured by Tim Booth; and episode 4 of 'Shadow Over Britain', the 'Journey into Space' story written by Charles Chilton and drawn by Ferdinando Tacconi and Bruce Cornwell, that first appeared in Express Weekly in 1957.

Spaceship Away is available from some specialist outlets (comic shops) but for further details, including how to subscribe, please go to the Spaceship Away website.