New, Collector's Limited Edition, 'Dan Dare' Jigsaw Puzzle

This information arrived too late to include mention Eagle Times' latest issue and, now, possibly is too late for Christmas, but Eagle fans (and jigsaw collectors too!) may like to know of a newly issued Limited Edition 'Dan Dare' wooden jigsaw puzzle. The puzzle is produced by Vintage Toys and Games in conjunction with Dragon Collectables. The edition will be limited to 500 numbered and certificated copies, and priced at £59.95 each.

Note: The author has not seen a copy for review, and the information and photographs are as supplied in a Vintage Toys and Games press release. Clicking on the images will allow you to see them in a larger size. 

'Dan Dare' Puzzle

Presentation Box and Storage Bag

*** PRESS RELEASE ***

‘Dan Dare’ Collector’s Wooden Jigsaw Puzzle 

We are pleased to announce a new ‘Dan Dare’ Limited Edition wooden jigsaw puzzle, produced in conjunction with Dragon Collectables.

The large jigsaw (51 x 36 cm) is made up of a montage of original images from the first ‘Dan Dare’ story that appeared in ‘The Eagle’ comic, including the front page of the very first issue from April 1950.

The ‘Dan Dare’ stories, with their mixture of the futuristic adventures, exciting storylines and superb colour artwork helped make The Eagle one of the most popular weekly comics of the 1950’s and 1960’s.

This vintage-style wooden jigsaw puzzle brings Frank Hampson’s stunning artwork back to life and is a wonderful piece of 1950’s nostalgia.

Manufactured in the UK, the puzzle has been made to the highest standards and features 3mm thick, laser-cut, wooden pieces. It features some very unusually shaped pieces, and it includes over 30 ‘whimsy’ pieces (see attached photos). These specially shaped pieces were made popular in the wooden jigsaw puzzles of the early 20th century when jigsaw puzzles were cut by hand and the cutter would make a selection of pieces in special shapes, often to reflect the theme of the puzzle.

Every piece in the puzzle is a unique shape and the ‘whimsy’ pieces are themed around Dan Dare and The Eagle. The puzzle comes in a high-quality presentation box with a cloth bag to store the pieces.

The jigsaw puzzle is a Limited Edition and only 500 copies will be available worldwide. Each puzzle comes with an individually numbered Limited Edition Certificate.

'Whimsy' pieces

For further information or to order online go to: The Vintage Toys and Games website

Thanks to Nigel Gregory at Vintage Toys and Games for sending  the Press Release.

Eagle Times Vol 27 No 4

Winter 2014 Contents

• 'Ron Embleton - Master of line drawing' - a focus on the black and white illustration work of this renowned artist, who drew in colour and black and white for many books, magazines and comics, including the 'Johnny Frog' strip for Eagle
• 'Christmas Eagles 1960-69' - a look at the covers and festive-based content of Eagle through the 1960s
• 'A Christmas Eagle Wordsearch' - festive fun with a quiz-based puzzle, with clues from Eagle's 1955 Christmas issue
• 'Moon Rover' - as a follow up to the article in Eagle Times Vol 27 No 2 on breakfast cereals advertised in Eagle, a reader presents his recently built Shredded Wheat cutout model of a moon rover 
• 'PC49 and the Case of the Missing Scotsman' - an aftermath of Hogmanay/New Year's adventure for the London bobby, adapted from on one of Alan Stranks' radio plays
• 'Dan Dare Royalties' - the payments made to Hulton Press by the multifarious companies who produced 'Dan Dare' merchandise between 1st October, 1951 and 30th September, 1952
• 'From Under the 1950s Christmas Tree: Christmas Annuals' - a look at the range of children's annuals and similar publications produced through the 1950s
• 'A PC49 Christmas Story: The Case of the Cigarette Card' - PC49 gets a day off for Christmas, but still manages to have an adventure. A festive tale adapted from the Alan Stranks radio stories 
• 'The Dan Dare Pipeline' - a look at the incidence of smoking in Eagle's 'Dan Dare', with some speculation on what might have been in Dan's famous billiard pipe 
• 'Saturday Mornin' at the Pictures: No. 1 Congo Bill' - a new series looking at Saturday children's cinema matinees of the 1950s. The first looks at the Congo Bill, King of the Jungle serial and the origin of the character in comics
• 'An Evening with Eagle at Pewterers' Hall' - a photo-illustrated article on the charity fundraising event An Evening with Eagle, a celebration of the comic and its connection with the City, which was held at Pewterers' Hall, London, on 29th October, 2014 in aid of The Samaritans. The event was organised by The Worshipful Company of Pewterers 
• 'In and Out of the Eagle' - some more in the series presenting collections of Eagle-related snippets 
• 'Past, Present and Future' - a reflection on the difficulties of prediction and the frustrations of modern life. Eagle Society member Steve Winders' amusing after dinner talk from the 2014 Eagle Society gathering at St. Albans 
• 'A hotel fit for a king' - on the stately home/hotel Hartwell House, which featured in Jack o'Lantern and the Fighting Cock, and Eagle novel, published by Hulton Press in 1958 
• 'How Eagle Stimulated My Love of Nature' - on the various natural history feature strips in Eagle, including those attributed to George Cansdale and John Dyke 
• 'ABC Film Review' - on the long-running publication that was originally tied to the ABC cinema chain, focussing on the December 1952 (Christmas) issue which included a 'Jeff Arnold' strip

Eagle Times Vol 27 No 3

Autumn 2014 Contents

• 'Frank Bellamy - trademarks and techniques' - on the development of the skills of one of Britain's greatest illustrators and comic strip artists
• 'The two artists of Jack o'Lantern' - comparing Robert Ayton, the artist who drew the majority of the Jack o'Lantern strip, and Cecil Doughty, the artist who replaced him for the last 30 or so episodes
• 'In and Out of the Eagle' - another couple of doses of the series presenting collections of Eagle-related snippets
• 'PC49 and the Case of the Rajah's Ruby' - a text story adaptation from one of Alan Stranks' original BBC radio plays telling the adventures of an East End "copper".
• 'Comics Unmasked' - a review of the exhibition, subtitled 'Art and Anarchy in the UK', which was held at the British Library from 2nd May - 19th August 2014
• 'Bellamy at home' - some rare pictures of Frank Bellamy, donated to the Eagle Society by Frank's widow, Nancy Bellamy, some years ago and published in Eagle Times for the first time
• 'A Table of Cutaways' - a member ranks and discusses his favourite centrespreads from Eagle
• 'More Art of Tacconi' - as an addendum to the recent series on the artist FernandoTacconi, some more examples are shown from his prolific output for comics and magazines
• 'Remembering Mission of the Earthmen' - a re-look at the 'Dan Dare' story from Eagle in the early 1960s, drawn by Don Harley and Bruce Cornwell
• 'Colin Pillinger - farewell to a starman' - the life of the Cambridge planetary science professor, best known for Britain's Beagle 2 Mars mission, as reported by the local press, and recollections by a member of the Eagle Society of the professor's talk to the Eagle Society at Manchester in 2004
• 'Frank Bellamy's Heros the Spartan' - a review of the recently published book, which reprints all Bellamy's 'Heros the Spartan' strips from Eagle
• 'Eric Bemrose, Sun Printers and Eagle' - on the part apparently played by Sun Printers (Watford) in the early days of Eagle, before the Bemrose photogravure presses were ready to take on production 
• 'Eaglewall kits in Eagle' - on the advertising carried by Eagle for the aircraft and naval plastic construction kits produced by Eaglewall Plastics Limited in the late 1950s - early 1960s, including their appearance in 'Eagle Window'
• 'Rivals of Jeff Arnold: No. 14 - The Cisco Kid' - recalls the origin of The Cisco Kid in a story by O. Henry, through movies, a 1950s TV series (the first filmed in colour) and into comics

Eagle Times Vol 27 No 2

Summer 2014 Contents

• 'Chad Varah's uncredited written work for Eagle' - Although some of Chad Varah's contributions were given visible credit at the time of publication, others (including his script for the 'Dan Dare' story 'Marooned on Mercury') were not. This article reviews Chad's uncredited contributions to the early Eagle and to Eagle Annual. 
• 'In and Out of the Eagle' - another double dose of the series presenting collections of Eagle-related news snippets 
• 'PC49 and the Case of the Manilla Envelopes' - another text story adaptation from one of Alan Stranks' original radio plays about an East End "copper". 
• 'Navy Mints and Swizzels Matlow' - on the search for information about the advertising comic strip, featuring Minty, Fruity and Scotty, that appeared in Eagle from 1954, drawn by Roland Davies 
• 'Lost Eagle - the solution to the Eagle Force mystery' - in a follow-up article to the one he wrote for Eagle Times Vol 26 No 2, Jeremy Briggs finally tracks down the answers to questions that began in 2010 with some mysterious artwork that appeared in Daniel Tatarsky's Dan Dare: The Biography 
• 'Happy Days - Growing up in the fifties' - a member looks back at those supposedly grey days of austerity and recalls it as a more colourful time than many in the media might now suggest 
• 'An Eagle Mug Shot' - one of the first 1950s Eagle Club members who, at the age of 14, was awarded the "Mug of the Month" award by Eagle for taking care of the livestock when his farming father fell ill 
• 'Silver Eagler' - a 1956 recipient of the Silver Eagle Award. (Silver Eagle was the new name for Eagle's Mug of the Month award, from 1954) 
• 'The Eagle Society Annual Dinner, 2014' - a photo-illustrated report on activities at the Annual Gathering of the Eagle Society, which was held in April at St Albans, Herts. 
• 'War with the Sioux by Hollywood and Eagle' - comparing the story of "Custer's Last Stand", as told by Hollywood in The Great Sioux Massacre and Eagle in the 'Jeff Arnold' strip 'The War with the Sioux' 
• 'Dangerous Dreamer - The Eagle back page story that never was' - on the aborted strip about T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia) that, had it not been cancelled, would have been drawn for Eagle by Jack Daniel 
• 'The Lost World' - a review of the adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous story that appeared in Eagle in 1962, scripted by Richard Jennings and drawn by Martin Aitchison 
• 'Southport Observatory' - an appeal regarding the restoration of the Great Astronomical Observatory in Hesketh Park in Southport, Eagle's birthplace 
• 'Eagle's other cereals' - the breakfast cereals that were advertised in Eagle during the 1950s and 1960s, and the interesting items (cut-outs, etc.) that featured on the backs of the packets 
• 'Marcus Morris and Eagle: approved reading for boys in the 1950s and 1960s' - a reprint (with permission) of an article by John Springhall that appeared in The Historian, the magazine of The Historical Association, in Summer 2013 
• 'The 1954 Horlicks Spaceship Offer' - on the special offers for 'Dan Dare' spaceship models that were available to exclusively to members of the Horlicks Spacemen's Club. (Horlicks were sponsors of the Dan Dare serial on Radio Luxembourg) 

Eagle Times Vol 27 No 1

Spring 2014 Contents

• 'The Lakeland Motor Museum' - an article focussing on the Campbell Bluebird Exhibition, recalling the former world land and water speed champions Malcolm Campbell and (his son) Donald Campbell, who featured in a number of articles and cutaway drawings in Eagle
• 'The 2013 Marcus Morris Award' - Terry Mansfield's citation to the 2013 winner of "UK's highest accolade in magazine publishing" (named after Eagle's co-creator and first Editor), which was presented to Nicholas Coleridge on 8th October 2013
• 'In and Out of the Eagle' - a double-dose of a new series presenting collections of Eagle-related news snippets
• 'PC49 and the Case of the Park Café' - another text story of London's East End "copper", adapted from one of Alan Stranks' original radio plays
• 'Remembering Project Nimbus' - a re-look at the 'Dan Dare' story from 1960, when the Eagle mast-head changed, 'Dan Dare was 're-vamped' (under editorial orders) and which brought to a close Frank Bellamy's contribution to 'Dan Dare'
• 'More on Nando Tacconi' - a follow-up to the appreciation of the artist which appeared in Eagle Times Vol. 25 No. 3, with further information on his work
• 'Some thoughts on Impulse Waves' - regarding the nature of the fictional propulsion system devised by Frank Hampson (or possibly Arthur C. Clarke?) to overcome the limitations of rocket power in travelling about Dan Dare's solar system 
• 'José Ortiz Moya' - obituary of the artist, known as José Ortiz, who drew for both the original Eagle and the 1980s re-incarantion, "new" Eagle 
• 'The Death of Swift and the Eagle Takeover' - on the demise of Eagle's companion paper and the changes in Eagle as it became Eagle and Swift in 1963 
• 'The Rivals of Jeff Arnold No. 13: Wyatt Earp' - on the real-life character who lived inside and outside the law, and his appearance as a character in British comics, particularly Junior Express Weekly and Swift
• 'Lt. Col. Pinto - The Spycatcher' - on the Dutchman whose memoirs of his World War II work for British Intelligence inspired a BBC television series Spycatcher (1959-61) starring Bernard Archer, as well as the comic strip 'Col. Pinto' in TV Express Weekly (1961), and who was featured in an Eagle supplement, The World of Espionage, in 1966 
• 'A comic remembered - Guns of Fact and Fiction'- recollecting a graphic 1948 comic (reprinted in Britain in 1950), which is now a collectable item but which "was the type of comic that Marcus Morris was very much against" 
• 'Leslie Robert Thomas Bartholomew' - a personal tribute from a former Eagle staff-member with memories about the man who took over editorship of Eagle in 1962 with "a certain yearning to restore Eagle to its old image", but who was destined to manage its decline 
• 'Stories from the Three Mustardeers' - on the origins with the crime writer Dorothy L. Sayers of the advertising feature stories from Colman's Mustard that appeared in Eagle every month from 1951-54

The cover of this issue of Eagle Times shows the cover of Eagle and Boys' World,  Vol. 18 No. 37 (9th September, 1967), featuring 'The Campbells: Legends in Their Lifetimes'