EAGLE TIMES VOL. 36 NO. 4 WINTER 2023

The final EAGLE Times of 2023 is out now and as the cover shows, there is an article about the Classics Illustrated series in this issue. Written by Kevin O'Donnell, it examines this popular publication which told many classic stories in strip form. Also in this issue is the final part of Steve Winders' reviews of the Luck of the Legion novels; a detailed look at the first 'Dan Dare' who was an American detective, by David Britton; a new series about the great illustrators of the 1950s by Adam Goodman, with Milton Caniff being the first subject; an article by Harry Royle about the actress Shirley Cain, whose early career was featured in Girl Annual; a piece by Peter Barr about the cricketer Patsy Hendren, who was a significant contributor to the early EAGLE; a one off Christmas story of Archie Willoughby by Steve Winders and an article about the 1960 - 62 strip 'Knights of the Road' by myself.       
 

THE SECOND CHRISTMAS EAGLE by John Culshaw

By Christmas 1951, EAGLE's huge popularity was well established and a wide range of EAGLE and 'Dan Dare' related products had appeared on the market, creating Britain's first character based merchandising success. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, EAGLE advertised many of these products in its pages. They included EAGLE card games, jigsaws, projectors, stationery, balloons, transfer sheets, 'Dan Dare' ray guns, telescopes and ties, 'Riders of the Range' cowboy outfits, ties and braces and the first EAGLE Annual. In addition to the royalties they received for 'Dan Dare' and EAGLE related products, the copyright holders, Hulton Press also gained from the advertising potential that EAGLE provided. At a time when the market for toys, sweets and other merchandise for children and young people was large and growing and commercial television had not begun, EAGLE's popularity made it the ideal place to advertise and advertise they did. In the last November and the first December issues of 1951, EAGLE produced four page supplements filled with adverts for Christmas gifts and for many years to come, these supplements would continue.    

The Christmas issue celebrated the occasion in style, with the letters of the title logo being covered with snow for the first of many times. The EAGLE symbol itself was backed by a Christmas night sky with the star of Bethlehem displayed prominently. At the top of the page, readers were greeted with 'A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EAGLE READERS' and a decorative trim ran down the left side of the title box. Frank Hampson's 'Dan Dare' strip made a brief acknowledgement of Christmas, despite being in the middle of Dan's second adventure 'The Red Moon Mystery', which was not set at Christmas, when Digby compares himself to Rudolf the red nosed reindeer while struggling through a snowy Martian landscape. 

On page three, the 'PC 49' adventure was also an ongoing serial and made no mention of the season. This strip by Alan Stranks was now drawn by John Worsley, who had replaced Strom Gould earlier in the year.  Christmas was recognised in an article on pages four and five, by EAGLE's Special Investigator Macdonald Hastings, who wrote about driving an old Royal Mail Coach pulled by four horses, which is an image often depicted on Christmas cards and strongly associated with Christmas, thanks to Charles Dickens. This page also carried an 'EAGLE Window' box. These small boxes appeared weekly and advertised EAGLE merchandise. The 'EAGLE Window' in the Christmas issue was number 34, which gives an indication of the number of licensed products available and there would be many more. This particular window listed several products which cost less than four shillings and gave their prices. The bottom half of page five was devoted to adverts for Caley's Chocolates and Philidyne Cycle Dynamo Lighting Sets.

Page six was the Sports page and it acknowledged the season with a Christmas Soccer Quiz, with questions set by Arsenal's players. At the bottom of the page, the comedy strip 'Grandpa' by Peter Probyn shows the title character buying and wrapping a large present and then opening it himself on Christmas morning - a joke used many years later by Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean. Page seven was the 'Riders of the Range' serial 'The Secret of Ghost Mountain', which made no mention of Christmas. This strip, written by Charles Chilton, was now drawn by Angus Scott, who drew three serials before being replaced by Frank Humphris in 1952. The top half of the colour centrespread was a series of pictures by Leslie  Ashwell Wood, showing how the King's Christmas Message was transmitted from Sandringham via Broadcasting House to homes in Britain and throughout the Commonwealth. Readers would be unaware that his 1951 Christmas Message would be the King's last, as he died less than two months later, to be succeeded by his daughter, Queen Elizabeth II. The Christmas Messages were only broadcast on radio until 1957.   

The lower part of the centrespread was the latest episode in the 'Tintin' adventure 'King Ottokar's Sceptre'. This story marked Tintin's first ever appearance in English and came seven years before Methuen began publishing his adventures in albums. Created by the Belgian artist, Georges Remi (who wrote and drew as Herge), the boy reporter Tintin was a huge success with young readers on the continent and would later enjoy great success in Britain, with translations by Leslie Lonsdale Cooper and Michael Turner. However, his first appearance was not a great success in EAGLE and this was the only story to be adapted. This first translation, by an unknown translator retained all the original French names of the characters, with the exception of the inept detectives Dupond and Dupont, who were renamed Thompson and Thomson. Lonsdale Cooper and Turner kept these English names in their own translation and anglicised the names of the other characters, such as Tintin's dog Milou, who was renamed Snowy. As an ongoing serial and part of an already completed story, the 'Tintin' strip made no mention of Christmas.  

 Two half page informative strips occupied page ten and both related to Christmas. The first was in the series 'Great Headlines of the Past' and covered the unofficial 1914 Christmas Truce in the First World War, which oddly did not mention the football matches which took place between British and German troops. The second strip was in the series 'Eagle Eye Nature Detective', a series sponsored by Rowntree's Chocolate, which told the story of mistletoe. Page eleven was the Editor's Page and EAGLE's editor, the Rev. Marcus Morris used his letter to remind readers of the religious basis of Christmas. His reason for launching EAGLE was to promote Christian values and ironically, its success had led to it becoming rather focussed on promoting merchandising! He was clearly anxious that its primary purpose should not be lost. To this end, he also encouraged readers to attend EAGLE's first Carol Service, which was to be held at St. Paul's Cathedral on December 22nd. There was clearly a minor panic behind the scenes about the Carol Service as Morris informed readers in two places on the page and in bold letters that the service would begin at 2.30 p.m. and not 3.30 as stated in previous issues! In future years, EAGLE would organise several carol services each Christmas, which would be held all over the country, usually presided over by either Morris himself or the Rev. Chad Varah, who wrote many back page biographical strips and other features for EAGLE. Varah also took over the scripting of the next 'Dan Dare' adventure 'Marooned on Mercury' when Frank Hampson fell ill. The Editor's Page also included Christmas Greetings accompanied by small pictures of their characters, by EAGLE's artists and the three picture 'Chicko' strip by Norman Thelwell also took a Christmas theme as Chicko slept in his Christmas stocking, leaving a note asking Santa to put his presents in his bed. 

Also on the Editor's Page was a 'Competition Corner' with Christmas based puzzles and a 'Bertram Mills Circus Competition' offering prizes to EAGLE Club members of tickets for the Circus, which in those days spent the Winter season at Olympia in London. The bottom corner of the page advertised the latest EAGLE Club Diary. Readers were regularly invited to join the EAGLE Club, which offered tickets to sports events and shows as well as special offers on some merchandise and access to certain competitions. Initially readers could join for a shilling, which quickly rose to one shilling and sixpence, for which they received a membership card and a metal badge. The Club was a way of securing reader loyalty, but it also emphasised that EAGLE wanted to be more than just a weekly magazine. It wanted to guide its readers to become responsible people. Such innovations as 'Mug of the Month', which rewarded readers for service to others, show this aim quite clearly. EAGLE also organised activity holidays for Club members, including the EAGLE/YHA Adventure Holiday Scheme. Another innovation was the EAGLE and Girl Table Tennis Tournaments, which began in 1954. Although many readers joined the Club, obviously many others did not and consequently EAGLE offered many activities that were not available to everyone. The first clear sign of this problem came with the second year of the Table Tennis Tournament. In the first year, only Club members could take part, but in the second it was open to all and this was strongly emphasised in the publicity. The Club was nevertheless a success for it ran for ten years before being disbanded during Clifford Makins' editorship, but opportunities for readers were maintained.  

Page twelve was entirely devoted to 'Christmas Party Games'. Most of the games described were traditional games, but intriguingly the last game was 'The Dan Dare Game'. However, this was actually a simple tag game, with space pilots trying to get from one base (Earth) through 'space' occupied by Treens, who would try to tag the pilots before they reached their other base (Venus). The top half of page thirteen was 'Can You Beat It?' a regular informative strip and in this issue the information was all about Christmas. Readers were informed that there had only been nine white Christmases in the twentieth century (up until then) and that the first Christmas card had been designed by J.C. Horsley in 1843. The bottom half of the page was devoted to adverts for Subbuteo Table Soccer, Stamp Collecting and ballpoint pens and a plea for readers to save money for the N.S.P.C.C. Both Subbuteo and Philidyne Cycle Dynamo Lighting Sets were also advertised in the 1950 Christmas issue. On page fourteen was John Ryan's comedy strip 'Harris Tweed, Extra Special Agent' and as Tweed's adventures were single episode stories, this one was devoted to Christmas, with Tweed being tied up by thieves at a Christmas party and wrapped up in a giant Christmas Cracker. Fortunately his young assistant manages to catch the thieves and Tweed manages to claim the credit as usual.

On page fifteen in the 'Tommy Walls' strip, sponsored by Walls Ice Cream, Tommy and his friends catch a villainous department store Santa who is hiding stolen watches in one of his Christmas present boxes, ready to sneak them out of the store later. This strip was drawn and probably also written by Richard Jennings, who had a long run illustrating 'Tommy Walls' before moving on to 'Storm Nelson' in October 1953. Jennings also wrote many of the 'Tommy Walls' stories. He would later take over the writing of 'Storm Nelson' when the original writer left the strip and he adapted Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World for EAGLE in 1962, for a strip drawn by Martin Aitchison. 

The final page of this issue was the first part of a retelling of the story of the birth of Christ, from the viewpoint of a shepherd boy. Called 'The Shepherd Lad of Bethlehem' it was drawn by the regular back page artist Norman Williams and ran to just two instalments. The first episode ends with the shepherds visiting the baby Jesus and the second features the wise men, one of whom arrives on an elephant! Camels -yes, but an elephant!?  The strip also features a winged angel choir and snow on the hills, which contrasts strongly with Morris and Frank Hampson's 1960 retelling of the story of Jesus' life, which took a more grounded approach.      

This second Christmas EAGLE certainly acknowledged the season and despite the fact that its popularity had made it a merchandising gold mine, it also managed to promote the Christian significance and message in its pages. The confusion about the starting time for the Carol Service did not affect its success and the Annual Carol Services became a highlight of the Christmas season for many readers as services were held all over the country for the next decade.   
  

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A notable feature of the 'Dan Dare' strip, particularly in the early days, was that Dan and Digby had relatives, several of whom appeared in the strip. In the original Venus story, Digby actually has a wife and family, who are again featured in a text story in the 1953 Dan Dare Annual, called 'Aunt Anastasia Comes to Stay'. However, with the notable exception of Aunt Anastasia, Digby's family are forgotten in later stories. Aunt Anastasia actually helps to defeat the Mekon's plans to conquer Earth in the first Venus story, when she realises that Digby's apparently reassuring message from Venus about the Treens (made under duress) is actually a clever coded warning. Her contribution leads to Dan Dare calling his new Spaceship 'Anastasia' in her honour. Digby's Aunt appears again at the end of 'Marooned on Mercury' and in two EAGLE Annual stories 'The Double Headed Eagle' and ''Operation Triceratops'. She features alongside many other characters from the saga in Keith Watson's final frame for 'The Menace From Jupiter' in 1967, when Dan was promoted to Spacefleet Controller and even appears in a 'Dan Dare' strip in the new version of EAGLE in 1990 in a story also drawn by Keith Watson.  

Not to be outdone, Dan Dare's Uncle Ivor, an archaeologist, plays a major part in the second 'Dan Dare' adventure 'The Red Moon Mystery', informing Dan of the last visit of the deadly 'Red Moon', many thousands of years earlier, when it destroyed civilisation on Mars. He also appears briefly alongside Aunt Anastasia at the end of 'Marooned on Mercury', but plays a bigger role in 'The Phantom Fleet', where he is one of a group of V.I.P.s on a new spacecraft which is captured by an aquatic race who wish to settle in one of Earth's oceans and he becomes involved in successful peace talks with them. He makes his last appearance in EAGLE in the final frame of 'The Menace From Jupiter'. He also appears in Basil Dawson's 1956  novel Dan Dare on Mars. Three other relatives of Dan also feature in the saga. His nephew, Alastair features in 'The Double Headed Eagle' in EAGLE Annual Number Three, when he competes in the Interplanetary Olympic Games on Venus. Another nephew, Nigel, appears in the weekly EAGLE in the 1964 adventure 'The Big City Caper'. He is a member of a group of disaffected youths who the villain Xel tries to recruit to his cause, but is too sensible to be influenced by the evil megalomaniac. We never learn whether Nigel and Alastair are brothers. The eccentric Uncle Ivor comes across as a confirmed bachelor, which suggests that Dan must have at least one more Uncle. 

The last member of Dan's clan to play a part in the saga is his father, William Dare, who does not actually appear in the story, but is strongly referenced in 'Safari in Space', 'Terra Nova' and 'Trip to Trouble' in 1959. In this series of adventures, Dan travels to another star to search for his father who went missing on an expedition many years earlier. Sadly, the story ends with the discovery that his father has died.  

SIR BOBBY CHARLTON (1937 - 2023)

Eaglers were sorry to hear of the death of Sir Bobby Charlton last week. Bobby had a strong connection with EAGLE many years before he became a World Cup winner with England and a European Cup winner with Manchester United, for he was voted EAGLE Sportsman of the Year for three years in succession, from 1958 to 1960, being the final recipient of the award and the only person to win it three times. He also contributed to a series called 'Soccer- The Bobby Charlton Way' for EAGLE in 1960, where he demonstrated skills in a series of photographs. Bobby experienced tragedy as well as success in his life, surviving the Munich air crash in February 1958, when many of his team mates were killed. The picture below was published in EAGLE when Bobby won his first Sportsman of the Year award. Bobby told readers that he enjoyed reading the Cutaway drawings as he had considered a career in engineering. 

After leaving Manchester United in 1973, Bobby became manager of Preston North End and later also played for Preston, where I watched him many times. After leaving Preston, he became a Director of Wigan Athletic and subsequently joined the Board of Manchester United. He was a true sportsman and a great example to the young - a worthy EAGLE  Sportsman of the Year.     

(Tribute by Steve Winders) 

      

EAGLE TIMES VOL. 36 NO.3 AUTUMN 2023

The Autumn edition of EAGLE Times is out now. It features a wide range of articles including a look at 'Riders of the Range' and 'Blackbow the Cheyenne' artist Frank Humphris' sketchbook, by Richard Sheaf and a piece by Brett Gooden about the early cutaway drawings of Leslie Ashwell Wood. Also in this issue are articles by Steve Winders about the 'Mark Question' strip, 'The Great Charlemagne' and the EAGLE novel, Luck of the Legion's Desert Adventure, an article by Peter Barr about the sports strip artist Mazure, a selection of readers'letters from the 1950s EAGLE by David Britton, a complete new Archie Willoughby story and two of my 'In and Out of the EAGLE' pages. My recent post from the blog about 'Eagles Dare' beer (see below) is also included, along with our editor's review of the beer which he bought on a recent visit to Southport. Copies can be ordered from Bob Corn at the address on the right.  
 

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Dan Dare has lent his name to a wide variety of merchandise over the years, with everything from pyjamas to tooth powder being licenced. However, there has never been a 'Dan Dare' beer until recently when Southport Brewery launched their 'EAGLE'S DARE' bronze bitter. I contacted the brewer, Paul Bardsley to enquire ask about it and he replied: 

"We started making it (using its current recipe) in July 2021 and since then have made an estimated 8000 litres of it.

The original recipe for it was shared with another beer we named 'Ruck & Maul' that we had created in partnership with the local rugby club. However, as the name is owned by Tatton Brewery, we were limited to selling it to the Southport area (with their permission). Using the alternate name of EAGLE'S DARE allowed it to be sold outside of our seaside town.

In July 2021, we made the decision to give Eagle's Dare its own recipe as it is, in my view, the best looking badge we have for our beers.

All our beers are Southport themed. As you well know, the Eagle has links with our town and we're very proud that is does so. There is an Eagle/Dan Dare display in the Atkinson (the local art centre) on the second floor which makes me childishly giddy every time I see it. I only got into it in the 90's when I was but a laddie up in Scotland but my boss (Boss Paul as opposed to Other/Scapegoat Paul who is currently writing this) used to nick the magazine from his older brother when he was a child, back in the 1960s.

The beer itself is a bronze bitter. It has a really powerful and satisfying bitter bite at the start and is followed with a dry, floral palate. It's a 'standard' bitter to our standards, although with considerably more hops than the 'standard bitters' that are touted by chain pubs. It's quickly achieved its own following locally which is really nice to see and makes us feel validated as brewers.

At the moment, it's currently available in cask only. Even worse, it's only available locally to us as we are a small brewery and our range is limited. Best place to find it is either The Waterpudlian in Waterloo/Crosby, or The Guesthouse in Southport. Unfortunately, we have no control as to when it goes on asides from delivering the beer.

We do also offer it in 5 litre (9 pints) cans when we make a batch. Only while stock lasts but it's semi-permanent. If it's out of stock, it's usually only for a couple of weeks before we can make a fresh batch. Available from our online shop or, if you're in Southport, Portland Wines on Portland Street (though you can always come by and get one from us too)".

PLEASE NOTE - OUR NEW SUBSCRIPTION ADDRESS

 Our subscription address has now changed. Our secretary has moved to Wales and the new details are on the right. 

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Superheroes in comics often have secret identities and while the original EAGLE's heroes had no need for them, some of their creators certainly used false names. Between 1950 and March 1962, EAGLE printed writer and artist credits on most strips, text stories and articles, but several contributors used pen names for their work. Geoffrey Bond wrote 'Luck of the Legion' using his own name, but wrote the back page biographies of Baden Powell and Abraham Lincoln as Alan Jason. Alan Stranks wrote 'PC 49's adventures as himself, but wrote the short 'Marvell of M.I.5' series as David Cameron. The screenwriter Guy Morgan didn't use his own name at all in EAGLE, writing 'Storm Nelson' as Edward Trice. Likewise, the television and film writer Leonard Fincham wrote 'Danger Unlimited' as Steve Alen and several text serials, including the 'Special Agent' series about Inspector Jean Collet of Interpol as Lee Mayne. He later developed this into a TV series called Interpol Calling, although he created new stories and changed the names of the heroes to avoid copyright issues. Another television writer, Basil Dawson, wrote part of the 'Dan Dare' story 'Operation Saturn' as Don Riley, but he wrote the novel Dan Dare on Mars using his own name. Francis Dickson wrote several books and three back page biographies for EAGLE as R.B. Saxe and J.H.G. Freeman, usually known as Don Freeman, wrote several books as well, as 'Knights of the Road' for EAGLE as Gordon Grinstead. The celebrated science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke had a short story 'The Fires Within' published in an early issue of EAGLE under the pen name of Charles Willis, which he used for several short stories at the time and Clifford Makins, who succeeded Marcus Morris as editor of EAGLE, wrote the back page biography of Nelson as Christopher Keyes. An EAGLE artist who used another name was Bruno Kleinzeller, who escaped from Czechoslovakia shortly before the Nazis invaded and subsequently used the name Peter Kay for his work in Britain, which included 'drop in' illustrations for the text stories of 'The Three 'J's' in EAGLE as well as several strips for Girl.   

The contributors had different reasons for using pseudonyms but none were for tax evasion or anything else illegal. The real writers have often been identified through surviving payment details which clearly record their true identities. As a contributor to the Daily Mirror, J.H.G. Freeman used 'Gordon Grinstead' for his other work. Geoffrey Bond used 'Alan Jason' to avoid having two strips appearing in EAGLE at the same time using the same name and Francis Dickson used 'R.B. Saxe' for all his writing. However, in the 1960s when EAGLE was produced by Odhams, there was a company rule that editorial staff should not be paid for any scriptwriting they did, leading to several staff being paid through agents when they were called upon to write stories. While writers and artists were no longer credited in the weekly, records of payment were obviously kept and could have revealed staff breaking company rules, so agents were used and named on the records.  

BEANO IS 85!

Congratulations to Beano which celebrates its eighty fifth birthday this week and most importantly is still going strong and is still funny! It has entertained readers since 1938, introducing such iconic characters as Dennis the Menace, The Bash Street Kids, Minnie the Minx, Roger the Dodger, Jonah and Lord Snooty and his Pals to British readers. Well served by talented artists like Dudley D. Watkins, Leo Baxendale, David Law, Ken Reid, Jim Petrie, Nigel Parkinson, Tom Paterson, Lew Stringer, Kev F. Sutherland and David Sutherland, it is Britain's longest running comic by some distance. Currently edited by John Anderson, it has benefitted from good editorship, with George Moonie, Harold Cramond and Euan Kerr all having long runs in the role. Long may it continue!  

EAGLE TIMES Vol.36 No.2 SUMMER 2023

The Summer issue of EAGLE Times has arrived early. It features a report on this year's EAGLE Society Gathering in York, by Reg  Hoare, an article on 'Spaceships -  from Buck Rogers 1928 to Dan Dare 1950' by David Britton and the final part of David's long running series 'Charles Chilton and the Indian Wars'. There are two pieces by Steve Winders about EAGLE's back page biographies in this issue. The first is the final part of  'The Baden Powell Story', about the founder of the Scouting Movement and the second is Part One of 'The Great Charlemagne', about the famous Frankish Emperor. The issue also includes Steve's article about the short lived 1958 - '59 strip 'Cavendish Brown' and the text of his speech 'Infinite Possibilities', given at the York Gathering. Finally, there is the  second and final part of 'the Archie Berkeley-Willoughby adventure 'The Case of the Providential Puncture'. Copies are available from Bob Corn at the address on the right.

The latest issue is reviewed on the Down The Tubes site: 

 https://downthetubes.net/latest-eagle-times-explores.../

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Seventy years ago, in 1953, EAGLE celebrated the last Coronation in style. For five issues the centre pages were entirely devoted to Coronation matters, including the Coronation route and how the B.B.C. would film the event. There were also several features about the Kings and Queens of Britain, the Royal Family and the Coronation itself. There was a Coronation Competition with prizes and EAGLE's editor, Marcus Morris even released a record in which he explained the significance, the events and the traditions of the Coronation for readers. In 1953, two of EAGLE's most popular strips 'PC 49' and 'Riders of the Range' were also successful B.B.C. radio series and two days after the Coronation, both were featured in a special Gala Night on the 'Light Programme' as the above extract from the Radio Times shows. Brian Reece, who played P.C. 49 introduced the programmes in character, along with Noel Johnson (also in character), as Dick Barton, the special agent he had played for three years in the popular daily serial. 'Riders of the Range' was one of the shows featured in the Gala. This was a short special edition of the western, but it featured all the major characters, including Paul Carpenter, who played Jeff Arnold, Charles Irwin as Luke and Macdonald Parke as the rancher J.C. Macdonald. The episode also featured Guy Kingsley Pointer, who would go on to play Doc in Charles Chilton's next radio series 'Journey Into Space' and Alan Keith, who played several parts in 'Riders of the Range' and would later create the long running 'Your Hundred Best Tunes' for B.B.C. radio, which he would present from 1959 until 2003, when he was ninety four. Sadly, the final series of 'The Adventures of PC 49' ended on radio shortly before this Coronation Special, so this was Reece's last appearance in the role. 'Riders of the Range' also ended its radio run later in 1953, but continued in EAGLE until 1962. 'PC 49' would continue in EAGLE until 1957. Dick Barton's radio adventures had concluded in 1951 and Noel Johnson had left the role in 1949, but as this was a Gala Night with the focus on popular programmes from the previous seven years, the character's inclusion made sense. 'Dick Barton: Special Agent' was still hugely popular when it ended and there were major protests at its cancellation. Some people are still feeling bitter about it now!  

EAGLE TIMES VOL. 36 NO. 1 SPRING 2023

The first EAGLE Times of 2023 is out now. Issues can be ordered from Bob Corn at the address on the right and a four issue subscription is just £30. The lead article by Eric Summers was inspired by a readers' book review featured in EAGLE in 1952. Readers had been invited to review their favourite books and eight were chosen for publication. Eric read all these books and reviewed them himself for EAGLE Times. This edition continues with a tribute to the late Joan Porter, who was the last surviving member of Frank Hampson's team, written by Darren Evans. Steve Winders reviews the fourth Luck of the Legion novel, Sergeant Luck's Secret Mission and David Britton continues his long running feature on The Indian Wars as they were covered in Riders of the Range. Two of David's short Tail Pieces are also included in this issue, focussing on Captain Future, an American space hero of the 1940s and the 'Last Three of Venus', the mysterious 'Mekonlike' beings who appeared in Dan Dare. The Spring issue also features the first part of Steve Winders' latest Archie Willoughby adventure The Case of the Providential Puncture and a new front cover illustration by Carol Tarrant of Archie in his original incarnation as PC 49 alongside his latest role as a Detective Sergeant references the story. An In and Out of the EAGLE by myself, covers the several 'Mekons' in popular music. Steve Winders then continues his examination of the back page biographical strips with the first of a two part look at Baden Powell. Peter Barr then looks at the life of Freddie Mills, the boxer, who featured regularly in the early EAGLE. A short piece by David Britton looks at an image from The Man From Nowhere and provides a new version of it by Berislav Krzic, with the EAGLE masthead and the speech bubbles removed. Finally the issue ends with a Letters page. 

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Surprisingly EAGLE has a connection to the Eurovision Song Contest through the PC 49 and Dan Dare writer, Alan Stranks, who was also an accomplished writer of song lyrics. He wrote the lyrics for Britain's first ever entry in the competition, in 1957. The song All was sung by Patricia Bredin and it finished seventh of the ten entries. The competition was held in Frankfurt. Among Alan's other songs are the lyrics to Cuckoo Waltz, Love Steals Your Heart and No Orchids for My Lady, which was recorded by Frank Sinatra. Alan's work on Dan Dare began with Prisoners of Space in 1954 and continued until his untimely death in 1959. He also wrote the strips Mark Question and Marvell of M.I.5. He is the father of Susan Stranks, who presented the popular children's TV series Magpie from its launch in 1968 until 1974.  

IN AND OUT OF THE EAGLE 40

In 2002 the B.B.C. held a poll among viewers to find the One Hundred Greatest Britons. While polls give different results every time they are taken, it is interesting to note how the 2002 poll compared with the great Britons who featured on the back page of EAGLE in the 1950s. Top of the poll was Winston Churchill, who appeared on the back page in The Happy Warrior in 1957 - 58. Also in the top ten was Horatio Nelson at number nine, whose story was told in The Great Sailor in 1956 - 57. At number thirteen was Baden Powell, the founder of the Scouting Movement, who appeared on the back page in 1954 and at number fourteen was King Alfred the Great, featured in 1953 - 54. We then have to wait until number eighty eight and Bernard Law Montgomery, the Second World War General whose story was actually featured on EAGLE's centre pages in 1962 and was the last of EAGLE's serialised biographies. At number ninety three was the Elizabethan hero Walter Raleigh, featured in The Golden Man on the back page in 1961 and finally at number ninety eight was David Livingstone, the Victorian missionary and explorer, who featured on EAGLE's back page in 1957. Many of the back page heroes weren't British, so obviously didn't qualify for the poll, but there were two back page Britons who didn't make the hundred. These were St. Patrick, featured in EAGLE in 1951, who some people don't realise was British and Wilfred Grenfell, the Labrador doctor and missionary, featured in 1952 - 53, who is less well remembered in Britain today than he was in the 1950s. 

The B.B.C. top ten also included Isambard Kingdom Brunel (2), Diana, Princess of Wales (3), Charles Darwin (4), William Shakespeare (5), Isaac Newton (6), Queen Elizabeth I (7), John Lennon (8) and Oliver Cromwell (10). Princess Diana wasn't born when most of the back pagers appeared in EAGLE and John Lennon was not quite ten years old when EAGLE was launched. 

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Thanks to the ‘Eagle-eyed’ David Gould for this item. In Volume 4 no.28 (October 16^th 1953), a poem promoting the joys of Eagle, beginning with the phrase ‘Grand was the day when Eagle came…’ appeared in the Eagle Extra section. Written by a staff member, this poem reappeared in April 1958, sent in by a dishonest reader, who made a few minor updates, replacing Tommy Walls with Storm Nelson and PC 49 with Mark Question. The plagiarist failed to notice that the first letter of each line should read, downwards, ‘GOOD OLD EAGLE’. His change to the final line made it read ‘GOOD OLD EAGLH’! Remarkably this wasn’t the last time that the poem appeared. Another reader sent in his own modified version in December 1967! This time the reader replaced Harris Tweed with The Iron Man, Storm Nelson with Mike Lane and Mark Question with Grant C.I.D. This reader realised that the letters down should read ‘GOOD OLD EAGLE’, for he pointed it out at the end of the letter, leading me to suspect that he adapted it from the 1953 original and not the 1958 copy. The two chancers in Eagle won prizes of five and ten shillings, but their sins have found them out in the end. Above is the original version from 1953.

David, who worked as a letterer on Eagle in the 1960s, reports that the weekly itself was not averse to a little dishonesty in its later years, telling me that several jokes were published with staff members’ or fictitious names. Shades of Blue Peter’s notorious invention of a competition winner here! 

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There was another comic character called Dan Dare, created almost a decade before our own. This 'Dan' was an American 'private eye' who made his debut in a publication called Whiz Comics, produced by Fawcett in February 1940. Created by Bill Parker, Dan's adventures were produced by several artists and writers and appeared in thirteen issues of the monthly comic, although the strip was always a back up story. Detective Dan's first appearance was overshadowed by the first appearance of Captain Marvel, a popular superhero whose greatest battles were in court because D.C. Comics sued Fawcett for breach of copyright, claiming that the Captain was too similar to their own Superman. Fawcett resisted and once established, Captain Marvel's adventures began to outsell Superman's. The ongoing case was finally settled out of court in 1953, when Fawcett also ceased publication of their superhero titles as a result of falling sales. 

The name Captain Marvel was later used by Marvel Comics for a character of their own, who first appeared in 1967, but in 1972 D.C. revived Fawcett's original character! However they were forced to use the name Shazam! for their comic because Marvel had established their rights to the name, suggesting that our Dan Dare is safe from a legal challenge. Often referred to as 'Shazam', which is actually the name of the wizard who gave him his powers, the D.C. owned superhero starred in the film Shazam! in 2019 and a sequel Shazam! Fury of the Gods in 2023. A Captain Marvel film featuring Marvel's version, now a female superhero also appeared in 2019. Confused? I am! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JOHN M.BURNS

Congratulations to John M. Burns on his eighty fifth birthday. John is one of a small group of artists who contributed to both the original EAGLE and the 1980s version. Over a sixty year career he has produced a massive amount of impressive comic strip work. For EAGLE in the 1960s he illustrated episodes of Roving Reporter, Bids for Freedom and the final six episodes of Wrath of the Gods, which joined EAGLE when it absorbed Boys' World in October 1964. He had illustrated this famous colour strip for Boys' World since July 1963, when he took over from Ron Embleton and he produced seventy two episodes in total. For the 1980s EAGLE he illustrated The Fists of Danny Pike, Dolebusters and a Dan Dare adventure. His other work includes Wulf the Briton for Express Weekly in 1961, which he also took over from Ron Embleton, several strips for EAGLE's companion paper Robin, Kelpie the Boy Wizard for Wham!,many strips for the TV based comics TV21, Lady Penelope, Countdown, TV Action and Look -In, The Seekers for The Daily Sketch, Jane and Girl Chat for The Daily Mirror, George and Lynne for The Sun, Julia for the German newspaper Bild, Nicolai Dante, Sinister Dexter The Order and Judge Dredd for 2000 A.D. and The Bendatti Vendetta for the Judge Dredd Megazine. John has also illustrated comic strip versions of several classic novels.

  

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The Dan Dare strip has inspired many parodies and other humorous strips. Danny Dare in Wham! comic was an early example. There were two Dan Dires; one by fan Eric Mackenzie and the other a political satire in Private Eye magazine. Another political satire was Dan Blair in the Times by Peter Brookes and our own Ray Aspden produced Mekki and Our Albert for Spaceship Away. However the strip which most impressively reflected Frank Hampson’s splendid visuals was Ham Dare, a strip which ran in Oink! comic in 1986. Oink! was an attempt to create an anarchic children’s comic in the style of the adult Viz. As its name suggests, Oink! adopted a pig theme in keeping with its often vulgar humour and several popular fictional characters were reimagined as pigs.  Written by Lew Stringer and illustrated in lavish colour by Malcolm Douglas (using the pseudonym J.T. Dogg), Ham Dare stayed remarkably faithful to Hampson’s designs, contrasting strongly with the ‘serious’ attempts to bring Dan Dare back. The story, which also featured ‘Pigby’, ‘Sir Hogbert’ and the ‘Weakon’ avoided the vulgarity that was often prevalent in some of Oink’s other stories. The Ham Dare serial ran from issues 15 to 19 of the then fortnightly comic, but Ham also featured in the 1989 Oink! Annual and the 1989 Summer Special. Sadly, Malcolm Douglas died in 2009 at the early age of 54, but Lew Stringer, who is also a prolific comic artist, is still going strong. 

 

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There is still a publication that bears the name EAGLE produced currently in Britain, although the title is actually in Latin. Aquila is a monthly educational magazine for 8-14 year olds which contains a mix of factual articles, challenging puzzles and fun activities, designed to stimulate and enhance children's skills and knowledge. It is produced by a small independent publisher called New Leaf Publishing, based in Eastbourne and is available internationally by subscription, with many schools as well as individuals subscribing. It carries no advertising and prides itself on its substantial text content, which contrasts strongly with most magazines published for children today. Despite its aims and educational content, Aquila bears little resemblance to our EAGLE or indeed to the famous educational magazine Look and Learn. Nevertheless it is a commendable publication and most importantly it is actually read by children. It has been running for thirty years and has a readership of 35,000. 
  

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After Dan Dare, EAGLE's longest running character was Chicko, the three picture comedy strip by Norman Thelwell, which appeared weekly on the Editor's Page. This strip about a young boy contained no dialogue, although it often contained writing in the form of signs, book titles or notices. The strip appeared in the first six issues of EAGLE, from April 1950, before taking a break of three months, during which time Thelwell moved from the Wirral to Codsall to take up a teaching post at Wolverhampton College of Art. Chicko returned to EAGLE in August (issue 20) and then continued weekly until 1962 when EAGLE was radically overhauled. Chicko's last appearances were in the 1962 EAGLE Holiday Extra and the EAGLE Annual for 1963. Thelwell's EAGLE connection began when he produced some cartoons for Marcus Morris' Parish magazine Anvil and he subsequently drew a half page strip called Pop Milligan, about a canal bargee. This strip was included in the dummy edition of EAGLE which Morris submitted to publishers in 1949. However it did not appear in the published weekly.

Thelwell also produced cartoons for Punch, illustrating more than 1,600 over a twenty five year period. He contributed political cartoons for the News Chronicle and later the Sunday Dispatch. He became famous for his Punch cartoons about the changing countryside and little girls on horseback and subsequently created Penelope and her horse Kipper for the Sunday Express in 1962. Many of his cartoons were collected in books and he became one of the best known of EAGLE's contributors. He died in 2004.

 

 

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Martin Mere was the title of one of several strips that Frank Hampson created for EAGLE after The Road of Courage ended, but were never developed. Only one episode was illustrated but it was arguably the most intriguing of all the proposed strips. Produced in colour and set in the swamplands of Mercia during Saxon times, the hero was Martin Mere, who was Guardian of the swamplands. Martin Mere is also the name of a wetland area in Lancashire, which was once the largest body of freshwater in England. As late as 1579 it extended from Burscough in the east to Churchtown in the west where Frank’s first studio would be located. Today Martin Mere is significantly smaller than it was in Saxon times.

 It houses a popular Wetland Centre managed by the Wetland and Wildfowl Trust. Frank Hampson located his strip in the Saxon Kingdom of Mercia,whose power base was in the Midlands leading some fans to assume the marshes in the strip were also in the Midlands, but for several centuries Mercia extended as far north as the River Ribble, meaning that Martin Mere was actually located in Mercia, close to its border with Northumbria. As Frank described his hero as the 'Knight of the north', I believe that the mere that Martin protected was actually Martin Mere. A track called 'the Ridgeway' is mentioned in the strip, but it does not refer to the ancient road known by this name, which follows a ridge of chalk hills in southern England. Sadly only a poor black and white copy of the episode survived, but the comic artist Martin Baines, who was a member of our Society in his boyhood and is still a keen Dan Dare enthusiast, improved the resolution on the page using Photoshop and this is reproduced below. 

The single episode introduces the hero and the basic plot. Martin and his men meet a group of Moorish travellers on the marsh and accompany them to their Lord. The episode ends with one of  Martin's men being alarmed by what he finds in the travellers' cart. We will never know what he found. 

Had circumstances been different and Frank had been allowed to develop this strip, it is possible that some changes would have been made before publication - Dan Dare was originally a clergyman! The name of the hero might well have changed, as although there was already a saint called 'Martin', I have never heard of any Anglo Saxons taking the name before the Norman Conquest. Despite there being only one episode, it is possible to date the events of the story to around 700 A.D and certainly between abut 650 and 800 A.D. In 700, Mercia was a powerful kingdom and was Christian from around 650. The Moors in the story are apparently from Morocco as they are trading the 'riches of Barbary' which is in north west Africa. A Moorish army invaded Spain, in 711 A.D.