IN AND OUT OF THE EAGLE 59

 

In addition to the new EAGLE, the 1980s brought new versions of two of the other weeklies originally edited by Marcus Morris, Girl and Robin. Girl was actually launched in 1981, a year ahead of the new EAGLE and it ran until 1990. Like the early new EAGLE it featured photo stories with occasional illustrated strips. It also ran articles about pop stars and problem pages. It absorbed Dreamer and Tammy during its run. In 1988 it was relaunched with greater emphasis on older teenage readers, but was merged into My Guy in 1990. 

While the 1980s Girl was quite successful, the new Robin only ran for five months. It carried several repeat strips from old I.P.C. owned weeklies, including 'Nutty Noddle' from the original Robin. It also featured a new strip based on the ITV series Wimpole Village and a new strip about the 'robin' of the title. 

    

IN AND OUT OF THE EAGLE 58

The BBC television series The Bidding Room in which people bring interesting items to sell to dealers who bid against each other to buy them, featured a 1950s 'Dan Dare' Planet Gun, complete with its original box and all its 'spinning missiles' in its 5th December programme. The seller found it in a house she had recently bought and the successful collector paid £ 110 for it. The Planet Gun came in several colours and the one featured was red with a green barrel rather than the black barrel on the box. 

EAGLE TIMES Vol. 38 No. 4 Winter 2025

The final EAGLE Times of 2025 is out now. With articles about 'Riders of the Range', the Dan Dare  Annual for 1963, 'Heros the Spartan', the 'Dan Dare' strip in Yugoslavia's Plavi vjesnik' weekly and the 'Happy Warrior' and 'Stonewall Jackson' biographical strips, the issue also features an interview with 'Dan Dare' and 'Thunderbirds' artist Keith Page, the final episode of the latest Archie Willoughby adventure and two 'In and Out of the EAGLE' pages. 

The start of a new year is the best time for new subscribers to join. There are four issues a year and the annual subscription remains at £ 30 for U.K. subscribers and £ 50 for overseas. Subscriptions should be sent to Bob Corn, Mayfield Lodge, Llanbadoc, Usk, NP15 1 SY. 

The current issue contains a chance to enter a raffle to win Graham Bleathman's impressive original colour artwork depicting Dan Dare's spaceship Anastasia flying over the London of the future (see below) which appeared on the cover of last Summer's issue and there will be a further opportunity to enter in our first issue of 2026.