DON HARLEY (1927 - 2021)

Sadly, Don Harley who was one of the great Dan Dare artists on the original EAGLE has died. Born in London, he attended Epsom College of Art and after hearing a talk by Frank Hampson about Dan Dare and EAGLE in 1951, he applied to join his team. He became Hampson's principal assistant and remained with his studio until 1959, when it was disbanded. Then he assisted Frank Bellamy on the strip for a year, before taking it over himself with another former studio member, Bruce Cornwell. They produced the artwork for the strip until March 1962 and subsequently Don illustrated several Dan Dare strips for EAGLE Annuals. He also drew a 29 part Dan Dare strip for the Sunday People newspaper in 1964, called Mission to the Stars. Like many former EAGLE artists, he worked on TV Century 21 and other comics relating to Gerry Anderson's television series. He drew Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Lady Penelope and a non-television strip The Investigator for TV21, Mark of the Mysterons for Solo comic and the subsequent Mysterons strip for the combined TV Tornado and Solo. In 1971 he drew Thunderbirds for Countdown comic. His later work included Sam for the young children's comic Twinkle and illustrations for information books from various publishers over many years. In 1979 he redrew many opening frames from the Dan Dare adventure  The Man From Nowhere for Dragon's Dream's album reprint of the story. When the 1980s EAGLE brought back the original Dan Dare, Don illustrated a colour strip for the 1991 Dan Dare Annual. He also drew much of Rod Barzilay's Dan Dare story The Phoenix Mission for Spaceship Away magazine, beginning in 2003. He attended several fan events in later life, sharing stories of his time in Frank Hampson's studio and drawing sketches for fans. I was fortunate to meet him on several occasions, including the EAGLE Society Gathering in Southport in 1988, which was the first time he visited EAGLE's birthplace. A most talented artist, he was a modest and unassuming man who will be greatly missed.

A full account of his professional work can be found in the tribute to Don on the Down the Tubes website. 

In Memoriam: Dan Dare and Thunderbirds comic artist Donald “Don” Harley – downthetubes.net

  

Steve Winders 

Don (right) with Rod Barzilay at a Dan Dare Exhibition in Bristol 

Spaceship Away #17

Spaceship Away is a three times a year, full colour, 44-page A4 glossy magazine that publishes newly created 1950’s Eagle style 'Dan Dare' strip stories (licensed by the Dan Dare Corporation) along with other science fiction strips and articles. Issue 17, which is just out, continues the 'Dan Dare' serial strips 'The Green Nemesis' (written by Rod Barzilay; drawn by Tim Booth), 'The Gates of Eden' (written and drawn by Tim Booth) and 'Rocket Pilot' (written and drawn by Keith Page). There is also a new full colour 'Dan Dare' centre-spread by Mike Noble, plus the humorous strips 'Dan Bear' (by Andy Boyce), 'Mekki', 'Our Bertie' (both by Ray Aspden), and 'Dan Dire' (a satire by Eric Mackenzie).

Factual articles include an original story outline for 'Operation Saturn', by Dan Dare's creator Frank Hampson*, and 'Working with Frank Bellamy', by Dan Dare artist Don Harley. The latter is nicely illustrated with a picture by Don recollecting Frank Bellamy delivering a page of 'Dan Dare'. There is also an article by Jeremy Briggs on Dan Dare's personal spaceship Anastasia. The Anastasia article is accompanied by a cutaway drawing of Anastasia's cockpit by Graham Bleathman. An article on 'Eagle and TV21' by Stephen Baxter is illustrated with examples from the Eagle artists who contributed to TV21: Frank Hampson ('Fireball XL5'), Frank Bellamy ('Thunderbirds'), Don Harley ('Thunderbirds'), Eric Eden ('Lady Penelope'), Ron Embleton ('Stingray') and Keith Watson ('Captain Scarlet').

In addition to the 'Dan Dare'-themed material, Spaceship Away includes three other SF strips: a reprint of Charles Chilton's 'Journey into Space - Planet of Fear' serial that originally appeared in Eagle's rival paper Express Weekly (1956), drawn by Ferdinando Tacconi, 'Ex-Astris', a computer-rendered strip by John Freeman and Mike Nicholl, and 'Nick Hazard Interstellar Agent', written by Philip Harbottle, drawn by Ron Turner and coloured by John Ridgway.

For further details of Spaceship Away, including how to subscribe, please go to the Spaceship Away website.

* Further information and comment by David Britton on Frank Hampson's outline for Operation Saturn will appear in the next (Spring 2009) issue of Eagle Times.

Spaceship Away # 14

For aficionados of Eagle's original 'Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future' the latest issue of Rod Barzilay's Spaceship Away, is just out. Spaceship Away is a three times a year, full colour, 44-page A4 glossy magazine that publishes newly created 1950’s Eagle style 'Dan Dare' strip stories along with humorous strips, articles and text stories.

Issue 14 continues the 'Dan Dare' serial strips 'The Green Nemesis' (written by Rod Barzilay; drawn by Don Harley* and Tim Booth),'The Gates of Eden' (written and drawn by Tim Booth) and 'Rocket Pilot' (written and drawn by Keith Page). There is also the text serial 'Murder on Mars' by Denis Steeper (which is illustrated on the cover by Martin Baines); and a new full colour 'Dan Dare' centre-spread by the renowned Scottish artist Ian Kennedy, who drew 'Dan Dare' in the "new" Eagle in the 1980s. The humorous strips are 'Dan Bear' (by Andy Boyce), 'Mekki' and ''Our Bertie' (both by Ray Aspden), and 'Dan Dire' (by Eric Mackenzie).

In addition to the 'Dan Dare'-themed material Spaceship Away also includes a couple of other SF strips: Sydney ('Jeff Hawke') Jordan's 'Hal Starr' and a reprint of Charles Chilton's 'Journey into Space' (drawn by Ferdinando Tacconi) that originally appeared in Eagle's rival paper Express Weekly in 1956. Eagle readers will remember that Chilton, apart from creating the original 'Journey into Space' serial for BBC radio, was also the author of 'Jeff Arnold and the Riders of the Range' in Eagle. The 'Riders of the Range' was itself originally created for radio by Chilton.

For further details of Spaceship Away, including how to subscribe, please go to the Spaceship Away website. Some direct links to examples of some of the strips (from previous issues) are provided below:

Dan Dare: Green Nemesis
Dan Dare: The Gates of Eden
Dan Bear
Mekki
Journey into Space
Hal Starr

* Don Harley is one of the 1950s Eagle 'Dan Dare' studio artists (acknowledged by 'Dan Dare'-creator Frank Hampson as "The second best Dan Dare artist").