Eagle Times Vol 26 No 2

Summer 2013 Contents

• 'Leslie Ashwell Wood's 1953 Coronation Procession'. In the month during which Her Majesty celebrated the 60th Anniversary of her Coronation, Jeremy Briggs takes a look at the story behind one of Eagle's commemorative centre-page illustrations, 'Televising the Coronation Procession', illustrated with reference pictures and with Ashwell Wood's  previously unseen sketches

• 'The Spacesuit as Art' - Brett Gooden, author of the book Spacesuit: a History Through Fact and Fiction, explores the conceptual origins and development of spacesuit  illustrations as they appeared in science fiction books, comics and films

• 'The Fighting Cheyenne - Eagle v. Hollywood'. How the tragic story of the 1500 miles trek across America by Cheyenne Indians was portrayed in Eagle's 'Riders of the Range' story ‘Last of the Fighting Cheyenne’ and how John Ford's movie Cheyenne Autumn portrayed the same events

• 'Dan Dare in the Eagle Force Mystery' - Jeremy Briggs takes a look at the mystery surrounding some (supposedly) Dan Dare artwork, which appeared on the front endpaper of Daniel Tatarsky's Dan Dare: The Biography in 2010

• 'Johnny Frog' - Steve Winders takes a look at the final strip that George Beardmore wrote for Eagle, which ran in 1964, an historical b&w strip set in the time of the Napoleonic Wars, and illustrated by Ron Embleton

• 'Paul Carpenter - the man who was Jeff Arnold', on the Canadian post-war actor, who played cowboy Jeff Arnold in Charles Chilton's Riders of the Range BBC radio show

• 'Mann of Battle' - in the second part of his article, about the Second World War adventure strip, which ran in Eagle from 1962-64, Steve Winders examines the Eagle Annual stories

• 'The Wrong Plane!!' - How an illustrated article on 'The Story of Flight', which appeared in Dan Dare's Space Annual 1963, included an aircraft recognition error

• 'Weston-Super-Dare' - how Dan Dare's Space Ship (towed by a donkey) arrived on the beach at Weston-Super-Mare in the 1950s

• 'PC49 and the Case of the Counterfeit Copper' - another of Alan Strank's famous BBC radio plays, specially adapted as a text story for Eagle Times

• A photo-illustrated report on the 2013 Eagle Society Gathering, held at Leamington Spa in April 2013

The cover picture of this issue of Eagle Times is from Eagle, 22nd May, 1953. Although we know his first name is Gordon, the artist is unknown, as his surname is unclear from the signature. (Possibly it is Norres?)

Dan Dare: Space Fleet Operations Manual (Review)

A nice surprise, when I got back from holiday the other day, was to find waiting for me a review copy of this new book from Haynes Publishers. 

Written by long-time Dan Dare fan (and Eagle Society member) Rod Barzilay, and beautifully illustrated with cutaways by Graham Bleathman, the Dan Dare Space Fleet Operations Manual takes a detailed look at (and inside) the spaceships, space stations and various other craft that played such a huge part in bringing the excitement of space travel to Dan Dare stories through the 1950s and 1960s. 

Published on 6th June, 2013, the book harks back to those earlier times when, every week, British schoolboys (and their Dads, not to mention a few Mums and sisters!) thrilled to the space adventures of Dan Dare (The) Pilot of the Future, as told in comic-strip form in the pages of Eagle. The creation of Frank Hampson, Dan Dare's adventures ran for nearly 20 years in Eagle (over 9 of them under Frank Hampson's direction) and the character name has resurfaced several times since, not always in the full spirit of the original, but testimony enough to Frank Hampson's and Dan Dare's enduring legacy. As well as from the original series in Eagle, the author has pulled into the timeline of Space Fleet history relevant episodes from, Eagle Annual  ABC Film Review, Dan Dare Annual, Dan Dare's Spacebook, the Sunday People newspaper strip, "new" Eagle, and his own Spaceship Away magazine, which since 2003 has been publishing Dan Dare stories in (or close to) the style of the Eagle original. Some of the cutaways included in this book have previously appeared there.

Part of what made the stories so compelling, memorable and influential in their hey-day, was the extent to which Hampson, his studio team and their sympathetic successors created a believable future universe in which to place the stories: new worlds, new technologies, new civilisations; fauna, flora, friends and foes. Since the stories were projected some fifty years forward from the end of the Second World War, readers of the strip today will notice that the real world has diverged from the future envisaged then for Dan Dare, and that world can now be be seen as an alternate reality from our own - one in which Britain took a leading role in the development of space exploration, where the United Nations supported an effective World Government, and an Interplanet Space Fleet combined international resources from countries such as Britain, the USA and France to explore space and defend the Earth from external threats.

Following a brief introduction from its author, the book treats the world of Dan Dare as fact, Interplanet Space Fleet having "commissioned Haynes to produce the Dan Dare Space Fleet Operations Manual  for its personnel, cadets and those interested in the part it has played from our first steps into space to the exploration of the solar system and beyond". The contents feature:

• A personal introduction (dated 2022) by the Controller of Space Fleet, no less than Dan Dare himself!
• A history of early spaceflight, propulsion systems and first steps to the Moon (1960!) and Mars (1965!)
• Fully detailed and comprehensively annotated cutaway drawings of the principal ISF spaceships, space stations and installations, along with many of the alien craft that Space Fleet has encountered to date
• Profiles of ISF personnel, and the aliens they have faced over the years
• Space Fleet history: a guide to ISF’s missions and Dan Dare’s adventures

The Author, Rod Barzilay, as did most of us in the Eagle Society, grew up with Dan Dare and Eagle magazine and is a lifelong enthusiast. In 2003 he launched Spaceship Away magazine, which along with other sci-fi stories, has for 10 years (three issues per year) featured new Dan Dare stories, illustrated in the original style, and designed to fit within the original Dan Dare timeline. Graham Bleathman is an illustrator famous for his detailed cutaway drawings, particularly those associated with Gerry Anderson series, such as Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet, and two Wallace & Gromit Cracking Contraptions Manuals.

Fully authorised by the Dan Dare Corporation Limited, this Haynes Manual joins a number of other space fiction oriented manuals from Haynes - including manuals for Thunderbirds (also illustrated by Graham Bleathman), Star Wars Millenium Falcon, and the USS Enterprise from Star Trek. It is a wonderful addition to any library of books about Eagle and Dan Dare, or for that matter the broader subject of cult science fiction series, and would make an ideal companion to sit alongside the Titan Books reprints of the original Classic Dan Dare series. Unfortunately the Titan run seems to have stalled with Trip to Trouble, which appeared in January, 2011.

Conclusion: Highly Recommended!  

For other reviews of Dan Dare Space Fleet Operations Manual, see:

• Bear Alley
• Down the Tubes  

Down the Tubes also has a interviews with

• Rod Barzilay 
• Graham Bleathman

Dan Dare Space Fleet Operations Manual by Rod Barzilay, illustrated by Graham Bleathman, ISBN 978 85733 286 8, is published by Haynes Publications at £16.99. Well worth the money, but at the time of this review, it can be ordered from amazon.co.uk at £10.87

Eagle Times Vol 26 No 1

Eagle Times 
25th Anniversary Issue

Spring 2013 Contents

• 'A Thrill of a Lifetime in 1957' - the story of how one lucky 1950s reader, Robert Pegg, entered a competition in Eagle, and won a trip to Kenya with his father, flying in BOAC's newest airliner, the Bristol Britannia aircraft, otherwise known as The Whispering Giant

• 'Dan Dare Pilot of the Future on Radio Luxembourg' - a review of the radio serial, sponsored by Horlicks, that aired five days a week on 208 Medium Waveband from 1951 - 1956. The article includes a story listing and is accompanied by a short article on the origins of the malted milk product known as Horlicks 

• 'Serial Thrillers: The Adventure Serial on British Radio' - a review of Charles Norton’s new book about four immensely popular series from the Golden Age of British Radio, ie: Paul Temple, Dick Barton, Dan Dare, and Journey into Space

• 'P.C.49 and the Case of the Circular Tins' - a further adaptation from one of Alan Stranks' famous radio stories

• An obituary of Charles Chilton, M.B.E. (1917 - 2013), the renowned radio writer and producer, and writer of the 'Riders of the Range' strip that ran in Eagle from 1950 until 1962, plus a report on the funeral service held on 11th January, 2013, to commemorate his life

• 'How I learned to stop worrying and appreciate the genius of John Burns' - a look at the career and varied work of one of the artists who drew 'Dan Dare' for the "new" Eagle in 1990  

• 'When is a Hampson not a Hampson?' - on the particular challenge and difficulties of reliably attributing Eagle 'Dan Dare' artwork to its original creator and lead artist, Frank Hampson 

• 'Charles William (Bill) Nuttall - Artist' - a former Eagle letterer (Eagle Society member David Gould) provides a biographical review of the early career of lettering artist and illustrator, Bill Nuttall, and his personal recollections of working with Bill at Eagle from the mid-1960s. 

• 'Mann of Battle', part 1 - a look at the World War II strip that ran weekly in Eagle from 1962 - 1964, written by Alfred Carney Allan and drawn initially by Luis Bermejo, then for most of its life by Brian Lewis

• 'Dan Dare Holiday Special (1990)' - the third in a series of articles about Eagle-related holiday specials, this one looking at the only 'Dan Dare'-specific special to be published.

• 'Interviewing Marcus Morris' - a photo-illustrated article recounting a visit in 1987 to the home of former Eagle Editor Marcus Morris

• 'Lion, King of Picture Story papers'  - a review of Steve Holland's recent book about Eagle's 1950s' rival  - the comic that eventually (1969) swallowed Eagle

The cover of this issue celebrates 25 years of Eagle Times and incorporates the front cover of our first issue (Spring 1988) alongside a study, by John Burns, of Dan Dare's companion, Digby. 

Charles Chilton (1917 - 2013)

Charles Chilton, MBE

Charles (Frederick William) Chilton, MBE, the renowned BBC radio producer and writer, best known to Eagle readers as the scriptwriter of ‘Riders of the Range’ and the author and producer of the BBC radio serial Journey into Space, died on 2nd January, 2013, aged 95.

Charles was born into poverty on 15th June, 1917 and was raised by his grandmother in King's Cross, London. He joined the BBC as a messenger at the age of 15, soon becoming an assistant (or as he described it in his autobiography, "assistant to the assistant"!) in the BBC’s gramophone library. By the age of 18 he had moved into radio presentation and production. He developed a passion for jazz and presented many music programmes including ‘Swing Time’ and ‘Radio Rhythm Club’. His first major radio production was Alastair Cook’s ‘I Hear America Singing’.

During the Second World War, he served with the RAF as a radio instructor before being transferred to Armed Forces radio. In Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) he ran the forces radio station with David Jacobs. After the war he returned to London and (following his divorce from an earlier unsuccessful marriage) he married Penny, a BBC secretary. In 1949 he created and produced a popular weekly BBC radio show called Riders of the Range, which was described as "a musical Western drama". 

When in 1950 the Editor of Eagle, Marcus Morris, obtained permission from the BBC for a comic-strip version of Riders of the Range, Charles took on the writing of the weekly strip, too. He continued to write and produce the radio show until 1953 and to write the scripts for Eagle’s ‘Riders of the Range’ strip and scripts and stories for numerous Riders of the Range and Eagle annuals, into the early 1960s. He also wrote the script for ‘Flying Cloud’, a western strip that appeared in Girl. As the comic strip ‘Riders of the Range’ developed, Charles became an expert on the Wild West and introduced authentic historic western stories into the series. He also wrote historical accounts of the West, such as The Book of the West (Odhams, 1961) which, after publication in America, earned him The Western Heritage Award for Juvenile Books in 1963.

When Riders of the Range finished on radio (1953) Charles was tasked by the BBC with creating a science fiction series, though he then new nothing of the subject. The result was the hugely successful Journey into Space, featuring spaceman Jet Morgan and his crew (Doc, Mitch and Lemmy), which ran to three series (totalling 58 episodes) all of which he wrote and produced between 1953 and 1955. Journey into Space was among the last radio programmes to attract audiences greater in number than television. The series' subsequent transformation to book and comic strip form under his own authorship assured Chilton’s international recognition. His research for the series led to him becoming a keen amateur astronomer. Among his other radio production credits in the fifties are a several editions of The Goon Show in 1953, 1957 and 1958.

In 1962 Charles Chilton wrote and produced a radio musical based on World War 1 songs, called The Long, Long Road. In 1963 this was transformed through his collaboration with Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop into the stage production: Oh! What a Lovely War, which then (in 1969) was turned into a film by writer Len Deighton and director Richard Attenborough.

In 1976 Charles was awarded the MBE, which was presented to him by the Queen Mother. Although he retired from the BBC soon after, he continued to write and for many years was a Guide for London Walks. In the 1980s he wrote a sequel Journey into Space radio play, The Return from Mars, and two science fiction serials in the Journey into Space vein: Space Force and Space Force II. He later wrote a further Journey into Space radio play, Frozen in Time, which was broadcast by the BBC in 2008. The  Journey into Space serials are often re-broadcast on the BBC's Radio 4 Extra station and are available as audio-CD collections and audio-downloads.

Charles Chilton's autobiography, Auntie's Charlie, was published by Fantom Press in 2011 along with a new edition of his first Journey into Space novel, Operation Luna. The second and third Journey into Space novels, The Red Planet and The World in Peril, followed from the same publisher in 2012.

The books were published as limited edition hardbacks but are now available in paperback.

Eagle Times Vol 25 No 4

Winter 2012 Contents

Eagle Times - Our 100th Issue

• 'PC49 and the Case of the Christmas Ornament' - a seasonal short-story featuring radio's (and Eagle's) police hero, from the radio stories by Alan Stranks
• 'Christmas Customs from Hulton Press' shows how Eagle and Girl magazines presented the traditions of Christmas in strip form in 1955 and 1953, respectively'
• It Wouldn't be Christmas . . .' revisits an article in the first Eagle Annual, in which Chad Varah told of the origins of some of the familiar Christmas Customs
• 'Starring Bayford Lodge', takes a look at how Frank Hampson used locations in his own home and, sometimes, members of his own family in his art, with examples from some of his post-Eagle work
• 'A Look at Luck' - part 6, concludes an examination of the French Foreign Legion strip by Geoffrey Bond and Martin Aitchison, which ran in Eagle from 1952 - 1961
• A PC49 radio script: 'The Case of the Haunting Refrain', reproduces the final part of an Alan Stranks-written performance script
• 'From Under the 1950s Christmas Tree, Eagle Bagatelles' - a seasonal look at 1950s pin-ball games from the makers Chad Valley and Mettoy, featuring 'Dan Dare' and 'Riders of the Range'
• ''Eagle Summer Special (1966)' - a (not so seasonal!) review of the second (of two) Eagle holiday special issues that appeared in the 1960s 
• 'Dan Dare Projected, Part 3: The Films' - this final part looks at the many 'Dan Dare' film strips that were available in the 1950s for use with the viewers and projectors previously described
• Churchill Revisited' - report of a visit to an exhibition held at the J.P. Morgan Library and Museum in NewYork (June - September, 2012), where the recent U.S. reprint edition of Clifford Makins' and Frank Bellamy's Life of Churchill, The Happy Warrior was found in the bookshop
• 'Report on the Eagle Day' provides an illustrated account of the event held at Great Staughton, Cambs, on 23rd September, 2012
• 'Remembering Terra Nova' - has a re-look at the 'Dan Dare' story from 1959 that saw the last 'Dan Dare' work of Frank Hampson and the arrival of Frank Bellamy as lead artist
• 'Rivals of Jeff Arnold - Hopalong Cassidy'. A look at the origin (1904) and development of the character (from the 1930s through the 1950s) in film, radio, television and comics of the fictional cowboy hero, created by Clarence E. Mulford and played on the screen by William Boyd.
• 'Looks Familiar? (Dan's in all but name)' - on the Captain Jet Harrison Space Explorer Space Gun from Retro Toys and Games, and its seeming likeness to the Merit Dan Dare Planet Gun of the 1950s
• 'Writing a Lament' - the writing of a musical accompaniment to 'Lament to a Dead Swan', which, as a 1954 schoolboy's poem, won a prize from Eagle's Special Investigator, Macdonald Hastings
• 'The Intrepid Cowpuncher' discusses the feasibility of Dan Dare being (albeit in the fictional world!) a descendant of Buffalo Bill - as he joked in the 'Red Moon Mystery'

The picture on the cover of this issue is from 'Operation Saturn'. Art by Desmond Walduck (from Eagle, Vol 4 No 38, 24th December 1953). 

The man at the rear of the picture has an obviously intentional resemblance to Dan Dare's creator, Frank Hampson!

Eagle Times Vol 25 No 3

Autumn 2012 Contents

• 'Charles Chilton - the Modest Showman - and Journey into Space'. Inspired by Chilton's recent autobiography, Charlie's Auntie, Alan Vince looks back at his own interest in Chilton's work and an unsuccessful attempt to put together a book on Journey into Space. 
• 'Riders of the Range Photographs' - a reader shares his nostalgia for Charles Chilton's western, which began on BBC radio before appearing as a comic strip in Eagle, in the form of autographed photographs of the cast of the radio series, which he was given as a child in the early 1950s 
• 'A Look at Luck' - part 5 of a series examining the French Foreign Legion strip by Geoffrey Bond and Martin Aitchison, which ran in Eagle from 1952 - 1961
• 'Susan Travers' - the first, and only, female to serve officially, in the the French Foreign Legion.
• 'Royal Mail Comics Stamps' - a look at the recent (March 2012) issue of Royal Mail stamps, commemorating a variety of British comics (including Eagle) in the 75th year of publication of Britain's longest-running comic - The Dandy
• 'Visual Memories of Eaglecon 80' - part 4 of this illustrated series remembering the only London comics convention ever held solely for Eagle enthusiasts
• 'Picture cards' - on the variety of collectable picture cards available in the 1950s, from sources as diverse as weighing machines, sweet and real cigarettes, toothpaste, tea, bubble-gum and comics
• 'Dan Dare projected' - part 2, looking at the various non-projection devices available from manufacturers in the 1950s, by which 'Dan Dare' and other film strips could be viewed.
• 'Eagle Holiday Extra' - a look at one (of only two) holiday special issues of Eagle that appeared in the 1960s. This one, comprising 48 pages, was from 1962.
• 'Nando Tacconi' - an appreciation of the man and artist, best known in Britain for his illustration of Charles Chilton's 'Journey into Space' for Express Weekly 
• 'Eaglewall's Table Top Navy' - a review of the book by Donald D. Hood about the Dorking-based firm that produced plastic models under the Eagle logo.
• A PC49 Radio script: 'The Case of the Haunting Refrain', reproducing an Alan Stranks written performance script, part 2
• 'Dan Dare's castlist' - a reader's "dream team" for a Dan Dare film, compiled from actors of the silver screen, both living and deceased.

This issue's cover photograph of Charles Chilton is from a 1985 issue of Radio Times

Eagle Day

AN EAGLE DAY

The Village Hall

Great Staughton, St. Neots, Cambridgeshire
PE19 5DG

Sunday, 23rd September, 2012 

10.00 - 16.00

Eagle Days were the idea of the late Bob Rothwell. The purpose is to meet with fellow Eaglers and collectors, to chat, swap, buy and sell spare EAGLE and other comic-related items - and generally have a good time.

View Larger Map

The day will include talks on EAGLE-related subjects and a chance to look at displays of EAGLE/comic-related items. Light refreshments will be available. 

Single entry £3 - in advance or pay on the door. 

Bring your spare EAGLE

/comic items. 

Book a table in the hall for £5.

Please address all enquiries including bookings to:

Clive O’Dell, 27, The Highway, Great Staughton, Cambridge, PE19 5DA. 

Telephone 01480 860339