Dan Dare The Biography by Daniel Tatarsky

 September 2026 is ENGLAND AS IT WAS month at the PorPor Books Blog

 

'Dan Dare: The Biography' by Daniel Tatarsky

This little book (238 pp.) was published by Orion Books (UK) in 2010. It is amply illustrated with color inserts consisting of photographs and scans of issues of Eagle, Dan Dare memorabilia, and vintage photographs of the creative team. There also are some black-and-white illustrations.

Most Americans have only a vague understanding (if they are aware of it at all) of the period following World War Two when the entire UK endured what the British euphemistically called 'Austerity.' In truth, Austerity was a period of privation that lasted from 1945 to the early 1960s. For much of that time the population of the UK was for all purposes malnourished, and exposed to unpleasantly high levels of air pollution (which at times could be lethal) due to the mandate to use a lower grade of coal. The depletion of foodstocks and energy was the result of a national effort to export goods, in turn to earn money with which to pay back the loans that Britain owed U.S. banks for economic aid during the war years.

 

It's mind-boggling, in an era in which massive debts held by countries in South America and Africa routinely are 'forgiven' by the IMF and World Bank, to realize that the citizens of the UK suffered for almost two decades in order to see payment (with interest) completed to their allies, the United States. 

Quoting Terry Jones (1942 - 2020), a writer for the comedy troupe Monty Python, who was a child at the time of Austerity: 

 

I can remember also it was very difficult to heat the house. I remember waking up in the winter - there was no central heating, of course, there were no cavity walls - and I remember not [just] having ice on the inside of the windows, but ice on the walls. 

 

I can remember rationing, but that's just what you did. It was odd for our parents. I remember when they stopped the national loaf: instead of having white you had this loaf that had a grain in it, but it was better for you. But I remember the moment when my mum said we could get real white bread again. Which has got everything milled out of it !

 

The British handled Austerity with the traditional stiff upper lip and a 'we must get on' spirit. But the younger Brits were helped by the appearance, in April of 1950, of the weekly boy's paper Eagle. And inside that first issue of Eagle, the first installment of a two-page, color comic titled 'Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future.'

Dan Dare was the product of a team of writers and illustrators headed by the talented artist Frank Hampson, who saw the comic as a point of light in an otherwise grim situation:

 

I....felt that young people were getting a rough deal in those years so soon after the end of the war. Everything was so pessimistic, what with the bomb and all.....I wanted to give them something that made the future more helpful, in human terms.

 

Eagle, with its brilliant color printing and depictions of a future UK where everything is clean and new and shiny and prosperous, was a welcome escape from the bleak reality of Austerity.  

Author Tatarsky covers the full scope of the Dan Dare franchise, from the beginnings of Eagle and the efforts of Anglican minister Marcus Morris to produce an uplifting magazine for British youth. There is an in-depth examination of the process, which was quite grueling and laborious, by which Hampsen planned and produced each installment of the series. There are profiles and reminiscences of the staff involved with 'Dare' from 1950 to 1967, when the comic was discontinued and reprints were used in the remaining issues of Eagle until April 1969, when the magazine was absorbed into Lion.

Later chapters in 'Dan Dare: The Biography' cover the various reincarnations of the franchise: the edgy series published in 2000 AD comics in 1977, and the highly politicized 1990 series that Garth Ennis did for the short-lived Virgin Comics imprint. There also are reminiscences about Eagle and Dare from well-known, UK-born figures in the comic book and graphic art scene, such as Chris Claremont and Bryan Talbot.

The book closes with an Appendix providing capsule summaries of each story arc in the Dare canon. 

One thing Tatarsky deserves commendation for is his refusal to view Dare and Eagle through the lens of postmodernism and Wokeness. Tatarsky understands that the material was a product of its time, and hand-wringing such content over issues of identity politics is a failed and fatuous exercise.

Who will want a copy of 'Dan Dare: The Biography' ? Well, certainly older Brits, who were children during the postwar years and remember the series with affection, likely will find the book of value. It's also of interest to those with a fondness for the popular culture of the UK in the 50s and 60s. I doubt many Americans will find the book of interest, simply because so few of the UK's comic book and boy's paper cultures succeeded in making the trans-Atlantic passage to our shores and print media. But regardless of country of origin, if you've a liking for well-written and superbly illustrated comics and graphic art, then 'Dan Dare' will have its appeal.