Dan Dare began life in the 1950s as a two page colour strip in the weekly Eagle magazine. The strip charted the adventures of Colonel Daniel McGregor Dare, chief pilot of the space fleet, and his band of compatriots. A large proportion of the stories were focused on the battle against the emotionless, reptilian Treen and their leader the Mekon. The original strip essentially took all the stylistic and thematic ideals from war films and stories and transferred them into a science fiction environment. It was hugely popular and ran until the late 60s at which point Dare was retired and the strip ended. In the late 1970s and early 80s the character was revived by the magazine 2000AD a number of times, but with the tone changed radically to a darker more purely science fiction or super hero feel the revivals were short lived in popularity and each eventually was dropped.
The re-launch of the Eagle in 82 saw Dan return as well, and the strip ran once again for several years with varying degrees of success, each time with a new twist; a young descendent of Dan, a more violent commando Dan, and the traditional 1950s style take. Possibly the most interesting alternative Dan was that of Grant Morrison and Rian Hughes, published in 1990 by Revolver. Morrison stepped away from the sci-fi trappings of Dare to produce a cutting satire of British politics in the Thatcher years, using Dare’s 50s derived values of British honour and fair play as a foil to the power grabbing, financially driven ideals of that time.
Alongside comics Dan Dare has appeared in video games, radio broadcasts and animated TV series, and somewhere along the way has become imbedded, in British society at least, as an iconic character. This month sees Virgin comics re-launch the character in comic book form once again, and we caught up with writer Garth Ennis to get the low down on the new Dare.
What is the relationship in your mind between Digby and Dare?
Garth Ennis: Firm friends, loyal comrades. I believe the concept series creator Frank Hampson was going for was that of officer and “batman”- a British army term for manservant, an enlisted soldier assigned to look after an officer’s uniform, gear, general wellbeing. Bring him his cup of tea in the morning and make sure he’s got his boots on the right feet, that sort of thing. Digby’s character quickly developed beyond that, becoming more of a sergeant to Dare’s colonel. Of course, once the shooting starts, Digby will stay by Dare’s side no matter what. Each would cheerfully die for the other.
For those readers who aren’t aware of the character, how accessible is the series for newcomers?
Garth Ennis:They get all they need to know in the first couple of episodes, with little details filled in as we go along. I don’t think there’ll be much head-scratching, it’s a pretty simple concept.
How much do you have planned out for the series? Can we expect a long run from Gary and yourself?
Garth Ennis:I have the whole thing quite tightly plotted, but this is a seven issue mini with nothing else planned at the moment. Which is not to say we can’t do more if this one does well.
The Grant Morrison series in the early nineties was highly politicised. Can we expect any political allusions to current situations from your version?
Garth Ennis:Quite a bit. The main differences, I would say, are that Grant was writing about Margaret Thatcher’s Britain, whereas I’m dealing with Tony Blair’s- or at least the fallout from it. And Grant’s Dare was a beaten man; I’m starting from the assumption that such a state of affairs would never come about, that Dan Dare simply does not quit.