A Tribute to a Hero from days gone by. Thanks to Frank Hampson and Frank Bellamy.
	DAN DARE was Britain's first real science fiction hero, his many adventures appearing in the now defunct weekly EAGLE comic and depicting a high-tech extravagantly colourful and detailed universe. The strip was conceived and drawn by Frank Hampson in the early fifties and ran in various forms for almost 40 years. Other artists have drawn Dan Dare during his adventurous life (notably Frank Bellamy), but it's the Frank Hampson images which endure and remain with us to this day.
The Man From Nowhere" is one of the all-time favourite stories, the weekly episodes running for over 12 months and the follow-on Mekon story "Reign of the Robots" for a further six months. The story encompasses all the Dan Dare traits of courage, heroism, selflessness and a fierce determination to succeed despite any personal cost. There were many, many alien races to contend with. Some were good, like Lero the "Man From Nowhere" (below, right) - and some were very, very bad, like the Mekon, evil ruler of the Treens (below). Originally from Venus, the Mekon was the most enduring of all the Dan Dare villains and popped up on numerous occasions with the usual threats of the meglomaniac - world domination, subjugation of the human race and (of course) death to Dan Dare. Fortunately, it never happened. Well, not too often anyway  There were lots of near-misses of course. Everything would be fine and dandy, then communications would mysteriously fail, ships would go missing, people (always Dan's pals) would be kidnapped -- and then there'd be the call. "This-is-the-Mekon. Sur-render-or-your-friends-die!". Oh no!

Links: Dan Dare Page | Nicholas Hill |

All Rights Acknowledged C Fleetway Editions/Hawk Books