Dan Dare by Frank Hampson (Introduction)

Over the past few weeks I have spent my time reading Dan Dare reprints. Over the next few weeks my posts will be in regard to the twelve volumes of Dan Dare published by Titan, that had Frank Hampson’s involvement. Each of the posts will include more than one volume, so expect around four posts covering the whole run not including this one.

This post is really just a short discussion concerning why I hold the strip in such high regard and the qualities of the strip in general. More detail specific to each story arc will be included in later posts.

My final point before we move on to the main body of the post is an apology of sorts to Frank Bellamy. Bellamy was the chap that Dan Dare was handed to after Hampson left. Bellamy was a  truly gifted artist, whose work on Swift I intend to mention in later, unrelated posts. When Dan Dare was given to Bellamy, the publisher insisted that he update the look and feel of the strip. Bellamy did so, the result was a beautifully rendered science fiction strip that, because of the publisher rather than Bellamy, was entirely void of all the charm that had been present for the prior decade.

When people talk about the Golden Age of British comics, or for that matter, British comics in general, there is one strip in particular that it’s impossible to ignore. It’s influence is awesome, it’s quality is exceptional and it’s star is legendary. Dan Dare. He’s so memorable he even gets his own sentence.

I’ve read a lot of comics. Really, a lot. A great many of them are enjoyable, some are memorable, one or two are truly groundbreaking, but only one can be the greatest. Dan Dare by Frank Hampson is the greatest comic strip that I’ve ever read.

I know that that is an absurd statement, Hampson was writer and artist (along with his changing staff) of Dan Dare for a ten year period starting in 1950, ten years worth of comic strips can’t all be the greatest. No, of course not, obviously they had their high and low points, but all things considered, the quality and consistency of the Hampson studio output for a decade is unsurpassed by any other comic I’ve seen.

The images included in this post are all from the very early 50’s. Have you ever seen this much detail in a strip from this period? For a medium that was entirely disposable to create artwork of this caliber was unprecedented in 1950. It hadn’t been done before and has rarely been done since.

In comparison to the American strips of the period the major difference in terms of narrative is the length of the strips. There are two points to this.

Firstly, the length of the stories. In American strips of the 50’s, an entire story was commonly told in about eight pages, whereas the first Dan Dare epic ran for around one hundred and fifty pages over eighteen months. This allowed a depth of narrative and character development unseen in the medium prior to this.

Secondly, when referring to the length of the strip it could also be used to describe the length of the individual instalments. Each episode was published at a rate of two pages a week. On the surface, two pages a week does equate to eight pages a month as produced in the American anthologies, but it doesn’t quite hold up in comparison. Pick up any American horror anthology book from the time and you’ll notice that several strips in the same book were often produced by the same creative team. In some cases, such as the fabulous EC books, one creative team would have several strips published over several books. So clearly the level of output was expected to be considerably greater for the American market. Jack Kirby, for example, was able to produce six pages a day, Frank Hampson was expected to produce two pages a week.

So, one of the reasons for the high standard of the Dan Dare strip was the amount of time allowed for Hampson and his staff to produce the art. However, Hampson was incredibly critical of the work produced and has stated in numerous interviews that the deadlines were difficult to meet because of these high expectations.

Great art in itself does not a great strip make. Whilst it is true that Dan Dare was chock full of action and adventure, with strong and idiosyncratic characters that interacted in a believable world, the real draw of the writing was one, simple, concept: Not to patronise the readership. The stories were written with children in mind, no doubt, but they were written, as all good children’s literature is, with a clear and concise use of language and most importantly, it assumed that kids had a pretty good grasp of how the real world works. It accepted the element of war and the horror’s that it entails without embracing it. Dan was not a casual destroyer, but the strip did show that he was, on occasion, forced to deadly violence. It is possible that to today’s reader, Dan might seem a little too wholesome for an action hero, but when compared to the modern Batman (who will never kill) or Punisher (who kills freely) Dan Dare occupies a much more honest middle ground for a professional military man. For readers of the 50’s, when WWII was still so fresh in their minds, Dan embodied the level headed and clean thinking attitude that had helped their fathers to eventually triumph over Nazism, but he also showed them the bright and exciting future that was on the verge of bursting through the left overs of WWII (rationing was still in force and the economy was still paying for the war debts.)

So, is Dan Dare really the greatest comic strip ever?

Well, here are my points.

1. Incredibly clear and dynamically rendered art, including a strange mix of caricature, reminiscent of C.C. Beck, and portrait painting depending on which character we’re talking about. Exceptional design elements for all of the hardware, with real world functionality always considered and real world science included as much as possible.
2. Intelligent writing with exciting storylines appropriate for all ages. A cast of characters with individual voices, which includes a strong, smart young woman, and an honest approach to the protagonists reaction to and use of violence.
3. Consistency. Whilst some of the story arcs are superior to others, all of the strips that have Frank Hampson’s involvement are above and beyond what is the accepted standard of a comic. Ten years worth of stories from the creative minds of a small stable of talent.

Of the three points mentioned above, I believe that it is the consistent high quality of the strip over a decade that truly sets it apart from from it’s peers. It’s not difficult to cherry-pick highlights from any ongoing comic, they have all had great creative teams at some point. But to maintain a flash of excellence for a few months is altogether different from creating a world from scratch and populating it with myriad characters and races, then writing and illustrating their adventures whilst maintaining a fresh and exciting approach to doing so, not for a matter of months, but for a decade. That is greatness. And whilst he certainly didn’t accomplish this alone, the vision for that decade was that of Frank Hampson.