Dan Dare by Frank Hampson (Part Four)

Classic Dan Dare (Titan Reprints, Hardback)

Vol 11: The Phantom Fleet – ISBN: 9781848561274

Vol 12: Safari in Space – ISBN: 9781848563728

Vol 13: Trip to Trouble – ISBN: 9781848563667

Phantom Fleet continues a fantastic run of art by Frank Hampson and Don Harley. At this point in the Dare strip the art has reached it’s peak. The story concerns a total communications and radar blackout covering a large section of the Solar System. When the lights come back on, so to speak, there are several high ranking political leaders missing and Sir Hubert Guest is amongst them.

The race is on for Dan and Dig to locate the missing leaders, but all is not as it seems, and the rescue mission turns into diplomatic negotiations. And a larger threat revealed.

This volume offers everything a Dan Dare story should, great art, a well crafted mystery and finally a cover credit for the superb Don Harley.

Safari in Space is the final volume of the Dan Dare reprints that has Frank Hampson’s involvement. It really is bitter sweet, the art, design and storytelling are as good as any comic you will ever read and better than most that are published. The story concerns Dan’s journey into deep space in search of an Earth like planet and, possibly, his Father. This volume contains the stories Safari in Space and it’s continuation, Terra Nova, it has all the gang from previous stories and in many ways could have been the perfect ending to Hampson’s ten year run on Dan Dare.

Unfortunately, it isn’t a perfect ending, in fact Hampson isn’t able to provide us with an ending at all. Frank left the strip part way through the Terra Nova story, with the plot far from resolved (it isn’t tied up until half way through the next volume) It was left in the hands of others, and as skilled as those hands are, they do not have the same vision as Mr. Hampson.

Originally, I didn’t intend to purchase the 13^th volume, Trip to Trouble, but when I realised that

a) it completed the story that began in the previous volume, and

b) by owning it, I would have all of the Dan Dare stories produced by Hampson’s successor, Frank Bellamy,

there really was no choice I had to own it.

But it gets complicated. The first part of this volume completes the story from Safari in Space and the second part tells a complete tale called Project Nimbus. The writing of trip to Trouble is weak, Hampson set up a great many plot threads and mysteries which are either ignored or resolved all too quickly, which is all the more bitter as this could have ended as one of the greatest Dan Dare epics in the history of the strip. Combine this with the jarring visuals and this volume is a difficult story to read.

I need to make it clear that Frank Bellamy is one of the top five illustrators of comics ever, there are few people able to match his skill, and whilst there are those that would disagree, I think that the Dan Dare strips he produced are some of the finest work that he has ever done. But, the style changes dramatically between every page, and that isn’t an exaggeration. As you may know, Dan Dare was produced as two pages every week, one of those being the front page/cover of the comic. The front page was produced in the old, Hampson style, the second page looks as though it was drawn entirely by Bellamy in his own manner and whilst both pages are gorgeous, they do clash, particularly the look of Dan himself, Bellamy’s Dan looks very different indeed and I found it very distracting.

Unfortunately, with Hampson gone, a change of ownership for the Eagle’s publisher and the end of the story arc finishing with Trip to Trouble, it was decided that the Dan Dare strip needed a shake up. The editorial decision was made to “update” the Dan Dare world, this was easily accomplished by having Dan and crew return to Earth some considerable time after leaving it without having aged themselves (a probable effect of Near FTL travel as imagined in 1959) and also handing the artistic reigns to Bellamy, along with the order to modernize the look of the strip.

Everything is different. It is a shock, it’s like reading a totally different strip. It is impressive, it is beautifully drawn and interestingly designed, but combined with the solid, but not quite Hampson quality writing, the story flounders and I believe the readership were unhappy with the results.

It’s worth noting that after completing Project Nimbus, the only story that could be described as pure Bellamy, Bellamy was no longer drawing the strip, hence my earlier comment regarding owning the complete Bellamy Dare. I have no idea whether he left by choice or was forced out. It doesn’t matter, the Golden Age of Dan Dare was over, never to be recaptured again.