Dan Dare by Frank Hampson (Part Two)

Classic Dan Dare (Titan Reprints, Hardback)

Vol 4: Marooned on Mercury – ISBN: 184023847X

Vol 5: Operation Saturn pt.1 – ISBN: 1840238097

Vol 6: Operation Saturn pt.2 – ISBN: 1845760883

Vol 7: Prisoners of Space – ISBN: 1845761510

So, it’s been a while since my last post and in all honesty it has been several weeks since I read these Dan Dare stories. What I don’t intend to do is provide spoilers, because I envy the person that is reading these for the first time. What I will do, (memory permitting) is try to put a little bit of context to the stories.

Marooned on Mercury kicks of exactly where the previous story-arc (Red Moon Mystery) left us. We have most of the core group (that have been introduced so far), with the exception of Sir Hubert, thought dead, but they are in fact marooned on the so far unexplored planet of Mercury.

In terms of the greater Dan Dare Universe, Marooned on Mercury establishes a new race of technological sentients on Mercury. But, more importantly, the Mekon returns. So this is really the story that lets the reader know that the Mekon of Mekonta was not a one hit villain, but a recurring thorn in Dan’s side. In fact, it’s not just the Mekon, he has an entire army of Treen partisans still loyal to him, but more importantly, he has a plan. A plan to bring the Earth, and possibly the entire Sol system under his thrall. And that is where the action begins.

Dan and the gang are very much on there own for this adventure and whilst the struggle is epic, the action takes place in a relatively small geographical area. So the backgrounds don’t quite have the visual scope that we’ve seen in some of the earlier strips. Also, Frank Hampson was taken ill early on in the production of the strip and it was mostly drawn by Harold Johns, Frank’s assistant. To be fair to Harold, he really does do a fantastic job with the art, but what this strip is missing is the incredible sense of design that Hampson was able to bring to the drawing table, but more on that later.

The relatively local scale of Marooned on Mercury is totally abandoned in the next story. Operation Saturn, published in two volumes, really plays to the strengths of Hampson and the stable of artists that made up his studio. In Operation Saturn, Dan and friends journey not to Saturn itself, but to the various moons in orbit around the giant planet. So, as our heroes bounce from moon to moon the reader is treated to the spectacle of different cultures, flora & fauna and environment almost from page to page. From dense jungle to dessert wastes to gleaming technological cities and more, we see it all in this story arc. When you combine the stunning visuals with the story of an evil and oppressive ruling class who are looking to further their empire, this stands as one of the most satisfying and certainly visually engaging of all the Dan Dare collections.

The final volume for this post is Prisoners of Space. In terms of story I found this volume to be the blandest. There is plenty of action, but little adventure, we don’t see any planets or races that we haven’t seen before and the protagonists seem to skip from one threat to the next, sometimes without the reader knowing exactly how threat A was overcome before becoming entangled in threat B. There are two characters that are introduced in this story that bear further mention. Cadets Steve Valiant and “Flamer” Spry. After a few episodes of getting to know these characters, it seemed to me that Valiant was the obvious choice for a recurring cast member, but as any Dan Dare reader knows, it was Flamer who became part of the crew. Whilst I do very much enjoy Flamer’s role in this and later adventures, I think that the under use of Valiant was a loss to the strip. Or rather, the loss was in the potential mentoring that Dan could have invested in the character as he could easily have been recruited as Dan’s protégé. But it was not to be.

On a final note, I think it worth mentioning that even the Dare stories that fall short of the usual high standards are a pleasure to read and very enjoyable. I would without question, recommend the first twelve (or thirteen) volumes to anyone interested in either the history and evolution of comics, or just wanting a rip-roaring read.

Next post will be for volumes reprinting The Man From Nowhere, Rogue Planet and Reign of the Robots.

Mad Thinker.