The history of Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future

Eagle was created by Marcus Morris (right) and Frank Hampson (left) in the late 1940s. Morris was a vicar working in Southport who was worried about the malign influence of American comics. Hampson, one of his parishioners, was a budding artist looking for work. Together they came up with the magazine – they never called it a comic – and Hampson created Dan Dare, shown here behind his creators in this portrait drawn by one of the great illustrators on the magazine, Don Harley. The 'Pilot of the Future' was to be Eagle’s front page strip and thus was vital to its success Photograph: PR

This dummy copy of the magazine was put together by Hampson to help find a publisher for Eagle. He drew it on his kitchen table with some help from Harold Johns, a friend from art school before the war who was also trying to forge a career using his artistic skills. The dummy had many elements that would be found in the first issue but a major difference was that Dan Dare was not a pilot but a vicar, ministering to pilots around the universe. In a way he was a mixture of Hampson, who always wanted to be a pilot, and Morris, who was still a vicar Photograph: PR

For some, April 14th 1950 is as important a date as 1066 or 1966. It is difficult to imagine now the impact that Eagle made, but its like had never been seen before. The quality of the printing, the amazing colour and the breathtaking imagination of the main story made it seem as if it was from out of this world. That first cover found the Earth in the middle of a food crisis, with the launch of a desperate mission to reach Venus and salvation – a storyline which spoke vivdly to readers still living on food rations after the second world war Photograph: PR

Hampson is revered amongst comic writers and artists to this day for the incredible detail that his strip contained, both narratively and visually. One of his methods involved photographing each frame before drawing it. He was obsessed with making sure that the source of light was correct and that all the details of the character, clothes and surroundings were in proportion and consistent from frame to frame. He saw Dan Dare, not as a comic strip but as a film for which he was merely providing the occasional still. He saw the story in filmic terms and so introduced ‘shots’ that had not been seen in comics before but only at the pictures Photograph: PR

Many of the characters in the strip were based on people he knew, though he often concocted mixtures of personality traits and faces. Occasionally he would create what he called ‘mind’ characters, ones that he just imagined in his head. Greta Tomlinson, seen here, was one of the artists from the early days and has the distinction of being the model for the ever so sexy Professor Peabody. She had studied art at Slade and was taken on to draw figures for the strip Photograph: PR

It was not just the people who had to be as real as possible. The backgrounds, spaceships and all the equipment had to pass Hampson’s ridiculously high levels of quality control, and were rigorously planned through sketches Photograph: PR

Here Hampson specifies how the supplies containers should be stacked: 'side to top alternately (to avoid roller to roller)'. Greta Tomlinson tells a story of how she tried six or seven times to get some waves right for Frank but every time she showed them to him he tore them up. By the time she finally got it to a point he was happy with he had covered the area with a speech bubble Photograph: PR

Hampson would not ask anything of his staff that he was not prepared to do himself. The hours they worked would not be tolerated today, but if he expected his team to be at their boards till 3am, you could be sure he was last to leave. In terms of the quality he expected, he could clearly produce the goods himself. This sketch was thrown down quickly to help another artist, Des Walduck. Despite being a work of art, Hampson apologises for having rushed it Photograph: PR

As other artists took over, Dare's appearance gradually changed. Here he is as Hampson first imagined him Photograph: PR

When Frank Bellamy took over in 1959, radical changes soon followed. Bellamy is a world renowned artist in his own right and was not prepared to take over from Hampson it if meant simply copying his style Photograph: PR

Don Harley, who followed Bellamy in 1960 was generally regarded as the best ‘copier’ of the Hampson Dare Photograph: PR

Keith Watson carried the torch for Dare almost to the end Photograph: PR

Hampson’s greatest evil creation is without doubt The Mekon. He was Dare’s arch enemy throughout the Eagle years and beyond. Frank’s favourite villains though, were The Kruels. They only appeared in a few episodes but they left a lasting impression Photograph: PR

Frank Hampson had long gone by the time Eagle left the newsstands in 1969, after it was taken over by Lion. He had gained a reputation on Fleet Street as a difficult person to work with and so his genius never found another home. It is only now, many years after his death, that his true worth is being appreciated. From graphic novels to the cinema re-boots of comic-book classics, Hampson’s influence is everywhere to be seen. The great sadness is that he saw his creation as a poisoned chalice, one which he could only look back on with a tinge of sadness at what he could have achieved given total creative control Photograph: PR