THE FOURTH CHRISTMAS EAGLE by John Culshaw

Another Christmas and another planet for Dan Dare and Digby. The fourth Christmas issue of EAGLE  was dated 24th December 1953 (Vol. 4 No.38) and Dan was now on Titan, one of Saturn's moons, investigating the source of missiles that were being fired at Earth. Despite being a continuing story, the strip managed to acknowledge Christmas in a big way as Digby explained the significance of the feast to a young Saturnian boy, while the strip showed images of Spacefleet personnel celebrating back on Earth.  

The EAGLE logo has a special Christmas design, with the usual white letters coloured yellow and decorated with snow. The red block title box includes several sparkling stars and the top left hand corner of the page features bells and holly, while the top right hand corner features holly. Across the top of the page is the greeting 'Happy Christmas to EAGLE readers'.  The 'Dan Dare' adventure continues on page two with Spacefleet staff on Earth drinking to 'absent friends', referring to Dan and his crew and the story picks up from there, with Dan continuing his adventure on Titan. The art on the 'Dan Dare' strip is by Desmond Walduck. At this point in the story the writer was Basil Dawson, who was credited in just one episode and under the nom de plume of 'Don Riley'. Dawson, who wrote many radio and television adventure stories, including some Dick Barton - Special Agent serials took over the writing when Dan's creator Frank Hampson fell ill. Dawson would write the novel Dan Dare On Mars in 1956.   

Page three is occupied by the final episode of the 'PC 49' adventure 'The Case of the Magnificent Mouse' and Christmas is celebrated at the end of the episode where 49 and his Boys' Club celebrate the end of the adventure at their Christmas party. The strip was written by Alan Stranks and drawn by John Worsley.  The next page and a quarter are occupied by an article by EAGLE's 'Special Investigator' Macdonald Hastings and his piece has a definite Christmas theme, for it is about reindeer. Hastings visited a Laplander living near Aviemore in Scotland, who owned a herd of reindeer he had brought from Lapland to see if they would thrive in Scotland. It is clear from the article that there were very few reindeer in Britain in 1953 and indeed it is implied that this herd were the only ones. There are significantly more now.  The lower quarter of page four is an advertisement for Calvert's 'Dan Dare' Toothpowder, with all the focus being on the free 'Dan Dare' picture cards with each carton and the free 'Dan Dare' picture card album that can be obtained by sending the empty carton back to the manufacturers. This advert is a clear reminder of how popular Dan Dare was in the 1950s. Page five also contains a few Christmas tricks and puzzles from Richard Murdoch, which occupies the top right hand corner of the page. Murdoch was a popular radio and film comedy actor, who made regular short contributions, such as jokes and puzzles to EAGLE at this time. The bottom half of page four is split between two advertisements. One is for Sharp's Toffee. No problems there. The other is baffling. It is for something called 'The Free Enterprise Campaign' and the advert is fronted by Donald Peers, who was a popular singer at the time. Basically it encourages readers to work hard because where there's free enterprise there's opportunity. It might be Government sponsored, but it seems to be aimed more at adults in the workplace than children and teenagers, although many young people did start work at fourteen in the early fifties. I have reprinted it here. See what you make of it.    

The top half of page five is the Sports section and features short articles by EAGLE's regular sports contributors on their 'Thrill of the Year'. The cricket writer Patsy Hendren wrote about a County match that resulted in a rare dead heat. Geoff Paish wrote about a Wimbledon tennis marathon game. R.M. Samuel wrote about Norman Parker's final speedway ride and James Audsley wrote about an endurance run from Bath to London. Christmas was referenced in a simple greeting to readers below the articles. The bottom half of the page featured the comedy strip 'Professor Puff and His Dog Wuff' and in this episode the Professor helps Father Christmas to deliver presents. The strip was by David Langdon. 

Page seven was the colour 'Riders of the Range' page and marked the first episode of a new serial 'Jeff Arnold and the Arizona Kid.' For once, Christmas is also included in the strip as Jeff and Luke enter a saloon on Christmas Eve and it is decorated with banners and paper chains. The strip was written by Charles Chilton as usual and was illustrated by Frank Humphris, who was now the regular artist and would remain so till it ended more than eight years later. 

On the top half of page eight and nine is the weekly cutaway drawing and as in every Christmas issue it has a festive theme. A series of labelled pictures, including some with cutaways show how Christmas telegram greetings were sent round the world. The drawings were by Leslie Ashwell Wood who was the principal cutaway artist throughout EAGLE's nineteen year run. The bottom half of the page marked the start of a new 'Luck of the Legion' adventure 'The Secret City'. Set in Indo-China, there is no mention of Christmas as the story gets off to an exciting start as Sergeant Luck leads a patrol back to the Legion Post to find that it is under attack. Geoffrey Bond wrote the strip, which was illustrated by Martin Aitchison, who drew every single episode of every 'Luck of the Legion' adventure, from its start in 1952 to its end in 1961.

Page ten is also divided into two parts. The top half is a strip in the series 'Great Escapes' and is about King Charles II's escape from the Parliamentarians during the Civil War. It was written by Guy Morgan, who also wrote EAGLE's 'Storm Nelson' strip as Edward Trice and drawn by Pat Nevin. It does not concern Christmas. However, the lower half of the page is an episode in the series 'These Men Live Dangerously', which features coal miners in this issue and does mention Christmas as it reminds readers that without coal there would be no cosy fire at Christmas or power to cook the turkey and Christmas pudding. A large frame in the strip shows a family opening their Christmas presents round the fire. This strip was drawn by Dudley Pout. 

Page eleven is the Editor's page and in the top left hand corner is his letter to readers. Marcus Morris wrote about Christmas being a time for family gatherings, but acknowledged and greeted the readers who were in hospital or orphanages. In 1953 there were many orphanages. He reminded readers that Christmas marks Jesus' birth and involves giving as well as receiving. To the right of his letter is a Christmas competition with a prize of a bicycle and Christmas greetings from Frank Hampson, Michael Gibson the Art editor. Ellen Vincent the assistant editor and Morris himself. Small photographs of the four accompany the greeting. Below Morris' letter are four 'Readers' Letters'. Three do not relate to Christmas, but one from Alfred Robinson of Ilford suggested using the recent 'Whodunnit' series as competitions at parties. Morris thought this was an excellent idea and suggested using the 'What's His Name?' strip as well. Alongside the readers' letters is a poem 'Christmas Thoughts for a Boy', which was not credited, but was probably written by a staff member. It is strongly religious, commenting on Christ's crucifixion as well as his birth. This page makes EAGLE's Christian philosophy clear and emphasises the religious significance of Christmas. The bottom of the page features the weekly three picture 'Chicko' strip by Norman Thelwell and EAGLE Club News, which offers gifts to club members whose birthdays fall on six specific dates from across the year listed above the text. As usual 'Chicko' has a Christmas theme.  

 

Page twelve features a text serial about 'The Three 'J's'. This school based series began in January 1953 and would run until April 1959.  It was written by Peter Ling, who would go on to create the TV soap operas Compact and Crossroads with Hazel Adair and write the Doctor Who serial 'The Mind Robber'.  While this story was set in the Christmas holidays, the episode focuses on a school football match and Christmas is not otherwise featured. The 'drop in' illustrations are by Dudley Pout. In the bottom right hand corner of this page is an 'EAGLE Window' which suggests various EAGLE related products that readers might like to buy if they have been given money for Christmas. In the issues leading up to Christmas, EAGLE heavily advertised potential presents by carrying a weekly four page advertising section, including many directly related to its own characters, particularly 'Dan Dare' and 'Riders of the Range'. However, the Christmas issue itself was too late for boys asking relatives for presents, which enabled EAGLE to focus on the 'giving' aspect of the feast, without being swamped by the 'receiving', highlighted by the advertising. 

Page thirteen contains a half page 'Harris Tweed, Extra Special Agent' comedy strip by John Ryan, which is set on Christmas Day. The mean spirited Tweed has not bought a turkey as he will be dining with Lord Snoot later, meaning that 'the boy' must go without. The opening frame shows the pair eating boiled eggs. But as usual, matters end in the boy's favour as he wins a lavish Christmas dinner which he shares with his friends, while Tweed has to act as waiter. The full page 'Tweed' stories ended in 1953, but the strip continued as a half page until 1962, when it ended. This was certainly a loss for EAGLE as the full page stories had been exciting and funny. While the half page included many serial stories, it was never as good. There was usually only room for one joke. By now, John Ryan was also producing a half page 'Lettice' strip for Girl, EAGLE's companion weekly and the demands of producing a whole page comedy  adventure with five lines of detailed drawings were considerable. The bottom half of page thirteen contained adverts for Cadbury's Chocolate, Blue Bird Toffees and Odol solid toothpaste. EAGLE had no qualms about advertising rival products in the same issue! The Odol adverts included brief true stories about stamps and free foreign and colonial stamps were given away with each tin. This would clearly attract stamp collectors, but would most EAGLE readers be more attracted to the 'Dan Dare' picture cards being given away by Calvert's Tooth Powder, advertised a few pages earlier?     

On page fourteen 'Storm Nelson - Sea Adventurer' continued his first adventure, which had begun in October. This strip was written by Guy Morgan (as Edward Trice) and drawn by Richard Jennings. Morgan was a successful screenwriter, whose credits then included The Captive Heart, based on his own novel and Albert R.N. Both these films were about prisoners of war and Morgan himself had been a prisoner of the Germans in the Second World War.  Albert R.N. was actually based on the experiences of the 'PC 49' artist John Worsley, who as a prisoner of war actually made the 'Albert' dummy to fool his German captors. Storm Nelson owned a large yacht, a helicopter and a submarine which he utilised in the cause of justice. With the story being halfway through, there was no reference to Christmas in the strip itself, but there is a Christmas greeting alongside the strip's title.

Page fifteen usually housed the 'Tommy Walls' serials, sponsored by Wall's Ice Cream, but in this issue, which was between adventures, Tommy presented a 'Christmas Page', with games and puzzles to use at parties. The illustrations here are by Richard Jennings, who was the regular artist on 'Tommy Walls' before taking on 'Storm Nelson'.

The final page (sixteen) features the latest episode of 'Alfred the Great', a serial about the life of the famous Saxon King. Written by Chad Varah and illustrated by Norman Williams, it does not reference Christmas. In previous years, the back page biographies had always managed to contrive a reference to the occasion, but this serial was well into Alfred's story and a Christmas reference would not have fitted. The issue acknowledged the feast in so many other ways, that there was no need to mention it here.    

IN AND OUT OF THE EAGLE 57

In 1964, EAGLE's publishers Odhams Press launched a new weekly called Wham! mainly created by the cartoonist Leo Baxendale, who had created 'The Bash Street Kids', 'Little Plum' and 'Minnie the Minx' for D.C. Thomson's Beano comic. Among the new characters he created for the new comic was 'Danny Dare', a boy who was 'Dan Dare's Number One Fan'. In this comedy strip, whenever Danny got into trouble, he would imagine what Dan Dare would do in a similar situation. Leo wrote and drew just three episodes of the strip (in Issues one, four and eight) as he could not produce almost an entire comic single handed every week and Artie Jackson became the regular artist, with Walter Thorburn taking over later. However, the strip included daydream scenes featuring Dan Dare and these were usually drawn in the 'adventure strip' style of Dan's adventures in EAGLE by Bruce Cornwell or Don Harley, who had worked on 'Dan Dare'. Keith Watson was the current artist on 'Dan Dare' at this time, but the demands of that strip kept him too busy to contribute to 'Danny Dare' as well. Towards the end of 'Danny Dare's' run, Jackson or Thorburn would also draw the 'adventure frames'. The strip ran until the final issue of Wham! which was Issue 187, although it did not appear in every issue and sometimes was just half a page. It regularly encouraged readers to read Dan Dare's adventures in EAGLE throughout its run and 'Danny' was occasionally promoted in EAGLE.  

DAN DARE'S SPECIAL PROJECT - A fabulous new informative resource from Italian enthusiasts!

 

The Italian Fumettomania Factory Association who are enthusiasts of British comics are completing a “Special Project” devoted to the ‘Dan Dare’ strip. The Project includes a series of articles covering all aspects of ‘Dan Dare’ from his creation in 1950 right up to the present day. They can be accessed online and are available in both Italian and English. John Freeman’s ‘Down the Tubes’ site and the EAGLE Society have assisted with this significant project, which includes articles by both Italian and British contributors. There is also a collection of videos from over the years relating to ‘Dan Dare’, including episodes from the 2002 CGI television series. The ‘Special Project’ is edited by Mario Benenati and Daniele Tomasi. 

https://www.fumettomaniafactory.net/fumettomania-presents-dan-dare-pilot-of-the-future/

DAN DARE MIGHT BE BACK!

B7 Comics has teamed up with bestselling author and screenwriter Alex de Campi (Rogue Trooper: Ghost Patrol and Duncan Jones’ Madi: Once Upon a Time in the Future) and artist Marc Laming (James Bond, Eden, Endeavour) for a three-book reimagining of Dan Dare’s adventures with the approval of the rights holders The Dan Dare Corporation.

“A dying planet, a desperate mission – and a first contact that may spell the end of human life as we know it…” sets the scene for these all-new Dan Dare comic book adventures. Dan Dare: First Contact is being planned as a 112-page, graphic novel which will be offered as an eBook, paperback, hardback and premium Kickstarter-exclusive hardback edition. 

“Alex and I are huge fans of Dan Dare from Frank Hampson and Frank Bellamy’s original stories of the 1950s and 60s, through to 2000AD’s more anarchic take on the character in late 70s. We are both extremely excited to bring Colonel Dare to a new audience,” says Marc Laming. 

 

“I think our tale has something for fans of the original Eagle stories and for lovers of modern sci fi action of the screen and books.”

 

Writer Alex de Campi adds; “It’s truly been an honour to be given the opportunity to bring Dan Dare to a whole new generation, making the story feel exciting and modern without losing any of the charm and wonder that has kept it a beloved classic for so long.”

 

The realisation of this new version depends on a crowdfunding campaign, which will launch on February 1^st 2026. If this is successful, Dan Dare: First Contact will be published in 2027. The script for the first book has already been written and Marc Laming has drawn some concept art.

Link to Kickstarter Page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IN AND OUT OF THE EAGLE 56

 

One of the many 'Dan Dare' products produced during the 1950s was the Wallis Rigby 'Anastasia' Presso Book. This provided press out cardboard parts which made up into a model of Dan's spaceship, named in honour of Digby's Aunt Anastasia, who was instrumental in preventing the Treens from conquering Earth. Brian Hayes, an EAGLE Society Member and collector recently acquired a copy of this book and has made up the model as shown below. Brian placed a Kentoys 'Dan Dare' figure for scale.  

Normally when these books become available, collectors are reluctant to spoil the book by making the model, but Brian found a poor quality book with browned and brittle text pages, but perfect metallic model pages, so he was happy to make up the model.  

IN AND OUT OF THE EAGLE 55

This is the front page of D.C. Thomson's Hotspur story paper dated August 23rd 1947 and the 'eagle' picture is notably similar to our own EAGLE symbol which adorned the weekly from Issue One in April 1950. Our own symbol was created by Frank Hampson and was based on an 'eagle' shaped inkwell on Marcus Morris' desk. The choice of the name EAGLE for the weekly was inspired by the 'eagle' lectern in Morris' parish church, St. James' in Birkdale, Southport. 

The Hotspur was launched in 1933 as a weekly for boys, which contained text stories, not comic strips. It was the last of D.C. Thomson's 'big five' boys' story papers, after Adventure (1921), Rover (1922), Wizard (1922) and Skipper (1930) to be launched The first issue sold over 350,000 copies and my father bought one, which I still have. During the Second World War it became a fortnightly publication due to paper rationing, increasing to three issues a month in 1946 and back to a weekly in 1949. It ran for 1,997 issues until October 1959, when it was relaunched as a comic strip paper and initially retitled The New Hotspur. It then ran for another 1,110 issues until it merged with Victor in January 1981. 

Like many boys' papers, The Hotspur stories and later strips covered school, sports, detective, war, spy, science fiction and historical adventure stories. 
 

EAGLE TIMES Vol. 38 No. 3 Autumn 2025

The new EAGLE Times is out now. In this issue are articles about Willie Patterson, Ron Embleton and John Burns' strip 'Wrath of the Gods', which joined EAGLE when it absorbed Boys' World; Luis Bermejo's work on 'Heros the Spartan', and the second part of the back page strip about Winston Churchill 'The Happy Warrior'. There is also the latest part of David Britton's 'Me Too' series about female artists of the 1950s, which looks at the art of Daphne Bevis Rowles, whose work included the 'Nicky Nobody' strip for Swift. The issue also includes two more 'In and Out of the EAGLE' pages by Jim Duckett, the first part of a new Archie Willoughby story 'The Case of the Brand New Hat', a page looking at some of the readers' letters that appeared in EAGLE and four pages of our own readers' letters. Copies can be obtained from Bob Corn at the address on the right.