Virgin Comics is bringing Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future out of retirement to star in a new line of comics and a big-screen adaptation.
Variety reports that the classic British science fiction character is a favorite of Virgin’s Richard Branson, who spearheaded the effort to acquire publishing, film, television and video game rights to the Frank Hampson creation.
The new comic, which debuts in November, will be written by Garth Ennis.
“Dan Dare is the quintessential British hero,” Ennis tells the trade paper. “He’s our Captain America, our Superman, our Batman; he’s all of them rolled into one.”
Dare first appeared in April 1950 in the Eagle weekly comics magazine, and has continued off and on, in one comic or another, ever since. A serialized Dare strip, by Grant Morrison and Rian Hughes, appeared in Revolver magazine in 1990.
Related: Profile of Virgin’s Sharad Devarajan
August 27th, 2007 at 9:49 am
Awesome! First comment!
Great news about this, you can pretty much guarantee anything Ennis will rule!
August 27th, 2007 at 9:51 am
Okay, I’m trying to see Dan Dare as written by Ennis in my mind’s eye. And I just can’t see it. At all.
Either this is Ennis going to be writing against Ennis, or it’s going to be a %^&*(&^*&% of a ^%&^( &*^*(&. With swear words.
August 27th, 2007 at 9:53 am
Great news! I loved Dan Dare in the Eagle revival when I was a kid. As long as we get Digby, the Mekon and the Treens I’ll be a happy camper!
Now how about Saddle Tramp and Doomlord? Maybe Manix or the Tower King? Walk or Die? Gil Hazzard? So many possibilities…
August 27th, 2007 at 9:55 am
This will be my first Virgin comic.
I’ll be curious if it’s more in the style of the original series (ie positive) or in the style of the Morrison Mini from a bunch of years ago.
I’d like to see someone try Perry Rhodan over here again, meself.
August 27th, 2007 at 10:08 am
Its by Ennis, I am in !
August 27th, 2007 at 10:16 am
drawn by Chris Weston?
August 27th, 2007 at 10:29 am
Am I the only one who sees giving Garth Ennis, who’s writing is pessimistic bordering on fatalistic, a property historically rooted in optimism as being a very bad idea?
August 27th, 2007 at 10:58 am
If it’s anything like the Punisher:The End one-shot, it will be a classic.
“Blinding signs flap. Flicker, flicker,flicker, blam! Pow, pow!
Stairway scare…Dan Dare, who’s there?”
-Pink Floyd ‘Astronomy Domine’
August 27th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Hmmm, I like Ennis, I like Dan Dare but they seem a strange marraige. It’s the first Virgin book I’ve been really curious about though.
August 27th, 2007 at 11:14 am
chris weston pls!
August 27th, 2007 at 11:16 am
This is interesting though how many re-inventions is Dan Dare going to have? Ennis is a pretty muscular, disrepectful writer but Dan Dare was pretty much deconstructed in the UK Revolver comic in the early 90s and my suspiscion is that Ennis will probably go this way with Mr Dare. And I’m not sure that’s right for the character.
August 27th, 2007 at 11:26 am
Judging from his work on Battler Britton for Wildstorm, I honestly doubt Ennis is going to try to change the formula too much here.
August 27th, 2007 at 11:27 am
I recently discovered Dan Dare through the Titan reprints, and have come to enjoy the character and world. So long as Ennis is true to the type and tone of the original (avoiding deconstruction and the like), I’ll actually be onboard for this.
August 27th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Of course it’s not a joke.
It wasn’t a joke back in May either.
http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/index.cgi?column=litg&article=2791
August 27th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
Drawn by Gary Erskine. Excellent choice.
August 27th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Wheter it’ll be Gary Erskine, Chris Weston or anybody else it hopefully atracts me visually. This is my only concern about Virgin’s books so far.
August 27th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
Although I’ll get this on the strength of the creative team alone, I can’t help but be a little disappointed that they didn’t get Grant Morrison for this one.
August 27th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Has the Morrison strip ever been collected?
August 27th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Jon, yes, several times. It’s currently in print in Rian Hughes’s recently anthology of work.
August 27th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
http://previews.diamondcomics.com/public/default.asp?t=1&m=1&c=23&s=126&ai=59803&ssd=
DAN DARE #1
Written by: Garth Ennis
Art by: Gary Erskine
Cover by: Bryan Talbot; Variant Cover by: Greg Horn
Dan Dare was once a hero. He brokered peace with alien races, pushed the frontiers of space, and saved the planet from total annihilation… repeatedly. But now, his Space Fleet has disbanded, the United Nations has crumbled, his friends scattered to the solar winds. Britain is once again the world power, but Dare, disillusioned and disappointed in his once-precious home country, has quietly retired. But there’s trouble mustering in Deep Space. The H.M.S. Achilles is picking up strange signals when, suddenly, an enormous fleet of hostile ships ambushes the destroyer. As the crew struggles to stay alive, they realize with horror that the hostiles have brought a weapon of unimaginable power. Dan Dare, pilot of the future, has been called out of retirement!
32pgs, FC (1 of 7) $2.99
August 27th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
Thanks Rich! And for any other interested parties…
http://www.amazon.com/Yesterdays-Tomorrows-Rian-Hughes/dp/0861661540/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-8215091-9076457?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188236808&sr=8-1
August 27th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
A writer from Belfast scripting a “British Empire in space” book. The cosmic giggle continues…
August 27th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
“Colonel Dare, take us poor fools home… And we’ll cook you the biggest hotpot supper you’ve ever dreamed of.”
Personally, I can’t wait!
August 27th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
I LOVE YA GARTH ENNIS!I’M YOUR ITALIAN(MALE) BITCH!!!!!-so.what about Morrison version?-
August 27th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
“A writer from Belfast scripting a “British Empire in space” book. The cosmic giggle continues…”. Well spotted.
That’s why I’ve defended Ennis’s work on Judge Dredd several times in the past. He’s an Northern Irish Catholic, a guy who grew up during our Troubles, a writer with more reason than most to be cynical about this stuff, yet he writes Dredd in a much more sympathetic way than usual, than Wagner ever tends to, than probably any writer since Pat Mill’s work on THE CURSED EARTH and JUDGE CAL. There’s a complexity in his writing about military, authority, or establishment figures, that many readers have missed, condemning him as purely cynical.
August 27th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Ennis has also stated that he’s deeply, deeply embarassed by his Judge Dredd strips.
August 27th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
“He’s our Captain America, our Superman, our Batman; he’s all of them rolled into one.”
ORRRR he looks just like Adam strange and probably as boring
August 27th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Sweeeeet! Waited long enough for the return or Dan Dare. Hope they keep him the same as the classic hero.
August 27th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
WOW, Garth Ennis on Dan Dare. I’ll definitely be looking out for this. I would have thought this was more up Andy Diggles street, but really excited to see what Ennis has planned.
August 28th, 2007 at 1:58 am
It is great news for me, a life-long fan of Dan Dare in all his different incarnations (1950’s and 60’s original Eagle, 70’s 2000AD, 80’s and 90’s new Eagle, 2002 CGI cartoon series). I am now very much looking forward to this new version!
Regards,
Pete Inns.
(An Intro to Dan Dare)
August 28th, 2007 at 6:43 am
Having tracked down War Stories and Battler Briton, I can say that Ennis is in my view the perfect fit for this title, and I cannot wait.
August 28th, 2007 at 10:43 am
Am I the only one realizing the contradiction between Ennis doing this and The Boys?
August 29th, 2007 at 9:03 am
Expect lots of homophobic commentary.
October 29th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
Both the 2000AD incarnation and the 1980s Eagle incarnation ended with Dan Dare in exile. So in a way this incarnation picks up where they left off. Brilliant.
(Don’t know how things ended in Lion and in 1990s Eagle though. Anyone ?)