Dan Dare, U.K. comics hero, sets sights on U.S.

In the United States of the 1950s, when a youngster fantasized about hopping on a rocket and fighting the good fight against evil aliens, Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon was the name that came to mind. But in the United Kingdom, the hero of choice was Dan Dare, the brave chief pilot of the Interplanet Space Fleet. This week, Dare makes a grand return to the pop-culture scene, and this time, people may even pay attention on this side of the Atlantic.

Created in 1950, Dare was a U.K. sensation in comics, a radio serial that aired five nights a week and an unprecedented avalanche of merchandising. What set him apart, though, was the ambition behind his adventures; his creator, Frank Hampson, brought in Arthur C. Clarke as an advisor and also set up an elaborate studio system, with teams of artists working on each page of the Dare comics. The results echoed through the decades; Dare has been revived often (and parodied) in British comics, radio, television and video games. Pink Floyd and David Bowie lyrics also mention the hero, while Elton John gave him an entire 1975 song, “Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future.”

Another famous fan is Richard Branson, the entrepreneur behind the Virgin brand name. Branson’s year-old Virgin Comics will release its first issue of Dan Dare this week, and, with the company’s Hollywood connections (a partnership deal with the Sci Fi Channel and comics projects underway with Nicolas Cage, Guy Ritchie and “Wire” co-creator Ed Burns), there may be other universes for Dare to visit.

The Dare comics, meanwhile, have star power in Garth Ennis, creator of “The Preacher,” the bleak, violent comic that HBO is developing. The Ennis script picks up with the hero “retired, living in exile, essentially, because he’s disillusioned or perhaps just lost his faith because things didn’t go the way he expected.” Then, of course, evil rears its ugly head and the old war horse suits up. Thankfully, said Ennis, “Dan Dare has an enormous sense of duty and a large dollop of British reserve.”

-- Geoff Boucher