'Working on Dan Dare has been a dream project'

A comic book artist and illustrator said working on a re-boot of the Dan Dare comics was a "dream project" as it was his father's favourite character.

Marc Laming, who lives in Hatfield, and comic writer Alex de Campi have reinvented the classic British sci-fi adventure strip after getting the blessing of the rights holders.

Dan Dare made his debut as the lead character in The Eagle comic in 1950. He was created by Frank Hampson, who wrote most of the stories and oversaw the art for the first 10 years.

Laming said: "[Dad] would often tell me about the comics he had read that were given to him by billeted G.I.s during the war and later how much he had loved the adventures of Dan Dare."

The Eagle Comic originally ran from 1950 to 1969 and was reprinted between 1982 and 1994.

Many of Dan's exploits took place on Venus, a divided planet, inhabited by the emotionless Treens and their megalomaniac leader The Mekon in the north, and the peaceable Therons in the south.

A cheerful, trustworthy soul, Dan had many friends who aided him in his exploits, including faithful batman Spaceman Class 1 Albert Digby, his boss, Sir Hubert Guest, Spacefleet Controller, fellow pilots Hank and Pierre, and boffin Professor Jocelyn Peabody.

Missions were usually undertaken in his personal spaceship, the Anastasia.

Laming recalls that his father "did not approve" of the 2000AD version of Dan Dare, which hit news stands in 1977, which was very different to what had gone before.

"I hid my copies of 2000AD under my bed," said Laming.

That same year his father came home "with a huge hardback book which was a new collection of the best of The Eagle, so I got to see and fall in love with the original Dan Dare."

Laming's interest in comic books started from a young age.

"I always loved picture and comic books and I was obsessed with drawing so much that no surface was safe in the house," he said.

"Most people grow out of these things around 12 but I became more driven to tell stories with my pictures and more and more interested in comics are an art form."

Laming is best known for his work on Marvel Comics' Star Wars series.

Recently he worked with Stephanie Phillips on Endeavour, a thriller about seven children stranded on a historical recreation of an 18th Century sailing ship.

For Laming's latest project, he teamed up with comic writer Alex de Campi.

The result is Dan Dare: First Contact, the first volume in a three-book graphic novel saga, which is due to be published later this year.

Ahead of that the pair have shared some fully lettered and coloured pages.

First Contact, as the name suggests, is all about humanity's first encounter with an alien race.

"It's not the one you might expect, not the Treens or the Mekon, but they are aliens from a classic Dan Dare story. They're very unsettling," said De Campi.

Dan Dare is a pilot in the British space fleet, the only non-privatised space agency left on Earth.

In First Contact, Dan and his new friends, young working-class inventor Al Digby and leading xenobiologist Prof Peabody, race against time to solve the mystery of how a comet has changed direction on its own before it devastates Earth.

"Lots of the classic Dan Dare characters reappear," De Campi added.

"Digby, he's still from Wigan. Pro Peabody, Sir Hubert, Hank, Pierre, plus loads of new characters.

"It is meant so you can go in completely cold and just be swept away by the story.

"However, if you are already a Dan Dare fan, there's a ton of references to the classic stories as well as a sincere respect for Frank Hampson's legacy from our entire creative team."

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