Well another year has come to an end and another one started - so may I wish all my readers a very HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Although this page was last updated in October that does not mean that work has not been continuing - indeed several pages have been updated with information provided by your own emails, others have been updated as I get time to list them, such as the Fleetway Original Art page and new pages have been added for Fleetway artists Giorgio Trevisan and Carlo Jacono (who did some wonderful cover work on the Fleetway Super Library series). I have also enlarged the Seagull Index and tidied up the Comic Novels page. There is also a new gallery to view that shows the Hulton Birthday Cards produced in the 1950's based on the characters from Eagle, Girl, Swift and Robin.

I am still toying with the idea of extending the Fleetway section with a "Join the Club" page showing the various comic club badges, membership cards and other good things that comic readers could get with a self-addressed envelope and a 6d postal order - time allowing.

For Dan Dare afficiandos I have added a new page showing every story that featured Dan in both the old and new Eagle and various other publications - my grateful thanks to the folks at the 2000AD.NU website for letting me use this. It is my intention to eventually enlarge this to include the various foreign reprints.

As always ENJOY and if you want to correct me, or add further information, please email me.

4th January 2008

What makes comics comics? Why the wonderful artwork of course. I have received several kind comments about the artwork that I have placed on this site. Most of these pieces (though by no means all) come from my own collection.

In answer to the questions - I have now placed a new page on this site from where you may see full page scans of some of these pieces. This is definately a work in progress, but please ENJOY the original Fleetway artwork.

27th October 2007

Barbara Kershner's Dan Dare montage for the Luxembourg Comic Expo in 2003.

Well guess what? DANDARE.INFO has just been contacted by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in connection with a BBC4 documentary programme they are making on Thunderbirds. Seems many people have stated that they were influenced by Dan Dare, and so the Beeb want to use Barbara's wonderful montage of Dan Dare for the programme - will she accept?

UPDATE January 08: Yes Barbara has accepted the BBC's offer and I was asked by them to identify the various images used in the montage - which I have done. Now we wait with baited breath to see the result.

8th October 2007

The publicity cover (above) drawn by Bryan Talbot. © Virgin Comics.

You just can't keep him down! Dan Dare is back (AGAIN). This time in a new series of comics about to be released by Virgin Comics.

The author is Garth (Preacher) Ennis, and the strip is drawn by artist Gary Erskine who has already done several stories for 2000AD. Gary Leach, familiar to UK readers for his work on Judge Dredd, The V.C.'s, and Tharg's Future Shocks, will be providing the covers.

Rumours abound that a film will soon follow - but we have heard that one before, so let us be optimistically retiscent.

Back in March this year I told readers about the arrival of a "rough", for a Dan Dare commission that I had placed with Don Harley. Well the finished article popped into my post a few days ago - and I think it is beautiful - thanks Don! Click here to see the rough and the finished piece.

21st September 2007

Time seems to fly these days and I find that it is nearly five months since I have updated this page. But of course the work on the rest of the site still goes on. During the last few months I have added some more Fleetway Galleries (Picture Libraries and Comic Novels) and various small amendments have been placed in many pages.

Thanks to all of you that have written to inform me of new information or corrections that need to be made - I hope that I have replied to everyone (and I have added your info). Never forget, I am always ready to be corrected - just email me.

23rd August 2007

It is with sadness that DANDARE.INFO has learnt of the death of Massimo Belardinelli. After a long, and hard fought illness Massimo passed away at the end of March. He will be sorely missed. It is therefore somehow fitting that the long awaited article by Romano Felmang on Massimo is finally ready in English: click here for more.

Just prior to taking a short break in Italy I was contacted by Jim Williams who told me a little of what it was like to work for Fleetway's Photographic Studio in the 1960's. I hope that he will contribute some more reminiscences to the new page.

For Massimo Carnevale fans I can report that there are now five albums published by Euracomix containing his comic strip artwork. These are:

108 - Uomini e Topi (Men and Mice)
120 - Uomini e Topi Vol. 2
152 - Il Dono di eric (Eric's Gift)
181 - I Colori di Carnevale (various short strips)
185 - I Colori di Carnevale Vol. 2 (various short strips)

All these can be bought via internet from Alessandro Libreria (Bologna, Italy).

11th April 2007

I have just received a letter from Dan Dare artist Don Harley, enclosing the rough for a commission that I have placed with him. Don has taken my original idea and bettered it - I am absolutely delighted with the rough and if the finished painted version is half as good I will be in heaven. View it here.

Don also tells me that German publisher Echart Schott (of Salek Publications) has finally released the long awaited German version of "The Red Moon Mystery". Don has been invited to the Contern (Luxembourg) Comic Festival by Echart to take part in the signing, and I will look forward to seeing them both again.

23rd March 2007

I have in my collection a few editions of Collins Seagull Library. These were juvenile books of ripping yarns that were published between about 1950 and 1975. Well, I was browsing on the web looking for an index to this series the other day - and I could not find one! So I decided to create my own. Please take a look at the Introduction and the illustrated index.

21st February 2007

Happy New Year to everyone! I bet you had thought I had disappeared didn't you? Well if you had been following this site you know that just is not so: there are lots of new pages on the site, plus LOTS of stuff I have not got around to completing yet, but it's coming.

So first off, I have added a new page on Eagle second-string hero Luck of the Legion, and at the suggestion of Adrian Perkins a new page showing the International Dan Dare Albums, and a complete page of covers from the Spanish version of Dan, Diego Valor. Various new pieces of artwork have been added to the Fleetway artist pages, and new pages on Carlos Pino, Nadal, Carlos Freixas and Martin Salvador.

As if that is not excitement enough, I have also extensively updated the Fleetway Comics and Story Paper Galleries, and added a new Story Library Gallery.

What I am currently working on is a re-vamp of the French SF listings: whew! This is hard work and time consuming, but I am on the way.

Let me know if there is anything you would like to see on this site - I am always willing to oblige. Email: dandare.info@hotmail.com

18th January 2007

There seems to have been a recent flurry of activity centered around Italian artist Massimo Belardinelli. Having read on this site that Massimo is indeed alive (though feeling a bit poorly with heart problems) , several MB enthusiasts have started an MB chat site on Yahoo! - email them at themassimobelardinelligroup@yahoogroups.com

MB fan supremo, Robbie Cox, has also been kind enough to get the interview that Romano Felmang sent me to over a year ago translated (THANK YOU ROBBIE). Romano has got the interview printed in an Italian fanzine (Ink No. 39). This interview will be going up on this site, in English, later this week.

15th October 2006

I can hardly believe that it is nearly five months since I last wrote something on this page - but it seems to be true. Admittedly, work has been taking it's tole recently, but I have still been working on this site. The Solano Lopez check-list has been updated thanks to Spanish reader José, and I have also added pictures to the Fleetway Comics Gallery and the Fleetway Story Paper Gallery. There is also a brand new gallery for the Fleetway Story Libraries. As soon as I search out more comics from the loft I will add them to the galleries.

4th October 2006

It is with great sadness that I have to announce the death of Ferdinando Tacconi who passed away on Thursday 11th May. Most well known in the UK for his strip Jet Morgan in Express comic, he also worked on many projects for the UK and hundreds in Europe.

2nd June 2006

Well it's been another busy month for me work-wise, but I am still tweaking this site. I have added a new artist page for Romero - although better known for his Modesty Blaise and Axa strips, he is an old Fleetway veteran, in fact his last project was Durham Red. I have also updated the Fleetway History page: I have replaced the images of the Fleetway comics with images of original Fleetway artwork from my collection - hope you like it.

I really appreciate the kind words that I am receiving about this site, and my thanks to all of you who have taken the trouble to contact me - it makes these long lonely evenings worth while.

14 May 2006

For the last week I have been tweaking bits of the site, ensuring that links work and also changing a few of the illustrations used, including a roll-over of 30 different pin-ups and covers by Romano Felmang. I have also added a new page on comic illustrator Fortunino Matania and updated my Wants list as well as expanding my
For Sale list. Hope you enjoy 'cause there is a lot more to come.

5 April 2006

Sometimes there is a long wait before new additions are placed on this site: other times they follow fast and furious. So it is this month with yet more updates. I have added more info into the Fleetway History page, plus a new index of the Fleetway Story Papers, plus two small galleries showing some of the Fleetway Comics and Story Papers that have appeared over the last 100 years. On top of that I have added some new Bellardinelli artwork (Ace Trucking Co.) and some pictorial additions to the pages on Alessandro Chiarollo and Solano Lopez. Enjoy.

12 March 2006

I think it's snowing in Scandanavia! The reason I say this is that I have been contacted by Tampsa Ranta-aho from Finland who has told me about the Dan Dare strips published there. Click here to read all about it.

I have also received an email from Bengt Wahlström from Sweden which I cannot resist publishing here: it typifies all of us who love comics;

I was a 10 year old reader of the Swedish version of Eagle - Falken (Falcon) when it was published in Sweden. I remember that our teacher told us about a new boys comic comming up. I bought all of the 18 numbers that came out bi-weekly in Sweden 1955. I liked it wery much especially Dan Dare or Dan Djärv in Swedish which is a clean translation of Daring. I remember going to the newspaper store for a coupple of month after it had ended in Sweden. Didn´t understand that it had a parent magazine in England.

During the late1980:s I saw the first Dan Dare C 64 computer game and recconaised my Hero. I asked an English friend of mine if he know anything about Dan Dare and he sure did. He told me all about the early Eagle succses in England.

Naturally I had lost my old copies a long time before that but still rembered the Dan Dare Story - Prisoners of Space - that run in the Swedish issues. He bought me Alastair Cromptons book The Man Who Drew Tomorrow and i was hooked up again. Started to collect all of Hawks Deluxe serie and now to the strangest or happy point with this story - it must have been 1990 when I recconised that Prisoners of Space were due to be published in the reprint serie and I asked my whife whom was going on a business trip to England to look in some bookstore to find me a copy. When I met her on the airport - I didnt said -welcom home - just - Did you get the book! Yes - she said and then I kissed her. Imagin the feeling - after 35 years I could read the complete story. A dream come true.

Thank you Bengt. If anyone else has stories to tell please get in touch - I might even start a new readers page.

10 March 2006

The other day I was trying to upload some more scans to this site when I received a strange message - apparently this site is now over 50Mb. Having contacted my hosting service (www.101sitehosting.com) who are really excellent and are to be thoroughly recommended - end of commercial - I can happily inform you that we are now aiming for double that size!

Just as well really as I have now uploaded the complete(?) Amalgamated Press / Fleetway Comic index and a potted history of those companies. As always please let me know about any errors or ommissions.

4 March 2006

Well a few things this time - first I have archived the What's New page texts for 2005. But they are still available here.

It just goes to show that there are always surprises in life: I have just found a new website detailing Dan Dare's adventures in Finland - a country that I did not even know published Dan Dare. It also shows such Finnish favourites as Rick Random, Jet-Ace Logan, The Spider, Robot Archie and The Steel Claw. Frustratingly the text is in Finnish. The site is situated at http://users.tkk.fi/~rauta/scifi/dandare.html

I have added a new page for Finland to my list and would be happy to hear from anybody who can tell me more about this.

On another front, I have received an email plea from a reader for further details about Spanish artist Carme Barbara. The writer is trying to contact Miss Barbara. This lady artist worked on the Spanish title Heroinas (see below for some samples of her work) during the 1950s and 1960s and also did some work for Fleetway (girls comics?) via the art agencies.

If you recognise her style or could tell me what comics she worked on for Fleetway (looks like June artwork to me), or better yet, know of her present whereabouts I will pass this on.

26 February 2006

Living in Europe it is rather easy to discover new and wonderful comics. I have always been drawn to Italy, and their comics. So, if you want to read something new I have just added a short history of Italian comics. Enjoy.

11 February 2006

A belated HAPPY NEW YEAR to all my readers. Regular readers may have noticed that I have not written on this page for a while - I can only plead that a new job has eaten into my time. However, I have been updating this site with various additions that have been sent to me or with pieces of information that has come to light. There are (again) no large changes, but further information has been received about Dan Dare appearances in Portugal - thanks to João Mimoso for this.

I have also created a Wants page: if you can help me to acquire various comics for my collection I would be most grateful.

31 January 2006

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