Dare

"Dare", also known as Dare - The Controversial Memoir of Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future is a British dystopian science fiction comic story, starring the character Dan Dare . Written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Rian Hughes, the story originally began publication in the Fleetway Publications anthology Revolver in July 1990 before concluding in Crisis. The story is a revisionist take on Dare, using the character to satirise the government of Margaret Thatcher, and the treatment of the character's creator Frank Hampson. Creation Dan Dare had been created by artist Frank Hampson as the lead character for Marcus Morris' boys comic Eagle in 1950 and been an instant success. Dare become a cultural icon in Britain, with the character's name even becoming cultural shorthand for derring-do in space. However, in 1959 financial problems saw the Eagle sold to Odhams Press, who fired Hampson and his acclaimed art studio to cut costs. By the time Odhams were absorbed into IPC Magazines in 1969 and Eagle was merged with Lion, the strip had been running reprints for two years. Since then the character - or more precisely a descendent thereof who had the same name, personality and plot function - had been resurrected with mixed results in 2000 AD before a more enduring revival in IPC's new version of Eagle from 1982. The latter was still running in 1990 (having returned to telling new adventures of the original version of the character the previous year) as the character's 40th anniversary approached; however, while moderately successful in the contracting British children's comics of the time, neither the new Eagle or its Dan Dare strip made the same cultural impact as their illustrious forebears. Instead the industry's growth seemed to be in adult-orientated comics. IPC's successor Fleetway Publications attempted to gain a foothold in this market with the fortnightly anthology Crisis, which was enough of a success for editor Steve MacManus to be given the go ahead for a monthly companion title, Revolver. MacManus selected Peter Hogan as editor, and the pair began to search for stories.