The end of Dan Dare! (1967)

Last week I showed the penultimate Dan Dare story (from the 1966 Christmas Eagle) so it's only fair to show you the final episode from the following week. This was how the original run of Dan Dare ended. The series had begun in Eagle Vol.1 No.1 in 1950 and concluded in Eagle Vol.18 No.1 dated 7th January 1967. 

An impressive run of 17 years deserved a significant final episode, and in the end Dan Dare is promoted to Controller of the Spacefleet. A footnote tells us that Dan is to be deskbound and will write his memoirs... in truth Dan Dare was going to go reprint from the following week, re-presenting stories from the 1950s.

That final chapter is rather odd in its page design. Only two panels, and a huge caption. The artwork by Keith Watson is superb though. 

Here's how the strip appeared the following week, reprinting early Frank Hampson material...

Although a significant ending to the strip, it must have disappointed faithful fans to imagine that dynamic Dan Dare was being consigned to a desk job! He clearly had many more years of adventuring in him, but it would be ten years before he was revived for 2000AD in 1977, and that version didn't sit well with hardcore fans either.

Dan Dare has been brought back a few times since of course, in the new Eagle, in Revolver, the Virgin Comics series, the Titan Comics series, and arguably most faithfully in Spaceship Away comic. It seems you can't consign The Pilot of the Future to a desk forever!  

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