Dan Dare Returns in 'First Contact' Graphic Novel
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- Dan Dare: First Contact is a 100-page graphic novel reviving the 1950s Eagle comic hero, written by Alex de Campi and illustrated by Marc Laming, and published by B7 Comics with blessing from the Dan Dare Corporation, which owns the rights to the character originally created by Manchester-born illustrator Frank Hampson.
- The new book, funded via a successful Kickstarter campaign and slated for a November release, rebuilds the Dare legend "from the ground up" with no prior knowledge required — coming as NASA eyes its Artemis II moon mission and the Ryan Gosling film Project Hail Mary rides a box-office wave.
- Digby is rewritten from a middle-aged, bumbling "batman" (servant) into a young working-class engineer and inventor — though he remains, reassuringly for fans, from Wigan.
- Prof Jocelyn Peabody is now of Indian descent; de Campi said that reframing matters because "any space exploration story is by nature a story about colonisation, and it makes it more interesting to have someone who has the experience of being colonised in her cultural heritage."
- The setting is rebooted for a climate-ravaged future in which the USA has become the "United Corporations of America" with privatised space flight, while the UK, after nearly dismantling public services in the 2020s, is depicted as a progressive vanguard that recommitted to universal healthcare, education, and state-run space flight.
- De Campi framed the project as an alternative to the West's two dominant space franchises, arguing that Star Wars and Star Trek have grown so sprawling "it becomes an impediment to new audiences."
- Earlier revivals include the 1977 relaunch in 2000AD, a 1982 Eagle relaunch, and a 1990 Revolver strip by Grant Morrison and Rian Hughes that depicted Dare as aged and bitter — a revisionist note the new creators are explicitly steering away from.
Why it matters: The reboot reframes a quintessentially British, post-war optimistic property for a climate-conscious, post-privatisation generation — making Britain the public-sector space hero while America sells out. For B7 Comics and the Dan Dare Corporation, it is a bet that a 1950s character with "sense of hope and wonder" can compete with Star Wars and Star Trek for new readers, funded by fans rather than a major publisher.
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