At £8.50 the comic isn't cheap, and some critics said it would never last, but here we are at issue 34. The price is down to its limited print run of course and its high production values, which I'm sure its readers appreciate. It's great to see the mag surviving as it always offers interesting and well produced content.
Spaceship Away is published three times a year and as this issue will be the current one over the winter months the all-new Dan Dare lead strip kicks off with an authentic 1950s style Christmas Eagle cover.
The artwork on the two Dan Dare serials is by Tim Booth (who also writes the scripts). Tim puts a lot into his work and the pages are evocative of classic Eagle. I just wish Spaceship Away didn't use Comic Sans for the lettering as it's not a good font and distracts from otherwise fine work.
There's a complete 8 page reprint of a Jet Morgan strip by Charles Chilton and Bruce Cornwell from an unspecified annual (presumably Express Annual). Sadly this has been re-lettered with Comic Sans. Don't let that put you off though.
The issue contains some excellent features too. An illustrated review of the Dan Dare strips from the Eagle Annuals of the sixties and seventies, a fascinating account of the attempts to produce a Dan Dare TV series, an article on the evolution of Ron Turner's Space Ace strip, a fantastic new cutaway illustration of a Treen Interceptor by Graham Bleathman, and photographs of a 1950s 'Dan Dare Remote Control Helicopter' kit.
There's a free gift with this edition too, in the form of a new 24 page Dan Dare prose story by Denis Steeper.
To find out more about Spaceship Away and to buy your copy, visit the official website here:
http://spaceshipaway.org.uk/
2 comments:
Those Eagle covers with Dan Dare on were masterpieces. The 1980's Eagle, (which I collected ) was a totally different animal to the original. I wish I could collect all of those!
You can find issues at reasonable prices for both old and 'new' Eagle on eBay sometimes John. It'd cost far too much to buy them all though admittedly.
I didn't care much for 1980s Eagle at the time but I wish something like that was still around today.
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