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| Art by Malcolm Douglas from a script by Lew Stringer. |
I was recently interviewed for Spaceship Away magazine, the comic dedicated to Dan Dare and other space heroes of the 1950s. The reason being that back in 1986 I wrote a Dan Dare spoof serial for Oink! comic entitled Ham Dare, Pig of the Future.
Ham Dare was illustrated by the brilliant Malcolm Douglas (using his alias J.T. Dogg) and he accomplished wonders with it. I was lucky to have him drawing my script.
You can find out more about the background to Ham Dare (and other Dan Dare parodies) in Spaceship Away No.53, available to buy from this link:
The interview is part of a six page feature called The Fake Dan Dare Syndrome by Andrew Darlington which also includes other Dan Dare spoofs and related strips such as Danny Dare from Wham!. The article mentions that my Ham Dare plot bears a passing resemblance to the 1957 novel Wolfbane by Frederik Pohl.... which came as a surprise to me because I'd never even heard of that book until now!
Spaceship Away features brand new stories of the original Dan Dare along with colour reprints of Jeff Hawke and other material. There's also a tribute to the marvellous artist Don Harley who passed away in January.
If you want to know more about Oink! comic, be sure to check out the Oink! Blog run by Phil Boyce: https://oink.blog/
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| Art by Malcolm Douglas, script by me. |
never a BIG fan of Dan Dare (despite having worked on a very little bit of work which was authorised by the whatever estate which handles Dan Dare) but it is a UK classic and what i got/read isn't bad, just doesn't quite appeal to me.
ReplyDeleteAs for Pohl.. I must admit.. i don't think i've read any of his work yet i know the name and rep.. I only really know two of his stories.. The Midas Plague and Tunnel under the world and then its because they were adapted into episodes of Out of the Unknown, both of which still exist..
Perhaps you read that Pohl novel when you were younger? 1957 is an awfully long time ago and no one could possibly remember everything they've read in a lifetime. It's surprising what we absorb and bubbles away in our reserve memories. Like they say nothing is original!
ReplyDeleteAs I said, I've never heard of the book. Never been a big fan of SF novels so have definitely never read it. I certainly wasn't around in 1957!
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