Eagle

Eagle Comic

The Eagle was a British weekly comic, which ran in two main incarnations over the period of 1950 to 1994 (with accompanying annuals). It is strongly associated with its flagship character, Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, (created and illustrated by Frank Hampson in the earlier photographic format), doing battle against the Mekon and other interplanetary foes.

Up until this time, comics had been aimed at both boys and girls, but a definite gender split began to open up, with the Eagle and Girl (1951 – 1964), clearly aimed at different markets.

The Eagle was the creation of the Reverend Marcus Morris, who intended it as a Christian antidote to what he saw as the bad influence of American comics during the post-war period. He strove to produce high quality, inspirational literature unlike any existing at the time, involving the work of teams of graphic artists such as Frank Hampson and Frank Bellamy - even creating mockups of spaceships to use as reference for Dan Dare. The Eagle and its sister papers Girl, Swift and Robin were read by millions throughout the 1950s and 1960s and it became the most popular comic in British history, selling over 2 million copies per week.

This first version ran from 14 April 1950 to 26 April 1969, when it merged with Lion. Originally published by Hulton Press, it was taken over in 1960 by Odhams, which was renamed Longacre Press. The following year Odhams was taken over by the Daily Mirror Group (now IPC), who produced The Eagle until 1969.

The back page of The Eagle was usually devoted to depicting the life story of a (usually) historic character, told in the normal strip format over many months. These included The Happy Warrior (the life of Winston Churchill), The Shepherd King (the life of the biblical King David), Gordon of Khartoum (the life of General Gordon), Montgomery of Alamein (the life of Lord Montgomery), all drawn by Frank Bellamy; and The Road of Courage (the life of Jesus Christ), drawn by Frank Hampson.

As well as strips there was heavy factual content, including regular reports from The Eagle's own "Special Correspondent", former war correspondent Macdonald Hastings (father of Max Hastings, the newspaper editor), cutaway drawings of vehicles and machinery (by artists such as L. Ashwell Wood, reader contributions, and items of interest such as how to perform magic tricks.



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