Eagle was launched on 14 April 1950 and conceived as a more wholesome counterpoint to imported American comics.
Devised by Anglican vicar Marcus Morris and fellow Lancastrian Frank Hampson, the comic was a great success and quickly became the must-read weekly comic.
Eagle had good-quality paper, full-colour photogravure, excellent artwork and front-page hero Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future, the greatest astronaut of all time (written and drawn by Frank Hampson), doing battle against the bald green alien, The Mekon.
The Mancunian Colonel of the Interplanet Space Fleet was a lantern-jawed hero with distinctive hooked eyebrows who – with the assistance of his batman, Digby, his superior officer, Sir Hubert Guest, and the brains of Professor Jocelyn Peabody – fought the evil dome-headed alien genius.
Frank Hampson left towards the end of the 1950s, following Odhams Press’s acquisition, which led to creative differences.
Comics had previously been aimed at both boys and girls, but a definite gender split began with the Eagle – the big daddy of boys’ comics. It spawned a sister title aimed at girls a year later, titled simply Girl. A comic called Robin – for younger readers – followed in 1953.
From its inception through its incorporation into Lion in April 1969 and on to its rebirth through the 1980s and early 1990s, Eagle went where no comic had ever gone before.
Dan Dare resurfaced in 1977 in the pages of 2000 AD(although the new strip bore little resemblance to Frank Hampson’s original creation) and again in March 1982 when Eagle was resurrected.
The revised Eagle was printed on high-quality paper and added ‘photo stories’, including young footballers Thunderbolt and Smokey, a violent undercover cop named Sgt. Streetwise, Amicus-style twist-in-the-tale anthology The Collector, and the ruthless, flamboyantly garbed space vigilante, Doomlord.
The Adventure Club
The Beast of Loch Craggon
Can You Catch a Crook?
Captain Pugwash
Castle Sinister
Danger Unlimited
The Devil’s Henchmen
For Bravery
Fraser of Africa
The Guinea Pig
Heros the Spartan
Home of the Wanderers
The Iron Man
Jack O’Lantern
Johnny Frog
Knights of the Road
Last Apple Gang – attended Cement Street Secondary Modern in Smogbury and had adventures involving such specifically working-class situations as “a potato peeling job at the local fish and chip shop”
