Eagle

Eagle was launched on 14 April 1950 and conceived as a more wholesome counterpoint to imported American comics.

The comic was a great success and spawned a sister title aimed at girls a year later, titled simply Girl. A comic called Robin – for younger readers – followed in 1953.

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 (by Frank Hampson) doing battle against the bald green alien Mekon.

Up until this time comics had been aimed at both boys and girls, but a definite gender split began with the Eagle – the big daddy of boys’ comics.

From its inception through its incorporation into Lion in 1969 and on to its rebirth through the 1980s and early 1990s, Eagle went where no comic had ever gone before.

Dan Dare was joined by the Foreign Legionnaire Luck Of The Legion, the James Bond-esque Storm Nelson, the inept pirate Captain Pugwash, and many others, including:

• The Adventure Club
• The Beast of Loch Craggon
• Can You Catch a Crook?
• 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”
• The Last of the Saxon Kings
• Mann of Battle
• Mark Question
• Marvel of MI5
• PC 49
• Riders of the Range
• Rob Conway
• Skippy the Kangaroo
• Sky Buccaneers
• Smokeman
• Speed Mann in H-Bomb Attack!
• Tommy Walls
• UFO Agent
• What’s His Name?
• Wild of the West!