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 in 1950 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 o’the Legion, the James Bond-esque Storm Nelson, the inept pirate Captain Pugwash, and many others.
