Grant Morrison and Rian Hughes craft a bleak sci-fi political parable in ‘Dare’
On April 14, 1950, the science fiction strip Dan Dare — Pilot of the Future debuted as the star feature of the weekly British anthology comic Eagle; with its promotion of wholesome moral values, its optimistic vision of a progressive future, and its gripping adventure narratives featuring compelling characters, the strip garnered immediate acclaim and commercial success, becoming one of Britain’s most iconic comics. Decades later, writer Grant Morrison and artist Rian Hughes utilized the strip’s characters and setting to comment on contemporary British politics — as well as creators’ rights within the comics industry — in their bleak political parable comic Dare.
In the opening pages of Dare, a bank teller resists a policeman’s request to access the safe deposit box of retired Interplanet Space Fleet hero Colonel Dan Dare, the day after a pivotal election. The policeman responds by asking the teller a question (“Who did you vote for yesterday?”); when the teller reveals that he voted for the current regime, the policeman responds: “Then you voted for THIS.” The policeman’s words are a sharp clarification that our political choices are consequential, and establishes a central political theme of Dare.
The policeman retrieves Dare’s diary from the safe deposit box and delivers it to high-ranking government officials. Morrison uses the diary as a narrative device; as the officials read the diary and learn of Dare’s recent activities, so too does the reader.
Dare is in retirement, five years after a military action against the alien Treens left him wounded with a lame leg. Dare struggles to write his memoirs, a challenge that is interrupted by the news that Dare’s friend Professor Jocelyn Peabody has committed suicide. Peabody’s funeral reunites Dare with two past comrades — Dare’s constant companion Albert Digby, who has apparently fallen out with Dare, and Dare’s former commander, Sir Hubert Guest.
The grim funeral is a striking contrast to the optimism of the original Dan Dare strip; created by artist Frank Hampson with the support of editor Marcus Morris, the original feature was an earnest creative effort to combat the perceived bad influence of American horror comics on British youth, and the strip immediately earned the devotion of young readers and the supportive approval of adults. Set in the then-future decade of the 1990s, the strip offered its readers a utopian vision of the future — an Earth governed by a benevolent united world government, beautifully rendered imaginative spacecraft and planetary settings, and heroes that always made the right moral choices.
Blessed with a significant budget that allowed him to hire a studio of talented artists and pay them good wages, Hampson supervised the production of Dan Dare with exacting attention. The strip was serialized in weekly two-page installments on glossy paper in eye-catching photogravure color. Hampson and his artists utilized photographic references and models to ensure consistency throughout the strip, and Hampson experimented with panel layouts and perspective to create a visually groundbreaking comic.
In Dare, Hughes eschews the realism of Hampson’s artwork and utilizes a more cartoonish style. There is a minimalism to Hughes’ artwork, with lots of white space in the panel backgrounds. Like Hampson, Hughes uses panel perspectives — overhead views, close-ups, and distance views — to great effect; these varying perspectives highlight important story information, convey characters’ emotions, and establish a narrative mood.
When the funeral concludes in Dare, the protagonist is introduced to the world government’s prime minister, Gloria Monday. Monday is a clear analogue for then-British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, and Morrison and Hughes portray Monday in a sinister fashion. (The character’s name is a Latin pun — “gloria mundi” is a phrase used in Catholic papal coronations to warn pontiffs of the fleeting temptations of the world.) Monday’s Unity Party has been in power for ten years, and she recruits Dare to serve as a symbol for the party’s upcoming re-election campaign. She offers Dan a modelling job to appear in the party’s marketing materials, telling him that he represents the values of the party: “Patriotism. The strength of the individual. An optimistic, enterprising spirit.”
In writing Dare, Morrison recognizes the original strip’s importance in depicting a positive fictional post-war British global relevance that is similar in cultural impact, if not tone, to Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels. But Morrison subverts and critiques that depiction, creating a revisionist comic with a modern awareness of the original strip’s dated 1950s attitudes towards race, feminism, and the benevolence of British geopolitical power.
Dare agrees to work for Monday, but he is also contacted by Digby for help in investigating Peabody’s apparent suicide. The two soon learn of a conspiracy involving dead scientists and a government program to create an artificial food staple called “Manna” that is meant to address Earth’s food shortages. In the course of this investigation, Dare is forced to acknowledge his past mistakes — specifically, the killing of innocent Treens in his last military adventure — and comes to realize that the utopian future he worked to achieve has not come to pass, with marginalized geographic regions and societal institutions in decay and squalor.
At the story’s climax, Dare confronts the conspirators, and confesses a poignant realization:
You know the worst thing? It’s finding out that you’re dispensable. Finding out that you’re just another cog in the machine and there’s always a replacement there, waiting to fill your space. The machine eats us up and shits us out. It doesn’t care what or who it destroys, as long as it keeps turning, eating, excreting.
In the context of the story, Dare’s commentary is about corrupt politicians and the compromised societal institutions they control, and how they exploit citizens and public servants to meet their own selfish needs. But it can also be read as a metaphorical statement regarding the poor treatment of comics creators by publishers, particularly as the last page of Dare ends with an artist’s blank drawing board and a quote from Hampson.
Hampson’s high standards for Dan Dare, combined with a stressful weekly publication schedule, took a toll on his health, yet Hampson persevered in producing the strip for ten years with little oversight and direction from the original publisher. But Hampson never owned the copyright to his creation, and when the Eagle was purchased by a new publisher, Hampson’s high budget and production methods for Dan Dare came under scrutiny from the new management in an effort to cut costs. Hampson was also apparently upset with the publisher’s plans to produce a Dan Dare film without consulting him, and he decided to leave the strip in 1959.
Hampson continued to work for Eagle, on a strip about the life of Jesus Christ called The Road of Courage, but this came to an end by 1961. Hampson later found employment illustrating books, and as a teacher. Hampson died in 1985; today he is celebrated as one of Britain’s greatest comics artists. Yet Hampson’s poor treatment by the new management and his eventual departure from Eagle are a cautionary tale for comics creators.
The Dan Dare strip went on without Hampson’s involvement, but was discontinued in 1967 (with subsequent reprints published), and the Eagle ceased publication in 1969, merged with another comics publication, Lion.
In 1977, a new Dan Dare strip appeared in the first issue of the weekly science fiction anthology comic 2000 AD, from publisher Fleetway Publications. The character’s origin was updated, but the classic British hero was arguably a poor fit for the more modern 1970s sci-fi aesthetic of 2000 AD, and the new strip was eventually discontinued. More successfully, in 1982, the Eagle was revived, along with a new Dan Dare strip; this new Eagle ran until 1994.
The monthly anthology comic Revolver debuted in June 1990, from Fleetway; the comic was intended for adult comics readers. As noted in Thrill-Power Overload: 2000 AD — The First Forty Years: Revised and Expanded, Dare was initially intended as a political parable regarding Thatcherism, but evolved into a commentary on Hampson’s treatment by publishers:
Among the strips in Revolver was a new version of Dan Dare by Morrison and Rian Hughes. The story was a parable for the fast-fading Thatcher era in British politics. But Revolver was cancelled after seven issues and the last episode of Dare was hastily transferred to Crisis. The blistering finale drew a parallel between Dare’s abuse by a Thatcheresque figure and what British comics’ publishers did to one of the character’s finest artists, Frank Hampson. Morrison says the story worked best as a symbolic parable. “Only when I got to the end did I think of weaving Hampson’s life story into the text in a Dennis Potterish way.”
Despite its grim political critique, in the strip’s final chapter, Morrison pays tribute to the earnest ideals of the original strip, with Dare commenting: “Once upon a time, I believed in an England that was fair and honourable. I’m almost glad you taught me that England only ever existed in my head. It means it can never really be destroyed.”
First published decades ago, as an artistic work Dare — with its critique of political corruption and its commentary on creators’ rights within the comics industry — remains relevant to modern concerns about those issues.
NOTES AND FURTHER READING:
Dare #1–4 (Grant Morrison, Rian Hughes, Ellie De Ville; Monster Comics, 1992) [These issues reprint the Dare strip first serialized in Revolver magazine and later Crisis magazine.]
Yesterday’s Tomorrows (Rian Hughes, et al.; Knockabout Gosh, 2007) [This collection of Hughes’ various comics works includes a reprint of the Dare strip.]
Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future: Voyage to Venus, Part 1 (Frank Hampson, et al.; Titan Books, 2004) [This collection reprints the original Dan Dare strips 1 through 40.]
“Four-Colour Classics: Comic Strip of the Future” (Matthew Badham; Judge Dredd Megazine #314; Rebellion, August 17, 2011) [This article provides a comprehensive overview of Dan Dare’s publishing history.]
Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future: The Biography (Daniel Tatarsky; Orion Books, 2010)
Thrill-Power Overload: 2000 AD — The First Forty Years: Revised and Expanded (David Bishop & Karl Stock; Rebellion, 2017)
British Comics: A Cultural History (James Chapman; Reaktion Books, 2011)
True Brit: A Celebration of the Great Comic Book Artists of the UK (edited by George Khoury; TwoMorrows Publishing, 2004) [This book examines the work of various British comics artists, including Frank Hampson.]
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