Hampson, Frank (1918 – 1985)

Frank Hampson original Dan Dare artwork

Hampson is best known as the creator and artist of Dan Dare and other characters in the boys' comic, the Eagle, to which he contributed from 1950 to 1961. In 1949, Hampson devised a new children's magazine, the Eagle. In April the following year, a revised version of the Eagle hit the bookstalls. Its most popular strip was Hampson's creation Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future. The stories were set in the late 1990s, but the dialogue and manner of the characters is reminiscent of British war films of the 1950s. Dan Dare has been described as “Biggles in Space" and as the British equivalent of Buck Rogers. Dan Dare was distinguished by its long, complex storylines, snappy dialogue and meticulously illustrated comic strip artwork by Hampson.

Attention was paid to scientific plausibility, the promising young writer Arthur C. Clarke acting as science and plot adviser for the first six months of strips. The stories were set mostly on planets of the Solar System presumed to have extraterrestrial life and alien inhabitants, common in science fiction before space probes of the 1960s proved the most likely worlds were lifeless. The first story begins with Dan Dare as pilot of the first successful flight to Venus.