But as well as Venus, the setting for the very first story, there were other worlds too ....
And here are the Mercurians - plum coloured, and able to survive in a vacuum with the air pouches on their faces. Their language is sung! Prof is seen here in an underground cavern with a Mercurian. Harold Johns is the artist, together with Greta Tomlinson, and the story was written by the Rev. Chad Varah, of Samaritans fame.
The inhabitants of the moons of Saturn - the kingdom of Numidol. Here is Tharl, the rebel leader, who is supported by Dan (probably drawn by Walduck). Having carefully constructed a realistic civilisation on the moons fo Saturn for this story, they are completely neglected in all future stories [apart from peripheral mentions in some of the stories in the Annuals].
But what about aliens from outside the solar System?
The classics are, of course, the Crypts and Phants from the stories Man from Nowhere and Rogue Planet. The former are peaceloving, the latter warlike.
The first frame is of Phant warriors - they are just about to attack Lex and Dan - and the second frame shows Gogol - the leader of the Phant invasion force. Dan here is in big trouble..
Then we have Phantom Fleet with the Cosmobes, on the left, who are on our side. and Pescods, on the right, who definitely are not.. (The latter part of this story was also drawn by Walduck: this is one of his frames.)
And last of all, Bellamy's aliens from Nimbus. Not only are his spaceship designs still up to date, but these aliens are as convincing as anything done by FH, and better than anything else in the whole saga. They are still convincing today. What a pity that Bellamy never illustrated a well written Dan Dare story by himself ...
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