An undertaking by fans and ex Dan Dare studio team members to re-create the old magic again with a brand new 1950's style DD story. (Started from an off-the-cuff comment by Dave Westaway in 1991, suggesting that fans could link commissioned artwork into a story - and l kind of got hung up on the idea!)
Set shortly after the Mekon's Reign of the Robots ended, the tale brings back many established characters (with loads of nostalgic hardware) from the first nine Dan Dare saga's and draws on leads that Frank Hampson left us.
Help has come from all quarters for this project, from original Dan Dare team members Keith Watson and Don Harley - to whom I am very indebted for their willingness to illustrate the tale, plus Joan Porter who has given dialogue advice - ex-Fleetway lettering artist David Gould, who's lettering the pages for us - Dave Westaway, Simon Garrett, and Bill Rudling - for the idea and creation of the Daily World Post intro page - Andy Boyce (improved space craft plans), Roger Matthews (added to hardware detail, and some dialogue gems), Mike Wood, for technical support (as well as astronomical research Mike has built a detailed 26 inch model of the Explorer Class - Marco Polo spaceship for us) - Gordon Daniel who's composed and produced A Phoenix Mission music theme! - Kev Sutherland who two years in a row has given us some good write ups in the Comics Awards br
brochure, Nicholas Hill for letting the internet crowd know all about us, plus other Dan Dare fans Alan Vince, Andrew Skilleter, Rav Aspden, David Britton, Paul Knapp, Keith Howard, Ken Seery, Tony Cowley, Ron French, John Swan, Roger Coombes, Roy Haskett, Andy Preston, David Ampleford, Denis Steeper, Sydney Jordan, Greta Tomlinson, David Pugh, Martin Baines, Bill Naylor, Peter Walker, Trevor Cornfield, John Hudson, Gordon Matthews, and Allen Murray who between them have given time, skills, money and suggestions towards this project. Without their support this dream to revive our hero in his original form might have remained just that - a dream.
At last it is almost finished. The project has survived some horrendous setbacks including the deaths of three of its contributors - Keith Watson, Simon Garrett and Gordon Matthews - sadly its survival has become a phoenix legend in its own right, and I would like to dedicate it to the all of the Frank Hampson Dan Dare team members, who created the first dream - thank you.
Rod Barzilay
Prime mover and writer
February 1998
Some of the artwork for the story
and
Keith Watson's last ever artwork before his fatal illness.
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