The Eagle strip Dan Dare was, as your report suggests, designed to fuse the values of Church and Empire with the problems and opportunities of what was then seen as the future (TES, August 29). Like much other British science fiction of the 1950s, for adults and children, it was about the process of history, how the values of the past and present can be adapted to a future where significant change can be expected.
However, if I can correct an error in the report, the adventures of this “very English hero” were not by the very American novelist Robert A. Heinlein but originally by the British artist Frank Hampson and later by other hands including Frank Bellamy.
For the first six months of the strip, scientific advice was given by Arthur C Clarke until, it is said, he found that the standard of scripting was so high that there was little for him to correct.
ANDY SAWYER Science Fiction Foundation Collection Sydney Jones Library University of Liverpool PO Box 123 Liverpool
