In the late 1940’s, Marcus Morris, a vicar of a  church in Southport, successfully entered the  publishing world of  Comics.  He, Frank Hampson & Chad Varrah brought the  first edition of Eagle in April 1950.   The  master key story was Dan Dare Pilot of The  future, set in late 1990’s  when Earth was trying to solve the scarioty of food on Earth by seeing if Food could  be  grown on Venus.  Venus an unknown territory, full of  mystery. Dan solved the  problem of reaching  Earth’s nearest neighbour, by realising that the planet was surrounded by some form of  invisible  rays.  His  expedition successfully landed, only to find themselves in the  hands of the Mekon and his reptillian race  of Treens on the  northern half.  This story was written and  illustrated by a genius, Frank Hampson, he was also a perfectionist.   England had never  seen such perfection in a comic magazine before.  Many  science fiction writers have  picked up ideas from this brilliant series, Star Trek  for one.  Due to publishers take over bids and Franks failing health (due to over work) Dan Dare last story was written after only about 10 yerars later.  Several feeble attempts have been made to reinvent Eagle, all to of no avail.

                 About  15 years ago a number of  Eagle/Dan Dare enthusiasts started  the  “Eagle Society”  to remember the World’s greatest comic.   In April 2000 I was lucky enough to be able to attend the 5oth Anniversary of the founding of Eagle weekend held in Southport, where it all began.  Here we met Marcus Morris’  three  daughters and Frank Hampson’ s  son, and also Chad  Varrah, the only one of the orginal trio still living.  Chad is actually more famously  known for his other great work, the  founding of the Samaritans.   At the  dinner I was privileged to actually sit next to Chad, then in his 80’s. He  was really a  great character with a lively mind, with  a wonderful memory.  My own personal contribution to these  festivities was to design and print some “Eagle Dan Dare stamps”  in the  form of a  miniature sheet.

                 I remember this all so well as it was in 1950 that I was at the  right age, 10, to start taking Eagle  from number one.  I cut  out the  Dan Dare front pages and made a  book of the  stories.  My collection of Dan Dare related stuff  now includes those, the  first 11  Eagle Annuals, my Eagle  club Badge, the Dan Dare Playing cards  and  many  more such collectable stuff.