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Eagle

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Eagle was a popular weekly comic in the UK, running between 1950 and 1994. The main comic character was Dan Dare (pilot of the future) who would do battle against Mekon. I remember one crazy story where a man lost his arm and was given a transplant from a dead mafioso's arm!

Founded by a vicar, Eagle was meant to be an antedote to the American comics around at the same time. Strips featured in the comic book included:

The Iron Man The Adventures of Tin Tin Captain Pugwash Chicko Harris Tweed Blunderbirds

The back page of Eagle was always devoted to telling the life story of an historical figure, such as Winston Churchill, in comic strip form.

Due to the success of Eagle, a number of novels also called Eagle were launched in the 50s. The actual comic underwent a relaunch by IPC publishers in 1982, just at a time when teenage boys had become disenchanted with the lack of comics and heroes. This stuck around until 1994.

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Do You Remember Eagle?

Do You Remember Eagle?

  • Anonymous user
    on
    I have every copy of the Eagle. Going back to the 1950s my brother who is 8 years older than me had the Eagle from the start but when read was thrown away, at the beginning of 1958 when I was still 9 years old I picked up a Eagle that was laying around and saw Dan Dare in the start of The Ship that Lived, Anastasia was being attacked by Treen fighters, I was hooked, will the Anastasia be saved from the Silicon Mass, I had the for sight to keep the Eagle's so my collection started to grow, the other strips in were also excellent, even after Frank Hampson left in 1959 I thought the Dan Dare artwork and stories remained good up to the Earth Stealer then it went downhill, as my collection grew I often wondered what the early Eagle's were like. In 1965 when I 17 years old I put an advert in the Exchange and Mart asking for the missing Eagles, to my surprise I had quite a few reply 's, from 4 different people I finally got my missing Eagles. I remember the excitement receiving 4 brown packets in the post, they were in mint condition and still are, now my collection was compleat, I payed just £18 for them but remember this 1965, still cheap compaired to what the're worth today. I continued having the Eagle until it finished, towards the end the quality had gone downhill quite a bit. In the early 1970s I went off hitch hiking around Europe, my Eagles ended up in a shed at my parents place, in 1974 I retrieved them, they were cover'ed with cobwebs but we're quite dry, a lucky escape, I made 3 large wooden box's to protect them. I still love reading them, my faverate Dan Dare stories are The Red Moon Mystery, Rogue Planet, Region of the Robots, The Ship that Lived. Eccept for 2 or 3 they are in good condition with over half in mint condition, pure nastalgia.
    • Anonymous user
      on
      Hi there hondacd175. My mum bought me the very first Eagle when I was 10 (1950). I remember that on the back page they used to do exploded pictures/drawings with numbered of specific parts. One particular drawing was of Britian's new tank the Centurion Tank. Little did I know then, that when I was just 17 I would whilst in The Boys Squadron Royal Armoured Corps (aged 16) train as a tank gunner on this tank, and be driving one at the age of 18, and for three years after in Germany mans service. Unfortunately whilst I was away my father threw away all of my valuable collection, as well as a great deal of my other boyhood collections. One of my, and probably many boys wanted to drive a bus. I used to work for Lesney's Matchbox Toys. One of my duties was to drive a Route Master bus taking the ladies from the evening shift home, another such drawing was in the Eagle. Finding this site has bought back many happy memories, as you say pure nostalgia.

Do you remember these?