Sunday 4 November 2012

DANNY DARE 'BLASTS OFF'...


Copyright REBELLION

As promised, faithful Crivs, here's another firework-themed strip from WHAM!.  This time around it's ol' DANNY DARE, legendary space pilot DAN DARE's #1 fan.  One of the things that strikes me about these old strips is how frequently fisticuffs were indulged in.  Years ago, my local newspaper occasionally published the odd strip cartoon by yours truly (for which I was paid), and I remember the editor, MR. BARR, rejecting one for being too violent.  (This was around 1984.)  The panel in question involved a bully receiving one punch to the fizzog by PERCY PROON, YOUR NUMBER ONE LOON (the hero of the strip), and this was regarded as a bit on the rough side for the local paper.  Seems it was all right to print stories about muggings, murder and rape, but a single cartoon punch was considered too much for readers' sensibilities.

One thing's for sure - what some of the kids in comics got up to with fireworks on bonfire night back in the '60s would never be countenanced today.  Also, consider the bad example set by Danny in the above tale, whereby he profits from selling items thrown out by mistake and which don't belong to him.  Nowadays, that second-last panel would be redrawn and relettered to read something like this: "These forks were valuable antiques!  I got a reward for returning them to the owners!"

4 comments:

-3- said...

What's this?
I've never heard of Danny Dare, but it seems like a natural step over from Supersnipe, to whom i've been giving some coverage recently. I think i'm going to have to go mining for Danny and see how the comparison plays out.
Supersnipe was "The boy with the most comic books in America" and he lived a very active fantasy life.

(Yes, this was a random jump to see what was here 5 years ago. Missed by a day, but stuck the landing)

(btw - did i mention that i used to operate under the name Studio3 when i used subcontractors?)

Kid said...

Danny Dare appeared in a comic called Wham!, and the contents of the first issue are on the blog somewhere, 3. Don't remember if you mentioned Studio 3, but I used to operate under the name Studio 77. Incidentally, left a comment on your 'Kirby Is Here' post.

-3- said...

You noted he was in Wham! in the original post. Several issues are already enroute, along with a handful of annuals.

It was your Studio77 that prompted the remark. (Oh, and sorry so slow - distracted by all the snow here.)

Kid said...

I didn't bother re-reading the text when I changed the layout, so forgot what I'd originally said. Glad to know you've tracked some down. Don't think it'll be long before we've got snow here too.



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