Eagle (comic) - Legacy

Legacy

I didn't want to produce a strip without a female. In a way I struck a blow for Women's Lib! She was shown as a very clever, attractive young lady. It also paved the way for a few arguments between her and Sir Hubert in the first story—a nice human touch ... she was just a very normal, efficient, competent girl.

Eagle inspired several imitators, such as Valiant, Tiger, and Lion (which featured a Dan Dare clone, "Captain Condor") but such adventure tales were less palatable for girls. Female characters like Dan Dare's Professor Peabody (one of only two female main characters in the strip), were generally given less important roles than the men, and as a result a trend developed toward producing comics aimed specifically at either boys or girls. Girl, a sister title to Eagle, appeared in November 1951, and featured youthful capers in boarding schools, and tales of equestrian adventure. Later comics such as Jackie, descended from contemporary womens' magazines, were more cosmopolitan in flavour. Girl was followed in 1953 by Robin, which was aimed at younger children, and in March 1954 by Swift, for older readers.

Eagle's previously unheard-of circulation figures helped define the content of most comics produced during the 1950s, including war. In contrast to other, earlier publications, Eagle attempted to educate the reader with factual, text-based historical stories, such as the life of Winston Churchill, as presented in The Happy Warrior. A detailed account of the Second World War was given, while one strip lambasted German paratroopers, who on seeing British infantry below them, shouted "Donner und Blitzen! Der Englander!" During the mid-1950s however, comics began sensationalising their covers with war imagery, and Eagle followed suit in the 1960s.

Morris went on to become editorial director of the National Magazine Company, and later its managing director and editor-in-chief. He launched Cosmopolitan in the UK, and with Condé Nast he formed COMAG, one of the UK's largest media distribution companies. He was appointed OBE in 1983, retired the following year, and died in March 1989. Despite his later work however, he is best remembered as the founder of Eagle. His memorial service at St Bride's Church in Fleet Street was filled to overflowing.

... if a character's popularity can be assessed by the amount of merchandising they attract then there can be no doubt that during the 1950s Dan Dare was far and away the most popular character going.

Hampson was embittered by his departure from Eagle. Although he created Dan Dare, he and Morris had signed contracts which made the space adventurer the copyright of its publisher. This made it difficult for him to get hold of his original artwork, and excluded him from any profits Hulton made from the huge range of Dan Dare and Eagle merchandise it licensed. He called Odhams, the comic's owner after 1960, "Treens". Hampson later worked on various advertising commissions, and illustrated seven Ladybird books. He recovered from cancer to became a graphics technician at Ewell Technical College, and in 1975 at the Lucca comics convention was declared as the best writer and illustrator of strip cartoons since the end of the Second World War. At the first ever British comics convention he was awarded the Ally Sloper award, as the best British strip cartoon artist. He died at Epsom in July 1985. His original Dan Dare drawings now command high prices, and have inspired a range of modern artists;

Gerald Scarfe and David Hockney were first published in Eagle. X-Men comic scriptwriter Chris Claremont read and enjoyed Eagle, and cites Hampson's work as influential on his career. Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons has also praised Hampson's work, and the author Tim Rice, in his foreword to Living with Eagles (1998), cites the stories printed in Eagle as helping "me in my story-telling efforts through musicals many years on." Professor Stephen Hawking, when asked about the influence Dan Dare had on him, replied: "Why am I in cosmology?", and the entertainer Kenny Everett chose an Eagle Annual as his book on Desert Island Discs.

The comic industry's Eagle Awards, first presented in the late 1970s, are named after Eagle, and a fan club, the Eagle Society, regularly publishes the quarterly Eagle Times.