I think I liked it more because the hero was called Dan Dare and my name is Dan. That's the weird sort of association that kids make - for example, a kid at my school was called Iron Man and he loved Iron Man so... I fucking wish that was true.
The alien in question was called the Mekon. It floated about on a what looked like a tiny sailboat - it's hardly the stuff of nightmares. Dan Dare was a pretty strong looking guy, I have no idea why he didn't just snap that things neck like a twig and move on. I guess because it was the 80's and things like that didn't happen back then.
When I discovered American comics I quickly learnt that there are really only two kinds of people in the world: Those that like Marvel and those that like DC. In the old days it was a battle between the actual stories and characters - in the 90's it boiled down to preferring the company that shelled out on decent paper whilst the other one printed their brightly coloured tales of heroism on something that councils supply in public toilets to wipe your arse on.
I stuck by Marvel through a lot - you'll see some of the absolute shit I had to endure in future posts.
Anyway, back when I was a kid I read Eagle. Later on I moved on to 2000AD and it was there I first started to get choosy about what I read and what I didn't. I was always a fan of Judge Dredd for example, looking back I've no idea why as he's really just a fascist in a silly helmet. The guy lacks emotion and character and upholds the law with the same frightening level of dedication that my toaster displays for burning any bread it's introduced to. And it's as fun to read as my toaster is... Which is not very.
Retrospectively the Judge Dredd strips weren't really about Judge Dredd at all - they were about a dystopian future where society needed a mindless drone to keep them in order or they'd fuck, kill or eat each other. And as if that alone wasn't enough, the quality of writers and artists that have worked on Dredd is really quite astounding - he was created by the now legendary team of Wagner, Mills and Ezquerra... Other talent to have a crack at him includes Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon, Grant Morrison and Mark Millar. Not bad at all eh?
Dredd had a movie outing back in 1995 where some genius decided that he should be played by Sly Stallone. And to add insult to injury, it was written into the script that he remove his helmet - something he'd never done in the strip. The film sucked like a cock starved hooker and is now considered something of a 'cult classic' an affectionate term meaning dire toss.
2000 AD had a host of weird and wonderful characters though and I stuck with it (on and off) for a decade. Some of my favourites included Strontium Dog - the saga of some mutants on the run from everyone, Rogue Trooper - the saga of a blue former soldier and his 3 dead commanders whose memories had been embedded into chips about his person on the run from everyone and Sinister Dexter - the story of two killers for hire that were on the run from... I think you get the idea.
The weirdest part of 2000 AD though was that it boasted the only alien editor in UK magazine history - a green guy called Tharg who sometimes looked vaguely terrifying and other times he looked suspiciously like Peter Stringfellow but green. He would welcome reader to each issue in a small column headed up with a cheery 'Borag Thungg, Earthlet'. Interesting idea and it added that personal touch that Stan Lee used to such great effect over the pond at Marvel.
I'll cover some of those better soon. Right now I'm off to read some classic Marvel ready for a new entry.
Until next time, Splundig Vur Thrigg!
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