Comic Clippings - 31 May 2007

A rumour has sprung up (reported by Rich Johnson at Lying in the Gutters, 29 May) that Garth Ennis is to write an updated version of Dan Dare. "Asked about his dream comics projects, Garth Ennis mentioned Johnny Red, more War Stories and that he 'wouldn't mind a crack at Dan Dare.' I understand," continues Rich, "that Garth Ennis will be getting his crack on a new comicbook revival of 'Dan Dare'." Rich marks this as an 'amber' alert, "there's likely an interest involved or the likelihood isn't set."

It sounds a bit of a pipe dream but I don't think Garth is under exclusive contract to DC Comics any more, so he has the opportunity to work for other companies. Garth could probably have his pick of any IPC Media character but Dan Dare is owned by the Dan Dare Corporation (and, incidentally, Johnny Red is owned by Egmont). John Freeman, at Down the Tubes, says that the project may be for Virgin Comics, the New York-based comics company set up by Richard Branson. Freeman warns, "Don't expect an update to the original Dan Dare as the brief may well lean toward the controversial 2000AD take on the character, drawn by Massimo Belardinelli and, later, Dave Gibbons."

There's an interview with Garth ('The Boys on "The Boys"' by Brian Warmoth, 30 May) to be found at the Wizard magazine site.

Sadly, Bear Alley is turning into Obituaries News: I've just heard that Philip Dunn (who, as Saul Dunn, was a SF/fantasy author, publisher and writer of the first Storm book, The Deep World) died last month at the age of 61. And Jack Edward Oliver, one of the finest humour artists on IPC's funny papers in the 1970s and 1980s, died on Saturday, 26 May, aged 65. A good round-up of his career can be found on Wikipedia. The page below, drawn by Oliver, appeared on the final page of the final issue of Buster (4 January 2000).