Al Notton posted the following message to his Comics UK website today (Saturday, 8 March) regarding the disappearance of certain bits of the site, notably the popular Forum that he runs...There's been a bit of disarray in the Comics UK camp recently. A random check by myself on the whois.net website revealed that the Comics UK domain name had expired and was up for renewal. It had been that way since 24th February 2008!!So it would appear that the problem will be resolved. As of 9.30 a.m. the e-mail system was back up and running. No news yet on the Forum.
If I hadn't noticed this, the domain name would have been gobbled up by one of those businesses that sell them back at an overly inflated price.
Of course, this all means that things are a little mixed up at the moment, especially the Forum. Obviously this is currently the most widely used section within the site and I hope to get it reinstated ASAP.
Luckily, I downloaded a backup of the forum at 19.15 on Thursday 6th March 2008, so in a worse case scenario, there will be one days worth of posts missing. Maybe this is not a good time to mention that I've never had to restore the forum database before.
I'm also toying with the idea of trying to convert to PHPBB3, which is the next release of the current forum.
As an aside, I'm currently working on the Admin section of Comics UK v2. I'm hoping to get the new version in by Christmas (this year).
On a rather more worrying note, Al has informed his readers that "You may have noticed that there are no Eagle or Dan Dare images or references on the site anymore. This includes the Annuals, Specials, Galleries and the actual Eagle section. This was due to me receiving a high-handed solicitors letter from Colin Frewin's solicitors. Frewin is the guy that spent £500,000 on securing the rights to Dan Dare and Eagle. Oh happy days, eh??"
Not sure what to think about this as I don't know the precise reason why Comics UK has been brought to the attention of m' learned friends.
Dan Dare and comics' fandom have existed happily hand-in-hand for many years. The first fan clubs and fanzines for British comics were set up by Dan Dare fans, so Dan, you could say, is the father of British comics' fandom; at the same time, it was the fans that kept the name of Dan Dare alive following the demise of Eagle in 1969 and generated enough interest for publishers to try and revive the character. It's fans who help continue to generate acres of press coverage for the character. (In that respect, I can speak from personal experience as I was interviewed by a Southport-based newspaper on Thursday.)
To penalise fans for posting information about Dan and Eagle comic on the net seems a sure way to turn the golden goose into pâté.
However, I don't want this to come over as a knee-jerk reaction to the situation. As I said above, I don't know the specifics of the complaint so I can't judge whether--in my opinion--it's justified or not.
Its timing is interesting as it coincides (albeit roughly) with various other announcements and arrivals relating to Dan Dare. First was the Dan Dare comic from Virgin; next up is the release of the latest Dan Dare reprint volume, Reign of the Robots, from Titan (April) and the launch of an audio version of the first Dan Dare story on CD (May), pictured at the top of this column. September will see the release of the follow-up to the Eagle Annual: The Best of the 1950s Comic collection which will, not surprisingly, be Eagle Annual: The Best of the 1960s Comic.
Things will then be hotting up in 2009 with a major exhibition at the Science Museum which will run from April to October. I'll paste in the press release below.
Then there's the release of the non-fiction Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future: A Biography by Daniel Tatarsky, to be published by Random House on 17 September 2009.
And can anyone shed any light on the following entry for a Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future movie that's said to be in development at the Internet Movie Database?
With so much activity surrounding the character, perhaps it is no surprise that Dan Dare Corporation are keeping a close eye on their property and the online community.
DAN DARE AND THE BIRTH OF HI-TECH BRITAIN
Science Museum, 30 April - October 2009. Free to enter
The way Britain reinvented itself as a hi-tech nation after the Second World War is revealed in a new Science Museum exhibition, to open on 30 April 2008.
Dan Dare and the Birth of Hi-tech Britain will capture the essence of those pivotal post-war years, showing how Britain took striking wartime advances like the jet engine, radar and penicillin to create new industries. This was a time when the state rolled out huge new projects for a free nationwide health service, nuclear power, supersonic flight and a radical rehousing programme - major developments which created a revolution in national affairs and personal life.
The free exhibition also looks at the reinvention of the home, the emerging importance of design and the arrival of previously unheard of consumer goods. It will show that the period, from 1945-1970, started the long climb from austerity to affluence and laid the foundations for the Britain of today.
The signature exhibit representing hi-tech is the Bloodhound missile. Seven metres long, with fins, two ramjet engines and four booster rockets, Bloodhound was one pillar of Britain's defence against Soviet threat in the Cold War. Reaching speeds of Mach 2 (about 1,500 mph) in four seconds, it surpassed anything produced by the US. Also on display will be the British-built 'Bomb' - the WE177 nuclear weapon - Britain's ticket to the top table of nations.
Some of the finest examples of British manufacturing of the time will be shown. These include iconic products from designers such as Gordon Russell, Abram Games, the man behind the iconic Festival of Britain poster, and Pye radios designed by Robin Day. It will show, moreover, a 'lost world' of British manufacturing - a time when many people's first TV was a Murphy, not a Sony!
Eagle comic book hero, Dan Dare - a fixture in the lives of millions of children in the 1950s and 1960s - introduces the exhibition, showing the optimism, faith in technology and spirit of adventure of the times. Dan Dare is being rediscovered today and there will be a special display of original artwork, merchandise and memorabilia. One of the finest real-life adventurers from the period, Edmund Hillary, has his hi-tech oxygen apparatus from his 1953 conquest of Everest displayed - equipment which used know-how derived from the UK's high-altitude jet bombers programme.
Andrew Nahum, Principal Curator of Technology at the Science Museum, said:
"Dan Dare, pilot of the future was the emblematic hero of these times who entranced generations of kids and adults too. But while his space fleet trounced alien foes high above Venus, an equally extraordinary future was being played out on Earth. This was a period when Britain, though shattered by the cost of World War Two, was reinventing itself as a hi-tech nation - a time of extraordinary energy and innovation for British design and technology."
Other highlights of the exhibition include:
- Classics of British design, including Antelope chair by Ernest Race
- Consumer technology world-firsts, from food processors to portable TVs
- A section of Comet 1 - the world's first jet airliner - showing the fatal flaw in its design which caused it to crash into the Mediterranean in 1954 and rob Britain of its lead in jet airliner technology
- Unique furniture by the original DIY guru, Barry Bucknell, who had more fan mail than the cast of Coronation Street in the 1960s!
- Nuclear reactor control panel for UK submarines reminiscent of Dr No, with infamous SCRAM button
- Hillman Imp car: produced in Linwood, Scotland under government orders
- The Roentgen IV - the X-ray machine that was the mainstay of the new NHS diagnostic service being rolled out across the UK
- A selection of NHS spectacles and hearing aids, showing the effect on everyday lives of the new postwar Welfare State
- Coventry Climax racing engine of type that took Stirling Moss to victory
- Personal stories of those who lived through the post-war years.
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