Spaceship Away #39 (Summer 2016)

Summer's here... and so is the latest issue of Spaceship Away, as colourful and enthusiastic as ever and adding some very welcome delight to what has been a bit of a damp squib of a month.

Artwise, the magazine relies heavily on Tim Booth, who continues to relate two Dan Dare yarns. 'Parsecular Tales' has now been running for six years and has reached episode 25. That's 50 full-colour pages—a record for fan activity that's likely to stand for a long, long time. Of course, Tim is also responsible for 'Mercury Revenant', itself clocking in at 16 episodes so far.

Spaceship Away carries two other strips, old-timer Jet Morgan and relative newcomer Nick Hazard. Having exhausted the pages from Express Weekly, the latest episode, part one of 'Jet Morgan and the Space Pirates' comes from the first Express Annual (1956), which means a welcome return for artist Ferdinando Tacconi. Meanwhile, Nick Hazard continues his adventures on 'The Planet of Doom', drawn by Ron Turner with colour by Martin Baines.

Articles this time include Andrew Darlington's look at how Eagle followed the space race, an interview with Ian Kennedy and a biographical essay by Greta Tomlinson about her career.

All this and more is wrapped up in a cover by Frank Bellamy and an all-new back cover painting by Don Harley, plus there's a terrific centre-spread painting of the various Dan Dares that have appeared (Eagle, 2000AD, New Eagle) by Ian Kennedy.

You can find out more about the magazine, buy back issues and subscribe to the latest issues at the Spaceship Away website.