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Dan Dare Pilot of the Future in Rogue Planet

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"Rogue Planet" is the second part of the 3 volume "Man From Nowhere" series starring '50's British sci-fi hero Colonel Dan Dare. The story is a collection of the strip which ran as a two-page serial in the British weekly comic book "Eagle". Frank Hampson wrote and pencilled most of the strips as head of a creative team which later included '60's comix great Frank Bellamy.

Previously Dan and his friends, having defeated the Mekon and brought peace to Venus, are enlisted by the mysterious alien spaceman Lero in an attempt to save his doomed race, the Crypts. In this volume Dan, Digby, Flamer and Lex aid the peaceful Crypts in resisting the genocidal Phants, and discover the secret of the endless cycle of interplanetary war.

Conceptually the story is imaginative but plot inconsistencies are glaring; faster-than- light travel, a key element of the previous story, is denied in this story. Names are not very imaginative; the Crypt spaceship intended to save a remnant of their civilization is the 'Kra', the evil Phant heirophants are 'Kruels', etc. Two- fisted British pluck, together with a bit of muddling through, wins the day. Nevertheless the series was a seminal one for British comix and introduced sci-fi concepts which were to become staples in series such as 'Dr. Who' and 'Star Trek'.

Great Frank Hampson showing us his very best work in Dan Dare saga. Aliens and alien planets depicted with the unsurpassed imagination and illustrating technique for the time.