It will have been sometime in the early 1990s, or perhaps earlier, and I can’t quite now remember how I came across the Eagle exhibition at the Craft Centre on Oak Street.
It had originally be seen in Southport and landed in Manchester to the pleasure of heaps of those of us who remember Dan Dare, Luck of the Legion, and those wonderful cut away pictures of planes, ships, and locomotives.
For years the small A5 poster adorned a wall, having already suffered from several stains and even an attempt by one of the lads to make it into a paper dart.
At which point it could just have disappeared again, but where would the fun be in that?
Instead, I decided to indulge myself and perhaps all those other old buffers who paid their 4½d every Wednesday to roam across the pages of the Eagle, thrilling to the adventures of Dan Dare Pilot of the Future, the other comic strips and those cut away pictures.
Back in 1950, the Eagle was new, combining stirring stories with detailed and excellent art work along with news and factual articles which made ita cut above the other comics of the period.
Within a year it had three companion papers, aimed at girls and younger readers.*
Over the years I have written about all four and never tire of going back and writing more.**
At which point I could slide in to the story of the Craft Centre but you can find that at their site.***
Location Space
Pictures; poster advertising The Eagle Has Landed, circa early 1990 and Terra Nova, The Eagle, May 30, 1959, Vol 10, No 22, and The Red Moon Mystery , Eagle, January 11, 1952, Vol 2 No 40
*Eagle, Girl, Swift and Robin
**Comics of the 1950s, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=comics+of+the+1950s&updated-max=2023-03-19T03:30:00Z&max-results=20&start=18&by-date=false
***Manchester Craft Centre, https://www.craftanddesign.com/about-us/
i used to get the Eagle comic. i liked the centre page which would have a cut-away diagram of a machine or something, to show how it worked. I now watch "How do they do it" on Quest TV channel.
ReplyDeleteI had the Eagle from eight to eighteen. About ten or so years ago I found a DVD on e-bay which carried the Eagles first three years. Very handy, I was able to catch up on the ones I's missed when I started at 8!
ReplyDeleteI did of course buy all the Dan Dare reprunts when they were published
Me too
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