Sufferin’ satellites! The quintessential British space hero Dan Dare is back, 76 years after he first appeared in iconic comic magazine the Eagle.

With all eyes on Nasa’s Artemis II moon mission, and with the big-screen adaptation of Andy Weir’s science fiction novel Project Hail Mary, starring Ryan Gosling, going stratospheric at the box office, our love affair with space has been reignited.

So the return of Colonel Dan Dare, chief pilot of the Interplanet Space Fleet, who debuted in the first issue of the Eagle on 14 April 1950, couldn’t be more timely.

With the blessing of the Dan Dare Corporation, which owns the rights to the comic strip – originally written and drawn by the Manchester-born illustrator Frank Hampson – the comic writer Alex de Campi and artist Marc Laming have reinvented the beloved characters for the 21st century in a graphic novel to be published by B7 Comics.

The impetus came from de Campi, who said: “I moved house a couple of years ago and was unpacking boxes of books when I pulled out some of my old Dan Dare compendia, so I sat down on the floor and re-read old Frank Hampson strips for an entire afternoon.

“Over the following weeks I kind of daydreamed what it would be like to have a modern Dan Dare. That resulted in me emailing the Dan Dare Corporation asking if I could pitch a new Dan Dare graphic novel series. They said yes.”

She brought in Laming, who knew Andrew Mark Sewell of B7 Comics, which has form with British icons – in 2023 the company published a graphic novel biography of the comedian Tony Hancock – and the project had liftoff.

There have been several iterations of Dan Dare since the Eagle ceased publication in 1967, with the character brought back for the launch of the long-running sci-fi weekly 2000AD in 1977, and for the relaunch of the Eagle comic in 1982. The writer Grant Morrison and artist Rian Hughes envisaged an aged, bitter Dare in a bleak revisionist strip in the magazine Revolver in 1990.

But the new graphic novel, Dan Dare: First Contact, goes back to basics. The cast of characters includes the scientist Prof Jocelyn Peabody and Dan’s faithful sidekick Digby, as well as their arch-enemy, the dome-headed, green-skinned Venusian dictator the Mekon.

De Campi and Laming are rebuilding the Dare legend from the ground up, with no prior knowledge required. De Campi said: “Everyone loves space adventure stories, but it feels like all we get these days in the west are the same two legacy IPs – Star Wars and Star Trek – flogged at us over and over. But after a while, those universes become so huge and complicated it becomes an impediment to new audiences.”

There will be some changes for a modern audience in the 100-page graphic novel, which will be released in November after a successful crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter.

In the original comics, Digby was Dare’s middle-aged “batman”, a servant assigned to military officers, and serving as bumbling comic relief. In the new version he is a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants young working-class engineer and inventor – but, fans will be relieved to hear, still from Wigan.

And Prof Peabody is now of Indian descent. De Campi said: “Any space exploration story is by nature a story about colonisation, and it makes it more interesting to have someone who has the experience of being colonised in her cultural heritage.”

Perhaps the biggest change, though, is the future world that Dare and co inhabit. Hampson’s original vision, conceived after the horrors of the second world war, was almost utopian. In Dan Dare: First Contact, climate change has ravaged Earth, but Britain is a progressive vanguard in the world – and the galaxy beyond.

“The USA is now the United Corporations of America, and space flight has been privatised,” said de Campi. “Except in the UK, which, after teetering on the brink of abandoning its public services in the 2020s, pulled back and recommitted to things like universal public health care, education, infrastructure, transportation – and space flight.”

Sewell, of B7 Comics, said: “Alex and Marc’s exciting new take is intended to introduce a new generation of readers to Dan Dare whilst staying true to the characters, world and sense of hope and wonder of the original 1950s strip.

“It’s important to acknowledge the heritage and essential DNA of the original strips, whilst moving the stories and characters forward and making them relevant and relatable to a modern audience. Always remembering never to throw the Mekon out with the bath water!”