The Eagle was a British weekly comic, which ran in two main volumes over the period of 1950 to 1994 (with accompanying annuals). It is strongly associated with its flagship character, Dan Dare.

First Volume

The Eagle was the creation of the Reverend Marcus Morris , who intended it as a Christian antidote to what he saw as the bad influence of American comics during the post-war period. He strove to produce high quality, inspirational literature unlike any existing at the time, involving the work of teams of graphic artists such as Frank Hampson and Frank Bellamy - even creating mockups of spaceships to use as reference for Dan Dare. The Eagle and its sister papers Girl, Swift and Robin were read by millions throughout the 1950s and ’60s and it became the most popular comic in British history, selling over 2 million copies per week.

This first volume ran from 14 April 1950 to 26 April 1969, when it merged with Lion .

Strips during this volume included:

• Dan Dare, the flagship strip of a quintessentially British space hero based on the RAF. This strip was lovingly rendered in an expensive photo-lithographic process.
• Luck of the Legion
• Harris Tweed
• Storm Nelson
• Riders of the Range
• PC 49
• Tommy Walls
• Captain Pugwash

As well as strips, there was heavy factual content including from cutaways of vehicles and machinery, reader contributions, and items of interest such as how to perform magic tricks.

Second Volume

The Eagle was re-launched by IPC (later Fleetway ) on March 27 1982, aiming for the same quality end of the comic-reading market. The marketplace had matured considerably over the intervening years since the first Eagle, with readers seen as disenchanted by a largely stagnant boy's comic industry. John Purdie had recently revitalised photographic-based strips in Fleetway's girls comics, and this tactic was extended to create the relaunched Eagle's Unique selling point ; most of the early strips were produced in photographic form, extending the medium to include science fiction, football, westerns, and so on.

This second volume ran from March 1982 until January 1994, with several relaunches/incarnations, however the comic had become a monthly anthology by this point with little new material.

Initial photo-strip incarnation

As stated above, originally many strips were produced in photographic format, and printed on heavy-duty magazine paper. This had the double-edged effect of increasing a strip's visual impact, but not only was it more expensive than producing drawn strips, the medium limited the range of stories, and led to unconvincing action sequences.

Dez Skinn characterised this period as "Photo strips and action stories are an ill-met pairing. No extremes, no tension. Just embarrassed amateur actors (ie office staff) wearing silly expressions and even sillier masks. " [1]

The strips were accompanied by factual articles, cartoons, and reader contributions similarly to the first volume.