Thursday, June 6, 2013

Dan Dare and Wallace & Gromit


I'm guilty.  I admit I did not know who Dan Dare was until sometime in the late 1960s.  I was attending a small comic book convention and happened across these odd shaped comic strip/book collections from Britain.
 
There I was smug in my confidence that only 'America' could produce high-quality science fiction.  After all, hadn't the U.S.A. created Star Trek and a plethora of science fiction books, movies and comic books?  We ruled-or so I thought.

After reading a few panels of the beautifully illustrated Dan Dare strip I reluctantly abandoned my previous assertion.  The Dare Dare strip was spectacular-especially with its depictions of aliens and spacecraft.

Where am I going with this?  Haynes Publishing appears to be just as enamored as I am with Dan Dare.

Haynes has just released their new Dan Dare Pilot Of The Future Space Fleet Operations Manual and it is a beaut!

Beside reprinting in full-color some of the famous comic strips the book provides full diagrams of spaceships, vehicles, weapons and locations along with character bios, a Dan Dare timeline and much more.

Don't you 'dare' pass up this book!

Also from across the pond comes two books starring everyone's favorite bumbling and lovable inventors: Wallace & Gromit.

Two manuals make up the set: Crackling Contraptions 1 and 2.

Providing schematics and color photos from the Aardman animated shorts, the two manuals cover everything from the Bun Vac 6000 to the Techno Trousers.

Wallace & Gromit fans are sure to love these two great manuals that contain the bumbling duo's 'cheesy' contraptions.  "I just love cheese Gromit!"