Dan Dare to celebrate their 20th anniversary, "2000 AD" published two issues with additional free comics, the first a reprint of the first issue of "2000 AD", which starred Dan Dare. The second free comic was a speculative issue called "3000 AD" which contained strips partially based on the first issue of "2000 AD". One strip was entitled "The Return of Dan Dare", which also featured the return of the Mekon. In 1982 "Eagle" was re-launched, with "Dan Dare" again its flagship strip. The new character was the great-great-great-grandson of the original hero—the only surviving character from the original strip being the
Eagle (British comics) its life issues contained reprints of earlier work, alongside new Dan Dare stories written by Tom Tully and illustrated by David Pugh. The relaunched "Eagle" was dropped in 1994. In the twentieth century it was standard practice in the British comics industry to merge a comic into another one when it declined in sales. Typically, three stories from the cancelled comic would continue for a while in the surviving comic, and both titles would appear on the cover (one in a smaller font than the other) until the title of the cancelled comic was eventually dropped. In this way, two