Battle for Britain (Private Eye) 1986, at about the time when Parliament was about to go into recess. When the series ended in 1987, it was replaced by "Dan Dire, Pilot of the Future?", which took a similar comic-book view of politics. This time, the model was Frank Hampson's artwork for Dan Dare, as seen in the popular 1950–1969 comic for boys "Eagle". In keeping with the science fiction theme, Kinnock became "Dan Dire" (the questioning title was over whether or not he would ever be Prime Minister); Mrs Thatcher became "The Maggon" in reference to Dan Dare's arch-enemy The Mekon; and Owen became "Doctor
Eagle (British comics) then "Eagle"s owners, the comic suffered a drastic fall in quality. The centre spreads were replaced with the historically inaccurate Last of The Saxon Kings, and letters of complaint poured in to the comic. Within months the comic's circulation fell to 150,000, and continued to drop. By 1966 it was in decline. IPC continued production until the comic's last issue, on 26 April 1969. Just short of its 1,000th edition, the comic was merged with its rival, IPC's "Lion". A modified Dan Dare was briefly featured in IPC Media's "2000 AD" (1977–1979). The public reaction to this, along with news