Eagle (British comics) Riders of the Range and P.C. 49 helped ensure a weekly circulation of almost a million copies, but it was the adventures of Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, which most captivated readers. Created by Hampson—now a full-time staff artist with his own team—Dan Dare was the UK's first science-fiction comic strip of any significance. Readers were thrilled by the square-jawed British spaceman's weekly exploits, and his struggles with The Mekon. While Morris (who by now had resigned from St James) edited the magazine from Hulton's premises at Shoe Lane in London, the comic was created in a converted bakery
Eagle (British comics) David Hockney were first published in "Eagle". X-Men comic scriptwriter Chris Claremont read and enjoyed "Eagle", and cites Hampson's work as influential on his career. Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons has also praised Hampson's work, and the author Tim Rice, in his foreword to "Living with Eagles" (1998), cites the stories printed in "Eagle" as helping "me in my story-telling efforts through musicals many years on." Professor Stephen Hawking, when asked about the influence Dan Dare had on him, replied: "Why am I in cosmology?", and the entertainer Kenny Everett chose an "Eagle Annual" as his book on "Desert Island Discs".