Even if you are too young to remember the exploits of Dan Dare in the boys’ comic The Eagle which brightened up my week when I was a boy at school arriving, as it did, in a special wrapper for all to see, I suspect that you will be familiar with the name Dan Dare and with his trusty friend and sidekick, Digby. Some of you will also remember other characters from The Eagle such as Harris Tweed the private detective and Captain Pugwash and yet others will have fond memories of other comics such as the Beano with Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx and Lord Snooty along with the Bash Street Kids.
But there was one character above all who was really spooky. The Mekon was the green headed evil genius who was planning galactic domination long before the Daleks and the Klingons clashed with Time Lords such as Doctor Who. The Mekon held a special place in the small chamber of my tiny mind which was reserved for horrors. He was always present in person (if that is the right description for an alien being) or in the background and poor old Dan was always looking over his shoulder, metaphorically speaking, to see what the Mekon and his devilish accomplices were up to and where they were up to it. And of course Dan and Digby had to sort it out which they inevitably did!
I noticed a report in 