The Mekon () of Mekonta is the arch-enemy of the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

hero

Dan Dare Dan Dare is a British science fiction comic hero, created by illustrator Frank Hampson who also wrote the first stories. Dare appeared in the ''Eagle'' comic story ''Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future'' from 1950 to 1967 (and subsequently in repri ...

. He first appeared on 3 November 1950 in the 30th episode of the ''

Eagle Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just ...

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

''Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future'', having been created by

Frank Hampson Frank Hampson (21 December 1918 – 8 July 1985) was a British illustrator. He is best known as the creator and artist of Dan Dare and other characters in the boys' comic, the ''Eagle'', to which he contributed from 1950 to 1961. Biogra ...

. Apart from Dan Dare himself, he is the only character to appear in every one of the numerous versions of the comic strip that appeared in the ''Eagle'', '' 2000 AD'' and Virgin Comics. In the 1950s, roughly every other story featured the Mekon.

Description

The Mekon was the ruler of the

Treens The Treens are fictional aliens in the Dan Dare stories. They first appeared in '' Dan Dare: The First Story'', which was serialised in the ''Eagle'' comic magazine from Volume 1, Number 1 (14 April 1950) to Volume 2, Number 25 (28 Septembe ...

of northern

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...

, although he was ousted from this position at the end of the first story and had no fixed base of operations. He was created by scientific experimentation, engineered for very high intelligence. As such he had a swollen head containing his massive brain and atrophied body, and moved around on a levitating chair. He typically invented new superweapons in the pursuit of his goal: the domination of the universe for the purpose of scientific research. In some stories he also sought personal revenge on Dan Dare. In the animated ''Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future'' television series (first aired in 2001), the animators took his nickname "Melonhead" literally and showed his cranium as not shiny smooth green but wrinkled like a

cantaloupe The cantaloupe, rockmelon (Australia and New Zealand, although cantaloupe is used in some states of Australia), sweet melon, or spanspek (Southern Africa) is a melon that is a variety of the muskmelon species (''Cucumis melo'') from the fami ...

. The voice of the Mekon was portrayed by Richard Pearce.

In popular culture

British politician

Angus Maude Angus Edmund Upton Maude, Baron Maude of Stratford-upon-Avon, (8 September 1912 – 9 November 1993) was a British Conservative Party politician. A Member of Parliament (MP) from 1950 to 1958 and from 1963 to 1983, he served as a cabinet min ...

and Irish journalist

Patrick Cosgrave Patrick John Francis Cosgrave (28 September 1941 – 16 September 2001) was a British-Irish journalist and writer. A staunch supporter of the British Conservative Party, he was an adviser to Margaret Thatcher whilst she was Leader of the Opposi ...

were each nicknamed "The Mekon". British political strategist

Dominic Cummings Dominic Mckenzie Cummings (born 25 November 1971) is a British political strategist who served as Chief Adviser to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson from 24 July 2019 until Cummings resigned on 13 November 2020. From 2007 to 2014, he was a ...

has also been nicknamed "The Mekon". In the "Genesis of A Classic" feature on the ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...

'' DVD release of ''

Genesis of the Daleks ''Genesis of the Daleks'' is the fourth serial of the twelfth season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. It was written by Terry Nation and directed by David Maloney, and originally broadcast in six weekly parts from ...

'', producer

Philip Hinchcliffe Philip Michael Hinchcliffe (born October 1944) is a retired English television producer, screenwriter and script editor. After graduating from Cambridge University, he began his career as a writer and script editor at Associated Television befo ...

cites the Mekon as one of his inspirations for the character

Davros Davros () is a character from the long-running British science fiction on television, science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. He was created by screenwriter Terry Nation, originally for the 1975 serial ''Genesis of the Daleks''. Dav ...

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...

, in his "Rock of the Westies" album recorded in 1975, had a song called "Dan Dare (Pilot of the Future)". One of the key repeated lines in the song is "Dan Dare doesn't know it, he doesn't know it, but I like the Mekon". British rock band

The Mekons The Mekons are a British band formed in the late 1970s as an art collective. They are one of the longest-running and most prolific of the first-wave British punk rock bands. The band's style has evolved over time to incorporate aspects of ...

named themselves after the character in 1977, as did

big beat Big beat is an electronic music genre that usually uses heavy breakbeats and synthesizer-generated loops and patterns – common to acid house/techno. The term has been used by the British music industry to describe music by artists such as ...

artist Mekon. British satirical magazine

Private Eye ''Private Eye'' is a British fortnightly satire, satirical and current affairs (news format), current affairs news magazine, founded in 1961. It is published in London and has been edited by Ian Hislop since 1986. The publication is widely r ...

ran a cartoon strip from 1987 titled "Dan Dire - Pilot of the Future?", featuring then- Labour Party leader

Neil Kinnock Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a British former politician. As a member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was the Leader of ...

as the eponymous hapless space pilot, accompanied by the gluttonous Pigby, modelled on deputy leader

Roy Hattersley Roy Sydney George Hattersley, Baron Hattersley, (born 28 December 1932) is a British Labour Party politician, author and journalist from Sheffield. He was MP for Birmingham Sparkbrook for over 32 years from 1964 to 1997, and served as Depu ...

. Dire's arch-enemy was The Maggon, a Mekon-like parody of Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...

, whose followers were the Toreens. In May 2013, the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

Description

In popular culture

Further reading

Bibliography

References

External links