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- For other uses, see Mekon.
The Mekon (of Mekonta) was the arch-enemy of the British comic book hero Dan Dare, first appearing in 1950 in the Eagle comic strip Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future and created by Frank Hampson. 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 and 2000 AD comics. In the 1950s, roughly every other story featured the Mekon. The Mekon was the ruler of the Treens of northern Venus, 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 a 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 (he could sometimes be surprisingly impulsive for a being supposedly without emotion.) In the recent Dan Dare cartoons, someone took his nickname "Melonhead" literally and showed his cranium as not shiny smooth green but wrinkled like a cantaloupe melon. The voice of the Mekon was portrayed by Richard C. Pearce in the TV cartoon series.
In popular culture
- Elton John's album Rock of the Westies features the song "Dan Dare (Pilot of the Future)" in which Elton sings, "Dan Dare doesn't know it... but I like the Mekon."
- The British punk rock band The Mekons took their name from this character.
- Angus Maude, British cabinet minister was nicknamed "The Mekon" because of his prominent forehead and overbearing manner.
- There is also a big beat musician called Mekon.
- "The Mekon" (an actor in a Mekon costume) was one presenter of the British children's TV show Going Live!
- There are various commercial organizations and internet sites whose names contain "Mekon".
- The rock group Too Much Joy performed a song called "If I Was a Mekon" on their album "Son of Sam I Am".
- The fictional Kon'me species in Star Wars was named after this character.
- British satirical magazine Private Eye ran a spoof version for some years entitled Dan Dire: pilot of the future? with Dan Dire identifiable as Neil Kinnock, Pigby being Roy Hattersley, The Maggon (Margaret Thatcher) and her Toreens, and various other references to other figures from space fiction including as Blubba the Gut (Nigel Lawson), The Douglek (Douglas Hurd, with exterminate replaced by ex-Eton-and-Cambridge-graduate) and Dr. Whoen, the mysterious Time-Is-Now Lord (David Owen).
- Former Led Zeppelin lead singer Robert Plant has a song on his album The Principle of Moments called "Messin' With the Mekon."
- The Nigel Molesworth books make occasional reference to "the Pukon and his Treens".
External links
- http://www.dandare.org.uk : "Dan Dare doesn't know it... but I like The Mekon"
- The Mekon at www.dandare.org
- http://www.dan-dare.net The Interactive Home of Dan Dare and The Mekon
