The Dandy what could make it weekly again..and bought more?

Peter Gray · Post by **Peter Gray** » 09 Jul 2007, 17:46

The Dandy what could make it weekly again..and bought more?

other than the war ending...

maybe The Dandy should go back to paper like The Beano and be cheaper...85p........

could there be a Dandy character cartoon..other than the 80's bananaman..

more competitons like the comic art drawing contest...

maybe reprints shouldn't be disguised...and older reprints shown with the dates..

as Lew says Manga is popular...France and other countries have a good comic industry...what can we learn from them...

could the internet play a larger part to comic reading...like reading the comic on the net for a fee?

I'll miss every week Dandy....hope the artists find other work..now they are missing a week..........or the comic is larger...
Jamie we need Genie...

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 09 Jul 2007, 18:07

Peter Gray wrote: as Lew says Manga is popular...France and other countries have a good comic industry...what can we learn from them...

That their societies always had a greater respect for comics than the British had for theirs?

That their comics offered more variety?

That their comics sold on the basis of being comics, not as attachments to cheap plastic toys? (Although some European comics do come bagged with gifts now.)

Perhaps it's not a case of stepping back to reclaim the past, but moving forward to grab the future? The Dandy has done well to survive as a weekly for this long really, now that the market is dominated by monthly titles.

Lew

Peter Gray · Post by **Peter Gray** » 10 Jul 2007, 10:05

its funny what you say about free gifts...

I think most of todays children are spoilt...

a free gift in a comic was something special...it normally meant new characters arriving...

Beano and Dandy have a very high standard....which compared to other comic mags it still is the best...

Wallace and Gromitt...Shawn...Toxic...Dr who...Shrek...sponge bob...simpsons...just don't have the variety of the beano and dandy...though good...its almost as if the beano and dandy are trying to copy them going the magazine route....though what they do have is something unique....comic artwork throughout...different characters...years of experience...I hope they don't keep trying to be like the crowd....the features in kids magazines are very fillers and dumbed down...

keep the beano and dandy a comic and not a magazine..

Kashgar · Post by **Kashgar** » 10 Jul 2007, 10:51

I really don't think there can be any going back for the Dandy. After all it only morphed into what it is now because it was failing to sell in sufficient quantities in it's original form. But whether a new fortnightly edition will stop the slide is open to debate, we'll just have to wait and see what content changes go along with the change in publication schedule.
For instance, I'm certain that the Dandy won't have much of a long-term future if it simply becomes Thomson's version of Buster in its final years. Cover to cover reprints produced on a fortnightly basis, while being relatively cheap to produce, won't work the oracle in the long run.
Still, I like to think that Thomsons are and always have been intensely proud of their titles so I don't think they'll give up on the Dandy without a fight and let it 'do a Buster'.
As well as the new fortnightly publishing schedule for the Dandy next month it seems that we might also be going back to Beano and Dandy books with only 128 pages for the first time since 1960.

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 10 Jul 2007, 10:57

Peter Gray wrote:the features in kids magazines are very fillers and dumbed down...

keep the beano and dandy a comic and not a magazine..

Thing is, we aren't the target audience. Kids are. It's really irrelevant what we'd prefer children's comics to be like.

Times and tastes change. 90 years ago half a comic's content was filled with text stories. No doubt any adults looking at comics during the 1950s would bemoan the shift towards less text and more strips. In 1969 my Grandad lightheartedly said Whizzer and Chips wasn't a "proper comic" because he'd been used to publications like Illustrated Chips which he'd read in 1900. I realized then that comics evolve and that for every generation their comics are "the best".

Comics have been becoming more simplified ever since they started. Compare Funny Wonder to TV Fun to Jackpot to today's Dandy. Comics reflect the society around us. Always have, always will.

Lew

Comics UK