The Dandy 70th Coffee book will it happen?

[Digifiend]

Then I'd like to see it. Is it on sale anywhere? (Second hand, of course, I realise it'll be long since out of print)

[Kashgar]

Then I'd like to see it. Is it on sale anywhere? (Second hand, of course, I realise it'll be long since out of print)

I think the Book Palace may still have copies of my Dandy Monster Index which covered the years 1937-1990. BTW the then Dandy editor Morris Heggie got one of his sub-editors (Craig Ferguson if memory serves) to use the DMI and their own in-house resources to produce a A4 hardback book cataloguing all of the Dandy contents from 1937 to 1995. This book was produced for in-house reference only but they did kindly let me have a copy too, so as regards to having most of the facts to hand needed to produce an index for a Dandy coffee table tome similar to the Beano version that most certainly wouldn't have been a major stumbling block.

[Digifiend]

That's recent enough to mention Beryl the Peril and the other former Beezer and Topper strips which moved to Dandy in 1993-4. And six years better than they had for The Beano. There seems to be little excuse other than the fortnightly comic's sales figures, so let's hope they do the coffee tome for 2012.

Monster Index eh? Named after the early annuals. I like that.

[Phoenix]

I have enjoyed reading my copy of The History of The Beano, especially the survey to the end of the Forties when I basically stopped reading comics, turning my attention instead to Thomsons' story papers. As a child I was nowhere near as fond of The Beano, though, as I was of The Dandy. I liked Big Eggo and was very sorry to see the zany ostrich replaced on the cover by Biffo The Bear. I never really did get on with that animal. I also enjoyed the adventures of Lord Snooty And His Pals, Pansy Potter and Jimmy And His Magic Patch, but that was about it. On the other hand, The Dandy provided me with a lot more pleasure. I devoured the adventures of Korky The Cat, Desperate Dan, Black Bob, Freddy The Fearless Fly, Old Ma Murphy, Julius Sneezer, Hungry Horace and Keyhole Kate. Interestingly, at no time did I pay any attention to the artists or indeed consciously notice any differences in the presentation of the strips. I was seduced by the content only. With the benefit of hindsight I can clearly see that I was responding to the work of Allan Morley in particular but, despite my best adult efforts, I still cannot see what all the fuss is about with regard to Dudley Watkins. Perhaps I just don't have a cartoonist's eye, this despite the fact that I have been an art lover since one specific lesson when our art teacher showed us how Turner achieved his effects in one of his sea paintings, and I travel to galleries and major exhibitions as far away as London. Regrettably, I cannot see Thomsons producing a companion volume on The Dandy. However, I sincerely hope they do, and definitely not just because my coffee table and I need to feel nicely balanced.

[Steve Henderson]

I remember the reason the Beano Book is called 'The Story So Far' is because they have the option to expand on it and reprint them as the years continue so if BeanoMAX is going strong by the 80th or 75th they may re-print the book with loads more on the BeanoMAX (For example) so I doubt the fact that they have missed the Dandys anniversary has much to do with there being no Dandy book.

[Phoenix]

I think the subtitle The Story So Far was used simply because The Beano is still running, Steve. Obviously all future options are available to Thomsons but I very much doubt whether they will ever update The History Of The Beano, especially in view of the high production costs involved, given that it would only be bought by the relatively small number of people who will not have got this one, and those well-heeled completists who will pay again for what they have already got, just to have a couple of extra chapters or so. One factor that the company will have taken into account is that the current book is more than simply a history. It is also getting into print as many personal anecdotes, observations and memories as they can of those contributors to the iconic comic while these people are still alive. Furthermore, a crucial element in the decision to publish now, rather than wait until the comic is wound up at some point in the future, has to have been the nostalgia factor. Those readers from the period just before World War 2 will already be well into their seventies, the wartime, postwar and early fifties ones like me will be in their sixties, but these are the very people that the first two sections in particular (over a third of the book) are aimed at, and every day we lose some of them to the guy with the scythe. Maybe it is an age thing, if only because they have a greater distance to look back and more therefore to miss or to want to revisit, but many of these people are seriously nostalgic. I don't know how nostalgic current young comic readers will be, but I fear that comics may be much more peripheral to their main leisure concerns than they were for people like ourselves on this website. I leave you to figure out what this may mean.

[Captain Storm]

I believe the media companies,especially D.C. Thomson,must tackle the new technologies in place to have a fighting chance of launching any new titles.The internet and extensive pre-watershed programmes(Nickelodeon?)are the places to find your potential audience.Kids love to read.Harry Potter,Spiderwick Chronicles,Inkheart.....sell in their millions.I truly believe the heads up in Dundee should take a chance.Heavy advertising."Laughing kids peering over shoulders.Hey,look at this!"Sell to the corner shops.That's where we used to buy comics.Not in Mega Stores! There must still be thousands of small shops that Dundee could do a deal with! Why not send out flyers to schools."Hey,look at our new comic,it's funny,it'll help you to read!"There is no crime in getting kids interested in reading and learning to read! It's where I learned to spell "chuckle" and "aarrggh!"

The Cap.

[STARBOY]

It's always intriged me why comics don't seem to be sold in the average corner shop anymore, there are tons more of them than there are WH Smiths (etc) branches. Does anyone know if this is this due to the smaller shops themselves not buying comics or is it due to the publishers having special deals with the "big" newsagents - my town used to stock so many comics (UK and a large regular supply of various US titles every month) now the (mostly) same family shops sell a couple of Beanos, Dandys, young Spidey comics and things like Thomas the Tank engine and thats it .

[Steve Henderson]

I think the subtitle The Story So Far was used simply because The Beano is still running

Its a fair point you put across pheonix although I was not working under assumption, I saw the pre-production cover that said '70 years of fun' or something similar in the BeanoMAX office and Euan Kerr told me why he had changed it. My point was that in response to what Andy said about there being no book because we are past the 70th anniversary.

Im sure everyone views nostalgia in their own different way. apparently I grew up when computer games were all the rage but I got a tonne more enjoyment out of a copy of the Beano or a good animated film than I did out of computer games. I also enjoy looking back at the issues before my time and so I found the early stuff in the book most enjoyable!

[Lew Stringer]

It's always intriged me why comics don't seem to be sold in the average corner shop anymore, there are tons more of them than there are WH Smiths (etc) branches.

Must depend on the area because my three local corner shops all stock comics. One only has a handful of nursery titles but the other two have most comics that are available from pre-school titles right through to 2000AD and the Panini Marvel reprints.

Lew

[Digifiend]

I find the largest branch of WHSmith in Hull has almost everything (comics and other magazines) that I'm aware of (they didn't stock the Beano coffee book, I could only find that iin Waterstones, which ironically doesn't sell magazines). Tesco seems to have everything except some of the Marvel and DC Collectors Editions (the aforementioned reprint mags) and Classics from the Comics. I can't find Classics anywhere except WHSmith in fact.

Comics-wise, most other shops seem to sell just Beano, Dandy Xtreme, Toxic and licenced tat.