Newsflash! The Dandy goes... Xtreme!

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 13 Aug 2007, 21:27

Peter Gray wrote:
from Gail of Swindon:
Answered 12 August 2007
What?s happened to Brassneck? I really liked him!
I?ve been thrown on the scrapheap, Gail! That?s not as bad as it sounds ? most of my family live there
from Dandy website

looks like Nick B is no longer working for the Dandy ....lets hope his unique work will be in the Beano or another comic...same for Ken H..

Steve Bright can you squeeze some more top artists in Wallace and Gromit ...Nick drawing Wallace would be funny in his Blinky style

The point of licensed comics is to be "on model".

BTW Ken Harrison IS in The Beano - drawing Robbie Rebel.

Lew

Post by **AndyB** » 17 Aug 2007, 00:01

That's a good point. Are Ken's most recently published Robbie strips just using up old stock in the same way as Steve's last few Beryls? Will Big Brad Wolf ever return?

Classic Comics · Post by **Classic Comics** » 17 Aug 2007, 11:33

AndyB wrote:That's a good point. Are Ken's most recently published Robbie strips just using up old stock in the same way as Steve's last few Beryls? Will Big Brad Wolf ever return?

Ken is still drawing Robbie Rebel. The current run are new, not stock.

Kashgar · Post by **Kashgar** » 18 Aug 2007, 10:46

The second issue of Dandy Xtreme has just been published and thanks to a four page ad, admittedly in strip format, advertising a cartoon on the cartoon network called Storm Hawks occupying the four centre pages of the Comix section ( the same ad also appears in the new BeanoMax) there are only 12 pages of legitimate Dandy comic pages this week and half of them are reprint. And weirdly although it is visibly advertised on the front cover the new Peter Player strip Captain Hookless isn't actually featured this fortnight at all.
The Dudley Watkins Desperate Dan reprint this time around comes from issue No 396 (21/5/49) and features Jonah Jinx - the unluckiest man in the World, a character who Dan acted as bodyguard to twice, first in 1949 (Nos 390-396) and then again in 1952 (Nos 545-558). Also Watkins signature is covered by the 'How do you rate this?' box and it'll be interesting in the coming issues to see whether this is by accident or design.

Captain Storm · Post by **Captain Storm** » 18 Aug 2007, 10:57

Please can somebody in the know contact DC Thomson and tell them to give "The Dandy" a respectable death!It would have been better to incorporate the strips into Beano to strengthen that comic rather than this mutated hybrid.I know,I know,revenue would be lost and artists would be out of work,though judging by the reprints and the response thus far received it won't be long in coming anyway!All this and I don't even like these 2 comics,comix or whatever they are being called now!Some sense in all this madness surely.

MikeC · Post by **MikeC** » 19 Aug 2007, 09:29

I'll tell them. I doubt if they'll listen to a bunch of moaning old gits, though...

Seriously, exactly what kind of demographic do you think we make up? About a dozen old fogeys bleating on about how comic are better than computer games and how life was better in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s (delete as appropriate) when I was growing up... ?

We like stuff that's not so popular now, mainly because there's something else to do. Get over it.

And the first response that starts with "but surely there's a market for a proper comic..." wins the award for muppet of the week. There isn't, or there'd be one already. While you're sitting at home thumbing through your childhood relics, other people are out there researching the market, speaking to retailers etc. etc. We don't know how it's done, all we know is if we like it or we don't. And if you don't like it - don't buy it.

colcool007 · Post by **colcool007** » 19 Aug 2007, 11:10

I must admit that I would love to jump to Cap Storm's defence on this one but I can't. The Dandy and Beano have had to change to keep up with the times. I mean if tastes were static, we'd all still be reading Comic Cuts and looking askance at these new-fangled illustrated stories. I know that my time was the 1970's. It has come and gone and I have to accept it, but I don't have to like the fact that the comics that I enjoyed have either gone or mutated beyond belief.

A good example is this board. Before the internet rose, I knew few fans that still liked comics and were still enjoying them as an adult. But now, I know of at least 300 people that have a similiar taste to mine and thanks to Ebay I have built up my collection to such an extent that I have almost the full collection of Warlord and Misty, a juxtaposition that is almost archaic in this day and age.

I hope that the Dandy and the Beano continue to exist in whatever form they change into and that they continue to make children smile wherever they are. However, I don' think that I will be taking a subscription soon!

But, that's OK as the core audience is kids, them little ankle-biters and I fully expect in 50 years time, someone will be asking the same sort of questions and presenting the same arguments about the comics of today.

Captain Storm · Post by **Captain Storm** » 19 Aug 2007, 11:19

Seriously, exactly what kind of demographic do you think we make up? About a dozen old fogeys bleating on about how comic are better than computer games and how life was better in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s (delete as appropriate) when I was growing up... ?

We like stuff that's not so popular now, mainly because there's something else to do. Get over it.

And the Angry 12 Men thought they could make a difference

Last seen pouring over mouldy copies of Hotspur and Smash

So there you have it folks.And ya thought our cajoling would change things.Not unless ya know the Editors

Even then our time has come and gone.The future is now and the past lives on in every line on our furrowed brows.Best we can hope for is the odd reprint now and again

Get over it.

I will,I promise...I think..

Captain Storm · Post by **Captain Storm** » 19 Aug 2007, 11:25

Before the internet rose, I knew few fans that still liked comics

Ditto.I would always wax lyrically about comics to anybody who would listen in the late 80's and was usually greeted with stunned expressions

GET OVER IT!

Let this be our new maxim!

It ain't gonna happen,so let us busy ourselves collecting,indexing and reminiscing and hopefully having a bit of fun as we share our hobby.

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 26 Aug 2007, 16:35

MikeC wrote:
And the first response that starts with "but surely there's a market for a proper comic..." wins the award for muppet of the week.

Absolutely. Great post Mike.

Funny how "proper comic" always equates to the format of comic that was around when the moaners were children.

There's a lesson there. Children's comics are designed to appeal to children, not 40 something adults.

Lew

Steve Bright · Post by **Steve Bright** » 26 Aug 2007, 17:20

Lew Stringer wrote:
MikeC wrote:
And the first response that starts with "but surely there's a market for a proper comic..." wins the award for muppet of the week.
There's a lesson there. Children's comics are designed to appeal to children, not 40 something adults.

Lew

Problem is, Lew, in so many cases, they just don't.

Changes are made based on market research, dictated by the lowest common denominators, and the circulations perk up for two minutes then go back into free-fall. Is may be futile and blinkered to look back at how comics were in their heyday, but it is perfectly understandable.

What really needs to be changed is the perception of comics as yesterday's thing. It's absolutely pointless promoting any individual comic over its rivals, where all you're getting is a pack of dogs fighting over an ever-increasingly meagre pile of scraps. Until all the publishers get together and pay the very best (and I do mean the very best) brains in marketing to come up with a campaign to actually make comics as a whole cool again, the whole industry will scrap until there's nothing left.

There are many countries in the world where comics are still held in high regard, and not through tradition, but rather evolution. What makes their markets different to ours? I've no idea, but if our current comics publishers don't swallow their pride and stop living on their past glory, but rather take notice and learn from today's successes, time will run out on any tiny remaining advantage tradition still holds.

You'd think it was rocket science.

philcom55 · Post by **philcom55** » 26 Aug 2007, 18:03

I'm inclined to agree with everything Mike says as well. Except....

It's worth remembering that for every piece of received wisdom there are always exceptions. Before Julius Schwartz and Stan Lee reinvented superhero comics received wisdom said they were just a fad. Before the first Harry Potter book hit the shelves received wisdom said that the 'boarding school' genre of children's fiction was as dead as the dodo. Before Russell Davies brought Dr Who back to overwhelming popular success received wisdom said that the character could never appeal to today's youngsters...

As I see it the speculative publisher's real task is to find the essence of what made something popular in the past, and then to combine this with a sensibility that is genuinely new and revolutionary. At the end of the day pulling that trick off is what makes the difference between Romney Pringle and Sherlock Holmes!!!

Unfortunately it's notoriously difficult to pin down.

- Phil Rushton

LauraH · Post by **LauraH** » 26 Aug 2007, 20:09

For my money, a major problem seems to be a fixation on details rather than getting to the core of what creates popularity. Certain things never go out of fashion - weird characters in mundane situations, and mundane characters in weird situations... slapstick... clever wordplay... rooting for the underdog... misunderstanding... and so on. Dress them up in whatever details you like, and they can still entertain. The trouble is, people often think it's the details doing all the work.

(Actually, the best example I can think of for this comes from film rather than comics. Consider Pixar. So many other companies saw what they were doing in the 90s and said "Ah! These Pixar films do well. It must be because of that there fancy CG animation. Let us do likewise." Traditional 2D animation was immediately declared passe and a torrent of dreadful, shallow CG movies were created instead, most of which performed badly at the box office and led to whisperings that animation as an artform was dying. All because the imitators failed to realise that most of Pixar's appeal actually came from strong characterisation, absorbing stories and intelligent writing - age-old building blocks of good filmmaking, in other words.)

So, to steer this ramble back to comics, I'd like to see less Lowest Common Denominator and more Universal Appeal, please.

I didn't intend my first post to be this long. Oh well

My stuffs:
http://www.laurahowell.co.uk

Shaqui · Post by **Shaqui** » 26 Aug 2007, 20:41

Not familiar with your work Laura, but nice to see another pro on board the forum.

Nice stuff at your site too.

Peter Gray · Post by **Peter Gray** » 26 Aug 2007, 23:10

welcome aboard..glad you agree with us....the Pixar note was spot on..

Also true about Dr Who...Boarding school..Harry Potter etc...

Sitcoms may ,make a big come back like Only Fools.......you never know..or never say never...

Comics UK