Comics UK

Last week was when the Beano caught up the Dandy issue-wise and guess who forgot to go down and buy the comics?

I bought them this week but the Beano is now one issue ahead.

Never mind.

When you factor in the Beano Superstars and the specials which ran before Beano Max, plus the 24-issue advantage which the Beano Comic Libraries had over the Dandy Comic Libraries, there have been rather more Beano-branded comics than Dandy-branded comics for some years now, to be fair...

This issue of the Dandy has the wrong number on it (not the first time - see the Beano covers on the main site). The Beano is still ONE behind in real terms!

LOL. You are right, Connor.

I just checked the last couple of Dandys and their issue numbers are

11/11/2008 - No. 3457
25/10/2008 - No. 3458
08/11/2008 - No. 3457

No wonder I missed it (or have I???)

Thanks, Connor for pointing that one out.

Thanks to Connor, I went out this weekend and bought the 3460th issues of the Beano and the Dandy which are both out this week.

Thanks again Connor.

It seems that my last post was a wee bit premature.

I just went to Sainsbury's today and bought the latest issues of the Dandy and the Beano. Both have the same issue number (No 3461). Both have the same issue date (6th December 2008).

Obsession over.

SID wrote:It seems that my last post was a wee bit premature.

I just went to Sainsbury's today and bought the latest issues of the Dandy and the Beano. Both have the same issue number (No 3461). Both have the same issue date (6th December 2008).

Obession over.

That's right. Dandy 3460 came out a week before The Beano 3460. (Dandy is fortnightly.) Issue Nos. 3461 of both comics came out on the same day, last Wednesday.

With issue 3462, out Wednesday 10th December, which is the Christmas issue by the way, The Beano overtakes The Dandy.

Lew

although, with the Christmas Beano being a double issue, the Dandy will keep catching up for a couple of weeks.

The Beano won't truly overtake until #3464, which will come out the same week as Dandy #3463 on 31st December.

AndyB wrote:although, with the Christmas Beano being a double issue, the Dandy will keep catching up for a couple of weeks.

The Beano won't truly overtake until #3464, which will come out the same week as Dandy #3463 on 31st December.

I think my calculations were right. The current Dandy (3461) is on sale for three weeks, so it cannot catch up with The Beano even with the Xmas Beano being on sale for a fortnight. Dandy 3462 therefore comes out around Christmas Eve, same day as Beano 3463.

Dandy 3463 therefore won't be out until a fortnight later, the same day as Beano 3465.

Lew

ah... and there was me thinking that the dandy wouldn't take a week off!

To be honest, though, I think the Beano's taking the wrong week off, with the next Beano coming out before Christmas. I miss the days when there were 52 comics a year.

AndyB wrote:ah... and there was me thinking that the dandy wouldn't take a week off!

To be honest, though, I think the Beano's taking the wrong week off, with the next Beano coming out before Christmas. I miss the days when there were 52 comics a year.

I suppose they're reliant on various distributor schedules. Also, perhaps they think that if it's on sale for two weeks before Christmas it gives it more visibility as a stocking stuffer. No parent is going to buy a Christmas Beano after the day.

As for the Christmas Beano skipping a week in order to do a 48 page bumper issue, wasn't that common practice with the "bumper" 16 page Xmas comics of the 1930s? It's just an old tradition that's been revived in recent years. I quite like it.

Lew

Lew Stringer wrote:As for the Christmas Beano skipping a week in order to do a 48 page bumper issue, wasn't that common practice with the "bumper" 16 page Xmas comics of the 1930s? It's just an old tradition that's been revived in recent years. I quite like it.

Lew

I like the double-issue idea too.

Outside of comics, the Radio Times and TV Times have been doing the same thing each Christmas as far back as I can remember.

Also, 2000AD has been doing it since they axed their annual/year book.

2000AD's christmas issues are numbered "Prog (year)", rather than the normal numbering of the issues. Somebody worked out that if the current practice continues prog 2010 (the 'annual') will be followed only weeks later with prog 2010 (the actual issue).
Either way the christmas issues usually contain the usual stories (often the start or end of stories), as well as one-shot stories that "lead in" to serials that are planned for the following year (i beleive occulty-piratey-global-multiverse-conspiracyey story The Red Seas started as one of these).
The christmas issues are "on sale" for four weeks over the christmas period, which gives the staff some time off and everybody's pockets a rest, comics are probably more expensive than they used to be, even taking inflation and the "recent" minimum wage law into account, so every little helps over that lean period.

steven wrote:What about milestones. The Beano would soon reach the 3500th issue. I wonder if the Dandy will ever make it to theirs?

Well almost four years later, Steven, you will see that the Dandy is about to hit its 3600th issue but the end is in sight.

Then it will be the case that as of August next year, the Beano really becomes Britain's longest running comic. Or would that be discounted since the Dandy would be continuing in digital form? If so, at least the longest running comic in print.