I'm Bidding farewell to The Dandy

Discuss or comment on anything relating to Britain's longest running comic. The home of Korky the Cat and Desperate Dan. Has been running since 1937.

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BeanoKev70
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I'm Bidding farewell to The Dandy

Post by BeanoKev70 »

Not sure how others buy, but I have reviewed my weekly comic buying & have decided to stop buying the Dandy from next week. It has been a stable buy since 1975 in our household & I have continued to buy it since leaving home & having my own family. I'm so disappointed with the current Xtreme & the Dandy being so small on the cover. Was wondering if any other long term readers/supporters have made the same decision...?

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Re: I'm Bidding farewell to The Dandy

Post by AndyB »

I took that decision after the first issue, with quite some regret.

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Digifiend
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Re: I'm Bidding farewell to The Dandy

Post by Digifiend »

I've only bought three Dandy's in the last two years. The last of the 2004-2007 era issues, the following issue (the first Xtreme), and the current one, which I bought mainly to see the Bully Beef, Bananaman and Desperate Dan strips, as all three have gained new artists since the Xtreme launch. As good as they are, they don't justify a regular purchase - the weekly cost is the same as Beano, but you get far fewer comic strips. I would've bought the 70th birthday edition, only they completely ignored the anniversary!

I do, however, still get the annual, which thankfully has remained in it's pre-Xtreme state (apart from the cover logo and an advert near the back). I avoid the fun-size comics as these are all reprint, so I usually already have them.

My regular purchases are The Beano and Classics from the Comics, and I intend to get that Buster special when it comes out.

Conor B
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Re: I'm Bidding farewell to The Dandy

Post by Conor B »

I stopped buying about 4 or 5 issues ago, but will still buy the annual if it is worth it (ie mostly - 75%+ - comic strips)
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Peter Gray
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Re: I'm Bidding farewell to The Dandy

Post by Peter Gray »

Dandy glossy was great with Steve Bright...Tom P...etc..
Dandy Extreem is too vulgar..But hey I'm an adult..
NP and Jamie do a great job...
also too many free gifts..
I find Beano Max an up and down purchase..like it most when Tom P's work is in it..though it is read very quickly..
Classics is good for the new comics it features and artists..
More excited by The Beano with Laura H..Tom P..Lew Stringer..and Hunt E on Fred's Bed..
Beano is more my cup of tea and I keep them..
Hunt's doing a great job..and laura and Lew..

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Digifiend
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Re: I'm Bidding farewell to The Dandy

Post by Digifiend »

Hear hear! Maybe if the free gifts disappeared the price would stabilise - both The Beano and Dandy Xtreme have got yo-yo pricing at present. I agree about the artists you mentioned.

Classics new comics? I assume you mean the boys papers stuff.

Conor, the Dandy Annual can't use most of the Xtreme features due to them being too topical - it's produced too far in advance (football, wrestling, game cheats, etc would all be long out of date). I don't think we have to worry about the comic strip quota dropping in that. In fact, it's a good chance to see new stories featuring Brassneck, Korky, and Winker Watson (assuming the 2009 roster sticks). I assume 2010 will see Dan and Bananaman taken over by their new artists from Xtreme, and more use of ex-Dandy artists who still work for The Beano (for instance, Brassneck was drawn by Tom Paterson in the 2009 edition, and he and Ken Harrison, who did Winker and Dan [who was a reprint when the annual was prepared], still work for Beano, but no longer for Dandy), while 2011 should see Bully Beef added, along with some of the other current strips.

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SID
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Re: I'm Bidding farewell to The Dandy

Post by SID »

I still currently get it. Not because I think the comic is good but more out of loyalty for the Dandy of old. Though I do enjoy the strips - just not the rest of it. Besides, £5 a month is not too much to pay at the moment.

Also, I am curious to what will happen in the future. Will the Dandy name survive, just fade away to obscurity or be eventually merged with the Beano? Only time will tell.

I don't get the Beano even though I did get it regularly as a kid but it was always the Dandy that I really loved.

Classics from the Comics I don't regularly read. But would reconsider if/when they start reprinting classic Black Bob stories (I would love it if DCT would compile all of his adventures into a book(s)).
Reading comics since 1970. My Current Regulars are: 2000 AD (1977-), Judge Dredd Megazine (1990-), Spaceship Away (2003-), Commando (2013-), Monster Fun (2022-), Deadpool and Wolverine (2023-), Quantum (2023-).

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Re: I'm Bidding farewell to The Dandy

Post by Earl »

I still get the annual. The first Xtreme issue was the last one weekly I got.

Earl.

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Jonny Whizz
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Re: I'm Bidding farewell to The Dandy

Post by Jonny Whizz »

The only comic I regularly buy is the Beano. I have a few Classics from the Comics though. I've never read the Dandy, but it's sad what has happened to it.
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Steve Henderson
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Re: I'm Bidding farewell to The Dandy

Post by Steve Henderson »

Regarding free gifts

How much of a hold do the free gift companies have over the comics? The free gifts are planned as far in advance as the pages of the comics.
Is it a case of the comics get money/funding for dishing out free gifts? If so would the price go UP if they stopped giving us free gunk and fake dog turds?
Are the comics held to randsom by the free gift gangsters?

I think the last Dandy I bought was July last year, didn't think much of it as Im more into comics than features but I could see the 12 year old version of myself loving it. Saying that I couldn't see the 12 year old version of me growing up and getting all nostalgic about features and puzzles like I am about comics.

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Re: I'm Bidding farewell to The Dandy

Post by Kashgar »

I still buy the Dandy if for no other reason than the archivist in me wouldn't allow me not to. ( I also wouldn't want to bring to an end my run of the comic from 1942 to the present) But its also more than that. I want to see how the story turns out. After all you wouldn't go to the cinema to watch an epic movie and leave with 10 minutes to go!

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Re: I'm Bidding farewell to The Dandy

Post by Lew Stringer »

Steve Henderson wrote:Regarding free gifts
How much of a hold do the free gift companies have over the comics? The free gifts are planned as far in advance as the pages of the comics.
Is it a case of the comics get money/funding for dishing out free gifts? If so would the price go UP if they stopped giving us free gunk and fake dog turds?
Are the comics held to randsom by the free gift gangsters?
It's more to do with the increasing power that supermarkets have over publishers. Retailers like free gifts on comics because they sell more copies, and they like it even more when a comic is more expensive as they get more profit. And it's working so far.

Lew
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Steve Henderson
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Re: I'm Bidding farewell to The Dandy

Post by Steve Henderson »

Whos making the toys then? The supermarkets or the publishers? I suppose if it increases profits it can't be all that bad. Only if that increase is a result of added readers and not a result of a bigger price.

If supermarkets really had there minds set on increasing the profits of comics and kids magazines they would put some effort into displaying them with prominance and showing the kids the choice rather than putting them up next to the porn or scrunched up together on one shelf next to 'horse and hound'. Something that I know winds you up Lew, as well as a few more people on here (myself included)

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Re: I'm Bidding farewell to The Dandy

Post by Lew Stringer »

Steve Henderson wrote:Whos making the toys then? The supermarkets or the publishers?
Neither. These days they're bought in from companies that make such cheap tat. That's why the same gift (with different packaging) appears in different comics from rival publishers.
Steve Henderson wrote:I suppose if it increases profits it can't be all that bad. Only if that increase is a result of added readers and not a result of a bigger price.

If supermarkets really had there minds set on increasing the profits of comics and kids magazines they would put some effort into displaying them with prominance and showing the kids the choice rather than putting them up next to the porn or scrunched up together on one shelf next to 'horse and hound'. Something that I know winds you up Lew, as well as a few more people on here (myself included)
Bizarrely the reasoning is that comics are now eye-level for parents to buy, not for kids to buy themselves. Perhaps it makes sense, as I never see kids shopping on their own these days due to their parents being too paranoid to let them out unaccompanied. (The days of Saturday morning matinees followed by buying comics from the market/Smiths are long gone. I'm just glad my generation had such freedoms.)

Lew
The blog of British comics: http://lewstringer.blogspot.com
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Blog about my own work: http://lewstringercomics.blogspot.com/

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Re: I'm Bidding farewell to The Dandy

Post by Digifiend »

If anything, that would help The Beano more than anything else, as it's the only comic around now which existed 20 years ago. I'm not counting 2000AD because that tends to stocked with the sci-fi mags such as SFX and Sci-Fi Now instead of with the comics, and is no longer aimed at children. Dandy doesn't count either due to it's name change - parents won't recognise it since the logo is so small, and BeanoMax's existence might make them think it's a spin-off instead of the same publication.

If they really want to market to parents instead of kids, it's another reason to resurrect the non-Xtreme Dandy. Also, if they decide to launch a fourth comic, alongside Beano, Dandy and Max, the Beezer name would be the most likely to get recognised by the parents, since it only folded 16 years ago.

Surely free gifts entice kids, not parents, who would know that the gift is likely to be played with once then get broken or just ignored (I'm referring to non-edible gifts obviously)?

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