Digital Dandy

[WizzKid97]

I'm going to be a grumpy old git & leave the digital Dandy to whatever youngsters find it & stick to my lovely old paper comics.

I know what you mean, I've been spending today remaking the entire Digital Dandy Issue 6 as a paper form - sadly can't share it anywhere though! Shame really, I'm sure people would've loved to have seen it.

[Lew Stringer]

The reason the print version didn't survive is because some of these classics were ditched in the first place.

Surely that's only speculation, not fact?

[Digifiend]

I'm going to be a grumpy old git & leave the digital Dandy to whatever youngsters find it & stick to my lovely old paper comics.

I know what you mean, I've been spending today remaking the entire Digital Dandy Issue 6 as a paper form - sadly can't share it anywhere though! Shame really, I'm sure people would've loved to have seen it.

Well, it gives you practice doing layouts, I guess.

[WizzKid97]

I'm going to be a grumpy old git & leave the digital Dandy to whatever youngsters find it & stick to my lovely old paper comics.

I know what you mean, I've been spending today remaking the entire Digital Dandy Issue 6 as a paper form - sadly can't share it anywhere though! Shame really, I'm sure people would've loved to have seen it.

Well, it gives you practice doing layouts, I guess.

I'm doing it for no apparent reason other than to test out my graphic design skills and see what I'm like at editing using a simple program. If The Digital Dandy does end, I'll share the strips online if anyone wishes to see them?

By the way, by "remaking in paper form" I mean through print-screens and layering - not actually redrawing all the strips! That'd take FOREVER and there's no way my art could do any of the stories justice!

[rossmac]

Thanks Harry- I knew I could count on you to do a round up of all the characters and artists!

Another thought I've been pondering is- what do people think of the value of the Digital Dandy compared to what directly preceded it, the 2010 Dandy? What I mean is, animations aside, are we getting good value compared to the print edition? If one were to (as Harry is) compile the digital dandy into a print format, are you getting the same amount of content, more or less? It is cheaper per issue, but then there are no printing costs... but there are web/server etc costs. Either way, what is the amount of content like if it were to be directly compared to the print edition?

Ross

[Digifiend]

They had the web/server costs already anyway. beano.com's updates virtually stopped at the end of October (only one update since then, and it was for a Lego advert) and I'm guessing digital Dandy might have something to do with that.

[SID]

I agree about Retro Active, they should put a story about those superheroes in the annual.

That maybe a good idea. Once a strip has finished its current story-line, it is then compiled and printed in its entirety in the next The Dandy annual.

Saying that, for the kids who did get both the digital version and the annual, they may not like that.

But I would!

[Digifiend]

Well, my suggestion was actually for a stand-alone storyline featuring those characters, not a reformatting of the online story. Retro Active has the potential to run for years. When they defeat one threat, just introduce a new villain. Annuals could also use one-shot villains. The annual should never contain reprints. There's already an annual dedicated to them, after all (Classic Beano and Dandy, the series originally named Fifty Golden Years of Dandy and Beano).

[BeanoKev70]

Lew, I'm not saying its the only reason but I feel its one of the main reasons, it is shown that a lot of today's kids are introduced to comics by there parents, grandparents (As i was by my grandad) & having some kind of familier look/characters helps. You can pick up any Beano from say 1975 to 2013 & find the same characters. Sadly The Dandy hadn't been like that for many years. The Beano has always been great at playing to its strengths something the Dandy wasn't. A good mixture of old & New is needed a good example would be say your Smasher/Postman Prat & Andy's Harry & his Hippo/George vs Dragon etc.

[Lew Stringer]

Lew, I'm not saying its the only reason but I feel its one of the main reasons, it is shown that a lot of today's kids are introduced to comics by there parents, grandparents (As i was by my grandad) & having some kind of familier look/characters helps. You can pick up any Beano from say 1975 to 2013 & find the same characters. Sadly The Dandy hadn't been like that for many years. The Beano has always been great at playing to its strengths something the Dandy wasn't. A good mixture of old & New is needed a good example would be say your Smasher/Postman Prat & Andy's Harry & his Hippo/George vs Dragon etc.

Fair point. (Previously it sounded like you thought that was the sole reason or that you had actual figures pertaining to such.) I always felt that IPC's comics suffered because they changed the line-up too much. The 1990s issues of Buster for example bearing little resemblance to the 1960s version that parents would have grown up with. I do think that The Beano retaining a core group of characters for decades has been one of its big strengths.

[AndyB]

You have to consider though how the Beano got to be the biggest selling children's title, and that is because inside eleven years, they invented at least seven very long-running strips: Biffo the Bear (1948), Dennis the Menace (1951), Roger the Dodger, Little Plum and Minnie the Minx (1953), the Bash Street Kids (1954), and the Three Bears (1959). They set the tone for the next 50 years, and ensured that by the 1970s the only link with pre-1948 Beano was Lord Snooty.

If the Beano hadn't innovated with Dennis, Roger, Minnie and the Kids, their sales would have stayed behind the Dandy, and things could have been very different now. The message is that innovation and major change is not necessarily a bad thing.

[Digifiend]

Ideally, you need a mix of both. If the Dandy had maintained a core set of characters, but padded out with innovative new ones, then it might have sold more and remained in print. The final revamp didn't kill it though. Xtreme did as much damage, and it was in the 90s when a few of the long runners fell by the wayside. In recent years, Beano hasn't innovated and that's why it can no longer claim to be the UK's number 1 comic. It's only in the last few months that they've tried to remedy that, by utilising new talent originally brought into the DCT fold by 2010-12 Dandy, yet they haven't introduced any new characters.

[Lew Stringer]

You have to consider though how the Beano got to be the biggest selling children's title, and that is because inside eleven years, they invented at least seven very long-running strips: Biffo the Bear (1948), Dennis the Menace (1951), Roger the Dodger, Little Plum and Minnie the Minx (1953), the Bash Street Kids (1954), and the Three Bears (1959). They set the tone for the next 50 years, and ensured that by the 1970s the only link with pre-1948 Beano was Lord Snooty.

If the Beano hadn't innovated with Dennis, Roger, Minnie and the Kids, their sales would have stayed behind the Dandy, and things could have been very different now. The message is that innovation and major change is not necessarily a bad thing.

That's the point, that for nigh on 60 years The Beano's strength is that it has been maintaining the same core characters. (Dennis, Minnie, Bash Street, Roger.) Other comics didn't, and all eventually closed. A mixture of familiar faces and relatively new ones obviously paid off.

[Lew Stringer]

In recent years, Beano hasn't innovated and that's why it can no longer claim to be the UK's number 1 comic. It's only in the last few months that they've tried to remedy that, by utilising new talent originally brought into the DCT fold by 2010-12 Dandy, yet they haven't introduced any new characters.

I don't understand your reasoning that sticking to familiar characters in its 75th anniversary year means it's not the UK's number 1 comic.

The comic has still moved forward in terms of design and revitalizing old characters. Besides, surely the fact that it's lasted 75 years and is the most recognized comic brand in the UK is the most significant thing that puts it ahead of the rest?

[Digifiend]

A few years ago they were proudly boasting on the cover that they were the UK's number 1 comic, which I assume was based on sales figures, but several other titles have now overtaken it. They got complacent over the last few years and are only now taking steps to sort it out.