Will The Dandy ever return?

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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comixminx
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Re: Will The Dandy ever return?

Post by comixminx »

Phoenix wrote:
AndyB wrote:I've noticed that it's only possible to get comics and other magazines for the 5-16 age range in proper newsagents. Never in convenience stores.
Out of curiosity I've just been across to my local convenience store (the main supermarket, Morrisons, is in the town square, a quarter of an hour's walk away from my house, so to save time I'm prepared occasionally to pay a little extra for the convenience), and before I bought a couple of items for my tea I made a list of virtually all the comics and magazines for children on sale there, some of which I had never heard of. They had C Beebies, Peppa Pig, Hello Kitty, Lego Elves, Lego Friends, Swashbuckle, Palace Pets, Doc McStuffing, The Furchester Hotel, Toxic, Doctor Who Adventures, Ren 10, Under The Sea Magazine, Disney Princess, Girl Talk, The Official Jacqueline Wilson Magazine, Moshi Monsters, Barbie, Top Of The Pops, Frozen Trading Cards, Spider-Man Sticker Collection (starter pack), My Sister, My Hero Sticker Collection (starter pack), and Cinderella Sticker Collection.
The Peppa Pig and Barbie mags are occasionally in our local cornershop, but it's like the old days of Marval comics in newsagents - random as to what you find there at any one time when you look. Having said that, I don't think any of the above are narrative-focused titles: they have one or two short strips, often re-worked versions of the tv stories that they are licensed from, plus a lot of activity pages - colouring-in, stickers, number games, etc etc. If you had issue 5 and then didn't find another of the same title until issue 8, there wouldn't be any linking stories that you would miss out on in between the two. I reckon this makes them very missable and forgettable, but kids do like plastic tat, and there's lots of that on these mags!
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Re: Will The Dandy ever return?

Post by Lew Stringer »

comixminx wrote: The Peppa Pig and Barbie mags are occasionally in our local cornershop, but it's like the old days of Marval comics in newsagents - random as to what you find there at any one time when you look. Having said that, I don't think any of the above are narrative-focused titles: they have one or two short strips, often re-worked versions of the tv stories that they are licensed from, plus a lot of activity pages - colouring-in, stickers, number games, etc etc. If you had issue 5 and then didn't find another of the same title until issue 8, there wouldn't be any linking stories that you would miss out on in between the two. I reckon this makes them very missable and forgettable, but kids do like plastic tat, and there's lots of that on these mags!
I have sometimes done stories in Toxic that are connected. (I do the Team Toxic strip every issue.) However, each part is self contained. Publishers have found that, sadly, these days most young readers don't have the sort of loyalty to a title like they used to, so serial strips aren't used very often. Also, a wait of 3 or 4 weeks between issues is a long time for a little kid to remember previous episodes.
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Re: Will The Dandy ever return?

Post by Phoenix »

Digifiend wrote:It's Ben 10, not Ren 10.
Well I did say that I didn't recognise some of the titles, and there were so many of them that I was writing the titles down in a hurry on a piece of paper that was constantly threatening to be too small.

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Re: Will The Dandy ever return?

Post by Phoenix »

comixminx wrote:I don't think any of the above are narrative-focused titles:
That may well be so, comixminx, but my list was simply intended to show that it is possible to find a plethora of comics and magazines aimed at the 5 to 16 age range in convenience stores in England, in contrast to AndyB's experience, which would seem to suggest that in Ireland there are none at all in such places anywhere.

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Re: Will The Dandy ever return?

Post by comixminx »

Phoenix wrote:
comixminx wrote:I don't think any of the above are narrative-focused titles:
That may well be so, comixminx, but my list was simply intended to show that it is possible to find a plethora of comics and magazines aimed at the 5 to 16 age range in convenience stores in England, in contrast to AndyB's experience, which would seem to suggest that in Ireland there are none at all in such places anywhere.
Yes, and I was agreeing with you, while highlighting the differences between what's out there now and what there used to be :D
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Re: Will The Dandy ever return?

Post by Phoenix »

comixminx wrote:I was agreeing with you, while highlighting the differences between what's out there now and what there used to be.
The differences sadden me. It is heartening that The Phoenix is still flying the flag, but disheartening that so far it is still the only one. I did buy enthusiastically the first eight issues but I then stopped. There was nothing wrong with the serials but I'm just not nine years old any longer, yet I still read and reread with enormous pleasure many text serials from the story papers I bought when I was between nine and fifteen. I do buy Disney Princess and My Little Pony for my three-year-old granddaughter Aurora, and sometimes Frozen. She loves the plastic tat, and shows enormous concentration when working out how to put the pieces together and placing the stickers appropriately, so there is some educational value there. Furthermore, she can recognise and name all the princesses, knows the names of more ponies than you can shake a stick at, and she is word perfect when singing all the songs in the film Frozen so they all seem to be valuable for memory training. It is disappointing nevertheless that there are no suitable weeklies with serial stories for her because she loves being read to.

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Re: Will The Dandy ever return?

Post by comixminx »

Phoenix wrote:
comixminx wrote:I was agreeing with you, while highlighting the differences between what's out there now and what there used to be.
The differences sadden me. It is heartening that The Phoenix is still flying the flag, but disheartening that so far it is still the only one. I did buy enthusiastically the first eight issues but I then stopped. There was nothing wrong with the serials but I'm just not nine years old any longer, yet I still read and reread with enormous pleasure many text serials from the story papers I bought when I was between nine and fifteen. I do buy Disney Princess and My Little Pony for my three-year-old granddaughter Aurora, and sometimes Frozen. She loves the plastic tat, and shows enormous concentration when working out how to put the pieces together and placing the stickers appropriately, so there is some educational value there. Furthermore, she can recognise and name all the princesses, knows the names of more ponies than you can shake a stick at, and she is word perfect when singing all the songs in the film Frozen so they all seem to be valuable for memory training. It is disappointing nevertheless that there are no suitable weeklies with serial stories for her because she loves being read to.
We do read the Phoenix to my daughter (now nearly 5, but has been keen on the Phoenix since she was around 3). As you say, it is a shame there is so little choice in terms of weeklies with serial stories - we certainly think having the Phoenix available to her has expanded her ability to concentrate on / understand an extended narrative. There are some good My Little Pony collected comics, I bought one from Hive at Christmas featuring an artist I know for her 'adult' work (Carla Speed McNeil).
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Re: Will The Dandy ever return?

Post by Phoenix »

comixminx wrote:We do read the Phoenix to my daughter (now nearly 5, but has been keen on the Phoenix since she was around 3). As you say, it is a shame there is so little choice in terms of weeklies with serial stories - we certainly think having the Phoenix available to her has expanded her ability to concentrate on / understand an extended narrative.
Aurora turns four on 4 October. I will be slowly altering, sympathetically but steadily, the I read to her scenario to the she reads to me one. She will have the space and time to adapt between my visits, which last about a week every six weeks or so. The aim is to have her reading and writing with pleasure over the next twelve months, at which point she will start her school life in the nursery of a local primary, hopefully with the same confidence that she has acquired in the Alton Nursery, which she has been attending three times a week for the last couple of years.

Much of the time, though, when we are not going to the swimming baths or to one or other of the local Play Zones, we just play with toys and games, especially the pony models I get for her. A couple of visits ago I bought her one from a toy shop on the top floor of the Putney Exchange, and she wanted me to plait her tail. What do I know about such a task? We ended up going to a hairdressers on Putney High Street where the owner told me it was the most interesting job she'd had to do all day.

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Re: Will The Dandy ever return?

Post by AndyB »

I'd still stand over what I said. The Beano can't be found here outside newsagents and supermarkets, 2000AD is getting harder to find (although Tesco sometimes has it in the biggest stores), and most of the children's magazines in convenience stores are nursery titles - Cbeebies tie-ins for the most part. Very little, if anything, for older children - just "keep them quiet" titles for the youngest.

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Re: Will The Dandy ever return?

Post by stevezodiac »

That's a coincidence - my mate Steve's birthday is 4 October too.

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Re: Will The Dandy ever return?

Post by Phoenix »

stevezodiac wrote:That's a coincidence - my mate Steve's birthday is 4 October too.
Presumably Steve 2 didn't know about that coincidence, Steve, otherwise the two of them could have wished each other a happy birthday in advance when we were all in 30th Century Comics last Saturday morning.

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Re: Will The Dandy ever return?

Post by stevezodiac »

I did tell him but I presume he did not want to impose upon Aurora, she seemed rather shy and very quiet. He did ask if I could get your e-mail addres as he would like to converse with you more about the Big Five etc. He is also a big fan of the Bulldog Drummond books by Sapper which, from what he tells me about them, seem like adult versions of Boys' Paper stories.

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Re: Will The Dandy ever return?

Post by starscape »

Getting back to topic, would it be welcomed for the Dandy characters to become part of the Beano? I watched some Karl Pilkington last night where he remarked about Desperate Dan. Given his current nature, it won't be long until he's only known as some weird cowboy statue in Dundee. I see no reason not to have the most iconic characters in one comic now.
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Re: Will The Dandy ever return?

Post by stevezodiac »

The Weekly News used to have Dennis the Menace strips up until a few years ago and it had Dennis and Black Bob in the 50s. They could have had a small Dan strip just for the sake of tradition of a great Thomson character but sadly the new editor seems to want to ruin the Weekly News - I still buy it every week but it has lost a lot of its warmth. I also asked the Sunday Post if they could bring back the Fun Section to four pages and include Desperate Dan. Now they have the Broons and Oor wullie on seperate pages and I no longer buy it. Newspaper editors do not have a comic fan's mindset like we would wish. Would Watkins reprints suffice or would that still make the strip seem "dead".

Buzzer goes - "repetition of the word Would"

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Re: Will The Dandy ever return?

Post by Phoenix »

stevezodiac wrote:He did ask if I could get your e-mail addres as he would like to converse with you more about the Big Five etc.
I will certainly happy to discuss my obsession with Steve. He can reach me on derek.g.marsden@sky.com.

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