perfect Christmas gift at the 99p store

tolworthy · Post by **tolworthy** » 23 Nov 2007, 11:48

I was just at the local Christie's 99p store and picked up what has to be the bargain of the year: a 400 page "Dennis and Friends Cartoon Capers" book. It looks like just another 99p colouring book but it's not: it's dated year 2000 and appears to reprint early "Classics from the comics" issues. I counted seven pages of Jonah, plenty of early Baxendale goodness, plus Winker Watson and all the rest. 99p for a big fat book of wonderment. Amazing. I don't know if this has been mentioned before, but if so it deserves mentioning again. It's the perfect Christmas solution for the discerning but cash-strapped gift giver. We all have cousins and nieces and nephews, so if you have a Christies in your town, what are you waiting for?

(edited to change "200 page" to "400 page" - it's even better than I thought!)

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 23 Nov 2007, 11:54

tolworthy wrote:I was just at the local Christie's 99p store and picked up what has to be the bargain of the year: a 200 page "Dennis and Friends Cartoon Capers" book. It looks like just another 99p colouring book but it's not: it's dated year 2000 and appears to reprint early "Classics from the comics" issues.

Yes this has been around for quite a while. The Works also sells it, as do those fly by night outlets who rent a store for six months or so. I think it gathers together some of those Best of Topper/Beezer mags but I'm not sure. All good stuff though.

Lew

ISPYSHHHGUY · Post by **ISPYSHHHGUY** » 23 Nov 2007, 12:42

DARN!------I paid 2 quid for this a while back!!!!--------seriously, still a bargain...........here in Scotland there is also a 1.99 'Scottish'-themed similar book, with muchos 'WEE BEN NEVIS, McTICKLES', etc.......tho' it contains a lot of puzzles. The one you mention,tolworthy, is the best value one.

Conor B · Post by **Conor B** » 24 Nov 2007, 11:22

tolworthy wrote: I counted seven pages of Jonah, plenty of early Baxendale goodness, plus Winker Watson and all the rest.

Plus Blubba and the Bear and Snip n Snap, recently seen in the Dandy Xtreme (which says nothing about being 70 THIS ISSUE),

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 24 Nov 2007, 12:24

Conor B wrote:
Plus Blubba and the Bear and Snip n Snap, recently seen in the Dandy Xtreme (which says nothing about being 70 THIS ISSUE),

Yeah that was strange they didn't mention it. Perhaps they're celebrating next issue, which will unfortunately be out two days after the cover date of The Dandy No.1?

Even a short sidebar mentioning the 70th anniversary just to plug this year's Dandy/Beano book would be better than nothing.

Lew

stevezodiac · Post by **stevezodiac** » 25 Nov 2007, 18:38

Yes I got that fat compendium about five years ago and gave one to a friend. Re Dandy, it seems they prefer to forget the past and cater exclusively for kids who know nor cae nothing about its history. I can't help thinking this new jazzy style will flop and they'll revert to something retro in the hope that more adults will buy it for nostalgia rather than the couple of thousand kids who get it now. Perhaps it will go monthly as Bunty did before it died.

Kashgar · Post by **Kashgar** » 26 Nov 2007, 15:57

There is nothing on the 'whats in the next issue' ad page to suggest they are going to celebrate the 70th birthday then either. A bit of a shame all round that a comic that has come this far can't celebrate its illustrious past, not even for a single issue, for fear of alienating the butterfly-minded current readership. The current Xtreme version might well not be 'for old fogies' as the caveat on the front cover warns but it still shouldn't be forgotten that it was generations of us 'old fogies' who bought the Dandy down the years, so I don't think a little consideration of that fact would have gone amiss.

Korkythecat · Post by **Korkythecat** » 29 Nov 2007, 01:18

Kashgar is as ever spot on. And it just goes to show that the new "Dandy" is not the same as the original, in either content, spirit, intent or period. And it never now can be. Even the word "Dandy" has a whole new meaning now (if its even known among young people).

Time to put the Granddaddy to bed, methinks. The current publication is an insult. Korky, Desperate Dan, etc., rest in peace. We loved you.
The king is dead; long live the king.

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 29 Nov 2007, 01:51

Korkythecat wrote: Time to put the Granddaddy to bed, methinks. The current publication is an insult. Korky, Desperate Dan, etc., rest in peace. We loved you.
The king is dead; long live the king.

I respect your distaste for the modern version as clearly it's not your cup of tea but surely to say the current approach is an "insult" is itself an insult to the cartoonists still working on the comic? (Unintended I'm sure.) If it was all reprint I could understand it, but there's still new comic strip material being produced for The Dandy (or Dandy Comix to be accurate) and all concerned are doing a bloomin' good job. It's not dead yet.

The advantage of the current format is that one can pull out the comic and throw away the "Xtreme" magazine if one so wishes. Which means that ?1.99 is a lot for a 16 page comic but it's better than no Dandy at all IMHO.

Lew

tolworthy · Post by **tolworthy** » 29 Nov 2007, 09:02

Lew Stringer wrote:?1.99 is a lot for a 16 page comic but it's better than no Dandy at all IMHO.

Weren't the Beano and Dandy 16 pages back in the 1960s? Or was it during the war? And as a proportion of a kid's disposable income, ?1.99 is probably equivalent to 2d back then. Furthermore, I'm sure the Dandy was considered "dumbing down" by many people when it first came out. Sure, today's Dandy is wrapped in a junk magazine to make it acceptable. But that's the equivalent of hiding your Dandy inside another magazine so teacher or parent doesn't know what you're really reading.

It could be argued that far from declining in quality, the modern Dandy has returned to its purest most authentic form.

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 29 Nov 2007, 11:27

tolworthy wrote:
Lew Stringer wrote:?1.99 is a lot for a 16 page comic but it's better than no Dandy at all IMHO.
Weren't the Beano and Dandy 16 pages back in the 1960s? Or was it during the war? And as a proportion of a kid's disposable income, ?1.99 is probably equivalent to 2d back then.

Yes, The Dandy had 16 pages throughout the sixties, priced 3d (then 4d from 1968). That was half the price of a bar of chocolate back then, so in those terms today's Dandy should be about 25p or so. (Unfortunately rising print costs and falling circulation has made the unit cost rise steeply.)

However, the modern Dandy is full colour on glossy paper, whereas sixties Dandy was 4 pages of full colour, rest spot colour, on newsprint. Therefore the regular Dandy now is closer in format to the Dandy Summer Special (but with even more colour than that had in the sixties). That was 1/6d in the sixties (7 1/2 new pence) - five times the price of a bar of chocolate. In those terms, ?1.99 for Dandy Xtreme (four times the price of chocolate today) works out cheaper.

How's that for putting a "positive spin" on things.

Lew

Jonny Whizz · Post by **Jonny Whizz** » 03 Dec 2009, 22:54

I know this is a very old thread now, but I've got this book as well. I was allowed to take it from the art department of my school, which didn't need it any more. It's very good, and well worth looking through. It covers a nice large range of comics, from 50s era Law/Baxendale/Watkins to 1980s Calamity James and Ivy the Terrible.

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 03 Dec 2009, 23:02

Jonny Whizz wrote:I know this is a very old thread now, but I've got this book as well.

Brilliant! It's a great read.

- and bumping the thread up showed that people were still moaning about the Dandy two years ago! Yet Dandy Xtreme is still with us.

Lew

HUGH · Post by **HUGH** » 04 Dec 2009, 00:28

Had my hopes up

Are there any similar large scale bargain omnibus still generally available

Digifiend · Post by **Digifiend** » 04 Dec 2009, 13:31

Consiering this was Â©2000 and Christies had it in 2007, I'd say it's quite possible it could turn up in pound shops and the like. You never know, The Works might even still have them.
Here's what you're looking for:

Strange that the only correct image result in Google was from an Indian website - the price advertised is 95 rupees, and it's sold out. http://www.flipkart.com/dennis-gnasher- ... 4zx3fv67hb

I'll be keeping an eye out for this as well.

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