R.I.P The Dandy Masterhead....

[Digifiend]

Ollie Fliptrik has been in The Dandy for about a decade now, he's too established to not count as a Dandy character. Although I've never liked him personally.

Otherwise, good plan. Dandy Editor, are you reading this?

A suggestion of a roster:
Desperate Dan
Bananaman
Cuddles and Dimples
Bully Beef and Chips
Marvo the Wonder Chicken (they can't axe it, because of the forthcoming TV series)
Beryl the Peril (reprints from when it first joined The Dandy)
Korky the Cat (Robert Nixon era reprints, the summer special artist (I believe it was the same artist as Bananaman) could do new ones for annuals)
Winker Watson (1990s reprints)
Owen Goal
Smasher (Brian Walker reprints, like what appeared in the earliest Dandy Xtremes)
and one or two completely new strips (EDIT: i.e., not pre-Xtreme, they could be totally new or from the Xtreme era).

[Digifiend]

That's odd, just read the latest Dandy Xtreme (the one with Dan fighting a robot as mentioned previously) and noticed four strips I expected to be signed weren't. These are Jak and Todd, Bully Beef and Chips (both Wayne Thompson), Cuddles and Dimples and Marvo the Wonder Chicken (both Nigel Parkinson). Out of character for both artists, so no wonder Spencer wasn't 100% certain about Bully Beef's artist.

Anyway, it's a BIG improvement on when Xtreme first launched, I think Wayne did the right thing keeping Beefy's original hairstyle (he takes a large plummet in one panel, and we see his eyes and no hair - I assume the hair was raised above his head, like sometimes happens to Bash Street's Sidney, but the speech bubble hid it) although updating Chips' clothes was a good call. His old outfit was dated, and probably harder to draw. Recognisable but modern. I'd like to see something similar happen to other strips from the past (it's already happened with Dan, Bananaman, and C&D of course). Looks like no reprints whatsoever as well - even The Beano can't boast that. Though I suppose the Dandy has twice as long to prepare them...

Dan was very different to what I'm used to, but also much more up to date. I wonder which version will be in the 2010 annual? And was that a Colin the Vet cameo in the last panel of the Doctor Loo strip? (which is of course by Colin's artist Duncan Scott).

One bad point though - why is there a hint for Pokemon Platinum? The game only came out yesterday, but the comic came out the day before! Although I assume the hint also works in Diamond and Pearl, as it relates to breeding, which isn't a new feature. However, giving hints for a game which isn't out yet is bad form, they should've waited until the next issue.

Going back to the original subject, the Dandy logo is about 250% bigger on the Fun Size than on Xtreme! Tsk. Get it restored to at least the size used on the Fun-Size DCT!

[Lew Stringer]

Looks like no reprints whatsoever as well - even The Beano can't boast that. Though I suppose the Dandy has twice as long to prepare them...

It's not that. It's due to the budget allocated to the comics for new material. The Beano still has more new pages of strip than Dandy Xtreme. (About 21 pages per Beano.) However, it is good to see 15 pages of strip in Xtreme this issue.

Personally I don't mind the tiny "Dandy" logo. It never did Tales to Astonish any harm.

Lew

[Digifiend]

That's about 50% more than normal isn't it (Wikipedia mentions a recent issue with only 10 pages of strip)? When Dandy Xtreme first launched, there was also 15 pages of comic strip, but it included some reprints. So the latest Dandy Xtreme does have more new comics material than two years ago.

Don't forget the features are new material too, so time is probably just as big a factor as money is - although I admit you'd know the cost of hiring artists better than I, being one yourself.

Speaking of which, The Dandy's price fluctuations are as bad as The Beano's! £2.50 this issue - it used to be £1.99, and isn't it normally £2.25 these days? Next issue is anyway. Could've been worse, it's been as high as £2.99. Looks to me like they've charged extra for the "free" Match Attax cards (worth 40p).

[NP]

...strips I expected to be signed weren't. Cuddles and Dimples and Marvo the Wonder Chicken (both Nigel Parkinson)

That would be a first! They may just have initials, NP instead. I'll have a look.

[Digifiend]

Maybe the page numbering, or in C&Ds case, a speech bubble obscured them. Either that or they were removed during colouring. There's definitely no sigs Nigel, not even NP.

[Lew Stringer]

Don't forget the features are new material too, so time is probably just as big a factor as money is - although I admit you'd know the cost of hiring artists better than I, being one yourself.

All the features are done in-house by the staff, so no extra fee for those, unless they require a new illustration.

It really does just come down to the budget. An amount of money is allocated to a comic and I believe it's up to the editor how that's distributed. Presumably the 15 pages of comics in this week's issue is because DXtreme only had 9 pages of strip in some previous issues. It's how it balances out. An editor could in theory fill 32 pages with new strip for one issue but it'd mean a lot less origination for other issues. Far better for The Beano for example to have a set number of reprint pages per issue IMHO.

Lew

[NP]

Maybe...they were removed during colouring. There's definitely no sigs Nigel, not even NP.

I do all the colouring, so it's not that. Probably a word balloon. When I check tomorrow, I'll let you know! I can't believe I didn't sign ANY of 3 pages. I once signed a single Owen Goal page TWICE and even in the 80's I used to slip the initials on; granted, they were usually taken off but sometimes I hid 'em too well. I could never understand why we all had to be anonymous, as if there was just one artist for the whole comic, changing styles as he went!

[NP]

Digifiend, you're right - No trace of a signature. I have sacked my chief signature-checker and the deputy signature checker has been put on sick leave. This sort of thing must be stamped out.

[Lew Stringer]

Digifiend, you're right - No trace of a signature. I have sacked my chief signature-checker and the deputy signature checker has been put on sick leave. This sort of thing must be stamped out.

This is a worse scandal than the Poison-flavour Poppets. I shall make my complaint to WH Smith in the morning and demand that the issues be withdrawn from sale immediately.

Lew

[Digifiend]

I thought we'd seen the back of erased signatures in the late 90s! Credit should be given where credit's due. If you signed the work Nigel then the sigs should've appeared. Were they obscured by the way, or did the Dandy editor deliberately remove them?

[Lew Stringer]

Perhaps I should add I was only joking about Smiths! I was working on the assumption that Nigel simply forgot to sign his pages, not that it was down to any action on The Dandy's part.

Lew

[SID]

*Getting the magnifying glass out*

Yup! The Dandy logo is still there (just).

Though I notice that it isn't on the accompanying free gifts.

(Note: Didn't get last issue of Dandy Xtreme so first time I have seen the even smaller logo).

[Digifiend]

I think you'll find the logo is on the poster, and the word Dandy is bigger than on the comic - the same width as the word Xtreme.
The table football just says Xtreme (that's odd, a sign of the future?) and the other two gifts are commercial, and can be bought separately (Match Attax and Refresher chew bar), which obviously explains their lack of Dandy branding.

[SID]

I think you'll find the logo is on the poster, and the word Dandy is bigger than on the comic - the same width as the word Xtreme.
The table football just says Xtreme (that's odd, a sign of the future?) and the other two gifts are commercial, and can be bought separately (Match Attax and Refresher chew bar), which obviously explains their lack of Dandy branding.

Yup! Noticed that the Dandy logo was on the post but just assumed that this was printed well before the new logo format. I think what could be more significant is the Xtreme only logo on the table football.

(Or it could be a mistake but that sounds boring ).