Dandy comics post 1970

[booksandcomics]

Hi all,

Just thought I'd get some comments / thoughts on this. To put things in the picture, I am 24 and my fav. issues of the Dandy are from 1993 to about 1996. These are the ones I read avidly as a kid and always get nostalgic about them!

I have been collecting the comics for a good number of years now and decided to work backwards, going through the 80s and 70s. I've managed to pick them up relatively well and really like reading them. Except for about 16 issues from the 1970s, I have a full set of weekly issues from January 1970 to 2005 (I stopped when it went to the new Jak covered issues) plus most of the free gifts.

Although I find the artwork great I always seem to get remarks about them not being before 1970. For someone who is in their 20s and indeed anyone young than myself, the 1970s seem a very VERY long time ago!

I've not met anyone else collecting the comics from this era so far. I do have pre 1970 issues and will continue to work backwards into the 1960s etc.

What I am wanting to know is, is it just an age thing? Is there really such an important barrier that as soon as 1969 ended, the Dandy comic suddenly became underisable and as I've been schockingly told, "worthless to collect"?

Hope to hear your thoughts!

Also, if you have spare comics from the 1970s, I am very eager to buy them from you!

Cheers,

Adam

[Tin Can Tommy]

What I am wanting to know is, is it just an age thing? Is there really such an important barrier that as soon as 1969 ended, the Dandy comic suddenly became underisable and as I've been schockingly told, "worthless to collect"?

According to one of the older versions of the Beano website (you can still read the part im on about via archive.org) they say that collectors are more interested in The Beano before Leo Baxendale and Ken Reid left to draw for IPC in the mid 1960s. Although these two artists did do less work for the Dandy than the Beano. This still may be kinda true for the Dandy. Also Dudley Watkins and David Law both died around 1970 and they are two of the Dandy's best known artists. So maybe that explains the fall in value around this time.

[Digifiend]

Yeah, probably. David Law drew the centrefold strip Corporal Clott, which was taken over by another artist, and Dudley Watkins was doing Desperate Dan, which ended up being reprinted for the next 13 years. The Beano was hit equally bad because the artists were drawing Dennis the Menace (back cover) and Biffo (front cover) respectively. Both Beezer and Topper had Watkins covers too. The deaths of those two greats must've caused the editors of the time a real headache. They were irreplaceable.

[Peter Gray]

the Dandy is still great to me in the 70's and 80's..
Eric Roberts..on Winker Watson..Charles Griggs on Korky..etc..Black Bob..Paddy B still drawing..also loved Desperate Dawg..Brassneck..there is loads to like and collect..

[dandy mad]

Whoever told you that post 1969 Dandy comics are worthlesss to collect is a deluded fool

[philcom55]

...I have noticed that there tends to be a big price difference between issues of Dandy and Beano that are pre and post 1970, however.

- Phil R.

[booksandcomics]

Thanks Dandy Mad! Lately, I've had a bit of an odd interest with the Dandy, although some cheap copies of 50s comics have been up for grabs, I would rather have some missing copies from the 70s!

Probably something to do with the insane collector in me, but, I really want to finish off the 70s then move back to the 60s! Sadly, I will have to really save up for those copies! Got some copies coming from Border Book Shop and have been checking daily on ebay listings.

In some worrying news though, I donated some Dandy comics to the charity I volunteer in, nothing too special, 70s and 80s issues, but, very VERY few actually sold even at 50p! I took them back in the end. I'm hoping it just because my home town Stafford is a bit small???

[Tin Can Tommy]

I think it's because collectors dont go around charity shops to buy comics.

[dandy mad]

You can get late 60s Dandys for around £5-£10 apiece but you'd be expected to pay more for pristine examples.

[booksandcomics]

Good point about comics and charity shops! Mind you, (although it was when I was 15 some 9 years ago now), I went into Oxfam in Stafford and noticed that had a few 80s issues out. At that point I didn't have a great deal of comics in runs before 1990.

I took them to the till and was asked if I collected them. Replying yes, they told me they had a few more out the back. My eyes lit up when a box of about 300 issues plus summer specials turned up! Even better I knew I didn't have any of these issues as they were about 1981 onwards.

I'd also just been paid from my job and happily handed over a crisp £20 then had to call my Dad to pick me up as I couldn't carry them home by myself!

[dandy mad]

Aren't charity shops wise nowadays regarding the value of rare comic and annuals that might turn up? I remember reading in the paper that a Beano the book 1940 (the first one) was found in a charity shop up in St Andrews Scotland and the shop (Cancer research UK) had it auctioned off and it went for a lot more than 50p!

[booksandcomics]

I've found that charity shops are actually over pricing stuff now in shops! They don't have the knowledge of what sells etc. All they do is go on AbeBooks or eBay auctions and look at the top selling price.

It's not comics, but, I was very annoyed with my local hospice charity shop when to got hold of some signed first edition Terry Pratchet books. They put them out at top online auction prices, the kind of prices where you get 5+ bidders. They were in the shop for 6 months and never sold.

Rather than dropping the prices to something more reasonable, they moved them to a shop outside Stafford where they again didn't sell. No idea what happened to them after that.

I understand that they are there to raise money, but, there is no reason for them to charge top end prices. I think they are better to charge something a little less and get money through the till rather than letting high end items sitting on the shop floor for months on end.

[Tin Can Tommy]

If they put them on sale for top-end online auction prices they should be put up for sale on an online auction where people are going to be willing to pay that much.

[dandy mad]

When I first started collecting the Dandy seriously it was back in the early 90s and back then there wasn't the comfort of the Internet so no eBay or anything like that just good old fashioned leg work and scouring Book and magazine collector and other small ads papers that listed comics I actually got my Dandy book 1954 out of Exchange and Mart! Using AbeBooks and eBay as a price guide in my opinion is a bit stupid as there might be a pristine annual priced at x amount of hundreds or even thousands of pounds and the charity shop may have an identical annual or comic in a lower grade would the charity shop still slap the same price tag on it even in ropey condition? Surely common sense will come into play and price it much lower wouldn't it?

[Dunder Ed]

For me I have not as much interest in the Dandy after about 1990. I think that the 60s and 70s were the golden years. The 60s perhaps for the artwork with Watkins and Baxendale but in the 70s it was more about the standard of characters all the greats were around in the 70s in opinion.