Guardian article: The Dandy Faces Closure

[Raven]

If the DANDY ends up online at least it will still be 'live' and not just sets of reprints. [I assume there will still be a 'future nostalgia' market for books of old strips] .

Most people probably don't like the idea of comics online but we will just maybe have to get used to the idea---who knows, it might even become 'normal' before too long.

Clicking onto a weekly comic isn't quite the same, but much else in life [applying for jobs/e-mails instead of writing letters] has gone the same route.

This story has demonstrated how news media often don't bother to check facts any more as stories spread so fast round every outlet. A few writers speculated that maybe Dan could move over into the Beano, and now it's being reported that Dan will move into the Beano. DCT have said no such thing, yet.

Also "but indicated that characters such as Desperate Dan would continue to exist online" is now being reported as the comic will continue online, which is completely different.

There's no way that Dandy would continue as a weekly comic of new material online. How would they pay the artists? How would they pay the editorial staff? Dandy faces closure due to it barely making a profit (if it is), so they're going to continue running it for free?

There'd have to be a pay wall, but that's untested territory and just not likely to generate much income. Indicating that the likes of Dan will continue to appear online in some form or other doesn't mean Dandy, as it is, will become online only.

Even if there was a site acting as just a resource for archive Dandy material, the site, design, set up, and permanent staff would have to be paid for - and what income would it generate? The Dandy site was primitive and hardly updated during the revamped comic's run, so it's hard to see it becoming an ambitious, high maintenance affair after the comic finishes.

Whatever digital direction the Dandy "properties" take - if it's of any substance - it will have to be something that pays for itself.

I wonder where the Sun's date of September 5th being speculated as the final issue comes from.

[Raven]

Reading the comments after this feature:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/shortcu ... -the-dandy

it's interesting to see how people misremember things:

" ... on Saturday I read, the BEANO , funnier than the Dandy, but they were a team, and it had the Bash Street Kids, while the Dandy had those strange Lord Snooty gang"

"I also used to get Big Comic Fortnightly, which was a compilation of old Beano and Dandy comics."

[Gilly]

Here's an article that states The Dandy could be ending in September.

http://procartoonists.org/desperate-dan ... ard-times/

[Raven]

Ah, yes:

"A Dandy cartoonist told us: “They emailed me last week saying that in all likelihood it would be ending in September and they were sad about it.

“For the last issue they are going to revive a whole load of old characters.” "

That sounds more certain.

[Digifiend]

If so, it'll probably be the same ones that appear in the annual, thereby promoting it.

Reading the comments after this feature:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/shortcu ... -the-dandy

it's interesting to see how people misremember things:

" ... on Saturday I read, the BEANO , funnier than the Dandy, but they were a team, and it had the Bash Street Kids, while the Dandy had those strange Lord Snooty gang"

"I also used to get Big Comic Fortnightly, which was a compilation of old Beano and Dandy comics."

Tsk. Snooty is a Beano strip and Big Comic was published by Fleetway, not Thomson, and thus was Buster, Whoopee, and Whizzer and Chips. A quick Google would soon set them straight, don't people bother to double check?

[dwitefry]

I'm sad to hear the Dandy's ending (may be ending?) - it's a strange thing because the Beano and the Dandy have just...always been for so long (at least since 1937) it's sort of like Coronation Street being taken off the air.

That said a lot of people (not so much on here, just articles I've read) seem to be going to miss a Dandy that hasn't existed for years, including me (Maybe that's part of the problem - though i see Beryl the Peril and Bully Beef & Chips have come back). I haven't read the Dandy since it went Xtreme and I can't help but think I'm sad about the concept of the Dandy being gone, not the magazine The Dandy as it currently stands. Does that make sense?

[paw broon]

I'll keep posting my views and pieces of information, although I was considering not bothering any more. So, for the rest of you who might be interested, here is a comment piece from today's Scotsman newspaper:-
http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/op ... -1-2467731
Don't know if it adds to the discussion but this isn't the only piece in this issue and there is something in today's Herald as well. The subject has given the Dandy some considerable publicity.

[dandy mad]

Why end the Dandy in September? Wouldn't it make more sence to end it on its 75th birthday? Unless DCT are launching the online version on the 4th December? And is the Dandy annual 2013 the last ever? Or will it continue to be produced? Can't see it myself....

[Lew Stringer]

Why end the Dandy in September? Wouldn't it make more sence to end it on its 75th birthday? Unless DCT are launching the online version on the 4th December? And is the Dandy annual 2013 the last ever? Or will it continue to be produced? Can't see it myself....

I'm drawing three pages for The Dandy Annual 2014 next week. On sale next summer!

[dandy mad]

Why end the Dandy in September? Wouldn't it make more sence to end it on its 75th birthday? Unless DCT are launching the online version on the 4th December? And is the Dandy annual 2013 the last ever? Or will it continue to be produced? Can't see it myself....

I'm drawing three pages for The Dandy Annual 2014 next week. On sale next summer!

So the annual has survived the chop which is excellent news So it's either a very clever marketing ploy on DCT's part to relaunch The Dandy in early December as I don't see the point of producing an annual without its weekly counterpart whether it be a download or print version I reckon it will be the former rather than the latter.....

[Gilly]

The Beezer had a yearly Annual and Holiday Special still for years after the weekly comic folded.

[Raven]

So the annual has survived the chop which is excellent news So it's either a very clever marketing ploy on DCT's part to relaunch The Dandy in early December as I don't see the point of producing an annual without its weekly counterpart.

Lots of annuals carried on for years without their weekly counterparts; some IPC ones for over ten years. And didn't DCT's Bunty and Beezer annuals go on for years after the comics finished? They do well at Christmas time when parents choose them for presents. I could see the annual potentially continuing as long as that's the case.

whether it be a download or print version I reckon it will be the former rather than the latter....

But see my post above. How would an online Dandy pay for itself? You'd need a lot of people paying for downloads. There's no successful precedent, is there?

[dandy mad]

So the annual has survived the chop which is excellent news So it's either a very clever marketing ploy on DCT's part to relaunch The Dandy in early December as I don't see the point of producing an annual without its weekly counterpart.

Lots of annuals carried on for years without their weekly counterparts; some IPC ones for over ten years, and didn't DCT's Bunty and Beezer annuals go on for years after the comic finished? They do well at Christmas time when parents choose them for presents. I could see the annual potentially continuing as long as that's the case.

whether it be a download or print version I reckon it will be the former rather than the latter....

But see my post above. How would an online Dandy pay for itself?

It's already on the Apple app store don't know if it's on the Android market place? So the template is already in place as an outlet for it whether it'll be available on other computers I don't know? But with the laptop/desktop being abandoned in favour of tablets and smartphones the tech is there for it to take full advantage

[Raven]

It's already on the Apple app store don't know if it's on the Android market place? So the template is already in place as an outlet for it whether it'll be available on other computers I don't know? But with the laptop/desktop being abandoned in favour of tablets and smartphones the tech is there for it to take full advantage

Oh, yes, they could do it, but I don't think there'd be the subscribers to make it financially viable - and they'd have to pay the artists and staff just the same. Eight to ten year olds don't really tend to have smartphones or tablets. There's no successful precedent of a paid for digital subscription only comic for young children, and it would have even less presence than the newsstand version.

[dandy mad]

It's already on the Apple app store don't know if it's on the Android market place? So the template is already in place as an outlet for it whether it'll be available on other computers I don't know? But with the laptop/desktop being abandoned in favour of tablets and smartphones the tech is there for it to take full advantage

Oh, yes, they could do it, but I don't think there'd be the subscribers to make it financially viable - and they'd have to pay the artists and staff just the same. Eight to ten year olds don't really tend to have smartphones or tablets. There's no successful precedent of a paid for digital subscription only comic for young children, and it would have even less presence than the newsstand version.

Then why is both The Dandy and The Beano both in the app store? As its target audience isn't adults and what will happen when DCT stops printing the weekly Beano as that day will come in the not too distant future and be produced solely for online consumption yes the purists will moan and groan about it but whatever happens you cannot stop technological progress....