The Final Dandy

[stevezodiac]

I e-mailed DC Thomson distribution last night and got a reply today saying they'd printed another 50,000 copies. I presume some people will be going to their online shop and buying multiple copies. I've ordered two copies. As an ebayer myself I can't criticise people for making a buck but I was determined not to be one of their customers. Imagine paying £50 and then finding out you can order it from the publisher for £5.49.

[Digifiend]

So that makes the total print run 100,000 now. And I bet this new batch will sell just as fast as the first.

[SID]

I must admit I have gone a little berserk getting the last Dandy.

Apart from my subscription, I have found and bought the last two copies in WHSmiths where I live on Tuesday. These went into two private collections I have.

Then last night, after unable to find any more, I decided to buy a couple of copies from DC Thomson themselves.

And then today, I saw a couple in my local Sainsbury (they were not there yesterday) and before I knew it, I was at the counter paying for them. I know I shouldn't have but I don't smoke nor do I drink a lot.

BUT NO MORE....

Barring the first three, all the above have gone into the same pile which also contains a few first issues of Strip Magazine, a copy of the last ever Roy of the Rovers Monthly, the last Buster, a first Judge Dredd Megazine and a few of the 2004 & 2010 revamps of the Dandy. I am not sure what I will do with them but they will be safe.

My only regret is that I wasn't the guy who managed to sell his copy on eBay for over £50.

PS Have you seen the copy up for sale for £2,500.00? Admittedly it does come with the first Dandy Monster Comic.

[Jon]

Well I looked in every newsagent and supermarket in Greenwich today, no sign of any Dandys anywhere. Last night I was at WHSmith in Westfield Stratford. When I asked if they stock the Dandy, the assistant hadn't even heard of it. Big disappointment as you can usually count on Smiths to stock pretty much everything.

I will be on Oxford St tomorrow and will not leave until I have found just one copy of this week's Dandy!!

[Digifiend]

Ugh, check this out: http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showpost ... stcount=96

Seems that some clueless fool at WHSmith told a customer that the final Dandy was only available in Scotland. That of course is simply not true.

[Gilly]

With people like that in shops where The Dandy is supposed to have been sold, its no wonder distribution has been so poor.

[Digifiend]

Indeed.

Bear Alley couldn't review the final Dandy because they haven't got hold of a copy: http://bearalley.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12 ... -2012.html
But Lew Stringer has: http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/ ... inale.html

[big bad bri]

I compared the iss 1 reprint from the final dandy & the art & history book & noticed the text story 2 pages of The two brave runaways & also the 2 pages of jokes and jokes and jokes & the wig & wam,podge comic strips.is there a particular reason why or did the final dandy omit them for space reasons so anyone who bought it for the reprint may not even realise there is 4 pages missing.

[Digifiend]

It's explained on Lew's blog. Apparently has to do with 28 not being dividable by 8.

Halfway through the comic we're flung back to 1937 with a 24 page pull-out of issue No.1 - the comic that would have been on sale exactly 75 years ago this week. (Unfortunately the real No.1 had 28 pages, so I can only assume the reduction to 24 was because publications are printed in 8 page signatures - 3 x 8 = 24. Printing an extra 4 pages might have proven too awkward or expensive perhaps.)

[AndyB]

I also suspect it was to make sure it was obviously a facsimile rather than a true reprint, to reduce resale value.

[stevezodiac]

Haven't we covered this before with the Beano no. 1 reprint where one page was considered too politically incorrect to republish and you can't remove one page without the three corresponding pages going with it? Was there a non pc page in Dandy no. 1? Can't put my hands my DC Thomson's Firsts book at the moment.

[blaing]

we did.

[felneymike]

The Beano had a jokes page with a rhyme at the top going "Our little darkie is as black as coke, but he can sure tell a funny joke!", so they'd understandably remove that from a modern reprint.
EXCEPT, all the pages including that one are present and correct in the Retro Beano website section.

[AndyB]

Craig wrote to me today to offer the following explanation to us:

The reprint of the first Dandy is 24 pages due to the significant cost of producing a 28-page version, which would have pushed the cover price up. Essentially the cost is doubled because of the printing/finishing/packaging processes involved. There's nothing offensive in the other pages, and we didn't do it to avoid confusion with real originals. We could've done 28 pages on the same paper as the rest of the comic, but felt it should be a special pull-out, and the whole thing is available in the hardback book for real enthusiasts. The costs involved in printing 28 pages would not have been significant in 1937 due to lower paper costs and different printing methods.

Handy hint on how to spot an original Dandy from 1937 - it's glued together, not stapled. There are other differences (such as the facsimiles feeling at least fifty years younger) but by counting the number of pages and checking this, you're half way there.

[alanultron5]

Has anyone noticed the `ammended` dialogue in the `Bamboo Town` reprint? I suppose they had to do that in todays comics climate.