Digital Dandy

[Gilly]

Sadly now though The Beano is the UK's only proper humour childrens comic rather than the UK's No1 comic.

[Lew Stringer]

A few years ago they were proudly boasting on the cover that they were the UK's number 1 comic, which I assume was based on sales figures, but several other titles have now overtaken it. They got complacent over the last few years and are only now taking steps to sort it out.

You're assuming too much. A product calling itself the "number 1 comic" could refer to the fact that The Beano is the comic most people think of when asked about comics, - whether they're current readers or not. It's just a sales technique and a bit of fun. Don't take it too literally.

[Digifiend]

Look at the bottom of this...

Harry and His Hippo are back, new, but by Dan Gaynor instead of Andy Fanton (thanks to Andy for identifying Dan in response to the tweet I sent him asking if he was aware of it).

[Stingray]

Someone may have already mentioned this but I've just twigged that if I right click on say, Retro Active and select THIS FRAME then OPEN FRAME IN NEW WINDOW or TAB I can read the comic full screen on my laptop!

Result.

Shame it doesn't zoom in to full frame automatically, unless I'm missing something somewhere.

[Digifiend]

That method is browser specific. In Chrome, there's no direct open frame in new tab option, but you can right click and choose View Frame Source, and it opens the source code for the frame in a new tab. Remove view-source: from the url, and same effect, full screen comic. You can also find out the url another way, by using the F12 developer console.

[Spencer]

I really think it would help the take-up of the Digital Dandy if it just worked better!

OK, the longer strips load a lot quicker now but still take quite some time.

Also, I did email the editor to let him know that the Blinky strip in issue 5 wasn't working (just has the first frame and the arrow to click on to next picture doesn't work), but I had no reply and it is still not working.

It seems that Bananaman in issue 7 is also not working - the title page comes up (larger than the frame) and you can't click any further than that.

I think George Shiers has posted that problem on their facebook page - let's hope he has more luck with them getting that one fixed.

I am a staunch supporter and totally loyal to The Dandy, but if I'm finding these things frustrating, what will 'first-time buyers' think of it? Will they come back for more? I'm sadly doubtful.

Also, not for the first time, I am baffled as to how "new" readers are even meant to find out about it's existence. Maybe I'm missing something but you have a 'new' product out there - quite experimental and possibly ground-breaking if the format takes off - and, aside from a one-page ad in The Beano on the first week, I honestly do not see where new readers would even have been made aware of the Digital Dandy.

Considering DC Thomson are trying something new here, there could even be more news about the new issues on their Twitter feed or facebook pages.

If I'm missing something, I will happily stand corrected, but it all seems a bit odd to me.

[BeanoKev70]

Spencer you have a good point, we are dealing with the dreaded DCT marketing department here who do not have a good record. There needs to be a lot more free interaction on the main website for a start you need to be drawing people in & wanting them to come back & buy a subscription which then opens up more interaction on the website including the comic. Get subscription cards on counters of newsagents/supermarket shops next to the trading cards/club penguin/moshi monsters.

Why not advertise in other popular kids mags, Toxic, Dr Who Adventures etc, they had a great platform for marketing with all the news regarding the print edition closure but failed to use that.

My personal idea is for a quarterly print magazine that allows interaction with the website & a Learn with The Beano/Dandy mag which targets younger readers using characters from both comics, get em young & they will move onto the comics when they are older....

[Digifiend]

It seems that Bananaman in issue 7 is also not working - the title page comes up (larger than the frame) and you can't click any further than that.

I think George Shiers has posted that problem on their facebook page - let's hope he has more luck with them getting that one fixed.

Issue 1's Desperate Dan has that issue as well. The new tab workaround Stingray mentioned sorts it out by opening it full screen, but you'd have to be tech savvy to know that (especially if you're using Chrome, where the method is more complicated).

It was Harry Rickard (WizzKid97) who posted about Bananaman on Facebook.

[Spencer]

Oops, sorry Harry

Digi, I managed to get Dan in issue 1 to work, mainly by leaving it on the PC while I went to roast a chicken. By the time I came back it was there ready for me to enjoy!

Blinky in issue 5 and Bananaman in issue 7 I have had no such luck with

It would be great if the Ed would get the tech guys to take a look at these problems and maybe let the readers know (via Facebook or Twitter or maybe even an Editor's column on the website) when they are fixed...

PS. I wonder when the replacement iTunes app is coming? If you click on the 'It's here...app" link it still just takes you to the 'register here' page at the moment

[WizzKid97]

Oops, sorry Harry

Heh, no need to apologise, Spencer.

Also, the new Dandy editorial team seem to not be responding to anyone via e-mail. Many times have I tried contacting them but they never reply. They are active via Facebook though - I got a message from one of them who then helped me out in being able to access my account.

Problem is, with some people not having Facebook - using it as their main way of contact seems slightly limited.

[Digifiend]

Issue 8 is out, and Marvo the Wonder Chicken is in it.

[Spencer]

Does Bananaman in issue 8 work for anyone? Not me, nor issue 7. Nor Blinky in issue 5 still.

The kids still enjoy the CONTENT but I'm finding it increasingly hard to get them to be patient with the loading and the fact that you can't actually read some of the strips.

Communication from The Dandy team still non-existent. Even as a subscriber, I don't expect a personal response, just act on the highlighted problems and post a message on Facebook or Twitter maybe.

[Digifiend]

Sometimes you need to refresh, as the images sometimes stop loading after the preload graphic appears. If there's a reload frame option, use it. And if a story appears too large so you only see the top left corner, you'll have to open it in it's own tab. The url for Bananaman 7 is http://www.dandy.com/issues/issue%207/b ... naman.html and 8's is
http://www.dandy.com/issues/issue%208/b ... naman.html

Those urls are obtained by using the open frame in new tab or view source in new tab options when you right click on the comic frame. This doesn't get you every issue for free though - the urls seem to vary a bit (randomly, and not just due to games, I guess that helps stop piracy), so doing that on one issue doesn't identify the urls for future issues - 7 and 8 just happen to match up.

[Phoenix]

Sometimes you need to refresh, as the images sometimes stop loading after the preload graphic appears. If there's a reload frame option, use it. And if a story appears too large so you only see the top left corner, you'll have to open it in it's own tab. The url for Bananaman 7 is http://www.dandy.com/issues/issue%207/b ... naman.html and 8's is
http://www.dandy.com/issues/issue%208/b ... naman.html

Those urls are obtained by using the open frame in new tab or view source in new tab options when you right click on the comic frame. This doesn't get you every issue for free though - the urls seem to vary a bit (randomly, and not just due to games, I guess that helps stop piracy), so doing that on one issue doesn't identify the urls for future issues - 7 and 8 just happen to match up.

Well, there you have it. The simplicity of it all. And there was me thinking that an url was the action of a miniskirted teenager at chucking out time on Lime Street or Bradshawgate, or wherever, as she deposits some mixture of semi-digested burger and excess alcohol on the pavement or in the gutter. Clearly I must look again at my daily Ludditic habit of struggling to come to terms with the serious problems caused by constantly turning over two pages at once of my copy of whatever I'm reading at the time, and trying to read text through soup stains and the like. Furthermore, if I am travelling on the tube, as I seem to be doing more often these days, it seems obvious now that instead of losing my place in my Penguin when some careless Londoner bumps into me and knocks the book from my grasp, I will be far better off spending a few hundred notes on an iPad. After all, it will only require getting a tailor to widen and deepen just one of my inside jacket pockets to accommodate it. A further possible bonus is the opportunity to meet more interesting people, such as what our current government, for want of a more accurate description, calls rough sleepers, lifestyle scroungers, benefit fraudsters etc, who will no doubt be keen to stop me and ask to see the time on my iPad before popping across the road with it to show their friends that it is nearly ten to three, and then disappearing with it. On the basis of this thought, perhaps I should have both my inside pockets widened and deepened, pay a few hundred more for a second iPad, because that way, as I stroll along Oxford Street to HMV or Old Compton Street to my favourite Tapas bar, people will simply assume that I have a fine pair of pectoral muscles. Now you don't get that from a couple of Penguins.

[Spencer]

Thanks for the tips Digi, but the point is, we shouldn't HAVE to do that. You would have thought the idea of embracing this medium is to make it more accessible for all - but it doesn't matter how many people can access it if it doesn't work properly..

Is there no quality control before each issue is launched?
When the problems are highlighted to the team, do they not see that people will be put off by these problems?
Are there any plans for some kind of promotion of the site anywhere or are new readers just expected to stumble across the website when googling "online comics that don't work properly"?


It's just frustrating to see, as a Dandy fan.