Comics UK

ComicCrazy wrote:The one where she tries to get tall...

...Considering how tall Beryl used to be in Davey Law's day I reckon she must have spent every spare minute of the last forty years smoking behind the bike sheds!

- Phil Rushton

ComicCrazy wrote:This annual wonderfully highlights why I love Jamie Smart.

RamblingSid wrote:Except that it's not all-new. At least I don't think it is. A couple of the lads in the class I teach were saying that they'd seen some of the stories before.

Two of the Beryl strips were reprinted from last year. (The one where she tries to get tall, the other when she goes to the zoo.)

Just read it, it must've been deliberate, because the speech captions were changed. Did they really expect us not to notice?

EDIT: Remember I complained about the presence of a blurb on the back of the annual earlier in the thread? Turns out it wasn't even accurate. Agent Dog2Zero isn't even in the annual despite being mentioned - presumably the strip wasn't ready in time and that's why they reused last year's Beryls.

Nice Korky by the way, I see what you all mean about the 2008 Summer Special now.

just read it, it must've been deliberate, because the speech captions were changed. Did they really expect us not to notice?

I phoned up to complain/ask about the Beryls - the editor was really apologetic about it, he said it was definitely not deliberate, it was a genuine error on his part. They have a system to file used artwork away on servers and it seems this time it wasn't put away once it had been used. Then, when they came to put the next annual together, the staff on the comic was different (and smaller), which meant it wasn't spotted in time. Also, when i asked how the words were different, he said no good strip writer would just copy words from a script directly onto the artwork when it appeared as there were loads of opportunities to add new bits in, crack little jokes, make it flow better etc. Quite interesting, really.

I said he should post on here, but he said people were entitled to their opinions, and half the fun of forums was arguing and he wouldn't want to drop in with an obvious agenda of promoting the comic. He knew The Dandy gets a hard time on here, but he said he's used to people criticising, and that in a perfect world, every comic would be 500 pages of the most beautiful new stories ever seen, every one autographed by the editor or an artist!!! Dandy has four people working on it just now, including two artists. He was nice, happy to chat. He said they're always planning something new, so to keep looking, and he's most proud of getting Jamie Smart to do Desperate Dan, as it was quite radical, but he's had no negative feedback at all.
Mike

I've got the Dandy annual and love Desperate Dan by Jamie..

MikeC wrote:He said they're always planning something new, so to keep looking, and he's most proud of getting Jamie Smart to do Desperate Dan, as it was quite radical, but he's had no negative feedback at all.
Mike

Can't say I'm surprised, for while it is radically different to Dudley Watkins and Ken Harrison's versions of Dan, it's still a good strip. The best in Dandy Xtreme in fact.

I hope whoever forgot to put away that Beryl artwork gets what's coming to them. Make them drink Olive's tea! (the tea lady who the Bash Street dinner lady in The Beano is based on - does she still work there?)

I assume the unused Agent Dog2Zero mentioned on the blurb was held back to next year's book.

I think it was announced on the Beano website this year that Olive the tea lady (who was indeed the inspiration for the Bash Street School cook) had retired this year. She must have been working there for more than thirty years, because I believe that Olive first appeared in the early 1980s.

Well I got my Dandy Annual right after Christmas (late Xmas present) and it is pretty good (though I had to check the goof with Beryl).

Only one question: Why didn't they have Jamie do the Cover Dan (he was inside) rather than getting Tom Patterson to mimic Ken?

Personaly I think it was a commercial decision- I would think to most folk Jamies art is pretty "out there" (not in the traditional mold) and not that recognisable to parents buying the annual for their kids - thought it was a great cover to be honest.

SID wrote:Well I got my Dandy Annual right after Christmas (late Xmas present) and it is pretty good (though I had to check the goof with Beryl).

Only one question: Why didn't they have Jamie do the Cover Dan (he was inside) rather than getting Tom Patterson to mimic Ken?

It was Nigel Parkinson, not Tom Paterson.

I started reading through the annual yesterday and i was extremely impressed with the Desperate Dan strips, the artwork is excellent and the scripts are very funny, well done to everyone involved.

They are genuine laugh out loud stories and better than some of the stuff that is in the beano. A Desperate Dan TV show in this style could be a success.

Digifiend wrote:

SID wrote:Well I got my Dandy Annual right after Christmas (late Xmas present) and it is pretty good (though I had to check the goof with Beryl).

Only one question: Why didn't they have Jamie do the Cover Dan (he was inside) rather than getting Tom Patterson to mimic Ken?

It was Nigel Parkinson, not Tom Paterson.

You are right and I did know that too.