Comics UK

swirlythingy wrote:Oh, and Bri, since you don't seem to be buying the Dandy, could I just request that you do so, before its catastrophically low sales cause it to be cancelled? That goes for everyone else on here as well. No amount of hand-wringing will save it - it needs your cash, and it needs it now.

Urgh. Not living in the UK, I hadn't really paid attention to how well or not the revamped Dandy was selling.
Open question: is it doing better or worse than it did before the revamp?
Another open question: I've noticed that the revamp wiped out almost all of the series' continuing characters. Do you think it would do better if it brought back more of them?

I'm not a Dandy reader either but from what I've seen (on the Internet, and in the adverts featured in the Beano) the comic is much better now than it was in the Xtreme era or after the 2004 revamp.

Of the older characters, Desperate Dan, Bananaman and Korky were kept on, plus Harry and his Hippo won the recent Strictly Come Laughing poll. With regards to the characters brought in since the revamp, George vs Dragon is great, and I also like Postman Prat. I think the three panel strips are another good idea (and one that is now coming into the Beano in At Home with the BSK). Oddly, I once drew a Billy Whizz page in that format, before the Dandy revamp.

I forgot that Curly first appeared in the 1950s - you're right of course, he did appear in Davy Law's strips.

David Gerstein wrote:

swirlythingy wrote:Oh, and Bri, since you don't seem to be buying the Dandy, could I just request that you do so, before its catastrophically low sales cause it to be cancelled? That goes for everyone else on here as well. No amount of hand-wringing will save it - it needs your cash, and it needs it now.

Urgh. Not living in the UK, I hadn't really paid attention to how well or not the revamped Dandy was selling.
Open question: is it doing better or worse than it did before the revamp?
Another open question: I've noticed that the revamp wiped out almost all of the series' continuing characters. Do you think it would do better if it brought back more of them?

David, the relevant thread is here: http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Forum/viewtop ... f=1&t=4410
Considerably worse.

Swirly, I would buy the Dandy but there is such a thing as being too old for it. If I had children or nephews or nieces I could buy it for them, but I don't. The Dandy will only succeed if it connects with the people for whom it's intended. For me to buy it every week and occasionally read some of it would be a meaningless gesture. I would probably buy a book collection of Desperate Dan or Harry Hill though, if there was one.

Jonny Whizz wrote: Of the older characters, Desperate Dan, Bananaman and Korky were kept on.

However, it should be noted that the characters are now unrecognisable from their "classic" versions in looks and approach (though Jamie Smart's incarnation of Dan had already been for running some time). For example, storywise, Korky just "happens" to be a cat - his adventures: he might get stuck in a computer game, go feeding ducks in a pond, deliver a letter to Harry Potter - are completely random; there's no consistent characterisation, or tie with the "timeless" version. The Beano characters have kept their essential characters and traits.

dishes wrote: Swirly, I would buy the Dandy but there is such a thing as being too old for it. If I had children or nephews or nieces I could buy it for them, but I don't. The Dandy will only succeed if it connects with the people for whom it's intended.

This is absolutely true. It needs to appeal to and be bought by its target audience to justify its continued existence. There's be no point a load of adults who bought it as kids buying it each week to try to keep it going for nostalgia's sake.

I know what you mean about buying collections, dishes. I rarely bought Dandy Xtreme (whereas I've bought them all since the revamp). One issue I did buy had a free pocket sized comic - containing almost all the Desperate Dan strips Jamie Smart had drawn up to that point (just over a year's worth). The comics tended to be less than half an issue of Xtreme, which made it poor value for money if you're only interested in the comics, as us adults probably would be.

Raven wrote:

Jonny Whizz wrote: Of the older characters, Desperate Dan, Bananaman and Korky were kept on.

However, it should be noted that the characters are now unrecognisable from their "classic" versions in looks and approach (though Jamie Smart's incarnation of Dan had already been for running some time). For example, storywise, Korky just "happens" to be a cat - his adventures: he might get stuck in a computer game, go feeding ducks in a pond, deliver a letter to Harry Potter - are completely random; there's no consistent characterisation, or tie with the "timeless" version. The Beano characters have kept their essential characters and traits.

I dont think Korky had much in the way of characterisation anyway neither did most of the cover stars created around the 30s-60s they were just funny animals with the exception of Ginger who was human. I cant think of anyway Biffo, Mickey the monkey, Koko the pup or Ginger was really characterised at all.

Tin Can Tommy wrote: I dont think Korky had much in the way of characterisation anyway neither did most of the cover stars created around the 30s-60s they were just funny animals with the exception of Ginger who was human. I cant think of anyway Biffo, Mickey the monkey, Koko the pup or Ginger was really characterised either.

He had a "cat" character - battling with mice, poaching fish or birds, etc. ... this wasn't the topic every week, but the strip consistently returned to those themes.

And he was a smart cookie; consistently a winner who used ingenuity to get what he wanted (usually entailing some elaborate visual gag), or to revenge himself on whoever had affronted him - mostly only ever outsmarted by the Kits.

Raven wrote:

Tin Can Tommy wrote: I dont think Korky had much in the way of characterisation anyway neither did most of the cover stars created around the 30s-60s they were just funny animals with the exception of Ginger who was human. I cant think of anyway Biffo, Mickey the monkey, Koko the pup or Ginger was really characterised either.

He had a "cat" character - battling with mice, poaching fish or birds, etc. ... this wasn't the topic every week, but the strip consistently returned to those themes.

And he was a smart cookie; consistently a winner who used ingenuity to get what he wanted (usually entailing some elaborate visual gag), or to revenge himself on whoever had affronted him - mostly only ever outsmarted by the Kits.

I just picked up a book (this one i made a thread about http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Forum/viewtop ... f=1&t=4422) looked at two Korky the Cat strips one he is a zookeeper and the other he was fishing. I really think alot of the time Korky can be just used in any situation seeing as the guy was on about Korky having no consistent characterisation in the new strips it is true for the old strips apart from the occassional ones you talk about where he does cat things like battle mice and being a smart cookie pretty much every comic character is like that sometimes but in other strips i bet he wasnt like that at all more of a clumsy oaf or maybe that was Biffo. But that zookeeper strip was a good example of him being a smart cookie Korky gets an octopus to wash a fish tank its easier cos it has 8 tentacles.

I think i've probably proved your point more than my own but still i dont think the new Korky is much different from the old.

Tin Can Tommy wrote:I dont think Korky had much in the way of characterisation anyway neither did most of the cover stars created around the 30s-60s they were just funny animals with the exception of Ginger who was human. I cant think of anyway Biffo, Mickey the monkey, Koko the pup or Ginger was really characterised at all.

Biffo was a fun-loving bear who acted very much like a human, often taking on jobs, the longest running being that of a zookeeper (a job he was shown doing in the 70th birthday issue of the Beano). They quickly added his human friend Buster (his neighbour) to give him someone to interact with. When he was retooled in 1989, he became a mute, with the strip being based on visual gags.

Ginger is an English version of Oor Wullie, and some strips were based around his hair colour. He also aged in real time for the first few years, starting out maybe 10 years old, but ending up as a teenager.

Mickey the Monkey was like Biffo much like a human. A lot of his later strips played on the interaction between him and his pet parrot Polly.

Koko the Pup didn't have chance to develop, being the cover star of wartime rationing victim Magic Comic.

Biffo and Korky were Disneyesque in looks and intention; classically-depicted characters destined to run for decades.

Their 'inherent blandness' [to some] nevertheless gave reassurance to generations of readers.

There was no real personality in there, [well, maybe a wee bit with Korky, who could be mischevious on occassion] but it didn't matter; they were instantly-recognizable and iconic.

Mickey Mouse has no real personality either, but he's the most famous cartoon character on the planet, and has been for decades.

swirlythingy wrote:

Tin Can Tommy wrote:Oh, and Bri, since you don't seem to be buying the Dandy, could I just request that you do so, before its catastrophically low sales cause it to be cancelled? That goes for everyone else on here as well. No amount of hand-wringing will save it - it needs your cash, and it needs it now.

i have bought the dandy every week swirly (even though it seems a bit babyish with a lot of the art style now,and isn't really for me,and don't get me started on the big size guaranteed to be damaged covers)since the latest revamp although i did stop buying extreme for about a year only buying again the last few before the revamp.i was on holiday in ireland the last 3 weeks and am so dedicated to buying it i actually spent £12 just on bus fare to get it in the town with a tesco & asda as no one stocks it within miles of my dads village so each issue the last 3 weeks cost me £14.50 but i stick with it now as i managed to get a near complete run from 1980 -2004 from ebay a while back and i have more dandys now than any other comic

dishes wrote:[quote="David Gerstein. I would probably buy a book collection of Desperate Dan or Harry Hill though, if there was one.

i thought i was the only one here who liked harry hills strip as most seem to slate it even though it is current with the celebs and the art is fantastic

big bad bri wrote:

dishes wrote:[quote="David Gerstein. I would probably buy a book collection of Desperate Dan or Harry Hill though, if there was one.

i thought i was the only one here who liked harry hills strip as most seem to slate it even though it is current with the celebs and the art is fantastic

I'm right with you there. I hate celebrity culture and I don't watch TV but the thing about the Harry Hill strip, going on the episodes I've read, is that many of the jokes are (gasp) actually funny!

That's possibly because Harry or one of the TV Burp writers writes it (so you don't get old jokes that they used in another strip seven years ago), rather than DCT staff (who may not be so with the trends) or the artist like other strips. In short, if you like TV Burp, you should like that strip.

big bad bri wrote: i thought i was the only one here who liked harry hills strip as most seem to slate it even though it is current with the celebs and the art is fantastic

I don't particularly recall seeing anyone here slate the Harry Hill strip.