Comics UK

My children have enjoyed The Dandy because they, like me, love cartooning and cartoon strips make them laugh. They love identifying the artists and are very observant. They've read TOXIC and *quite* liked it, but The Dandy was their favourite.

I'll be getting the Beano for them from now on. They like that too.

Actually, I've never been that upset by the notion of a Beano-Dandy merger. Yes, it would be a shame to lose the Britain's longest running comic title, but if it meant preserving great characters in a 'safe' home, then seeing Desperate Dan and Dennis the Menance in one publication would have been quite nice.

I wish DCThomson had done that instead. Would have been like Whizzer & Chips!

Yeah, you get the feeling that maybe the Dandy editors were looking at the Nickelodeon mag for inspiration esp. with their comic section. The nick mag is pretty forward thinking and uses alot of indy cartoonists that you probably wouldn't associate with kids comics, and it works a treat. Maybe like Nick mag they should use a proper cover to their pull-out instead of the contents page. I loved this one from last year by Scott Campbell -

http://scott-c.blogspot.com/2006/07/nickelodes.html

Lew... thanks for the kind words.

Conor B... Yep! ...I'm afraid I must take full responsibility for the
EGGS FILES. I also re-drew a number of THOR THUMB episodes
which I believe were originally published in the early 1970's

readee wrote:
I remember when the UK Nick mag was launched (only lasted a few issues I believe), it was thin and featured far less than the US version. Why arn't kids here treated to the same depth of content as their US cousins?

Best,
Chris

Possibly because America is a much larger country and their version sold more copies (so unit costs were lower)?

Another possibility: The UK comics industry is now very much led by accountancy and marketing departments, whereas the USA seems to give a bit more power to the editors.

Lew

Actually if I were 'Baron' Thomson I think I'd be inclined to hand the whole 16 pages over to some bright young cartoonist who's plugged in to the Zeitgeist and brimming full of creative ideas (rather in the way that Odhams asked Leo Baxendale to package Wham! for them in the 1960s). Initially he'd have a pretty small budget to work with, but access to all of DCT's back catalogue, and carte blanche (within reason) as far as design and content were concerned. I know it'd be a huge gamble but IMO anything's got to be better than the dog's breakfast they've ended up with.

For what it's worth my own first choice would be that Northfield bloke with a sheep fetish ...How about it Gary - do you think you'd be up to the challenge???

- Phil Rushton

Give Jamie Smart and David Gaynor the job of redesigning the Dandy. Both fantastic cartoonists.

'My Own Genie' and 'Ted and the Animals' were both fantastic. Kids loved the insanity of them.

BBC News posted a story yesterday on the Dandy relaunch:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tay ... 929615.stm[/url]

Yep Jamie Smart and Steve Bright get my vote 2 artistic (comic) geniuses that the kids would love, Thats what is really needed not poor "poo" jokes oh add Lew to that list the guy knows his stuff!

I notice the BBC article states...

'world's longest running comic'.

I think (having now brought one) that it might just about still qualify as a comic as just over 50% of the publication had some form of comic strip content.

I never did understand the claim of the Dandy being the worlds longest running comic anyway. What am I missing.

Some comics have exceeded the Dandy in terms of numbers of issues published (i.e Pepin, Commando) and the American Detective Comics has been published for longer in terms of duration?

Having now read the new Dandy I must say it's not as bad as I feared and I am pleased it's not ditched as much of the actual comic content as I was worried it would have and I?ll still be happy to pick it up.

Earl.

I've been a bit apprehensive about this revamp. Finally got a copy today and I cringed. There's no denying this is what kids want nowadays, and maybe DCT can make a new niche out of the Dandy, leaving the Beano to concentrate soley on comics. But the reprints. Red Hot Chilli Dogs?? Smasher?? Get Thor Thumb, Space Raoul etc back in! And the work of Stephen White! It's a shame Doctor Who has it's own mag: it'd be good to have a serialised story in there.


I think something that hasn't been explored is the potential the web has to offer. Give characters like Beryl or the infamous Bad Max a Facebook account. Short animations on the website to compliment/'fill in' he stories in the comic. Jamie's got it bang on with Space Raoul.

It's evident kids these days want something more stimulating than 2/3 pages of hijinks from a character and that's it for the week. Especially this new fortnightly publishing: with Webcomics there's a growing audience for animated shorts to be produced monthly, seperate from the strips themselves.

Big Simon wrote:Lew, you and I are going to have to agree to disagree.
I see nothing in the Dandy Xtreme which makes girls welcome. In the space of one week it's changed from an all-inclusive comic to a pre-pubescent lads' mag.

Agreed - if it's readers they want, they really shouldn't ignore 50% of the potential readership.

It does make me wonder what exactly the 70th anniversary will hold. For one week will it revert back to the old weekly style? I think a long story featuring the Old Desperate Dan and the new Desperate Dan would be brilliant.

Also makes me wonder about the likes of Ken Harrison etc. Has he effectively 'lost his job'?

I hope this works out and the potential is there but it's a bloody drastic change. I do feel sad that the old Dandy has passed, and I'm not sure if I was a kid today it'd be my cup of tea.

But the reprints. Red Hot Chilli Dogs?? Smasher??

I hadn't realised Red Hot Chilli Dogs was a reprint... when/where did it first appear?

Best,
Chris

Naaw...I thought it was new
It was one of my faves

readee wrote:

But the reprints. Red Hot Chilli Dogs?? Smasher??

I hadn't realised Red Hot Chilli Dogs was a reprint... when/where did it first appear?

Best,
Chris

It was originally called Snip n Snap and appeared in Sparky in the early 1970s. Drawn by Mike Green who later drew Weedy Willy for Oink!

Lew

Big Simon wrote:Lew wrote: 'If your child said he enjoyed Dandy Xtreme and he understood that the situations shown within were anti-social and unpleasant I'm sure you'd allow him to carry on reading it, even though you personally didn't like the mag, wouldn't you?'

errr, no...7 year old...

I thought you said you had an 11 year old too. I'm 11 and my mum has nowt wrong with me reading it.

The Dandy No.1 in 1937 had 28 pages. Only 15 of which were comic strip.

The Amalgamated Press comics of the early 20th Century such as Comic Cuts were 50% strip, 50% text material.

Early issues of Eagle in 1950 only had 10 out of 16 pages comic strip.

TV Century 21 had around 13 out of 20 pages comic strip.

Considering that no one seems to have ever questioned The Dandy or other titles back then from being called "comics" I fail to see why modern comics should be so resented from using the title.

Lew