This weeks Dandy

[AndyB]

The Beano is the same. I believe that it's because of distribution over the double bank holiday next weekend.

[Gilly]

Yeah I suppose it's a bit like Christmas for distribution next week isn't it, by the time they'll get an issue out next week it will be almost time for the following weeks.

[AndyB]

Yes, I think that the two days before on-sale being bank holidays are the real killer. Not that any of us knows how they managed to publish a weekly comic over Christmas ten years ago... but that is the way of things nowadays.

[Digifiend]

Why don't they just print them and deliver them a couple of days earlier than usual? Just ship them to the shops at the same time as the Sunday Post, with instructions not to sell the comics until their usual Wednesday release date. I'm sure that's how it would've been done 15 years ago. Skipping weeks is just ridiculous. The Beano at least is just a normal £1.50 issue, so regular readers who don't pay attention to the recall date, are going to turn up at the newsagents on Wednesday week expecting issue 3639 to be out, and they'll be disappointed. There's no reason to expect a skipped week, unlike at Christmas.

[philcom55]

Not that any of us knows how they managed to publish a weekly comic over Christmas ten years ago... but that is the way of things nowadays.

During the 60s and 70s they simply released comics earlier than normal during weeks that contained a Bank Holiday (there was never any embargo until the official 'on sale' day, which was treated more as a 'best before' advisory). This made sense as Holiday Numbers generally sold well - though it did lead to some weird anomalies such as 'New Year' issues going on sale before Christmas Day!

- Phil Rushton

[Gilly]

I'll be honest it was a pleasant surprise that The Dandy was it's normal price today, I wonder if they are waiting for the summer to release a few free gift issues.

This weeks issue was fantastic as well and here are a few things i appreciated this week. First off I've said it on here before and I'll say it again, Jamie Smart's Desperate Dan covers are always the best in my opinion and this weeks is no different. I loved the joke with Dan acting as a King with a pig as his corgi and it just makes me wish he was on the cover more often as he just belongs there.

It's great to see Nigel Parkinson's artwork return to The Dandy and he just seems to be the perfect artist for a strip like The Banana Bunch. The first strip does a brilliant job at introducing us to the characters and I also appreciate the fact that it was left on a cliffhanger leaving me looking forward to the next issue.

Since the revamp The Dandy hasn't been afraid to celebrate it's history with many returns and cameos from old characters but this weeks I really enjoy seeing the cover and Desperate Dan strip from the week of the queens coronation. I don't know if the current readership will enjoy reading these but Retro Beano seems to be a popular feature in The Beano so i don't see why not. I hope to see more of this in the 75th Birthday issue later this year.

Everything else great as usual only thing missing was a strip by Lew Stringer.

[AndyB]

Why don't they just print them and deliver them a couple of days earlier than usual? Just ship them to the shops at the same time as the Sunday Post...

I am reliably informed that magazines are distributed in a separate process from newspapers (thus newspapers are bound in plastic tape, magazines come in crates), and I also think there is no such thing as a magazine delivery on a Sunday.

On top of this, the Beano and the Dandy are printed centrally, unlike the newspapers - even the Sunday Post might be printed in Belfast under contract, just like the national newspapers. Free magazines with newspapers are distributed with the newspapers they belong to.

I imagine it is as simple as they could not depend on the magazines being distributed in time for Thursday, with a question mark over Friday (if you remember, the last pre-Bank Holiday issue had a delayed off-sale date) just in case, and printing being outsourced, it may even have been difficult to have the print run done a few days early - or even simply dearer.

[big bad bri]

I hope this week is the start of 2 retro style pages every week now i enjoyed reading classic dan & korky,dreadlock holmes is a waste of 4 pages,it was bad enough the first time round.

[WizzKid97]

A brilliant issue in my opinion, and for no more money either!

Best strip this week had to easily be The Banana Bunch by Nigel Parkinson. Nigel has managed to take on the Bunch, redesign them and still managed to make it the best incarnation yet! I was familiar with Nigel last time of taking on the Bunch back in '04. I really liked it. Plus them returning means that's yet another classic in the comic - with Andy Fanton apparently working on redesigning a classic - I'm hoping it's Spotted Dick -we may be seeing a classic take-over in The Dandy along side Mega-Lo Maniacs, Bad Grandad and Mr. Meecher, the Uncool Teacher!

Worst had to be the four-page Dreadlock Holmes reprint slapped straight at the back of the comic. That's so far been three stories, all of which have frankly made no sense humour-wise. Where are the jokes at the end? Maybe Dreadlock should go sleuthing for them instead?

Not too keen on the Retro Dandy feature - especially as it replaced Blinky (reprint or not, I love that strip!) - also didn't think the chosen classics were any good whatsoever - especially Desperate Dan. You can call me mad but I for one have never liked Dudley D. Watkins' Desperate Dan - incredibly unfunny and bland.

[Digifiend]

I don't think that's going to be a regular feature. The page doesn't even have a "Retro Dandy" logo (although the cover uses the one from the annuals - of course, since one of the pages is a front cover, a logo is still there, but it's not an actual "Retro Dandy" logo).

I'd actually seen both strips before.

[dandy mad]

I don't think that's going to be a regular feature. The page doesn't even have a "Retro Dandy" logo (although the cover uses the one from the annuals - of course, since one of the pages is a front cover, a logo is still there, but it's not an actual "Retro Dandy" logo).

I'd actually seen both strips before.

The Korky 1953 coronation strip was reprinted in the Dandy/Beano fifty golden years book and the Desperate Dan strip from the same issue is in The Best of British Comic Art by Alan Clark plus I have the original #602 June 6th coronation Dandy

[Peter Gray]

WizzKid97 you are mad...

I bet you will like Dudley's Desperate Dan more when you are an adult..it is very funny..But I suppose I was brought up on it..

I hope there will be more Retro pages.makes sense for the 75th coming up..

[dandy mad]

Wakins Desperate Dan bland? It's far from bland and do you like the thing that they print in the weekly Dandy they churn out week after week? Now that is bland

[-MikeD-]

You can call me mad but I for one have never liked Dudley D. Watkins' Desperate Dan - incredibly unfunny and bland.

[swirlythingy]

And so, another small segment of humanity learns the uncomfortable truth that, in general, the iterations of long-running characters which they consider to be the best are invariably the ones they personally grew up with, and that this does not in fact confer any particular quality on these versions or a single objective reason to like them, nor does it in any way guarantee that one who grew up with a different version will automatically come round to the same point of view.

FWIW, I don't like David Law's Dennis the Menace either.