A belated Dandy milestone

[Kashgar]

The Dandy under its revamped fortnightly guise of Dandy Xtreme has just reached its 3500th issue. 3425 of those issues published under the weekly title Dandy and the last 75 as Xtreme. As you might expect from a title that is struggling to maintain any 'now' credibility no mention is made of its long illustrious past in this 3500th issue with, instead, the main theme of the issue being a celebration of all things Shrek to tie-in with the release of the latest, and apparently last film, in the Shrek canon.

[Peter Gray]

Its a shame when its not celebated...
the past can be celebrated for todays kids surely!

[Digifiend]

They'll never celebrate milestones again, they didn't celebrate the 70th anniversary a few months after Xtreme launched either.

I always thought Xtreme should've restarted the numbering from #1.

[Digifiend]

Yea, I noticed that this one had been ignored.

The comic strip content in Xtreme is increasing, though I'm thinking we're seeing reprint (maybe someone can correct me on this if I'm wrong).

There's currently a John Geering drawn Bananaman strip 'Dr Jackal and Mr Hide' running as a serial. Was this originally published complete as one of the short-lived Dandy monthly specials (the ones with the 'silent' Zob strips on the back of them)?

I suspect Owen Goal is reprinted, and we've also been seeing some reprints of the Banana Bunch (in the first strip, the gang were moving over from Beezer town, something that probably didn't mean very much to today's readers). And there's been the odd Molly and Fiddle O'Diddle strip too.

Jamie Smart's drawings of Cuddles and Dimples for the free sticker set are terrific. In the next issue there's going to be a free 'My Own Genie' mini-mag, which I suspect will be reprinted strips.

The design of the features pages is still, IMHO, not that great (wish they would make it more like Beano MAX, which Auntie Clockwise has turned up in this month).

They need to use a greater selection of Dandy character images on the features pages; the same ones are being used again and again. The What's Up! could feature much more and the clouds in the back look as though they have come off a clipart CD.

The titles at the top of the pages (on the black bars) also don't look very good. Change please, Dandy people.

There was no need for the moving from Beezer town thing, the Banana Bunch already became Dandy characters back in 2004, when a story intended for the cancelled 2004 Beezer Annual appeared in the 2005 Dandy annual. It's ironic that Auntie Clockwise ended up in BeanoMAX since she's a Dandy character from the 90s (launched to tie-in to the 1996 Doctor Who film, or just a parody during the hiatus?) The My Own Genie thing will be similar to the Desperate Dan one they did a few months ago. Which means, yes, reprints. Bananaman's Dr Jackal and Mr Hide story was originally a 40 page book in the Beanobooks line published in 2000. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bananaman-Dr-Ja ... 1855349698

[MikeC]

Will be good to see My Own Genie again, even reprints!

Is there a new team on Xtreme, then, if it's moving back to comic strips? They were adamant about the right mix of features and comics a while back.