From the beginning of this year up until last week, the Dandy's regular weekly comic pagecount (that is, excluding reprints, adverts, and filler material such as the jokes) had remained more or less static at 23 pages. But this week, suddenly there are 26.
(OK, two of those are the backs of a card game, so borderline.)
In a total of 36 pages, 26 doesn't look all that impressive. But since it was such a big jump, I was curious to see how it compared with the Dandy's post-revamp glory days, so I scrolled back to early 2011 and was quite surprised to discover that the issues published after the Mailbag began running (which ate up a comic page) sported... 26.
More than that, though. This week, there's also no My Own Genie, and so there are only four pages of reprints to last week's six.
In other words, this week's Dandy stands up very well indeed next to those famously lavish early issues, and the increase in page count from 32 to 36 is entirely accounted for by four not previously present reprints. Ignore those four pages, and you could pretend it's January 2011 again.
So, is this long-term good news?
I've often mentioned (well, I've often thought - I can't speak for how many times I've thought aloud) how the Dandy gradually lost its sheen during 2011, climaxing in the dreadful cover redesign and celeb-centric repositioning of last summer, before starting to make up its lost ground with the gradual elimination of the sleb factor, a lacklustre mini-strip selection revitalised, and the covers reverting back to their older and better design. Last week I'd have said that (extra four pages aside) the comic was almost back in the position it was in last spring, save for those reprints. My Own Genie's reprints, ironically, debuted that same summer, and ran continuously until last week.
But this is the very first comic I've seen which makes me think that maybe, just maybe, the Dandy might be aiming for the position it was in the autumn before last.
(
section: A few weeks ago, the Beano permanently increased its page count from a long-standing 17 to 18, which was also last heard of in early 2011. Related?)