Comics UK

Issue 13 is up and running!

I have to say, my sons and I are really enjoying The Dandy since the launch of the app proper this time around. Doing away with the technical glitches helps to get INTO a story, particularly an adventure story like Retro Active which, by the way, the kids both LOVE! (No market for a weekly adventure serial type comic?? I'm not so certain seeing as they read that strip FIRST each week!)

I'm not a parent that bangs on about their kids all the time but I figured this forum would be more interested in what THEY think than me being (just about at 13 & 15) the 'target audience'.

They love Retro Active, Keyhole Kate and Brassneck from the 'serial' strips.
By far and away their favourite 'funny' strip was The Numskulls by Jamie Smart... His reimagining of that strip was absolutely hilarious.. Expanding the idea that all members of the family (and pets) have Numskulls, and the dog's Numskulls being cats.....Genius!!

They are also enjoying the new Bananaman, particularly the little 'side gags' and notices in each episode... They prefer this to the Wayne Thompson version that was in the paper Dandy.

From the mini-strips, Harry & His Hippo and Jibber & Steve go down well, and I'm pleased that they are getting the opportunity to enjoy some new Tom Paterson work in The Laughing Planet, Hyde & Shriek and Little Squelchy Thingies!!

Small concern with Issue 13 though....

There is no 'Next Week' trailer, Retro Active says End of Volume One at the end, and even Bananaman doesn't have a Next Time trail at the end.....

What are the plans for Issue 14? Any clues out there....?

Spencer wrote:Small concern with Issue 13 though....

There is no 'Next Week' trailer, Retro Active says End of Volume One at the end, and even Bananaman doesn't have a Next Time trail at the end.....

What are the plans for Issue 14? Any clues out there....?

I think you've just given us three clues, Spencer.

Oh dear.

Well, it's certainly not been cancelled. Otherwise, why would they have put two new adverts in the Beano this month? I'm sure you're panicking over nothing.

That was a natural chapter end point for Retro Active, all the heroes have been introduced, we have all the backstories except for X's, the first villain group does appear to be out of action for now, and they used a new villain - who is a classic character, unlike the previous bad guys - to leave a cliffhanger for the next three months worth of stories. It can be presumed that Vanessa healed Rich off panel and is now being trained by Valda. All the loose ends have been tied. That "End of Volume One" thing is very much like what the TV show Heroes did - that also always ended with a cliffhanger.

The absence of the next issue previews is strange, nonetheless.

I can only hope you're right, Digi, but I fear the worse: the end of the digital Dandy.

Of course 'end of vol one' doesn't imply anything final, it's the absens of any other next issue previews that worries me.

And the fact that their still advertising in the Beano means nothing. That would be sorted out and sent to print well in advance.

I really don't believe for one minute that it is ending. I guess this is kind of where we had got up to the first time around...

However, I will be pleased when next Thursday comes around and we're delving into issue 14!

Ginger wrote:I can only hope you're right, Digi, but I fear the worse: the end of the digital Dandy.

Of course 'end of vol one' doesn't imply anything final, it's the absens of any other next issue previews that worries me.

And the fact that their still advertising in the Beano means nothing. That would be sorted out and sent to print well in advance.

Actually not, nowadays, it only goes to print about a week or two in advance. Not a month or more like it used to be. The Facebook page is gathering material for the 75th anniversary issue, which is only five weeks away.

And if the Dandy was ending outright, wouldn't they have simply ended Retro Active last week? It certainly wouldn't say End of Volume One if there's no Volume Two.

I still don't suppose we know how The Dandy is getting on and how many subscriptions they have?

Not that I'm aware. Digital comics don't publish ABC figures.

I'll tell you one thing, their security is poor. If you know the urls (often easily guessed once you know one) you can get every issue without paying by going directly to each story in full screen. I wonder how many readers do that? The urls also work without a https:// prefix. Only the issue contents pages are actually payment locked!

I see what you mean. No doubt that will get fixed once DCT gets wind.

Digifiend wrote: I'll tell you one thing, their security is poor. If you know the urls (often easily guessed once you know one) you can get every issue without paying by going directly to each story in full screen. I wonder how many readers do that?

Probably a few more now that you've mentioned it.

I think too many people knew about that little workaround I mentioned. Game over. Confirmed by Wilbur Dawbarn on Twitter, the digital Dandy is no more.

Of course, the technical problems can't have helped either.

I can't believe this. The number 13 really is unlucky for The Digital Dandy.

And that makes two shutdowns in as many weeks. First BeanoMAX, now this.

I think that several things went against it:
1. It was launched before it was ready
2. It was relaunched once it was ready and the kids lost interest because so much was recycled from the original Digital Dandy
3. Advertising, or its lack

Definitely agreed on point two, they should've simply updated the previous issues (squashing bugs, adding Dan's voice work, adding the navigation buttons to the early issues), not rebooted it. Or, as you implied with point one, postponed the launch.

I've heard a lot of stories over the past six months that people couldn't get the app to work, couldn't get the site to accept payments for credits, or couldn't run the strips on PC due to a not powerful enough computer. And the PC version also has the ability to bypass payment completely - that bug (the same one I mentioned earlier) was a game breaker! They definitely didn't have the tech know how to make this work, and their PR was a disaster from start to finish, they totally wasted the publicity from the print comic's demise, and now they have the cheek to let an artist (whose work wasn't even published!) announce the demise of the digital comic instead of doing so themselves.