Newsflash! The Dandy goes... Xtreme!

Cap Haggis · Post by **Cap Haggis** » 02 Aug 2007, 17:43

I haven't read it yet (although I rarey read/but new childrens comics now) but it seems pretty seedy - However it could be funny in an ironic way - After all CONNOR is around the target age for the Dandy (possibly a bit older can't remember) and he seems to like it. But my curiousity has been sparked so I will need to have a wee peek . At least I'll get a Dudley Watkins classic to look at.

PaulTwist · Post by **PaulTwist** » 02 Aug 2007, 18:20

Big Simon wrote:If DC Thomson think it's acceptable to create a comic which includes photos of children pretending to eat human faeces, or photo layouts with other kids making fake turds and leaving them on the floor... then where does the comic go next? How can you sustain this level of gross 'naughtiness' issue after issue.

I would've loved a comic like that 20 years ago. Oink! had The Plops, after all.

I agree it's a shame that The Dandy is, to all intents and purposes, dead, but kids of today aren't the same as kids of 20, 30, 40+ years ago - we've had all the arguments before so I won't say any more.

I do hope Jamie S returns - I'm not a regular reader of The Dandy by any means but I did enjoy his Bear series and it was nice to see him in a UK comic.

Post by **AndyB** » 02 Aug 2007, 18:59

Moving back to the Dandy section...

Disaster. Who drew the Bananaman strip?

rossmac · Post by **rossmac** » 02 Aug 2007, 22:32

I won't see the Dandy Xtreme for a few months (when it comes out in Australia, or rather, IF) but by the sounds of it, I don't need to see it to know I'm going to hate it. Oh well. I think I would have preferred it merged with the Beano- and that's saying something!

Ironically, if you have a look at the current poll on the Dandy website asking which section of the new Dandy Xtreme you like best, guess which is out in the lead by a country mile- that's right, the part that they've essentially dropped- comics! So what now, 'you asked for it'- we're going back to what we used to be? In fact I'm surprised as 'features, reviews etc' always came last behind the comics in previous polls, so why they think 'you asked for it' in regards to the content of Xtreme, I don't know.

As for the 'gross' content... I can't believe kids are being fed this stuff, do we really want the next generation to be this foul & disgusting... the world is going bad enough without the media encouraging it....

I hope the Dandy Annual stays as it always was.

Ross

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 02 Aug 2007, 23:39

Big Simon wrote: There is even a section now encouraging kids to send in photos of their 'unattractive' parents and label them a 'munter'. Is this what the Dandy editor thinks is a respectful attitude for today's kids?

Usually, when adults are shocked at comics' social values it means the publishers are onto a winner.

See: Penny Dreadfuls, EC Comics, Action.... until the starchy establishment got them banned of course.

By the way "Sick" is modern slang for "good". (Like "wicked" and "bad"). It's been in use for a few years now. First time I've seen it in a comic though.

I liked the 16 page comic, and thought the Dan reprint was GREAT. Only thing I didn't like was wasting the cover on a contents page. (Does a 16 page comic really need a contents page? It can't be that hard for readers to find the page they want with only 7 spreads.)

Wasn't too keen on the mag, but then I'm 48 so I'm not likely to be.

I did like the Whizzer & Chips style "two in one" format though.

Lew

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 02 Aug 2007, 23:43

rossmac wrote: As for the 'gross' content... I can't believe kids are being fed this stuff, do we really want the next generation to be this foul & disgusting... the world is going bad enough without the media encouraging it....

Isn't that going down the old "comics damage our young" route? Xtreme is reflecting modern kids' humour, not inspiring it.

Lew

Big Simon · Post by **Big Simon** » 03 Aug 2007, 08:42

I just feel Dandy Xtreme is a desperate attempt to 'out-gross' all of its rivals, but compare the quality of the new look Dandy with, say, Toxic (on which it is modelled) and the Dandy just looks cheap, vindictive and unpleasant.

In one week the Dandy has gone from a funnny comic for boys AND girls to a tacky boy's only magazine full of farts and sh*t... quite literally.

Peter Gray · Post by **Peter Gray** » 03 Aug 2007, 08:46

I completely agree...

I've read the Desperate Dan before....maybe it was in Classics...
didn't like the way the last panel was obscured...to hide the name of the cowpie....save your money Paul

Coner B what was it you liked....less comic?.....

I threw the whole thing away...

I showed my Mum and Dad who popped in from coming back from a holiday showing the previous one and the new one......Mum wouldn't buy that...and she said it damages the Dandy name......

As I say it should just be called Extreem drop The Dandy from the title...

Bring back
Nick B
Steve Bright
Ken H
etc etc..

Everyone should vote for more comic........I have...
I've also emailed them saying they have alienated a lot of people........girls...etc...

Spencer · Post by **Spencer** » 03 Aug 2007, 09:16

....take a look at the Dandy website and click on 'Polls' http://www.dandy.com/ ... you'll see that even the kids want more comic strips and less "cool gross stuff"...

Picking up my copy tomorrow for my son, William, who is 7.

Once he/we have read it I will post his review here - see what one of the 'target audience' thinks..

(I'm interested in what he thinks of Dudley's Desperate Dan! )

Kashgar · Post by **Kashgar** » 03 Aug 2007, 11:14

I must admit I think they got it right when they put the comic pages in a pull-out section all to themselves, thus allowing more mature and sensitive souls to bypass all the scatalogical shenanigans going on elsewhere. From here on in they will know not to venture any further than the 16 page 'escape pod' nestling in the middle.

Spencer · Post by **Spencer** » 03 Aug 2007, 13:19

Don't disagree with the 'pull-out' part -- I do agree with the poll (of Dandy readers) that says there should be more comic strips (sorry I mean comix!) .... so maybe a 20-page pullout would please both the target audience and me!

DJDogfart · Post by **DJDogfart** » 03 Aug 2007, 13:40

Should've spent my 2 quid on a pint of beer.... Rubbish, I give it 6 months tops (although these words will probably come back to haunt me sometime around February!) RIP Dandy, it was nice knowing you.

Conor B · Post by **Conor B** » 03 Aug 2007, 15:10

Peter Gray wrote:what was it you liked....less comic?.....

NO WAY!! I normally buy it just for the comic strips!
I'd prefer it to if it was 20 or more pages
BTW it felt like 5 (maybe i exagerate a LITTLE) pages long it was so thin!

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 03 Aug 2007, 17:03

DJDogfart wrote:Should've spent my 2 quid on a pint of beer.... Rubbish, I give it 6 months tops (although these words will probably come back to haunt me sometime around February!) RIP Dandy, it was nice knowing you.

If you're old enough to buy beer then you're too old for The Dandy.

What we, as adults, think of the changes are totally irrelevant. The only opinions that matter in regards to a children's comic are children. Some will hate it (as kids do), and some will love it.

It'll be interesting to see what reaction the 60 year old Dan reprint gets from kids into "gross humour". My guess is they won't have the attention span to read it (and they'll moan it's in black and white) but I hope I'll be proven wrong.

Lew

readee · Post by **readee** » 03 Aug 2007, 17:17

Hi all,

Just been away for a a couple of days and picked up the new Dandy today; have enjoyed reading the comments here too!

It doesn't really feel like The Dandy at all. As others here have mentioned, what surprised me most was that this now appears to be a publication aimed solely at the pre-teen boys market. I expect that old Dandy had a mostly male readership, though judging by the letters and pictures sent into the old Forum pages, there were girls reading it too. And remember the old tag-line "Fun for boys and girls!" that graced the comic in the eighties and nineties? I wonder what female readers of the comic are going to make of the changes? It seems sad that they've been alientated.

Kraze Club boasts that its the best-selling children's magazine (not comic, though the differences between each are becoming more and more blurred) and that particular title has stuff to appeal to both sexes.

Other thoughts:

- I liked the presentation of the comic section and felt it looked quite slick on the whole. I like the style of Captain Hookless (not traditionally Dandy and yes, looks quite European). Good to see Brian Walker's Smasher back (reprint I'm guessing?). Bananaman feels like a reprint too, though does anyone know where this originally appeared? I remember seeing single page Bananaman strips that looked like this in The Funday Times, when it went tabloid sized. The style looks a lot like the TV series.

- That Xtreme Wacked feature... When I was young always hated seeing other kids being "famous"... This feels like the comic equivalent of Why Don't You?...

- Higher resolution image should have been used on the cover

Were I editor, I would have actually called the pull-out comic 'The Dandy' and stuck a strip on the front, just like old times

Best,
Chris

Comics UK