Digital Dandy

[WizzKid97]

I don't know if I'm being a little dumb but I'm really confused with the new Digital Dandy news... Will I still be able to read The Digital Dandy on Android and will I get a refund on the credits I spent previously? Also, does this mean if I can read the issues on Android, I'll have to re-purchase all of the issues and wait 13 weeks until I can read some new material?

Sorry if these questions have already been answered but I'm very confused and would really appreciate if someone could help me out.

[Digifiend]

If you already bought issue 1, you'll have access to the new issue 1 without being charged (as Andy said). Same with issue 2 when it's released, and so on. But yeah, it's a three month wait to find out what happens in part 14 of Retro Active!

[-MikeD-]

I don't know if I'm being a little dumb but I'm really confused with the new Digital Dandy news... Will I still be able to read The Digital Dandy on Android and will I get a refund on the credits I spent previously? Also, does this mean if I can read the issues on Android, I'll have to re-purchase all of the issues and wait 13 weeks until I can read some new material?

Sorry if these questions have already been answered but I'm very confused and would really appreciate if someone could help me out.

Firstly, you'll need to download the Dandy app from Google Play for Android devices (The App Store for Apple users). Then, over the next few months, you get the issues you've paid for again via the app...but you'll have to wait for new issues. Although, the old issues will have new material and interactivity. Could be fun.

[Spencer]

I'm going to sound like a right killjoy here, and on the re-launch day too...

But the app (on iPhone) keeps crashing when I'm in the middle of longer strips, sending me right out, then I have to read all the way through to where I was and hope it doesn't crash again!

Also, it looks like someone has been in my den and stolen all my awards !!!

Dennis??!!!

[Lew Stringer]

I was hoping for a better announcement perhaps the return of the print version as a monthly with a mixture of new strips & classic reprints not the modern ones they previously did,or was even hoping for a merger with Beano to at least see some new strips of classic characters.

I'm afraid that comic mergers seem a bit 20th Century now. (When was the last merger exactly? When Buster absorbed Whizzer & Chips in the 1990s?)

[Gilly]

That and The Beezer and Topper merging together in the early 1990s, even though that unofficially merged into The Beano and The Dandy (e.g. Numskulls in The Beano, Beryl the Peril in The Dandy).

To be fair since then the only other traditional comic that has disappeared has been Buster and that had nowhere else to go.

It's a brave new attempt The Dandy is trying rather than merge with The Beano and I may now have to finally give it a try.

[big bad bri]

Eagle also dissapeared but i always thought that could have merged with 2000ad & that way they would have had Dan Dare back.

[Gilly]

In girls comics Bunty also disappeared similar era to Buster.

A couple I didn't think of there.

[Digifiend]

Roy of the Rovers too.

[Lew Stringer]

To be fair since then the only other traditional comic that has disappeared has been Buster and that had nowhere else to go.

True, but Marvel UK also used to merge titles and they (or rather their successors Panini) don't do that now either. (Eg: Rampage and Fantastic Four Adventures simply stopped instead of merging into other Marvel titles.)

[Gilly]

Ahhh I wondered why you thought it was an outdated idea Lew.

[WizzKid97]

Much appreciated, thanks guys.

Well, whatever The Dandy's new plans are - I say good luck to them for trying to be different! The Dandy are all for taking risks and experimenting and this shows that clearly. I hope the comic goes well though, I must say that I do like the new cover designs and the Next Week pages - good changes and additions, although the animations still don't work on my computer so I guess it's back to using the (far better) Android app.

I'll just have to mute it so I don't have to listen to Desperate Dan's voice and the sound effects in Blinky. I prefer my comics being silent to be quite honest.

It's annoying that they have rebooted the comics though as it means now I have to wait through all of Keyhole Kate again and I know the entire storyline. Still, I'm glad they put more in each issue, hopefully we'll see more from Bad Hair Day this time around. Ah well, as long as I get to read more of Retro Active, I'll be happy!

[Digifiend]

Trouble is, as I said, the next new episode of Retro is three months away. Although things do make more sense on second viewing. For instance, in the first part, we hear "Codename W" referred to as Lordship, and it was two months before we originally knew that it was Codename Warlord, Lord Peter Flint. The terms Active Unit and Retro Unit took 11 weeks to be exposited. The line "Retro Unit on standby", I'd completely forgotten about. It was the clue to Cobra, Hornet and Kat's identities as second generation heroes. Valda and X being the originals meant that it just lost meaning at the time.

As for Dan, I'm guessing he was intended to have the speech all along? It is of course similar to what the Just Dandy documentary did. They need to add a mute button though like Blinky has.

[WizzKid97]

I just checked with The Dandy over Facebook and this is the line-up of artists and stories in The Digital Dandy for anyone curious:

DESPERATE DAN by David Parkins (I was right! )
BANANAMAN by Andy Janes (Told you it was 'A. Janes'! )
THE NUMSKULLS by Jamie Smart
BRASSNECK by Stephen White
BLINKY by Nick Brennan
RETRO ACTIVE by Wayne Thompson
KEYHOLE KATE by Stephen White
SNEAKER by Nick Brennan
THE LAUGHING PLANET by Tom Paterson
GROWLPH by Stephen Waller
FLATMAN AND RIBBON by Dean Rankine
JONAH by Mike Pearse
HYDE AND SHRIEK by Tom Paterson
HARRY AND HIS HIPPO by Dan Gaynor
KINGO BANGO by Jamie Smart
EXPIRIN' UNCLE BYRON by Tom Paterson
BERTIE BUNCLE AND HIS CHEMICAL UNCLE by Gary Boller
BAD HAIR DAY by Alexander Matthews
HAMMIE THE HOPPING-MAD HAMSTER by Graham Howie
THE LITTLE SQUELCHY THINGIES by Tom Paterson

A very impressive line-up of artists and stories. I'm very happy to see the returns of Tom Paterson, David Parkins, Mike Pearse, Dan Gaynor and Nick Brennan and am also glad to see Stephen Waller and Dean Rankine from the 2010-12 Dandy. Now let's hope we see Andy Fanton, Lew Stringer and Will Dawbarn soon!

[Digifiend]

New issue 2 is out.