Dandy Relaunch THIS WEDNESDAY!!!

[AndyB]

I was working out of a different office today, and found the Dandy in the nearest shop. The assistant asked was it an adult comic like Viz - she'd never heard of it, or the Beano!

[Digifiend]

How the heck is that possible? Thinking they've stopped printing new issues is one thing, but not even knowing they exist? These aren't newbie licensed titles, they're comics with 70 years of history. I find it impossible to believe that anyone in the UK can have not heard of them. How old was this assistant?

[Jonny Whizz]

I always like to see a comic strip on the back page of a humour comic because that's what I was used to as a kid. I like to see strips starting on the cover too; in strip form, not just one big picture.

Agreed. When I started reading the Beano, Gnasher and Gnipper were usually on the back cover and I was disappointed when they weren't, and happy when they were restored to what I felt was their rightful place on the back of the comic, although I also remember seeing Billy Whizz, Little Plum and Ivy the Terrible on the back.

For the record, Gnasher and Gnipper were regularly on the back from 2001-2003 and on occasion in 2003-2005, Ivy was often on the back around 1998 (before I started reading it, but I was given some issues from then a while ago), Billy Whizz very rarely appeared on the back (most of them when Graeme Hall drew him) and Little Plum was on the back just the once.

[Digifiend]

Les Pretend had the Beano back cover a few times too.

[kevf]

I was working out of a different office today, and found the Dandy in the nearest shop. The assistant asked was it an adult comic like Viz - she'd never heard of it, or the Beano!

Doesn't sound at all surprising to me, I get that response all the time. I even get asked if The Beano still exists, by adults, and will work in many classes where only a small proportion of them are familiar with The Beano (though that is thankfully few and tends to be an urban thing, where kids are from a less well off inner city backgrounds or have a wide range of ethnic backgrounds).

The Dandy has not been heard of by most kids, which is something we're all, I hope, striving to put right.

Why would anyone be familiar with The Dandy? For the last few years it's been amongst the plastic-bagged comics alongside Toxic, Nitro, Lucky Bag & the more familiar titles from TV like Peppa PIg, Charlie & Lola, Doctor Who, Spongebob Squarepants etc. And before its life as a bagged comic it was a comic that wasn't in all shops, I regularly found it to be less well stocked than The Beano, and that has been the case since the 90s when I started running comic festivals and keeping an eye on these things.

Although it has been out there, The Dandy has been as good as invisible for many years. Dennis & Gnasher are on the TV, and have been on and off for a long time now, and The Beano has retained its brand-awareness with kids and adults. The Dandy has not, which is why this relaunch and rebranding is so timely, much-needed and worthy of praise.

Kev F

PS: And I like to see an advert on the back page. It means that someone with money values your comic enough to pay you some! I was raised on IPC comics which always carried more ads than DCT's (and look where it got them), and Marvel comics which were almost fifty percent ads, so they don't offend my sensibilities. Ah memories, Stamp Collecting ads, the Airfix club, it lasts a long while it's the four-minute smile the longest lasting fruit gum in the world, isn't it? Jumpers for goalposts...

[Digifiend]

It's one things kids not having heard of the Dandy - but adults should know of it. It's even mentioned in the Guinness World Records book, as the longest running UK comic by time since launch (Beano has overtaken it on number of issues of course).

[kevf]

It's one things kids not having heard of the Dandy - but adults should know of it. It's even mentioned in the Guinness World Records book, as the longest running UK comic by time since launch (Beano has overtaken it on number of issues of course).

Most adults don't read comics and many never have. Those of us raised in the heyday of comics, when everybody got at least one weekly comic, are in their forties or older. If you were 8 years old in the 1980s you were already part of the generation for whom comics were becoming a thing of the past (and if you could already be 38 years old), and by 1990 the only new comics being published were aimed at older readers. So to have heard of, and remembered the name of, The Dandy is as likely as remembering the name of Commando Picture Library, or Tammy, or Bunty or The Eagle or Buster. Some will, most won't.

I still have hope that a new generation of kids will read comics, because I see first hand how excited they are about comics when they see them. But I know that comics are not an automatic part of kids lives in this country and haven't been for a long time.

Kev F

[Lew Stringer]

It's one things kids not having heard of the Dandy - but adults should know of it. It's even mentioned in the Guinness World Records book, as the longest running UK comic by time since launch (Beano has overtaken it on number of issues of course).

Most people don't care about comics, simple as that. Some people have never even read them. (Edit: Kev explained this in more depth in his post, sent the same time as mine. )

A couple of years ago a local newsagent's assistant insisted The Dandy had finished years ago. I was pleased to see that same shop had 11 copies last week.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

Someone pointed this out already; the Harry Hill covers have been far too similar this past 3 weeks! Keep Harry on the cover by all means, but MAD Magazine showed you can repeat a large image of a central character using different and uniquely imaginitive ideas each issue.....DANDY shows imagination inside, so come on guys and girls, let's see some diversity on the cover!

Most other comics have instantly-forgettable fluff and froth on the cover; please don't go down this route, all you contributers on here........here's a great chance for DANDY to rebel against the norm, and put out diverse covers each week!

T'other night, I dreamed this week's DANDY had an-all black, shiney cover, and the dream version was preferable to this week's reality!

[kevf]

T'other night, I dreamed this week's DANDY had an-all black, shiney cover, and the dream version was preferable to this week's reality!

It's like how much more black than that could you get? None. None more black. (I think I'll watch Spinal Tap again tonight).

Kev F

[SID]

I must agree about the covers. Looking forward to seeing diversity starting to creep in soon.

However, I loved this week's* issue. The contents continue to be brilliant and I thought that Lew's scanned images was a good touch.

*And isn't it good that the Dandy is a weekly again.

[Digifiend]

An overdue rant from Jamie Smart about that unresearched Daily Star article: http://www.fumboo.com/blog/ban-this-sick-filth/

Also from Jamie, via the Dandy's Facebook page, preview of an upcoming feature, Desperate Dan's Guide to Communicating: http://fb.me/LSZpHMKx

[chrissmillie]

As you may be aware, I'm not a huge fan of humour comics, especially DCT's output. But I bought the Dandy today to give it a go. Stand back! I thought it was puerile, infantile humour only fit for a 7 year-old.

Pretty spot on then!

Okay, I'm not likely to buy many more (kinda outgrown those comics) but the fact that I'll probably pick up an occasional issue says quite a lot. Reminded me of Krazy, Tiswas, Oink and the rest. In ten years time, kids will be talking about how much they miss the old Dandy (as it'll probably move on as most things do), as I did about Krazy/Cheeky. I doubt many will be saying that about the Dandy of 2000 (no offence intended).

Seriously well done guys. I think you've really got something there.

[Digifiend]

Face it, the 90s wasn't Dandy's strongest decade, and the 2000s were so bad they had to totally revamp the comic three times! But the 2010s can be and hopefully will be a new successful era. Time will tell.

I've only ever picked up the occasional issues (usually notable ones, such as the 60th birthday and the two preceding issues where Dan had supposedly quit), and the annuals. At one point I was picking up the Fun-Sizes too, far more often than the weekly (stopped getting those because they're now reprints of issues I already have). This past month is the first time I've ever bought four Dandys in a row - the last Xtreme, and the first three with the new look.

[Lew Stringer]

It's funny how people have their own preferences in comics. I've always liked The Dandy and recently had the alarming realization that I've been reading it more or less regularly for 46 years! (The longest period I stopped was around 1975-79 when I thought I was too old for it, and during a period when I thought working in comics was a childish dream that I'd put aside. Once I'd dropped my dead-end job and focused on a career in comics I started buying it again, looking at it from a different perspective than I had as a child.)

I liked the old-fashioned nature it had in the early Sixties and the incredibly high standard of artwork from Dudley Watkins, Davey Law, Ken Reid, Bill Holroyd, Charlie Grigg, Eric Roberts, George Martin, Jack Glass, etc. The fact that it was free of Leo Baxendale's influence ('cos he never worked on it, or not regularly anyway) made it different to Beano or the Odhams comics. (I'm a huge fan of Leo's work but it was interesting to see a comic that had a different identity to The Beano. Same reason I liked TV Comic I guess.)

I also like the way it's reinvented itself over the years, but retained that slight edge it has to its humour.