), it was an exciting day and I think I re-read that issue at least 10 times. In a day.But recently I think the Dandy is beginning to get worse. In my opinion the Dandy was getting stronger and stronger, right up until the 6 week Summer Issues which in my opinion were not only the biggest rip-offs ever but also featured way too much celebrity content. But at least those horrible 6 weeks are now behind us and the Dandy is getting better. It's brilliant to see to of my favourite comic strips back, George VS Dragon and Pre-Skool Prime Minister.
The Dandy have had a mixed range of artists, some who have gone from unknown to one of the most iconic artists since the revamp, then there are the artists who did the complete opposite.
One artist who I would immediately mention if I was talking about Dandy artists would be Jamie Smart who is the greatest thing that's ever happened to the Dandy in my honest opinion. I was so pleased to see he was still the artist of Desperate Dan in the revamp, his Dan is honestly my favourite, the wacky storylines, the fun and energetic artwork and the brilliant personalities of the characters, it all adds up to something beautiful. Jamie was always a favourite of mine, but I do remember at first hating his Dan and My Own Genie because I never gave them a chance. But now seeing his latest story of Dan, Pre-Skool Prime Minister or Arena of Awesome is a real treat for me. Jamie's characters and stories are always very good with the one exception being the first few Arena of Awesome stories which slowly became better and better. Pre-Skool Prime Minister will go down as a classic, it's already into its third run in the comic and I reckon soon he'll became a regular. Arena of Awesome on the other hand just didn't pull it off for me with the stories rarely funny, I was devastated when it replaced Pre-Skool PM who was a lot funnier and more creative. Thingummyblob was one of my favourites by Jamie, I loved the innocence of it and thought it was miles better than the original Thingummyblob which appeared in The Sparky.
Andy Fanton is another artist who I think has had a major part to play in the Dandy revamp. George VS Dragon was brilliant right from Story 1 and along with Pre-Skool PM, is now into its third run; you can tell how popular GVD is just by studying the reader's page, I swear GVD is in a picture somewhere every time. Andy's weakest story for me was probably Grampire to be honest, it's not that it was bad, I just found it was limited and not as funny as the rest of his creations. Dave the Squirrel will always be one of my favourite mini strips, I loved Dave's cameos in George VS Dragon and Harry and his Hippo (as well as Steve Beckett's Ray Fears and Stu Munro's Tiny's Temper), the mini strip itself suffered the same problem as Bear Behind did, it started off as a pretty boring strip and the jokes weren't very good or too predictable. But later on the story became better and better and soon became one of my favourites. There was a certain thing about Dave which made everyone love him, maybe it was his name, his little bowler hat in the earlier stories or how small and cute he was, nevertheless, he was an amazing mini strip and should definitely return in the future.
Steve Beckett is interesting as I honestly love his art style but am not too keen on the storylines. The best of his stories in my opinion was Daredevil Dad which was not only original but also very funny, such a shame it was up against Andy Fanton's Harry and his Hippo, they were both too good. Sea Dogs was good as well but the wording used in the speech bubbles and the size of the in-house speech bubbles really ruined it for me which is why I'm glad Steve now does his own speech bubbles, it honestly looks much better. Ray Fears is okay, I really like the artwork and the first one was good, I just don't like how the story has to rely on puns as a final joke. Such a shame.
Lew Stringer's work for the Dandy is fantastic, especially Postman Prat! As much as I love Kid Cops there's a certain thing that makes Postman Prat the better out of the two, I find the stories are also funnier. (Except I have laughed at Kid Cops before, the cutbacks story was ingenious!) Postman Prat is just generally more likeable as he's a bit simple and stupid meaning the readers feel sympathy towards him, however I think Kid Cops has a better story plot, a lot like Kid's Court in a way. I'd love to see Kid Cops return again as I think they were honestly good fun and had some strong storylines.
Nigel Parkinson is another iconic artist of the Dandy and has been for many years. I may suggest I don't like Nigel and that I find his celebrity stuff ruins the Dandy but really have nothing against the guy, I think his artwork is some of the greatest in humour comics of today and I love the energetic movement in his characters, makes the strip flow better in my opinion. But this doesn't mean I like the celebrities as you all know. However strangely I'm beginning to not class Harry Hill's Real Life Adventures in TV Land under celebrity status and instead as a normal character, I'm not too sure why but it's also the same for Little Celebs (which is one of the best celebrity comic strips I have ever read). I'd like to see Nigel take a step back from celebrities though and concentrate on new, original material in the Dandy because at the moment I feel they've restricted him to just celebrity stories.
Will Dawbarn is quickly becoming one of my favourite artists in the Dandy which is odd as I'd usually hate his style in comics. However there's something about Will which is just different to the rest and I honestly think he's a brilliant cartoonist. Mr Meecher, the Uncool Teacher is hilarious, yet when I first read his stories I hated them. The first series was very good however if you compare it to the second series which has stood out to me as very strong, you will realise how much the stories and artwork have changed. One thing which I will always be grateful of Will for was when he put my Mr Meecher fan art in a comic strip, a truly exciting moment. And this is why I love Will's stuff, it's different, he uses other people's stuff and changes the style of the comic strip (e.g. this week's story with Captain Cool), it adds more to the comic strip and makes the stories have more variety. Rocky's Horror Show in my opinion isn't as good but is still brilliant, Swamp Bloke and Dr. Frank's Monster were two of the best stories in the Dandy since 2011! I love the dark humour which just balances on the edge of creepy, a very different style for the Dandy which Will's artwork suits perfectly for.
Wayne Thompson is a brilliant find for the Dandy, I just find it a shame that the stories for his stuff are so awkwardly worded! Take Fu Schnicken, the Kung Fu Chicken for example. The wording is so awkwardly written and sometimes doesn't even make sense. This week's Bananaman suffered this problem, the wording was so weirdly put, I have been looking at this comc strip for ages and I still have no idea what the joke was! However Bananaman has had its moments (may I remind you of the brilliant 8 page Fat Cat and The Banker story?), at least Bananaman has changed, remember the original abomination we had when the comic first revamped? I shudder just thinking about it. I'd like to see some of his other stuff return, Pepperoni Pig, Shao Lin Punks as well as a few more, I do wonder if we'll ever have a CSI: Coronation Street, CSI: Neighbours, CSI: Hollyoaks and CSI: Home and Away. I sure hope not.
Karl Dixon is too limited, all he's done is mini strips and Hysterical History. He needs an actual one page comic strip in the Dandy (Ollie Fliptrik anyone?) or at least a second series of Hysterical History. Karl's style is so unique and is bursting full of energy and fun and I find it such a shame that he's so limited.
Nigel Auchterlounie's work is some of the best in the comic. The Bogies, despite being a sold strip to the Dandy, is one of the funniest things I have ever read and Nigel's facial expressions he puts on the characters as well as the sudden actions are hilarious - this week's B-Team is a must-read for anyone who loves their ribs to be aching from laughing too much! Jibber & Steve is fantastic and long may it continue, the nutty, crazy stories are fantastic (A favourite of mine being when Jibber trips over the radiator, a strip which had me in stitches and all the kids I showed it to at school), but then I think back to when Jibber & Steve had a half page strip and it made me realise how much the strip has improved since it went to a mini strip. Nigel's 2012 Annual work was both good and bad, I love his Corporal Clott and thought it was hilarious and typical Nigel humour, yet I found his Puss 'n' Boots poor, then again, I never did like Puss 'n' Boots. There's some stuff Nigel's done in the Dandy I haven't liked though, Professor Dandy's World of Facts was weird, The Gleeks started off well and just got worse, Attack of the Killer Zombie Snowmen was even weirder and Clive 5 was the opposite to The Gleeks but still quite poor.
Stu Munro is someone I find a bit under-rated and I think has a lot of potential. Justin Beaver was very strong and lasted a while. The amount of cameos made you stay on the strip for longer to see how many you could spot, plus people who hated Justin Bieber loved the comic strip and people who loved Justin Bieber loved the comic strip because it was about Justin Bieber, a win-win comic strip! Tiny's Temper wasn't as good but got better, the final one being one of the strongest, the beauty behind Tiny's Temper is that except for the final story, all of the comic strips were true to life with Tiny being Stu Munro when he was a young boy. Fantastic.
Bear Behind was good, started off awfully and then got better and better, Turtle Wipeout seems interesting, same joke over and over again but somehow it works. I like it. The Etherington Brothers were amazing, Lorenzo's artwork plus Robin's brilliant story telling added up to Yore being one of the coolest and greatest comic strips in the Dandy and I hope to see it again soon. I love Lorenzo's artwork, you just have to scour their blog or their deviantART Page and you'll see just how much of a gift for art Lorenzo actually has. I'm not as keen on Professor Popalot which to me is a waste of a page and I never do the puzzles (Well, I've done two of them, the maze and the Find Fangles ones, the others require pen-work and that's something I don't want to get in my comics).
Alexander Matthews' artwork isn't amazing, let's be honest, it's pretty basic stuff and the characters and movement isn't brilliant. But you have to ignore this as Alexander's writing talents are out of this world! I'll begin with my favourite of Matthews' two stories, Robot on the Run, a brilliant story which had a joke in every single panel, it was so saddening to hear it had been dropped, Craig Graham even said it was one of his favourites but had to drop it as a reader choice. Nuke Noodle isn't as good but I still love the ridiculous idea of it and this week's was very funny! I think Nuke suffered the same problem as many other stories though, it started off bad because it had to introduce the character but now it's become funnier! Long may Nuke Noodle continue!
Nik Holmes is interesting, his style is very modern and different. My favourite of his comic strips is Clown Wars which I think was drawn beautifully and had many gags in it (none of which that were pun based!), but he has had his fair share in bad strips, Flop Gear anyone? I'd like to see more from Nik especially a proper ending for Clown Wars, the final ending didn't really seem much like an ending to me... A send-off like The Mighty Bork and Yore would've been nice...
Then there's the rest, Phil Corbett, Paul Palmer, Stephen Waller, Dave Mostyn, David Banks, Mark Bennington, Chris McGhie, Nick Brennan, Garry Davies... Lots of talented artists who each have something nice about their style. Warwick Johnson Cadwell was one of the worst in my opinion, his style did not suit the comic in the slightest (however reading back Tag Team Tastic, I've found it funnier) the artist of Nibbles was also not too good...
But how can the comic be made better? For one thing I reckon no more celebrity special stuff, just Little Celebs and Harry Hill please, no more than that! Secondly some more regulars, so far only Desperate Dan, Bananaman, Korky, The Bogies and Harry Hill have been regulars but I think they need more, ones that have proven to be popular, if I were Editor these are the stories I'd make regulars:
Desperate Dan, Bananaman, The Bogies, Korky the Cat, Harry Hill's Real Life Adventures in TV Land, George VS Dragon, Pre-Skool Prime Minister, Mr Meecher, the Uncool Teacher, My Own Genie (with new stories) and Postman Prat.
I pick these because I think they've all proven to be popular with the readers and have all gone on since the revamp (bar My Own Genie) to have a second and even third series. (Mr Meecher's second and third runs were merged strangely, could suggest Mr Meecher being a regular? *fingers crossed*)
The Dandy should try and look for more new artists as well, keep on surprising us with new stories and new artists. Maybe making the comic 36 pages each week like the Beano will also be a good move (Except have the £2.50 comic specials at 44 pages as they were originally.), definitely do more 76 page comics for Christmas, Summer Special (hint, hint) and Halloween, could make things a bit more interesting! Also more eye-catching front covers, more proper characters on the front, more action and group pictures drawn by one artist, this is how front covers should be!
I still think the Dandy is good though and I'll support it no matter what, LONG LIVE THE DANDY AND MAY IT LIVE ON!
Also to answer my Super Seven I'd go with: Jamie Smart, Andy Fanton, Lew Stringer, Nigel Auchterlounie, Will Dawbarn, Alexander Matthews and Steve BeckettGinger wrote:I'm also surprised I forgot to mention Yore: another cracking strip, visually delightful, well-written. I'd include the Etherington brothers in my Fab Five, except it rather mucks it up, especially as there are two of them; The Super Seven?
to the Dandy and to all that work on her.