Comics UK

The numbskulls quote is from Talksport radio in a trailer for Ian Wright's afternoon show, he says the Numbskulls were in the Beano and someone else says it was Buster, Wrighty (football jargon there) says he never read Buster and then someone else mentions Beezer and Wrighty says "That's it - the Beezer". The ad was still running a week or so ago and may still be cropping up. But the schedules might have changed now the football season is over.

Someone forgot to tell Talksport that The Numskulls are in the Beano! Do your research next time Talksport!

AndyB, I didn't know that Wild Rovers had ever appeared in the comic libraries - most of my collection dates from 1988 to the final Beano ones, which advertised the final Dandy CLs instead of Beano Fun-Sizes 1 & 2 for some reason). I couldn't get hold of the last Dandy ones though, I was having trouble finding a stockist at the time (that's changed now 12 years later but I don't buy them because they're reprints of stories I already have). The Wild Rovers library you mention would be from late 1982 or early 1983, and I think it predates the first Dandy comic library.

EDIT1: Oh! While uploading this list of comic libraries (for another thread), I realized the Wild Rovers one is on the list - I'd forgotten about it, as I only saw it advertised, and don't actually have it.
EDIT2: In fact, I'll advertise that list as my sig.

It does indeed - at that time, right up to the first Nanaface Comic Library (No.24) they advertised the next month's libraries on the back cover. The Dandy ones were 24 behind the Beano.

My collection started with No. 4 (Gnasher - Film Star) - on the back it said 5 and 6 would be on sale in June 1982. Future editions didn't give a month.

Back on Topic, an alternate perception once made me have a dream, where I bought a Dandy annual 2009 (This was before the actual one came out) and Billy Whizz was in it.

Who drew it?

Digifiend wrote:Who drew it?

That is really very funny, Digifiend. It so reminds me of an incident involving my elder son Andrew in 1978 when he was seven, and he had mislaid a collection of cards. My wife Lynne said to Andrew, ''I dreamed last night that you'd found all your Star Wars cards in your drawer at school.'' Andrew replied, ''Which one was on top?''

Hmm. It wasn't meant as a joke. Wayne Thompson drew the real Billy Whizz story in the Beano Annual 2009, but it was Tom Paterson in 2008, so I'm wondereing whose artwork was in Freddy's dream Dandy Annual. He might not recall, but it would be of interest if he did know.

Old Freddy wrote:Back on Topic, an alternate perception once made me have a dream, where I bought a Dandy annual 2009 (This was before the actual one came out) and Billy Whizz was in it.

I think you had better have another dream, if you don't want to upset Digifiend.

Hey, lighten up! You're just p...ed off at me over The Numskulls thread. Paterson and Thompson have very different styles, it's not like I'm asking to compare say Davids Law and Sutherland's versions of Dennis the Menace. If he can remember any more specifics I'd like to hear it, if not, never mind. I'm not gonna get angry. Not at Freddy anyway...

Digifiend wrote:It wasn't meant as a joke.

Maybe not, but the question was better as a joke because Freddy's Dandy Annual wasn't real, so whether he could remember or not, it actually wouldn't matter who drew Billy Whizz. What I find interesting though is how easy it is for people to misunderstand language that we are all fluent in. We have had two perfect examples today. On this occasion I misunderstood Digifiend, on the earlier post he misunderstood me. I wonder how or whether this can be avoided in future.

I think part of the problem is that those helpful visual (Smilies apart) and aural clues while having a conversation with someone face to face are not open to us.

Kashgar wrote:I think part of the problem is that those helpful visual (Smilies apart) and aural clues while having a conversation with someone face to face are not open to us.

Very true. Added to that there's the time between post and reply. In normal conversation any misunderstandings might be immediately cleared up and forgotten but online such things can take longer, leading to resentment building up inbetween posts. I've seen this happen many times on the internet. It really is quite a primitive way of communicating when one thinks about it.

Then again there are internet "trolls" who are out to wind people up and cause friction deliberately. Complete losers with nothing better to do (but who always arrogantly believe they're the winners in life strangely enough). Thankfully a moderated forum such as Comics UK rarely has such problems.

Lew

I'm much more concerned about what percentage of the dream annual might have been reprints. If they're even cutting back on original strips in dreams, what hope is there for the waking world versions?

The Dandy annual isn't averse to using reprints - they even reprinted a 1950s Tin Lizzie text story a few years ago. Strange thing is, the weekly version of that story was a comic adventure picture strip. Two Winker Watsons were redrawn from 1970s scripts as well, though the originals did include the cane, so couldn't be left intact. But to use a Beano strip such as Billy Whizz while The Beano still exists would just be plain weird - then again, Jonah made that switch, albeit as new episodes...