This weeks Dandy

[big bad bri]

The
Beano covers have been good the last couple of issues or so, too.

pity about the content inside & by that i mean the magazine style bsk,freds foul facts & way too many ad pages

[swirlythingy]

I've now counted the ad pages in several Beanos, and I keep being surprised by how few there really are - only one and a half pages of paid-for ads in this week's issue. Of course, adverts for DC Thomson products then chew up a further four pages or so, not forgetting the evil magazine-style content, or, to give it its technical term, "cheapo filler", of which there are another four. By the time you've subtracted that and the reprints there's only 17* pages of comics. But look on the bright side... for the previous few issues there were only 16! (New this week is Ratz.)

Didn't stop it comparing fairly miserably with the Dandy's 21 pages of 'pure' comics and zero reprints, though. And even that's not strictly fair, because the Dandy's filler is usually newly-drawn by a range of artists, instead the Beano's chosen medium of carelessly-arranged stock art. Even the Dandy's DCT ads have been given a modicum of personality, usually in the form of a hidden gag which changes every week. Of course, this encourages me to read them more closely, which is surely the idea.

I hope Jonny Whizz is right, and things will start to get better before long (heck, one extra page of comics is still one extra page of comics). I do hope it doesn't end in the same way that the summer of 2007 did, though - most of the big changes so far this year, both sides of the editor change, have been concentrated on scrubbing away the last bloodstains (pointless text in the margins, Xtreme design philosophy, production standards down the pan) of that particularly disastrous series of revamps. (If you let me, I'll probably rant even more about this particular subject, so just warning you: if it looks like I've omitted detail, you have no idea.)

(Can't decide whether to move this into Beano subforum... what's the policy on thread drift around here? Keep conversation flowing, or keep forums clean?)

*All figures recalled from memory because it's late and I'm lazy. If proved wrong, just remember: lies, damned lies, and...

[Jonny Whizz]

I'm perhaps going a bit off topic for the Dandy section here, but the Dandy and Beano are produced by the same company and are very closely linked, so I don't as though you can't discuss one in the other comic's forum section. If you think you're going too far off the subject, you could start a new thread in the Beano section.

I'll discuss my opinion on the first three revamps here and I've looked at the positives and negatives that I felt came from each one. I will mention the other two ones later, as they were much more significant revamps than these three, which were incremental changes rather than full-scale revamps. The last two (October 2008 and August/September 2009) therefore deserve to be covered in more detail, greater than would be ideal in one post when put together with the first three.

Regarding the Beano's revamps under Alan, in my opinion the first one in April 2007 was good in quite a few ways - Fred's Bed started, Tom Paterson started drawing Dennis and the number of comic strip pages increased. However, the number of reprints went up - Fred's Bed begun as I mentioned, as did the Riot Squad, but Ivy also became reprint with Billy Whizz following a couple of months later, so there were usually at least four and often five reprint pages each week. Also, I must admit I am not personally a fan of having a contents page on the first inside page of the comic, especially as it splits the Dennis strip in half, which I feel makes it harder to follow.

I felt the October 2007 revamp was a good one - the number of reprint pages was reduced, temporarily at least, to just three, and having a Dennis strip on the cover (as opposed to simply a big picture) was a positive step in my view, as was crediting artists on the contents page. Also, Johnny Bean started around that time. Another strip, London B412, was introduced, but it did not last long and was quietly dropped. However, within a month the number of reprints was as high as it had been before the revamp.

The April 2008 revamp was the least significant, and I didn't think the comic changed for the better, as the cover became much more cluttered and it often had nothing to do with the Dennis strip, and the artists stopped being credited on the contents page (though it did now include all the strips in the comic, not just a few).

[NP]

These posts are entirely about The Beano, it's pretty clear they don't belong here. If you want people to see them, put them in the Beano forum where others can easily find them.

[stevezodiac]

Seen the latest Dandy in my local Tesco and Harry Hill is back on the cover. Afraid I won't buy it though as it has no appeal to me now. And I've never found HH to be remotely funny. He might be a nice bloke but to me he seems like a fish out of water in the world of comedy. Bit like Kenny Everett - a good dj but not funny without nutty props and costumes.

Awaits brickbats (whatever the hell they are.)

[-MikeD-]

Seen the latest Dandy in my local Tesco and Harry Hill is back on the cover. Afraid I won't buy it though as it has no appeal to me now.

You mean...you wont buy the comic, because of Harry on the cover? Despite the 20+ pages of top comics inside? Which is weird...but principled, I guess. Or...does the whole comic leave you cold? I'm loving The Dandy right now, despite not being a fan of Harry Hill - I just view the strip as a modern take on Cheeky...

[Digifiend]

I agree, don't stop buying it just because you don't like one strip.

[big bad bri]

Seen the latest Dandy in my local Tesco and Harry Hill is back on the cover. Afraid I won't buy it though as it has no appeal to me now.

i actually think harry hill is one of the better strips in the new dandy as much i have loved bananman,korky & desperate dan i just dont like the way they are currently drawn thats not to say they aint good artists as another one of my favs is jamies arena of awesome along with yore & clown wars

[Digifiend]

Next week, the last ever Mighty Bork, and the return of Pre-Skool Prime Minister and Harry and his Hippo!

[stevezodiac]

No the whole comic leaves me cold. Probably a generational thing as i'm 55 but the art just grates on me - most of it looks like it was drawn by children. When I think of the greats like Ken Reid, George Martin, Bill Holroyd, Eric Roberts etc. I think "Why would I want to buy this stuff?" The current Beano stands up much better.

[swirlythingy]

It's a shame you think that the quality of the art is more important than the quality of the storytelling. Yes, the Dandy's had a few flops, but the fact that it's daring and diverse enough to even try something with a possibility of either roaring success or total failure, as opposed to bland middle-of-the-road-ness (heavily supplemented with filler and adverts), as the Beano peddles, gets it a big mark up in my book.

I also don't think looking as if it was drawn by children is all that bad a thing in a comic aimed at children. In fact, I think the Dandy's rough, unprofessional style is one of its major assets when compared to the slick and polished Beano. Comics should never, ever, fall into the trap of taking themselves too seriously.

On a more tangential note, a lot of these artists haven't been published before and the Dandy's giving them a leg up - a huge leap of faith by an ancient national institution, but one which has paid off in spades.

As for the comic itself... yay! Pre-Skool Prime Minister's back! Always one of the strongest strips of the early issues - I was never quite able to warm to its replacement, the Arena of Awesome. Looking forward to seeing how Mr A.D.Fanton Esq. is going to celebrate his win, too...

[Digifiend]

I wonder which strip PSPM replaces? Arena of Awesome, or Thingummyblob, which was absent this week and is the strip which replaced PSPM (Arena actually bumped PSPM down to one page).

[big bad bri]

the new thingummyblob isnt a patch on the old version i wouldnt even compare them unless in name only, from what i can remember the professor always seemed to want rid of the original and in the new version he seems to want to take over the world that story & some mummies do ave em is why i want to buy sparky comics at the moment,i was looking forward to its return but was hugely disapointed but i know i aint the target audience but i cant be the only ( what should us old fuddy duddys call ourselves,retro readers) that was disapointed.

[-MikeD-]

On a more tangential note, a lot of these artists haven't been published before and the Dandy's giving them a leg up - a huge leap of faith by an ancient national institution, but one which has paid off in spades.

Well...I'd definitely agree with this! The good folks at The Dandy took a risk with my Bone-O strip and although the reception has been somewhat muted (hey, at least my kids think it's funny!) It's allowed me to sharpen my writing/drawing in the commercial field, while swimming with the big fish.

The Dandy's stylistic diversity is it's big strength at the moment, with Jamie's design work bravely bringing some kind of order to the madness. Given the state of the industry, now is definitely not the time to play it safe. And some of the more, uh, fauvist daubings of my contemporaries have proved massively popular with the target age group...

[Digifiend]

(Points to location) Good to see some local representation in the comic!