Comics UK

We have some news about the Dandy Annual 2013.

Neither Jamie Smart nor Andy Fanton are doing anything for the annual this year (confirmed on Twitter). Wilbur Dawburn is doing the endpapers, Robin Hood's Schooldays, Winker Watson, and The Badd Lads. He won't be doing his usual gig, Mr Meecher though.

I cant believe jamie smart isn't doing anything for the annual this year ,this just futhers my suspisions that the weekly & the annual are aimed at 2 different markets the weekly bieng young kids & the annuals for the older generation who buy it every year out of habit or to just add it to their collections,If it is the badd lads from the beezer,it should be interesting seeing the new version.But dc thompson should still produce beezer & topper books every year.

I must admit, bad bri, I do agree with you.

Regarding still having a Topper or Beezer annual, I would love it if the market could support them. Otherwise, they could have Topper/Beezer characters in the Dandy annual where it is clearly advertised they are doing such??

I think we would all love to bring back old Annuals

I think Bri is right and wrong at the same time. I think the Dandy annual is being pitched to attract the attention of the older generation, as he correctly says, but specifically in order for them to buy it for their kids - and also realise that the (almost) weekly Dandy is very much alive and well.

I facetiously suggested to Andy that he should pitch for them to add 16 pages to the Dandy annual to bring it back to 128 pages, but it's hardly going to happen, and certainly not at this short notice. Much as I'm looking forward to it, including the work we know about from Will's blog, I'd've liked a mixture of classic Dandy and modern Dandy myself.

I won't be doing anything for it either. The Dandy are going for a very retro annual for the 75th anniversary this year-I've seen some of Wilbur's pages and they are superb-a brilliant tribute to strips of the past, with a kind of knowing edge to the writing.

My youngest (who is coming up for 12) gets the Dandy Annual from Father Christmas every year and does seem confused as to why most of his new favourites havent appeared in the Annual of late. Surely the 'classics' annual could celebrate 75 years of The Dandy this year and let the Dandy Annual run alongside? The (New) Dandy without Jamie Smart, Andy Fanton or Alex's work... just doesnt seem right!

You're right, especially as the most recent Beano-Dandy book was heavily Beano (specifically, Dennis) focused.

How about 2 annuals? One for the kids and one for the reminiscers?

The problem with that would be publication costs. I don't think The Dandy annual sells enough to warrant 2 seperate books.

The modern Dandy, brilliant as it is, has a very low readership (only 7,000 people per issue on average according to this thread) so an annual for the kids who read the comic is unfortunately unlikely to happen.

But annuals sell more than the comics do anyway - they could use the annual to boost the comic's readership.

Speaking of the annuals, none of MAX's exclusive content has ever been in the Beano annual. Like Bogies in the Dandy, Wallace and Gromit is obviously absent for licensing reasons (anyway, they have their own annual), but Max never appeared and neither has Kick Ass Koalas. I assume that like with the Dandy, this is because they don't hold any nostalgia value - the majority of characters in the weekly Beano first appeared decades ago. The Dandy is the opposite, Desperate Dan, Bananaman, and Korky being the only long runners with new material.

In the interests of full disclosure, and a bit of promotion, I'd like to mention that I've drawn a few pages of Monkey Bizness for t̶h̶e̶ ̶W̶i̶l̶b̶e̶r̶ ̶D̶a̶w̶b̶a̶r̶n̶ ̶a̶n̶n̶u̶a̶l̶ the Dandy annual this year...

In the spirit of MikeD's post, I'll also mention that I just updated my blog with info about what you can expect from me in this year's annuals...

http://victorianclam.blogspot.com/2012/ ... stmas.html

Great news for you Laura and new number 13!! you deserve more pages in The Beano..

Andy Fanton you should have drawn Harry and his hippo for the new Dandy abbual..

Have to agree with that, Harry and his Hippo is a 1980s strip, surely nostalgic enough to fit.

Laura, your Number 13 and Keyhole Kate both look great judging by those single monochrome frames. The character designs are spot-on.