This Christmas issue of the much-missed Dandy was published exactly 50 years ago today. (Despite its cover date it was published on Monday 19th December 1966.) Full of traditional festive fun, the cover star was of course Korky the Cat, drawn by Charlie Grigg. That final panel covers a lot of the sort of presents that children would have had back then, although for commercial reasons the biggest toy of 1966, Action Man, isn't amongst them. Perhaps Korky was holding out for an Action Cat instead.
The Dandy only had 16 pages a week in the 1960s, but it made the most of it, with Desperate Dan for example having 19 panels on one page. Artwork by the legendary Dudley Watkins...
D.C. Thomson always did compelling adverts for their annuals, as this one proves. A simple but lively layout that made the book a must-have Christmas present. The price of 8/6d (42 and a half pence) seemed expensive then...
The centre pages at this time were always taken up by Corporal Clott, drawn by Davy Law. Genuinely funny stuff...
The Smasher, by Hugh Morren. (For the Smasher's latest exploits, which I've drawn, see this year's Dandy Annual.)
Finally, in this selection, the popular Brassneck, illustrated by Bill Holroyd, one of the best (and often underrated) artists that worked in comics...
The sad thing is that all of the artists who drew these strips have passed on now, but at least they leave behind a legacy of laughs and wonderful artwork we can still discover and appreciate.
Tomorrow; a journey even further back in time! See you on Tuesday!
3 comments:
So much to enjoy...
Bill has made sure each character looks different...he is great at doing crowd scenes..
I always smile when I see the Christmas pudding with the custard running half way down it and stopping (it’s up there with mashed potatoes piled up with bangers sticking out if it) nice selection of presents of course most kids back in 1966 etc never got all of those, maybe a selection of them but not all (unless their parents were well off). I was never a big fan of Bill Holroyd's art when I was about 6 /7 years old (about this time) but by the time I was about 9 /10 etc I thought he was brilliant (now I think he’s a genius), yeah it is really sad that all these artists are no longer with us. I’m sure I had this issue of the Dandy back in the day but sadly the memory has faded however I still vividly remember that Dandy annual and getting it for Christmas 1966 (a classic annual and cover). Thanks for showoingthese Christmas covers its always a hoot seeignthem again.
The Dandy Annual of 1966 is a big favourite of mine. Absolute classic that brings back the memories.
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