DC Thomson have just Tweeted their official statement regarding the fate of The Dandy. Here it is in full:
A lot of people have tweeted us regarding news reports surrounding the future of The Dandy. A statement follows:
DC Thomson is continuing to develop its magazines operation & portfolio to create an efficient business model that will build on the strength of our existing brands and products. There are many challenges within the industry at present, but we’re excited that the digital revolution has also given us an opportunity to innovate and develop.
We’re celebrating the fact that The Dandy has been in print for 75 years and we’re doing a lot of planning to ensure that our brands and characters can live on in other platforms for future generations to enjoy.
We will release a special edition of The Dandy to mark its 75th anniversary on 4 DEC 12. This issue will be the last printed and will include a reprint of issue #1. There’s still a healthy appetite for The Dandy so we’re making it relevant for a new generation.
There are exciting plans in the pipeline to take the title in a different direction & ensure that the next 75 yrs are just as popular.
We’re counting down 110 days until the 75th anniversary bash & we’re working on some tremendously exciting things for The Dandy's future. What comes online then that will set the tone for the future. We’re excited that the digital revolution has given us an opportunity to innovate and develop and we’re confident that future generations will continue to enjoy The Dandy. Statement ends.
DC Thomson is continuing to develop its magazines operation & portfolio to create an efficient business model that will build on the strength of our existing brands and products. There are many challenges within the industry at present, but we’re excited that the digital revolution has also given us an opportunity to innovate and develop.
We’re celebrating the fact that The Dandy has been in print for 75 years and we’re doing a lot of planning to ensure that our brands and characters can live on in other platforms for future generations to enjoy.
We will release a special edition of The Dandy to mark its 75th anniversary on 4 DEC 12. This issue will be the last printed and will include a reprint of issue #1. There’s still a healthy appetite for The Dandy so we’re making it relevant for a new generation.
There are exciting plans in the pipeline to take the title in a different direction & ensure that the next 75 yrs are just as popular.
We’re counting down 110 days until the 75th anniversary bash & we’re working on some tremendously exciting things for The Dandy's future. What comes online then that will set the tone for the future. We’re excited that the digital revolution has given us an opportunity to innovate and develop and we’re confident that future generations will continue to enjoy The Dandy. Statement ends.
A real shame. This is a really good comic that's both inventive and able to appeal to corrupt, rotten brutes like myself as much as young 'uns.
ReplyDeleteIt's just that it wasn't marketed enough, perhaps because DCT just didn't have the resources. The celeb fixation came to nothing too - I wonder what Harry Hill has to say?
I'm buying the print edition to the end and then beyond. I'll try not to make too many Christian Science Monitor allusions either.
Sad, but also excited.
ReplyDeleteSad, because to me, comics are things you hold in your hands and pile up and then re-read, flicking through till your fingertips are grimy with rubbed-off ink.
Excited, because I'm just not who The Dandy is aimed at any more - I'm just another middle-aged nostalgic - and this move keeps it alive (hopefully) for generations to come.
My son is two, and already he can operate my iPad all on his own, playing games and finding his favourite shows on iPlayer. I'd like to think in the next year or two he'll be discovering comics of his own, and shaping his own memories; and if that means digital Dandy and whatever else takes his fancy, then that makes me happy.
Yes, I don't know what form the digital edition will take. Whether it means more work for freelancers or not remains to be seen.
ReplyDeleteWhat I do know is that The Dandy Annual will continue in print. I'm drawing three pages for the 2014 dated edition next week.
lew;
ReplyDeletei bought the first celeb revamp of the dandy and no others... and i will buy the last one in december.
i guess you heard the news at the same time as the general public, or did dct inform all contributors in advance?
Sad news, but if the digital Dandy still has original content without the cost of print and distribution to contend with, this could actually be good news for you and the rest of the creative team, Lew...
ReplyDeleteTV tie ins are the problem I afraid there are massively more TV tie in mag/comics than in our day and even my son Jack gets one - Doctor Who.
ReplyDeleteMany parents will buy only one or two comics for a child (Jack gets Dandy, Doctor Who and the monthly "NG kids" as it is educational much like Look and Learn in ye olde days.
The TV tie in ones start with an advantage of massive free advertising in the form of show. The new Dandy picked up on this brilliantly with Harry Hill on their cover but that became pointless when they realised that that show was going to repeats only.
Nooooooo!!!!!!! Wah!!!!! Hopefully it will work on the iPad and all the talent within get to keep working on the comic. That and the Dandy becomes a massive international brand this way not only in the United Kingdom and Ireland with the rest of the English speaking world following suit. There is too much there for it not the be great as well. Now they must make sure the Beano doesn't go the same way but I doubt it will seeing as Dennis has a TV program. They have so many good brand names why don't they through a TV show together? Help get more of their characters back into peoples' noggins. Ah well the Dandy will be bought again this year as an Annual and I will buy the mag till the last issue. Such a shame. Hope everyone involved continues on in the new venture.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a happy bunny today, it has to be said.
ReplyDeleteAgain, I'm older than The Dandy's target audience - I'm 33 - but I've been buying The Dandy again since the revamp in 2010, for the first time since my late teens.
The move to digital media makes me so sad because, again, comics are there to be held and piled up. I learnt to draw from copying my comics.
You can't trace a computer monitor.
I'm one of those who decided enough was enough when The Dandy went downhill (re-vamp)
ReplyDeleteUnfortunatley the publishers decided they were right and the buying public was wrong. Well, we can see what the outcome was.
I just hope they don't totally destroy The Beano, which i'm still buying (just!) although the last few issues have made me question it's future and whether i willcontinue to support it.
Digital is a growing market for the solo/small time makers. For the big time? it's not quite there to be a sole means.. atlest, with the annuals still going, it won't be the stole means.. They stopped the library collection pocket books didn't they?
ReplyDeleteSuch a shame, good luck Lew, I'm sure there'll be a place for you in the new set-up.
ReplyDeleteIts amazing how long The Dandy has lasted..so its great it made it too 75 years...glad it could be comic work for everyone online..I don't have an I Pad so hope you can read it on a computer screen..
ReplyDeletewell done DC Thomson for caring so much...glad it will go on..
Sad But happy.hopefully you'll be drawing for it Lew..with The Dark Newt..Postman Prat etc..
lets hope most of the artists will keep there jobs..
That's depressing: no chance of a sales bump at the eleventh hour saving the day.
ReplyDeleteBut if all the strips stay alive online, then it won't be so bad - everything will still be there for kids and creators will stay get the work. Where there's life...
- Charles RB
Very sad but, given that sales seemed to be in terminal decline, not a surprise.
ReplyDeleteI'll likely pick up the final issue and if they have to cease publication I guess going out with a 75th anniversary special is as good a way to do it as any.
I guess DC Thomson have realised that the key value of the Dandy is in the intellectual property which can be exploited in cartoons, video games, merchandise etc rather than in publishing a weekly comic.
And amongst all the gloom I noticed that Smiths have a Beano Summer Special Number Three on sale now. As it's the second one this year it suggests that there is a viable nostalgia market for exploiting these "brands".
I look forward to seeing what their digital plans are.
Sad to see the print edition go. My kids will be so upset. Happy that it's going to continue in digital form (especially as my wife was said 'We must get an ipad for the digital Dandy!'
ReplyDeleteMaybe DC Thomson could consider that each new digital edition comes with a free digital classic reprint edition. That could double the subscribers. Some would subscribe just for the older issues they read in their youths.
Hoping Dark Newt makes a return in the digital Dandy. It's a great strip Lew
Thanks David. At this moment in time I don't know what I'm doing next for The Dandy, apart from the annual material for next year.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping that The Dark Newt, Postman Prat or Kid Cops could return over the next three months. Or maybe The Smasher? Or something totally new? Who knows? I just hope new pages will be generated for both the remaining paper edition and the digital version.
WHAT!!!! a third Beano Summer Special? We don't have a Smith's nearby so looks as though i've missed out on No.2
ReplyDeleteGrrrrrr!!!!!!
At least price-inflating plastic tat can't be stuck to the cover of a download. Every cloud...
ReplyDeleteMost of the Smith's that have No.3 also have a few No.2's left as well...
ReplyDelete@Mike, To be fair The Dandy hasn't had any gifts with it since the Christmas issue.
ReplyDelete