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| Preview of the final episode of The Dark Newt |
I love The Dandy comic. Have done since I was four years old and my Mum bought me a copy in January 1964. It became the first comic I had regularly. I looked forward to it every Monday and I can still recall sitting at home with my Mum reading Black Bob to me. It helped teach me to read, putting my reading skills so far ahead of my classmates at infant school that the teacher asked my Mum if I'd had private tuition. (I should add that I levelled out a few years later. I didn't turn into a living brain, as any reading of this blog can attest.)
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| The first issue I had. Jan 11th 1964. Art: Charlie Grigg. |
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| The first Ken Reid strip I read. Instantly hooked! |
I've been reading The Dandy every issue since 1964, give or take a few breaks. I did stop for a year in 1968, possibly to afford all the Odhams comics, and I gave up all humour comics for about three or four years in 1975 when I left school, thinking I was too old for them. Fool!
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| Brilliant comic violence from Davy Law. |
Working for The Dandy has been fantastic. An ambition fulfilled, and a pleasure to be part of a great team of creators whose work I admire and respect. A team that includes Jamie Smart and Andy Fanton, who read my work in Oink! when they were kids, which pleases me no end even if it does make me feel ancient.
In next Wednesday's edition my six-part series The Dark Newt comes to an end. (See the preview at the top of this post.) At this moment in time I don't know what else I'll be doing for the weekly apart from a few strips in the final issue for December. (The Dandy Annual will continue next year though, and I've written three scripts which I'll be illustrating for that very soon.)
I'll miss The Dandy, both as an employer and as a comic that's been part of the landscape all my life. I hope its proposed digital future will feature originated material and that it proves successful enough to continue for many years to come. (I also hope it'll feature archive material, to show the younger readers what great classics were around before their time.)
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| The Crimson Ball by Jack Glass. Eerie and exciting. |
19 comments:
Brilliant piece, Lew.
My introduction to The Dandy was via the demise of Nutty. And like most comic readers, we were collectors too. We learnt the value of reading, imagination, drawing for ourselves to copy our heros, collecting and looking after our valuable items
Cheers Mark. Yes, The Dandy and other comics provided invaluable entertainment and education, making reading FUN. It's sad how times have changed but it's very satisfying when we hear from today's kids who enjoy Dandy, Beano, etc. They're still out there. Not as many, but they're out there.
Sorry to hear about this. I loved 'The Dandy' too. I have to say though I'm staggered at the number of online comments blaming so-called 'political correctness' for its demise. Oh I see. Nothing to do with declining sales then? Best, Zokko
That's a lovely post. But I can't believe your artwork back in the 1980s wasn't good enough. I have very fond memories of some of your Oink! stuff from the same period.
Would it be possible to see your effort of ghosting Korky? Had no idea you'd done that.
And yes, I agree with what you say about the diversity of artwork in the 1960s Dandy and the current one. I do think DC Thompson are being a little shortsighted in ditching something brilliant. It just needed some good marketing.
There's a splash page from one of my Korky Fun-Size Dandy comics on my blog:
Korky the Cat
It wasn't ghosting as such, as I was able to sign it, but I was asked to base him on the classic version which I was happy to do.
Well to all involved in the Dandy hope it all goes well for everyone whatever incarnation it takes afterwards. I hope from this in the media people go out and buy the Beano and other comics for their kids.
I loved reading Dandy as a kid and when I started to read Viz as an adult I could see the Dandy influence on display. It's a shame that this comic should be allowed to vanish.
I just hope they bring the digital version (of both The Dandy and The Beano) to Android devices.
lew,
did they really tell you that your work was not good enough?
I sent 2 samples to the Dandy over 20 years ago of pages that I had written and drawn, they told me that my "style was not suitable for a traditional British comic like the Dandy". I still have the letter. I also applied to Spitting Image at the same time and they told me they were cutting back on staff, this was during the recession of the early 1990s.
So kudos to you for the fact you kept on trying, in the current circumstances I guess you need that positive mentality again!
As I said, my pages were politely rejected. They were more discreet and professional in their reply rather than telling me I wasn't good enough, but that was the reason. I look back at my fanzine work from that 1979-81 period and I just wasn't at professional level then. I thought I was at the time, or I wouldn't have sent off my samples, but with hindsight I obviously wasn't up to scratch. No problem though. A few more years of practice helped.
Great article! A quick question, have you kept your first issue you ever read all these years or did stick in your memory and you later found a copy? I vividly remember my first issue from October 1994 but sadly lost it when I moved home in 1997. I was delighted when I found it again years later, the cover was exactly as I remembered it, Desperate Dan throwing darts at his house wall, not realising he is actually pinning Aunt Aggie to the kitchen wall on the other side!
I threw out all my comics in 1966, burned them on a bonfire. WHAM, DANDY, TV21 etc. Regretted it a few years later but in the 1980s I managed to buy them all again at very reasonable prices, and in far better condition than they'd have been if I'd kept my own.
Some of the 1960s Dandy issues are actually Charlie Griggs' own copies, which he sold to a comics dealer about 25 years ago. Some have little notes at the top of the covers, where he'd indicated which issues began his serials (Red Wrecker, Umbrella Men etc.)
Terrific article, Lew. Bought my son the Dandy this week - he still likes it.
You... gasp... BURNED THEM ON A BONFIRE?? I'm going to have to sit down! 1966? It wasn't a protest at Desperate Dan claiming he was more popular than Cheeses was it? (Too subtle?)
Yes for reasons that escape me now when I was 7 I decided I'd throw away my entire comics collection (1964-66). I distinctly remember my Mum saying I should keep them in case I want to read them again later, but I was convinced I'd never need them again and happily ripped them up and asked my parents to burn them. (I particularly remember sitting on the carpet and ripping up that first Dandy I had, pausing for a second before deciding I was doing the right thing.)
A reversal of the usual "My mum threw out my comics" story. My mum wanted me to keep them! Naturally she was right as a year or two later, when I started saving/collecting comics I could have kicked myself for destroying my earlier ones.
It all turned out ok eventually though when I bought them again from comics dealers etc years later.
Cheeses gag: not too subtle. That Liverpool humour always works.
you should play this song lew:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peFyWB-gZYo
Ha! Some parts of the lyrics are quite suited to the comic. Never heard that track before.
A nice article, Lew, and I still miss it.
Yes, so do I Sid. At least it ended on a high with some cracking new strips and talent involved.
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