When I posted about the 2000AD Sci-Fi Special making it's comeback last month there was some other news I couldn't reveal at the time. Today, DC Thomson have released the news so I guess it's ok to mention that there will also be Summer Specials for both The Dandy and The Beano.
The Dandy Summer Special 2014 is 68 pages collecting a bunch of classic stories from Specials of the past. Although last year's collection boldly stated it was the "Last Ever" Dandy Summer Special, it obviously sold well enough for a rethink. (Amazingly, some shops still have last year's Special on sale!)
The Beano Summer Activity Special also has 68 pages, but filled with all-new content. Strips will focus on the core Beano characters (Dennis, Minnie, Roger, etc), plus there'll be lots of activity/puzzle pages and free stickers.
I understand that both Summer Specials will be in the shops on July 2nd, but you can order them right now from the DC Thomson website:
https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/the-dandy-summer-special-2014.html
https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/the-beano-summer-special-2014.html
UPDATE: Both specials are also available to buy as a discounted double pack:
https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/our-brands/dandy/books-comics/the-beano-and-dandy-summer-special-pack-2014.html
35 comments:
FIVE QUID EACH??? How do they justify that rip off? They used to be 15p and bigger with 96 pages!
The IPC Holiday Specials had 96 pages for a few years, and, yes, they were 15p, but the average wage was £32 a week.
The weekly Beano is £2.00 at present, for 36 pages, so £4.99 for 68 pages on better quality paper, card cover, and a longer shelf life, sounds relative.
The Dandy one might be worth picking up for me... though I think they have screwed up there wording on the site..
"Filled with 68 pages of original content, from over 30 years of the special summer-themed issues, this will bring back many happy memories of summers gone by."
Original content, from over 30 years? if it's reprint.. is it original content?.. in theory.. probably.. just seams badly worded.. (though I think this comment is too ^_^;)
I agree. They mean content from the original specials but the way it's written might confuse some people.
The Beano one is all new, but there perhaps wasn't time to commission new material for the Dandy Special (apart from the covers) as they hadn't planned on doing another one until fairly recently.
I see there's a little Union Jack on the Dandy cover - considering D.C. Thompson are based in Scotland perhaps that's a crafty way of saying where they stand on the upcoming referendum :)
And the location looks like Llandudno, so perhaps they're just going for as wide an appeal as they can. :)
I bought last years LAST EVER Dandy Holiday Special in good faith. So it was nothing but a disingenuous marketing ploy in order to obtain money under false pretences?
Absolutely not. Last year's Summer Special was indeed intended to be the last one, but I understand WH Smiths were so pleased with it's performance that they suggested to DC Thomson that another one would be a good idea.
No marketing ploy involved. Just a rethink brought about by outside influences. The decision was relatively recent.
I'm not quite sure what all the fuss is about with regards to 'Last Ever' or not... I guess only if you were a collector for money and you were peeved that your comic may no longer have such a high value? If you were a fan of the actually comic or a kid looking to read something funny in the Summer Holidays, I'm sure you would have bought it anyway and then, like me, just be happy that we have some more Dandy fun to get us through to the Christmas annual! DCT still haven't revealed their Digital Dandy plans so sales of this years Summer Special may still influence what form that takes.. I bought a copy of the 'Last Ever' Summer Special and will happily buy a copy of the 'Copy After The Last Ever' Summer Special!!
It's not surprising that you would automatically side with the company that you work for Lew. You need to pay your mortgage as you've admitted in the past. That said, even you must admit that DC Thomson are not adverse to embellishing the truth when it comes to selling their publications. Remember the scandal of the price hikes a while ago whenever a "free gift" was offered in THE BEANO? Therefore isn't it within the realm of possibility that DC Thomson had fully intended to continue with the Dandy Summer Special beyond the misleadingly titled LAST EVER DANDY SUMMER SPECIAL of 2013?
What Spencer said.
And "Anon", please don't claim my explanations of the facts are motivated by self gain.
Ugh, after the argument on Comics UK about the Last Ever Dandy Summer Special last year, I think I'd better make it known that I'm not the anonymous person there.
As fir the first comment, I don't know if that was the same anonymous person as the later two comments, but £5 is not too much, they're charged more for similar specials in the past.
No worries on that score James. I know you only post under your own name or as Digifiend.
The FACT is they said it was the LAST EVER one and now it's not! How confusing is that going to be for collectors? They should do the decent thing and reprint last years special with a new cover.
I'm sure collectors will be bright enough to work it out, and will enjoy the contents without being fixated on the title. Thanks for your opinions.
Anonymous people are as much prats as normal..
atlest when I have to post and don't have an account, I either fill in some details or sign. OF course, I use this pseudo name online but I would take less then 5 minutes to track down my name, address and some other details.. A lot of people know it, even if they don't remember or bother to do much about it..
Personally, I have made my comments about some of the old annuals. Just looking at my shelve, I got the 1973 Corr! annual.. 159 pages for 65p.. No articles, no adverts, just strips. Using a couple of creditable money convertors.. for it to be the same price today, it would be £6.86. Now, you could then moan, 69 pages for £4.99 is a lot more but.. lets see.. Corr! had three colours (counting Black).. with a couple of pages in full colour (maybe only two colours.. Blue but I think Red too in places). with the extra inks price.. you would have to at least double it in price to over it. So £13.72 for 159 pages. about 8p a page. the £4.99 for 68 pages makes.. Oh 7p a page...
gee.. they charge A lot more cause of course, 7 is high then 8... oh wait.. I'm not going to comment on paper quality cause.. I prefer the old 'recycled matt' grade paper.. feels better to me and seams stronger ^_^ but never ind. In real values, the extra ink would more then double it but that was a rough guess.
next issue.. Last ever issues do seam to increase the number of people that pick it up, butthey are mostly people I don't like too much cause I hate people that pick something up, just to hold on to it, stop fans from getting it, so years later they can sell it for profit at the expense of the fan. sure, some people pick it up to read and then sell it later, nothing wrong there, but since the.. 60s I think, the collectors market started up and people brought copies just to sell later. Sadly, many items that are given a limit edition run (like 200 copies or so), will have atlest half of them copies picked up by scalpers just to abuse the pockets of the fans.
as for being Confusing for collections.. what rubbish is that? a minor note. You think collectors get confused with a tiny cover blurb but can cope with tons of comics having the same name? I was talking about the Comic book superhero Daredevil to someone the other day for a while before I figured out they meant the later MARVEL Daredevil, not the much earlier Lev Gleason character (Also, Lets see. Captain Marvel (Fawcett), Captain Marvel [AKA Mar-vell] (Marvel Comics) or Captain Marvel (M. F. Enterprises)). I guess they are less confusing for poor collectors, who of course just collector.. never index, organise or sort stuff..
okay. that's probably a bit of a mess but should be readable
I'm not too bothered about investors who buy the special hoping to profit. There'll be plenty of copies around, so genuine readers won't miss out.
Well I'm not bothered about the "last ever" marketing or the £4.99 price tag. I'm just glad to see there is still a market for releasing vintage material. (I still miss "Classics From The Comics !)
I'll happily buy as many of these reprint specials as they choose to put out !
Agreed. I'm wondering if there might even be a market for a quarterly Dandy Classics comic in the same 'bookazine' format as these specials.
Well, i'm perfectly happy to see a new Dandy summer special, and i must say thanks to go for the posting.
Have just ordered the bundle on line, what a bargain, free postage and it's cheaper than in the shops!!
A little note to "a nony mouse". Man up. If you've something to say, people will take you more seriously if you don't hide. that's normally the sign of a coward.
Very true. I don't mind people being anonymous but some do abuse it.
Actually I'm thinking about dropping the anonymous option. You should see some of the trolling comments I don't publish! (Although the quirks of a writing style always gives away the identity of one of the anonymous trolls.) Thing is, the anonymous choice is good for people who don't have a Google account, and they usually put their names to their comments anyway.
As for the specials, tried to find them today to no avail. Smiths are not always reliable when it comes to on-sale days of this sort of thing. Hopefully they'll be out sometime over the next week or two.
i ordered mine at the dct shop double pack when they got here today My copy of The dandy summer special has the same page 38 twice in the blinky strip and my beano had no stickers and a mistake on one of the crosswords ( not enough boxes for the answer) this is poor quality control
Apart from the crossword it sounds like the other errors were caused by the printer. Contact DC Thomson and let them know.
Same here, duplicated page and no stickers... Sigh...
No branches of WH Smith I've visited have the specials in stock yet but as I understand it the stickers should be bound into the comic near the front. If that page is missing it's the fault of the printers so Thomsons would be unaware of it. Best to let them know.
I have let dc Thomson shop know about the faults and I'm awaiting a response.
As for being the printers fault that won't wash this product is produced by dc Thomson and it's there responsibility to sub contract reliable partners . Anyway are you really saying that no one from dc Thomson did not look at the product before putting it on sale. Mistake do happen but this is still poor quality control
I have let dc Thomson shop know about the faults and I'm awaiting a response.
As for being the printers fault that won't wash this product is produced by dc Thomson and it's there responsibility to sub contract reliable partners . Anyway are you really saying that no one from dc Thomson looked at the product before putting it on sale. Mistake's do happen but this is still poor quality control
p.s the beano crossword answer box with the "k" is also wrong
As we know, not every copy has the stickers missing, so it's highly likely the office copies had them included. I'm sure you appreciate that they can't check every single copy of thousands of comics. The comics go from the printer to the distributor, so DCT trusted the stickers would be included in each and every copy. Seems some were not.
As for a mistake in a crossword... it's unfortunate but hardly likely to ruin anyone's enjoyment of a comic.
I'm not saying these errors should be totally ignored, just understood that the production time on these specials was tight, and they had to fit them in with working on the weekly, the monthly, and the annuals. In such circumstances mistakes are inevitable.
Well, it's Friday and i've still not even received any acknowledgment of my email complaining about the duplicated page and stickers.
Bad customer service, not a good way to me is it.
Anyway, any ideas how i escalate this?
If you only complained Wednesday it might take another few days for them to reply. If you haven't heard by next week, contact them again.
Monday lunchtime has come and gone, and still not a word from D.C Thompson.
I have sent another email, which i suspect will be totally ignored like the last.
well, if that's what they think of people who are supporting them, then they will probably have to do without me.
It's not just the missing stickers and the duplicated page, I'm fed up with companies attitudes of late, customer support has gone out of the window.
Struggling on the lowest disability I'm having to look at my expenditure yet again. The Beano has always been high on the list, call it a luxury i supose, but after this i think i can live just as well without it.I'll just re-read what i have.
Just wondering if this lack of interest in it's readers was possibly a small part to the demise of The Dandy?
It wouldn't take many people to walk.
To be fair, it's still lunchtime.
Did you email the right address? There's no 'p' in Thomson. You could also give them a call. Details here:
https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/contact-us
Good luck!
Also (and apologies if you know this) have you checked your junk mail folder? Emails from companies are sometimes treated as spam by mistake, especially if they have 'shop' in the address. I've had some from the DC Thomson shop go straight to spam without me knowing and haven't found them until I've checked.
Yes, i did thanks.
anyway, here's an update.
Received a phone call from Beano town apologizing for not having been in touch before. I was advised that they will resend the specials, complete with stickers.....
Then i received an email stating that the duplicated page was in all of the copies so they would not be sending out the replacements.
So, i guess that means no stickers.
Well, at least they finally replied, even if i had to contact them twice.
A further update:
A padded envelope dropped through the letterbox from Beanotown this morning, and inside was a nice fresh copy of the Beano Summer Special complete with the sticker sheet inside.
Whoopee....
I can relax now...
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