The New Year DANDY (1965)

Let's head back to 1965 to see how The Dandy celebrated its New Year. Snow was still on the logo from the Christmas issue (obviously a cold spell in Dandytown) and the comic was on a high, with top class artwork throughout. Here's a few examples...

The cover above is by the great Charlie Grigg, who had redefined Korky the Cat from James Crighton's original version into a distinctive character loved by millions.  

Inside, Desperate Dan was in his regular place on page two with this cracking story by Dudley Watkins...

Dirty Dick was out on the snow-covered streets of New Year's Day wearing short trousers... as we did back then 365 days of the year! (It wasn't the done thing to wear long trousers until you started secondary school at 11 years old!) It may seem very strange now, but that's how it was and we just got used to it! Art by Eric Roberts...

Brassneck had only been running in The Dandy for a few weeks by the time this episode appeared. This is only the sixth Brassneck story, but it would run for many years afterwards. Art by the superb Bill Holroyd, a master of comedy adventure strips such as this...

On the back page, Big Head and Thick Head are off to a New Year's Eve party. Ken Reid had been the original artist but after he left to work for Wham! earlier in 1964, Frank McDiarmid took over the strip. As you can see, Frank could "ghost" Ken's style very well, whilst still retaining elements of his own style...

There'll be one last New Year comic tomorrow, on New Year's Eve! Drop by to join the celebrations!