My first DANDY (1964)

I've mentioned before that the very first comic strips I saw were a few Noddy's Tall Books editions (see here) and one issue of Yogi Bear's Own (see here). However the first "proper" comic I read, and the one that stirred my enthusiasm to read it every week, was The Dandy No.1155, dated January 11th 1964.

This issue would have arrived in the shops on Monday 6th January 1964... which I've since discovered was the day I started school! Coincidence? I doubt it. I think it's highly likely my mum bought me this comic as a reward for my first day at school and also to encourage me to read. It certainly worked. The Dandy and its characters completely mesmerised me and reading it (and having it read to me by my mum) boosted my reading ability to put me top of the class. 

I hasten to add that I didn't keep that status throughout my schooldays but it's undeniable that comics are a massive help in teaching children to read and expand their vocabulary. 

(I should add for historical interest that only posh kids went to nursery back then, not council estate kids like me, so my first day at infant school, age 4, was my first experience of being away from home without any parents/family.)

As this is my penultimate Blimey blog post I thought I'd have a look through that first Dandy I had and I'll try to remember what it was that appealed to me so much. 

Firstly the cover by Charlie Grigg. Not that I knew who'd drawn what back then, as D.C. Thomson kept their artists anonymous in those days. Korky the Cat reminded me of my grandad's cat, so I liked him straight away. The fact that Korky had such a strong, distinctive face helped too, and he was looking directly at the reader! Something I hadn't encountered before (but have used it countless times in my own strips). The punchline stuck in my memory for years, even though I misremembered it slightly as "X marks the spot where Korky's been". 

Page 2... Desperate Dan by Dudley Watkins. I remember finding Danny and Katie a weird looking pair of kids. Why was little Danny dressed like that with that thing around his shoulders? (Bear in mind I had no knowledge of history at this point.) It didn't matter though. I found the strip very funny and Desperate Dan became an immediate favourite. 

Pages 3 and 4... The Crimson Ball! Now this was something else. Weird and a bit scary (in a good way), the artwork by Jack Glass was eerie. The mystery of the Crimson Ball was compelling, and in following weeks we'd discover there was an enemy spy inside it controlling it! Mind boggling when you're four years old!

Page 5... Dirty Dick by Eric Roberts was always good fun. I always liked the way Roberts drew tree trunks and bulls. There were cows in the nearby field to where I lived as a child so this environment was relateable to me...

Page 6... The Smasher by Hugh Morren. It was ok. Never a big favourite of mine, but one I grew to enjoy and I certainly enjoyed drawing the character for the very last issue of The Dandy in 2012.

Page 7... Black Bob, with art by Jack Prout. I know this strip divides readers but I was completely absorbed by it. I liked dogs so that was a plus, and the artwork was sublime. My mum read this to me every week until I was able to read it myself.

Pages 8 and 9 (centre pages)... Corporal Clott by Davy Law. Fast-paced, brilliant, and daft, this won me over straight away. I had no idea it was set in South Africa. I didn't know what South Africa was when I was four.  I always remember baboons turning up in the strip a few weeks later. I'd never heard or seen baboons before then, and to this day I still think of Davy Law's depiction of them whenever I see any on tv. 

Pages 10 and 11... Joe White and the Seven Dwarfs by Bill Holroyd. I thought this strip was great, especially little Goofy in his bowler hat. Holroyd was a master at depicting slapstick...

Page 12... My Home Town by Frank McDiarmid. These little educational snippets were perfect for young readers, although I must confess I didn't always read this page...

Page 13... Sunny Boy by George Martin. The best thing about The Dandy at this time was that all the artists had their own distinctive styles and Martin was another who was great at drawing funny slapstick...

Pages 14 and 15... Winker Watson by Eric Roberts. It didn't matter that I couldn't relate to a public school environment, or that I didn't understand why Mr.Creep wore a long black gown and funny hat (mortar board). The stories were interesting and funny, and Winker's brother had weird spiky hair that fascinated me. (Years later I gave Pete from Pete and his Pimple a similar hairstyle in the early days of the strip.)

Page 16 (back page)... Big Head and Thick Head by Ken Reid. Yes, this was the first Ken Reid strip I ever saw and it make me laugh right away. I remember being puzzled by Big Head's shiny hair though, and wasn't sure if it was a hat. My dad wore Brylcream on his hair but it didn't make it look like a helmet. Anyway, it didn't matter. The strip was funny and I found the exaggerated bumps on their heads hilarious...

So that was the very first Dandy I read. I actually remember ripping this one up and throwing it away when I was about 7. My mum suggested I might want to keep it to read again but I thought I knew better. (A reversal of the usual "my mum threw away my comics". My mum always encouraged me to keep them!) Of course she did know better. She always did. Years later, in the 1980s, I bought a pile of old Dandy comics again including this one. 

This is the comic that grabbed my interest in the art form. I was fascinated by comics from that day on. A few months later I was having The Beano every week too, and TV21 a year later, followed by Wham!, Smash! and a zillion others. I soon started creating my own rough efforts, eventually leading to fanzines and ultimately professional work.... and the privilege of being a contributor to The Dandy comic in its final years and to the annual for the past several years. All thanks to this issue, and of course to my mam, for starting me off on that long road. 

•••••••••••••••••••••

My last post will appear tomorrow.

Christmas comes early

I posted a few weeks ago about how Phil-Comics were venturing into publishing with a book on classic Christmas comic covers. Well the book is now out and a very impressive volume it is. The Dandy and The Beano 1937 - 1969 Classic Christmas Comic Covers is a beautifully produced hardback showing all the covers in their original published size.

It's a very professional looking product and Phil mentions he had the assistance of DC Thomson's Gordon Tait with the digital design aspect. The book is printed on quality matt stock and the reproduction of the covers is perfect. The vibrancy of the colours adds a warmth to the winter themes of the strips and captures the spirit of Christmases of long ago.

Every page is a delight to read. The artwork is of course top notch with artists James Crichton and later Charlie Grigg on The Dandy covers and Reg Carter and Dudley Watkins on the Beano covers. There also appears to be a couple of panels by Leo Baxendale on the 1959 Christmas Beano cover.

Something I didn't know before reading this volume was that between 1938 and 1940 there were two Christmas issues for each comic. This book features them all. 

I know some UK comic fans prefer to wait to see if books like this turn up remaindered in discount stores but the success of this volume will determine whether there are any future collections of DCT material. Such a quality item deserves your support so I hope that (as I did) you'll order a copy directly from the publisher at http://www.phil-comics.com/christmas.php

Charlie the Champ

Charlie Grigg was one of my favourite comic artists when I was a child, and remains so to this day. He was the artist of Korky the Cat throughout my childhood, with his clear, superbly illustrated covers for The Dandy being the perfect start to each week's edition.

He could also draw adventure strips, and illustrated two of my all-time favourites, The Red Wrecker and The Umbrella Men.

Yesterday, The Birmingham Post ran a little tribute to the great man who is now 96 years of age. It covers his marvelous career but it is a story tinged with sadness, as it reveals that Mr.Grigg now suffers from vascular dementia. You can read the full article online here:
The Birmingham Post: Charles Grigg's 22 Years as a Dandy artist.

 

The end is nigh

Here's the cover to the penultimate issue of The Dandy, in the shops today. This is the last regular-sized issue, as next week the comic ends its record-breaking 75 year run with a 100 page special. (But more on that another day.)

This issue wraps up a number of strips and, curiously, features several Christmas-themed strips. (Presumably because there won't be a Christmas Dandy on the shelves this year.) Andy Fanton's Secret Agent Sir draws to a close and there are strips and features by Stu Munro, Alexander Matthews, Jamie Smart, Wayne Thompson, Nigel Auchterlounie and more. All funny stuff!

The cover is once again a classic piece of Charlie Grigg artwork. This time it's taken from The Dandy Book 1987, Charlie's last annual cover. 

Don't miss The Dandy No.3609. Out now at £1.99 - and prepare to shed tears of sadness and laughter with the big final edition next week.

Going out in style

The end is nigh for the print edition of The Dandy, with just a few weeks to go until its final issue on December 4th. But what an issue it promises to be! It's been revealed today by the editor that the last issue will be a gigantic 100 pager! (Presumably that includes the facsimile reprint of issue No.1.) 

I've drawn a full page strip plus a few mini-strips for the final issue. I won't reveal what they are as I feel there are far too many spoilers about comics on the net as it is (and I've been as guilty as anyone of doing this). The joy of discovering the delights of a comic on the day it's published seem to be long gone. In the future will people remember the impact a comic had on them as they bought it from a newsagent, or just the memories of spoilers being revealed on blogs, forums, and Facebook? 

No doubt revelations will break as soon as readers receive their subscription copies but for now let's look forward to the surprises. I don't know which strips other artists have drawn for the issue but one of the things I've contributed is a strip I've never drawn before, or ever expected to draw. And it was brilliant to be asked to do it. 

(Incidentally, the logo above is not the one that will be used on the comic. It's just a quick mash up I did in Photoshop.) 

Keep your eye on the countdown clock:
http://www.dandy.com/ 

The Beano and Dandy Collection (UPDATED NEWS)

This was unexpected! There's a new partwork coming soon and this time the spotlight will be on The Beano and The Dandy! 

The Beano and Dandy Collection will comprise of a magazine focusing on a different character every issue, packaged with a hand-painted figurine of that character. The magazine will include four pages of comic strip from the archives plus background features on the highlighted character, an ongoing history of comics, and a look back at what else was happening in that relevant year. Figurines scheduled for the early issues include Dennis the Menace, Roger the Dodger, Desperate Dan, and Plug. 

It sounds like this will be similar to the long-running partworks that feature figurines of Marvel and DC superheroes but it's great to see British comics in the spotlight for a change. An ideal new launch for the 75th anniversaries of the two comics and it ensures that The Dandy will still have a regular presence on the shelves of newsagents in some form at least. (Although bear in mind that, after the initial launch issues, shops sometimes only stock partworks on standing order.)

Sometimes, partworks only have a trial launch in selected areas (as the Marvel Graphic Novel Collection did before being relaunched nationwide) and I don't know if that applies to this publication. 
UPDATE 24/10/12: The publishers have informed me that The Beano and Dandy Collection was launched on September 5th but is only available in Newcastle at present, as a test launch.

Visit the official website here: 
http://www.beanoanddandy.co.uk/index.html

Make it a Dandy date for December 2nd

I've been invited as a guest for the London Comic Mart on Sunday 2nd December, when the event will be hosting a special Dandy themed day to celebrate 75 years of the much loved comic. 

Here's the info from the organizers. More news to come when additional plans are confirmed...

Launched on December 4, 1937 , The Dandy hits 75 years at the beginning of December.

To celebrate the anniversary and to tie-in with the final print issue of the iconic DC Thomson comic, Showmasters is hosting a special edition of its ABC Show. Held on December 2 from noon to 4:00pm at the Royal National Hotel, Bedford Way, London WC1, the festivities are an addition to the regular London Comic Marts held at the same venue.
 
• In attendance will be such contemporary Dandy artists as Henry Davis, Laura Howell, Gary Northfield, Lew Stringer - plus others to be confirmed.
 
• On display will be original artwork from The Dandy from the 1930 to the 1960s as well as issues of The Dandy from the same period.
 
• This is a unique opportunity to meet the people behind The Dandy, hear them talk about their experiences working on the comic and see some of the rarities from the weekly’s history.

In addition dealers will be offering comics and memorabilia from across the wide range of British comics in general.

ENTRANCE IS FREE!

For more details visit the Showmasters website here:
http://londoncomicmart.co.uk/
 

The Dandy - Still standing

I understand that some people were under the impression that The Dandy had already been canceled. Not yet! The comic is still being published every Wednesday with its usual 36 full colour pages for £1.99. (Yes, it's still one of the cheapest comics you can buy!)

As The Dandy heads towards its fate on December 4th we can content ourselves with the fact that there are still a few issues left to go yet before that last issue. The contents may now feature several pages of reprint, but there are still a healthy dose of fine and funny new pages. Classic character Corporal Clott returned a few weeks ago, now drawn by Nigel Aucherlounie. Good stuff!

Another worthy page is Alexander Matthews' Nuke Noodle, back for another series of time-traveling daftness. Who could fail to be amused by this...

Then there's Bully Beef and Chips by Wayne Thompson, Desperate Dan and My Dad's A Doofus by Jamie Smart, George vs Dragon by Andy Fanton, numerous mini-strips and a selection of classic material. 

Not all newsagents and supermarkets carry The Dandy now, and some of those that do tend to bury it deep within their all-too-small shelving space, but seek out these final few issues because you'll miss it when it's gone! 

Charlie Brooker on The Dandy

My original art to this week's final Dark Newt story

It feels like there's been more written about The Dandy over the past week than there ever has been in its 75 year history, and the commentary shows no sign of stopping yet. This weekend saw DC Thomson's Sunday Post report an optimistic piece on the comic's digital future (but still not revealing any details), whilst The Independent on Sunday went all misty eyed because they think the end of the printed Dandy will mean the end of free gifts in comics. (Have they even looked in a newsagents over the past ten years? That mound of magenta and dayglo green polythene with its plastic innards, - that's the comics section.) The Dandy, incidentally, hasn't had a free gift since Christmas.

Now writer, journalist, broadcaster, ex-Oink artist and "that jammy b*gger who's married to Konnie Huq" Charlie Brooker has posted his thoughts about the demise of the print version of The Dandy. Enjoy:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/19/reports-dandy-death-greatly-exaggerated

His comments about certain commentators being stuck in the past are valid (and very amusing). We should be looking forward to a digital Dandy, assuming it's continuing as a digital comic and not some online game/joke source. Still, even if that happens we'll just have to roll with the times. Life isn't static, so why should comics be an exception?

It's arrived! The Dandy Annual 2013

  
Here it is! The Dandy Annual 2013 with a great cover by Nigel Parkinson. Time was when comic annuals came out in early September, but now they have a longer shelf life to hopefully maximise sales. (It's certainly worked for The Beano Annual, which has been the top selling annual for the past couple of years.) 

Traditionally, annuals were given as Christmas presents, and I know some of you won't be receiving yours until Christmas Day so I'll only show a brief glimpse of some of its pages here to avoid too many spoilers. 

This edition of The Dandy Annual is somewhat special as it celebrates the comic's landmark 75th birthday (coming up in December). To mark the event the book brings back a load of classic characters in brand new stories, - Brassneck, Winker Watson, Greedy Pigg, Owen Goal, The Jocks and the Geordies... and even a new adventure with Black Bob! 

The Black Bob story is drawn by Steve Bright and he does a fantastic job of ghosting the style of Jack Prout, the original artist. The story is in four single page chapters scattered throughout the book, so each chapter ends on a cliffhanger as the original series often did. 

Another classic character making her return is Keyhole Kate, in a nifty modern style by Laura Howell whist retaining the classic character design...

...and I've done a couple of characters too, - The Smasher and Julius Sneezer.

All in all it's a very good annual. Packed with strips that often have around 10 panels a page, which gives a bit better value for money than the average 6 panels a page that many annuals used to offer. 


Despite the plan to get it in the shops early, I haven't actually seen it on shelves yet, but it is available to buy from online booksellers Amazon, Speedy Hen Ltd. and The Book Depository (and hopefully others soon). Follow this link to buy your copies (and The Beano Annual, which I believe is also out now):
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dandy-Annual-2013-Annuals/dp/1845354877/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342643880&sr=8-1

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Today also saw the beginning of my new six-part strip in The Dandy weekly. The Dark Newt tells the saga of the Protector of the Pond and this week's issue features his origin. That's in The Dandy No.3590, on sale now!

Jubilee japes in this week's comics

British comics have a long history of celebrating contemporary events, whether it's Christmas or coronations, and this week is no exception. Both The Dandy and The Beano, out today, have themes to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, with covers drawn by Jamie Smart and Barrie Appleby respectively.

Inside the comics, only a few strips carry the jubilee theme, but The Dandy has two very nice pages from the archives, with Korky the Cat (by James Crichton) and Desperate Dan (by Dudley Watkins) celebrating the Queen's coronation from the June 6th 1953 issue. 

Forget the jubilee though. The BIG news in The Dandy this week is that The Banana Bunch are back! The old Beezer characters are given a facelift and their all-new adventures kick off in style as a centre-spread strip by Nigel Parkinson. No, I'm not showing a preview here. Rush out and buy a copy of The Dandy today. You'll love it.

Meanwhile, over in Toxic, there's a celebratory I-Spy double page jubilee street party spread I drew. Here's a small size preview...

Also in the same issue, Team Toxic attempt to honour the celebrations as Doc Shock constructs a giant robot of the Queen. Will things run smoothly? Well, the story title is Jubilee Rampage so don't bet on it!

That's Toxic No.204, also out today, priced £2.80 for 40 pages plus a bagful of gifts. 

Classic characters return to The Dandy

Cover by Jamie Smart. Good innit?

This week's issue of The Dandy (out now) sees the return of two classic strips given a modern makeover. Heralded with a topline on the cover, Beryl the Peril makes her triumphant comeback drawn by the brilliant Steve Bright. 

Beryl was originally a star of The Topper of course, but joined The Dandy after The Topper folded years ago. Now she's back again, with a redesign to her outfit (no outdated gymslip anymore) but retaining the familiar Peril face. Steve Bright even applies a style to the strip similar to that of the great Davy Law (Beryl's original artist) which should please even the grumpiest critics. 

Printed off-register in my copy but STILL looks great!

Another old Dandy strip making its return this week is Bully Beef and Chips. The original debuted on the back page of the comic in 1967 drawn by James Hughes, and the new version is by Wayne Thompson who has given the characters a modern revamp. Beefy's fringe and their outfits remain the same but the characters are more exaggerated. It works for me, and hopefully today's readers will take to it too. 

You know he's gonna pay for that. It's comic Karma.

What this proves I think is that The Dandy has such a rich history of characters that most of them could be revamped to some extent or other for a modern audience. However it's good to see the comic still generates brand new characters as well, and strips such as Jamie Smart's Mega-Lo Maniacs (seen on the cover of this week's issue) and Alexander Matthews' Nuke Noodle are excellent. I'm currently drawing a brand new character too, who will hopefully debut in the summer. More on that at a later date.

The Dandy No.3582, £1.99 from newsagents, supermarkets, airports etc.  

Desperate Dan's long road to cover stardom

  
Desperate Dan was always one of The Dandy's top strips, right from his debut in issue No.1 back in 1937. How could it not be, with fantastic artwork by Dudley D. Watkins?  However, editors chose not to make him the cover star until 1984! My guess is that perhaps they felt that Korky the Cat was a more appropriate opener, with its simplicity and slapstick. I loved both strips as a child but for me Korky was the ideal cover strip.

So, Dan was kept off the cover for almost 50 years. Well, not quite. Here's an example above from The Dandy No.1398 (September 7th 1968) which actually addresses the situation with Dan wanting to know why he's not the cover star. Artwork by regular Korky artist Charlie Grigg who would also become the artist on Desperate Dan in the annuals and specials after Dudley Watkins' untimely death a year later. 

Dan also guest starred on the cover of The Dandy No.1663 (October 6th 1973) in the Korky the Cat strip promoting that week's free gift.

A rare example of Dan drawing his gun.

The idea was repeated nine years later on the cover of The Dandy No.2105 (March 27th 1982). The concussed cat could also be considered as Dan getting his own back on Korky for the prank the moggy pulled on him in 1968!

Dan gets a new shirt.

A year later and Desperate Dan takes up residence beside the new Dandy logo for The Dandy No.2149 (January 29th 1983). A waxwork of Dan also appears in the Korky strip, along with figures of other Dandy characters. Korky's star was falling...

That same issue saw the beginning of all-new Desperate Dan strips running across the centre pages. Previous to this Dan had been a single page black and white strip, and reprints of Dudley Watkins' classics had been running since 1969, with occasional new ones by Charlie Grigg. But Charlie was about to retire from regular comics work so for the new colour series came a new artist on the strip, - Ken H. Harrison - and a shift towards Dan's personality becoming more childlike...

Finally, with The Dandy No.2243 (November 17th 1984) Desperate Dan was established as the new cover strip, elbowing Korky the Cat into the interior pages, although Korky gained a place by the masthead with a vignette drawn by Charlie Grigg. (Korky's first interior strips, now drawn by David Gudgeon, were obviously originally intended for the covers as a large Korky logo and house ad took up the space where the cover masthead would have been.)

Desperate Dan appeared as the cover story for over ten years, eventually being replaced by Cuddles & Dimples, Jak and various others, but he still makes an appearance on covers at times, now drawn by Jamie Smart. You can't keep a good Dan down. Besides, who's going to argue with him?