Everyone we know...

[daibhidc]

The Dandy, a UK comic that's been going since 1937, is being cancelled. I read an issue that came free with my gran's Sunday Post a few months back and I was baffled. Why were so many strips about celebs I'd change channels to avoid? Why was Harry Hill on the front cover? What on Earth was supposed to be happening in the Desperate Dan story? At least it wasn't Dandy Extreme any more, but is this really what modern kids want from a comic?

Well, no it wasn't, because it's been cancelled.

Sister comic The Beano has also had several "revamps", including earlier this month. But all of them seem to have involved keeping Dennis the Menace on the cover, and having the Bash Street Kids drawn by the same artist who's been doing it since before I was born. It doesn't seem to be at risk of cancellation.

And yet every news story I've read about the Dandy cancellation says "in spite of a revamp to appeal to modern kids" rather than "due to a revamp they thought would appeal to modern kids, when they should have just left it alone".

Comments

[gordon-r-d.livejournal.com]

We were told a couple of weeks ago by a DC Thomson rep that they're considering dropping all their comics, so dn't be too surprised if the Beano and the classic reprints of Commando and old Beano/Dandy stuff vanish as well.

I actually like a lot of what the current Dandy does, they bravely decided not to make it a magazine with features and stuff, but stick with just comics. The clebrity stuff i could leave, but loved Jamie smart's work (including Desperate Dan), the current Korky run and many others have throughly entertained me. I'm not the audience they really need though and it'll be a shame to see it finally go after being on the edge for over five years.

[rhiannon-s.livejournal.com]

Commando is still being published!? I did not know that. Dammit, how did it keep going and Starblazer fall away?

[gordon-r-d.livejournal.com]

They still publsh eight issues a month, half of them reprints, half new stuff. I was a bit surprised myself. I remember Starblazer very fondly, it had some of Grant Morrison's earliest work as both a writer and an artist. If only I'd known at the time. Sadly all mine were lost years and years ago.