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

[rhiannon-s.livejournal.com]

There probably is a future, just its going to be in tv tie-in comics. The likes of Bob the Builder and Friends, with glossy pages and a free gift every issue. I'm changing my position on the Beano now after thinking about it, it is virtually a tie-in with the Dennis the Menace cartoon (and that is prolly what is keeping it going). The Dandy didn't have anything to draw kids in, unless a live action Bananaman Film is in the works (I'd watch that, I'd watch the hell out of it). I think the Dandy's main character of Desperate Dan isn't a strong lead any more. A grown-up, gluttonous cowboy is not an image that sits well with anti-obesity message, or with pop-culture. Cowboys just aren't in fashion anymore, haven't been for years.