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[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]

By all accounts the Dandy was on the shoogly nail before the revamp. That was the last desperate gamble to try and beat the axe. I know it was a "we have to do something, this is something, ergo we must do this" kind of situation, but in this case it was a "we must do something, this is the only idea we have, we might as well try it because it can't make it worse as were cancelled anyway if it didn't try it". The problem is the old-fashioned kiddy-comic market in the UK has died off, there really is only room for one title. Its not a surprise, its been a long term trend (you just need to look at the list of titles that have vanished over the last three decades). I think the beano will probably be out before the end of the decade too, sadly.

[daibhid-c.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've been to enough panels about "The Future of the UK Comic Industry" which consist of top writers and artists bemoaning that there probably isn't one.

But I thought it was at least stable. I mean, I was a kid when we lost Nutty and Topper and Whizzer and Chips. When it finally settled that we could have two DC Thomson titles and one IPC one, I thought that was it. (Although I later heard that the one IPC title - Buster - disappeared in 2000.)

[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]

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.

[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.