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| Copyright D.C. THOMSON & Co., Ltd |
I must confess to not being impressed by sections of the new DANDY. It seems indisputable to me that the overall look could be improved by a few simple steps, namely in the lettering department. Which is not to say that all the lettering is bad, but it would still benefit from a change to upper case to make it easier to read. I don't even mean that the current style is too small, but it's definitely too rough in places to flow smoothly.
So far, I've studiously avoided specifically naming any particular strip or artist that I'm not so keen on, but JAMIE SMART's DESPERATE DAN strip seems to be the focus of a lot of less-than-positive attention elsewhere on the internet. I'm assuming he letters the strip himself in the new Dandy, but if so, he really isn't doing himself any favours. Have a look at the DD trailer page (above) from the OLD Dandy. His art doesn't seem quite as roughly finished, and the overall look of the strip is vastly improved with more uniform frame borders and consistently rendered, uppercase lettering. I'm sure at least some of the critics would look far more favourably on the strip if it looked like this. (Though I'd still prefer a slightly more detailed version - after all, the original had been established for nearly 70 years.)
The editor did no one any favours when he abandoned the above slightly more polished-looking finish for the current one.
Okay, D.C. THOMSON - you've had your fun - change it to the above look - NOW!
You do realise Dan has looked as he does now for the past THREE years, yes? And Jamie's ALWAYS hand-lettered his work?
ReplyDeleteJust checking, because in the post you make it sound like a very recent development.
I did say that it was an assumption - I wasn't sure if he was/had been lettering it or not. And I haven't looked at the DANDY in over three years - I gave up with DANDY EXTREME.
ReplyDeleteOne thing's for sure 'though - the strip looks better with a more consistent, traditional, upper case font.
Just to clarify, the Dan strip you show at the beginning of this blog had nothing to do to me. It was both lettered and put together by DCT staff who used images of Dan from my previous strips, so if there's any lack of coherency it's because it has been copy and pasted rather than drawn badly.
ReplyDeleteThanks though. Weird thing to get so angry about.
Much love,
Jamie Smart.
I don't know why you think I'm angry, Jamie - far from it. (Not with you anyway.) I'm well aware that you didn't letter the strip at the top of the post - and I think your art looks better for it. That was the point.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'M not picking on you - I actually have a few issues with certain aspects of the new Dandy which aren't confined to your own pages. The reason you got mentioned is because of all the negative reaction I've read elsewhere about DD and I suggested some ways which might alleviate some of it. (Although it is true that I'm not a great fan of Dan's current look. But with a little work...?)
Have a look at my WILL YOU ALWAYS KEEP A DANDY HANDY? post.
Regards.
(Slightly edited from original post on 12th November, 2010, at 10:28.)
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/6056/smartarse.jpg
ReplyDeleteThis was posted on a certain internet forum...