THE 'FIRST' LAST DANDY...

Copyright D.C. THOMSON & Co., Ltd

Looking through some old files recently, I discovered an article that I'd written for The ILLUSTRATED COMIC JOURNAL back in 2004/'05, when editor DAVID MIRFIN was intending to restore the fanzine to some kind of regular publishing schedule.  For reasons unknown, it never happened, but I'd already written two or three articles, one being about the then-recent relaunch of The DANDY as a 'yoof-style' magazine, as opposed to a purely comic strip-focussed periodical.

I sent the article to CRIKEY!, who published it as a letter, in the process making changes which robbed certain paragraphs of any sense.  Crikey! was a an enjoyable magazine, which unfortunately suffered from 'spellchecker syndrome', often resulting in names and titles being 'corrected' to close approximations of how they were actually spelt.  E.g. 'GEOFF CAMPION' to 'Geoff Champion' and 'JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE' to 'Judge Dredd Magazine'.  I found such carelessness extremely annoying.  The mag would have been vastly improved by the services of a competent proofreader.  SPACESHIP AWAY suffered from the same complaint, though I've no idea if it still does, not having purchased an issue since #22.)

I digress, however.  I thought that regular visitors to this blog might enjoy reading my thoughts on The Dandy's first mistaken new direction, which ultimately led to its sad demise in December last year.  So, without any further ado ('cos I'm fresh out), here's my observations from several years ago.  We pick up just after I had listed the companies I'd freelanced for, pointing out that "the only main British company I haven't been involved with is D.C. THOMSON."

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I won't bore you with a list of all the individual strips I've worked on over the years, but my full-time career came to an end about four or five years ago, due mainly to the fact that there is no longer a thriving comics industry to speak of in this country which is capable of supporting the ever-growing legions of would-be comics freelancers chasing an ever-decreasing amount of available work.

When I freelanced for IPC/FLEETWAY, they had titles like 2000 A.D., The MEGAZINE, DICE MAN, CRISIS, EAGLE, LAWMAN Of The FUTURE, WILDCAT, REVOLVER, BATTLE ACTION-FORCE, TIGER, ROY Of The ROVERS, WHIZZER & CHIPS, BUSTER, WOW, OINK, NIPPER, etc., not to mention various comics libraries, specials and annuals.  Of course, not all these titles were published simultaneously - some overlapped and some came in between - but the point is that there was always something on the go.

So what's left of that lot today?  2000 A.D. is the only weekly comic of its kind left on the shelves (now owned by a games company called REBELLION - the comic, that is - not the shelves) and the Megazine is a half-reprint publication.

As far as comic companies go, there's no longer a 'Big Two' - in fact, there's not even a 'Big One' - as even the once-mighty D.C. THOMSON comics empire is in decline.  (Actually, that's a gross understatement - it's very nearly dead.)  The BEANO and DANDY are the only two surviving weeklies from their once vast stable of titles which at one time included TOPPER, BEEZER, SPARKY, BUZZ, WARLORD, HOTSPUR, HORNET, WIZARD, VICTOR, CRUNCH, SPIKE, HOOT, BUDDY, NUTTY, PLUG, MANDY, JUDY, BUNTY, etc., etc. 

The Dandy's circulation has declined so alarmingly in recent years that it's been relaunched as a 21st century 'yoof-style' magazine, bearing little resemblance to the traditional 'comic-paper' that you and I read as children.  (And, in my case, I blush to admit, as an adult also.)

Which brings me to the main point of this review.

In relaunching The Dandy, DCT has, I believe, overlooked an important factor in the longevity of their two top titles - they've lasted as long as they have because, essentially, they haven't changed too much.  (Or any changes have been so gradual as to be imperceptible.)

They remained immediately recognizable as the comics which parents read as kids, and, out of a sense of nostalgia, would then purchase for their children until said offspring acquired the habit of buying them for themselves.  Then, in the fullness of time, the cycle would begin anew.

It will be interesting to see if this still happens to the same degree now that the comic has been forcibly mutated into a radically different product that future mums and dads will barely recognize.  It now has to stand on its own merits, without the safety net of nostalgic parents 'passing the baton' to their kids.  This act of 'generational perpetuation' (or 'regeneration', if you can stand the pun) can no longer be taken for granted.  Dan must really feel desperate as he looks out from behind his new face and sees what's happening around him.

Another factor in the success of DCT publications was that they were relatively inexpensive.  You could, for example, once upon a time (back in the '60s) buy a Beano and a Milky Way for what it would cost you for a TV CENTURY 21.  The choice of a comic and a bar of chocolate was sometimes a major factor in determining a purchase as far as quantity was concerned, certainly in a parent's mind, if not a child's.

Value for money?  Let's make a little comparison here, just for fun.

The last issue of the old-style Dandy comic cost 70p and had 32 pages. Of those, 25 had comic strips, but five of them did not fill the full page, so it works out at 23 and one third pages of strips, one puzzle page and seven pages of adverts, two of which are 'in-house'.  (The two thirds page is a "Huge News Inside!" ad on the cover, along with the logo.)  Older readers of comics will perhaps remember that this usually heralded the 'trump of doom' for their favourite title.

So, does it in this instance?

The new Dandy magazine costs £1.20 (99p introductory price) and has 44 pages.  This consists of 26 pages of strips, nine and a half pages of ads (five in-house), a two-page poster, a joke page, one and a half pages of letters, etc., two pages of introductions to the (fictitious) Dandy Staff (OFFICE HOURS), and the cover.

A contents page?  In a comic?  (A comic posing as a magazine, I grant you.)  The term 'space-filler' springs to mind, as it does in response to the Office Hours and poster pages.  Give the readers more strips to read, for goodness' sake, and get rid of the unnecessary stuff by cutting down to 40 pages and lowering the price.

Don't know about you, but I buy comics to read comic strips, not contents pages and 'filler' material.  Do you realize, Dandy reader, that you're now paying 50p more per week (almost double) for only two and two-thirds more pages of actual comic strip content?  C'mon, DCT, get rid of the padding and give us some substance for our shekels.

"Is it the end for The Dandy?" reads a blurb on the cover of the final old-style issue.  Only time will tell, but it sure looks like the beginning of the end.

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And sure enough, the writing was on the wall - on the very cover of what was, in actuality, the real 'last' Dandy, which, over the course of the next six years, then had to suffer the humiliation of undergoing three desperate, drastic changes which destroyed the identity that had stood it in good stead for most of its published life.