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| Copyright D.C. THOMSON & Co., Ltd |
I was in my local WH SMITH's yesterday and, not seeing it on display, I asked whether they had The BEANO 75th BIRTHDAY SPECIAL. "It never came in today, although it was supposed to - it'll probably come in tomorrow", was the response of some uninterested assistant. That meant, of course, that it was sitting in the back shop, waiting for someone to extract the digit and put it out on sale.
I was in again today and there it was, so I ventured to ask about The LAST EVER DANDY SUMMER SPECIAL as I dug out some dosh to make my purchase. "They don't publish The Dandy anymore" I was told in response to my query. "Yes, I know - but this is a special bookazine called... etc., etc.," I explained, rapidly losing the will to live. "I'll ask one of my colleagues if she knows," he replied, and, with me in tow, made his way over to where she was.
We'll be here all night if I relate the back-and-forth dialogue that ensued - did I mean The Beano? They don't publish The Dandy anymore, blah, blah, blah - so I'll cut to the chase. Eventually the woman said: "I'll take a look in the back because, if we might have it, I know where it'll be kept." A few minutes later she returned, holding half-a-dozen copies of the aforesaid publication that, according to her and her colleague, hadn't existed a mere five minutes before.
If I hadn't asked about it and not taken no for an answer, I can't help but wonder if it would ever have made it out to the shelves, or simply sat in a corner somewhere in the back shop until being returned to the distributor. What a way to run a business. WHS staff seem to regard most of their magazines as a nuisance, forgetting the fact it's one of the primary reasons for the company's existence.
Anyway, I finally purchased the two Specials, and in the main, they're worth the dosh. One thing I find irritating about DCT's reprint books and magazines however, is the way they 'busy' up the pages, instead of just having plain and simple white margins 'round the strips as they were originally published. They often have something obscuring part of the strip or simply adding clutter to the pages and it drives me up the wall. Are you listening, Dundee publishers? Stop ruining the strips at once! (Having said that, these two mags aren't as bad as on previous occasions.)
Clearly, the two publications should be similarly priced at £5.99, but DCT seem to have have shaved £1 off The Dandy Special (£4.99) and added it to The Beano one (£6.99). Perhaps they knew WHS would be hiding the former in the back shop and this was a way of cutting down on their losses? (Yes, I'm joking!)
Anyway, two Specials that every Beano and Dandy fan should have in their collections. The Dandy is marked #2, following on from last year's, so no doubt there'll be more in the future. (Probably not with the word 'Summer' in the title though.)
