Dandy on the brink?

[Colin YNWA]

Apologies if this is old news as I know Dandy's been struggling through relaunch to relaunch for a while, but now it seems its on the brink of cancellation, well according to The Beat

http://www.comicsbeat.com/2012/08/13/the-dandy-faces-cancellation/#more-56850

The original Guardian article here

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/aug/13/oldest-comic-the-dandy-faces-closure

Its hardly a surprise but at least The Beano seems to be doing okay at 38,000 a month... a month being the key I guess (and does Beano come awash with free gifts like most comics these days?)

[Frank]

That would be sad, if true.

[The Prodigal]

That would be sad, if true.

It certainly would-a lot of happy childhood memories wrapped up in that one.

[James Stacey]

Very sad. It was always the poor cousin to the Beano though.

[SmallBlueThing]

The dandy is terrible. It looks ugly, it has a disasterous leaning towards cultural characters whom the target audience just dont care about (harry hill, notably, but david cameron, simon cowell, etc) and the abandoning of traditional comic strip cartooning in favour of manga-influenced angular shapes has given us pages of badly-drawn crap with often only one or two gags per page. My kids wont touch it with a barge pole, despite me offering it- and even buying it from time to time just to see if its improved. Both love the beano, and both love the old-style dandy, which they have a small pile of. But the current one... other than the resultant impact on those involved, i see its imminent cancellation as a good thing, from which the adults in charge of this excruciatingly faux-'cool' abomination should learn a harsh lesson.

SBT

[Trout]

i see its imminent cancellation as a good thing, from which the adults in charge of this excruciatingly faux-'cool' abomination should learn a harsh lesson.

I will pass on your comments when I see them leaving the building.

[SmallBlueThing]

Well now trout, you put me in an awkward position by missing out quoting the bit where i acknowledged the unfortunate effect upon those who earn a living on it. Should i further state that it's an awful shame that the uk newsstands will be missing one long-running title? Or is that obvious, seeing as im writing on a uk comics forum, populated by people whose dearest wishes would take the average uk newsagent back to the heady days of the late seventies and early eighties, when shelves groaned under the weight of kids' weeklies?

However, it doesnt alter the fact that very few people bought the dandy. And id suggest that very few people bought the dandy because it was terrible and their kids (who ultimately request these things and so drive sales) didnt like it.

SBT

[CrazyFoxMachine]

My brother used to get the Beano and I (the less cool brother) got the Dandy. Loved the Desperate Dan style from Watkins through to Harrison- Brian Walker's beautiful painted Smasher strips. And this...



Is not The Dandy I grew up with. Ashamed as I am to be cynical in the face of the closure of a staple of our collective comics heritage it REALLY has been shocking quality for such a protracted time. It wouldn't be fair to buy it purely for nostalgia's sake.

[Trout]

Well now trout, you put me in an awkward position by missing out quoting the bit where i acknowledged the unfortunate effect upon those who earn a living on it.

Well, you described its closure as "a good thing". I've seen too many good people walk out the door over the last couple of years. You and I get along well, SBT, so I was unhappy to see a comment like that from you, especially given your own decision to leave your job.

FWIW, I agree with some negative comment about the title. So many publications - and not just comics - have had an identity crisis as they try to survive. Whether people here hate the glossy Dandy or not, the fact is that some hard-working staff have tried very hard to increase its sales. It's easy to criticise.

[COMMANDO FORCES]

Did they try putting it into the electronic sales area, or did they stick with paper sales! Not that is buy it, it was always the poor relation to the Beano to me and I dropped that when I was around 8ish.

[IndigoPrime]

Judging from what's happened over the past few years, it looks very much like The Dandy was on 'kill or cure', but also got a few more shots (perhaps due to DCT really not wanting to kill the UK's longest-running comic) than other mags would have. Thing is, as soon as that XTREME!!! (or whatever it was called) version showed up, joined by marketing bilge about it being a lifestyle magazine and children having busy lives that make it hard to fit in a comic, I thought it was doomed. The subsequent over-reliance on celebrity was also a strange decision, given that, as I understand it,  SmallBlueThing's experience isn't atypical.

As for the Comics Beat article and The Beano circulation: eek. I'd only heard 38,000 before, not 38,000 per month. Under 10k per issue seems pretty low to me. What a shame. As for this:

Thompson is making sounds about going digital with the title. Will it be enough to save Beryl the Peril and her pals? Stay tuned.

From what I understand, Newsstand on iOS and digital in general is no saviour for the majority of brands. There are some exceptions in very niche areas (the FT, say, with its readership primarily composed of rich people who can splurge on an iPad and the HTML5 app sub), but I can't see The Dandy lasting very long if it pins its hopes on the iPad and other tablets.

[SmallBlueThing]

Ah, mr trout your maj, i was of course speaking entirely about the product itself and not the related careers of the various people involved. Im sure they will all go off and do great things elsewhere- but what was done to the dandy obviously didnt work- and, to be fair, was seen not to be working for a very long time now. The comic should have had a hasty revamp well over a year ago instead of plugging away at this new style which it seems no one other than a few suited adults in a boadroom liked. If it were up to me, i would of course give it another go and try to bring it back to being more like the beano, which (despite a notable cut in strip pages in favour of 'features' and quizzes) is still a great read and a guaranteed child-pleaser.

However, im aware you may well know the people responsible for the latest dandy personally, trout, and the very last thing i want to do is insult your friends or colleagues!

SBT

[JamesC]

It's a shame that such a well known and well loved brand is going down the swanny.

If it really is sub-standard in quality terms though then it is a good thing for the industry that it disappears. Every child that picks up a poor quality comic and doesn't like it is potentially a child put off comics full stop.

[Trout]

SBT: fair enough. Please understand that it's not about suits making decisions. These publications are run by creative people and any changes are based on complex research. By the way, the old-style comics (largely) sell to adults and not to children. I suspect, given their enlightened father, your children aren't the best example of the market.

If anyone knows how to make a successful comic, or any printed publication, please post it here.

[SuperSurfer]

Every now and then I head over to Lew Stringer's excellent British comics blog 'Blimey'. His latest post is about The Art and History of The Dandy http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/the-little-comic-that-made-history.html Sales in the 1950s: two million copies a week!

Must say, I never got into DC Thomson comics as a kid. I think I bought the Beano twice – and once was so I could join the Dennis the Menace fan club. 

I used to love the IPC funnies though and would always buy one to compliment my dose of Marvel weeklies. (If it wasn't for those funnies I wouldn't have seen the ads for 2000AD.)

Even in the 70s I sensed (perhaps incorrectly) that many of the funnies – whether from DC Thomson or IPC were produced by creators from a different era. DC Thomson comics more so. They felt rather old fashioned to me even at the time.