Nigel Parkinson, Cartoonist

Nigel Parkinson, Cartoonist
Me at a Comic Con

Wednesday 13 October 2010

The Big Countdown

It's two weeks today untill the new Dandy. I know there's a lot of interest in it, and I would like to be able to reveal a lot more, (not that I know much!) but honestly, where would be the fun in that? Much better to keep guessing. What I can tell you is, no matter HOW excited you may be feeling about this new Dandy, my guess is that it will be NOTHING compared to how excited you will be when you actually hold it in your hands and DOUBLE NOTHING compared to how excited everyone involved is!
So, let's see what happens tomorrow!

9 comments:

Kid said...

Funnily enough, I'm not that excited - they all but killed THE DANDY with their revamp a few years back and I now find it hard to get enthusiastic about the title.

However, I genuinely hope that, when I see it, my youthful enthusiasm will be restored and I'll be leaping around like an 11 year-old boy.

If it turns out to be a total dud, then I'm afraid I'll have to take away your Breakaway, so here's hoping it's a winner.

NP said...

If it does turn out to be a total dud, you ought to take away all our Breakaways.
By the way what 'Dud Scale' are you using, the 1970 TV21 'Second Series' scale or the 1972 Knockout 'the All-Colour comic' scale?

Kid said...

It would have to be a more current "Dud Scale" because I'd find it hard to be objective about comics from my past. (I actually quite liked the 1970s' KNOCKOUT, but I had no experience of the earlier version with which to compare it, so maybe that's why.)

Oh, all right then - the 2nd series TV21 scale. However, I found the earlier revamp of the Dandy quite a turn-off - padded out with contents pages and the like. Although it had more pages than before, it only had about 2-3 pages more of actual comic strip content (if memory serves), which - considering the price increase - didn't represent good value for money.

Also, in the main, I find most of the strips nowadays not as funny as in previous years. I can still laugh out loud at Davey Law's Dennis the Menace strips in the Beano - or Dudley Watkin's Dandy Desperate Dan strips - but a lot of the modern stuff seems less inspired, in my humble opinion. I do like Tom Paterson's Calamity James strip 'though.

Kev T said...

NP, your doing the right thing suspence & surprise have been stolen by the dreaded spoiler.. I'm looking forward to picking up my Dandy & hopefully finding someold friends & some great new ones....as they say it can only get better!!!!

Lew Stringer said...

As long as the age group it's aimed at like it (ie: children) then it doesn't matter what us old fogies think about The Dandy.

Having said that, I thought Cuddles & Dimples in Xtreme was amusing for all ages, Jak & Todd had a perverse anti-authoritarian streak that was entertaining, and Jamie's Desperate Dan was often laugh-out-loud funny.

Xtreme had some good strips, but the features got in the way of all-round fun. Hopefully the revamped Dandy will address that. I'm enjoying working on it anyway.

Kid said...

Even if the age group it's aimed at likes it, that doesn't necessarily mean it's as good as it could or should be. With no knowledge of how funny some of the strips of yesteryear were, they have nothing to compare it to. While that perhaps won't immediately matter in terms of sales, it will in quality.

Which is not to say that a lot of old strips were not also unfunny, but the good ones were classics. That's the difference - there's been no new Dennis the Menace strips (back to the Beano again) printed in the last 15 odd years which would qualify as classics (I'm talking about stories, not art), but there's plenty Davey Law ones which do. Nothing to do with age - just quality.

Anyway, here's hoping that it's absolutely brilliant and that I laugh my socks off - the way I used to in the old days.

Lew Stringer said...

I'd suggest that Beano "classics" are any that readers fondly remember from their youth. Today's Dennis strips are the classics of tomorrow. Like they say, the golden age of children's comics is when you're a child.

Kid said...

Interestingly (or perhaps not), I didn't read most of the Davey Law Dennis stories until I was an adult, long after they had first been printed, so I'm looking at today's stories and ones from the past from the same perspective.

Lew Stringer said...

Nigel, I'm sitting here reading the new Dandy (well, the dummy issue) and I'm impressed. Considerably different to any previous version of the comic and packed with brand new stuff. Interesting times.