Nigel Parkinson, Cartoonist

Nigel Parkinson, Cartoonist
Me at a Comic Con

Wednesday 27 October 2010

WELCOME BACK, DANDY!


It's a Red letter day for comic fans! Today is (officially) the day you can go out and buy a WEEKLY DANDY again!! No features, no photos, ALL CARTOON STRIPS and, according to the cover, all-funny!! Everyone's worked hard on this for months (and months and months!) Comic Legend Lew Stringer has at last achieved his 45 year ambition to get a strip (in fact TWO!!) in the comic that started him off! Jamie Smart has excelled himself- his presence is all over the new Dandy- and there are NEW contributors to get excited about.
Here's a dummy version of the cover from earlier this month- adding to the excitement!

There's a bit of a TV radio press and web binge today, so enjoy it. The Dandy deliberately didn't start publicity until this week so as to achieve maximum impact.

RUN to your nearest Tesco for the full experience, but support your local newsagent and BUY it today! And buy another one tomorrow to pass around at those fancy dinner parties.

11 comments:

Kid said...

NP, I'm surprised at you. You shouldn't go around calling people "leg-ends". You'll hurt someone's feelings. Tsk, tsk.

Unknown said...

Well done Nige! Glad to see all your hard works getting the attention it deserves. It's great to see so much excitement around the all new, all funny Dandy.

Lew Stringer said...

Yes Nigel I'm "Livin' the Dreem" to quote Harry Hill's new book, and it's double-good to be in a comic amongst such great talent as yourself, Jamie Smart and Wayne Thomson. Well done in playing such a major part in making the new Dandy a reality!

Reaction to the revamp seems to be almost universally positive so far. The only dissenting voices I've seen are a few grumbles from the Daily Mail and its poor man's equivalent the Daily Star, both of which always seem to pander to a demographic that they assume are resistant to change.

Long live the new Dandy!

Anonymous said...

Bought the new Dandy today Nigel. What a disappointment. Jamie Smart's drawing is appalling, the word balloons are done in a nursery title fashion and it looks as if it's been thrown together in five minutes. Only your own artwork looks professional, but didn't think much of the story. which was only mildly amusing. Most of the rest is strictly amateursville. Doubt I'll buy it again.

NP said...

Well at last you bought one. They can't say you didn't give it a try. Cheers!

Anonymous said...

I bought a new Dandy and threw it at my 9 year old this week.

He's not a big comic reader - just the occasional Beano funsize and a yearly Beano Annual, but he loved this.

He disappeared and read it cover to cover in one sitting (A first for him with a comic!)

Harry Hill was the star of the comic and Pre Skool Prime Minister, Robot on the Run, Postman Prat and George Vs. Dragon all scored highly in his opinion.

He also made an immediate request for me to buy next weeks issue - which of course I shall.

As an old fogey and lifetime comic reader there are bits I don't like, but I recognise that that is just the traditionalist in me resistant to change. I can also recognise that it has great appeal to it's target audience - The kids. And that's just the way it should be.

Well done everyone involved. Looking forward to next Wednesday :-)

David

Kid said...

I'm not quite sure why someone would post an "anonymous" comment and then give their name at the end of it. It sort of defeats the purpose.

Anyway, bought a DANDY yesterday - read it - found it mildly amusing in places. I tend to agree with the less than enthusiastic responses to it, especially the one about the lettering. It's got a sort of pre-school infant look to it, like TWINKLE or LITTLE STAR, but it's also difficult to read, I found.

Also, I didn't find any of the strips particularly strong enough or interesting enough to make me want to pick up the next issue. I can't fault your artwork, NP, but the comic would benefit from the presence of someone like TOM PATERSON and his LEO BAXENDALE-style of cartooning to complement yours, rather than some of the stuff which did appear.

I suspect the fact that it wouldn't be considered "good form" for one contributor to criticize the work of another is what accounts for artists of your own calibre in generously refraining from calling a spade a spade, so to speak. However, I operate under no such restrictions - I paid my money and am entitled to my opinion - which is that some of the artwork is simply not good enough by any standards to appear in a professional publication.

I think DCT have somewhat missed the point in this regard. They seem to be of the opinion that sales of comics are generally in decline because kids don't really respond to the "traditional" style of artwork, and therefore a more "radical" style is needed. I don't think the artwork was ever the problem - the problem was that - overall - the scripts just weren't funny enough.

Will the new DANDY be a success in the long term? Time will tell, I suppose - but I wouldn't bet on it.

David Dovey said...

@Kid

I posted 'Anonymous' as I've never posted on these things before and didn't really understand the choice of buttons.
I don't have a Google Account or OpenID and the URL thing confused me in 'Name/URL' as I thought I'd have to link to a website if I used that. Hence I selected Anonymous but added my name, as I didn't really want to be anonymous! I see now that URL is optional!
Sorry to confuse.

Kid said...

Well, okay - you can have your supper this time. But if it ever happens again then it's straight to your room, m'lad.

Mike Hobart said...

Stumbled across the new DANDY in a newsagency in Tasmania last week. Really nice to see it back. (Of course I would have preferred to see Desperate Dan on the cover but you can't have everything.)

NP said...

Dan was on the cover at least twice in the last six months, since the revamp. Keep looking.