If you'd like to hear some idiot cartoonist called Nigel Parkinson waffling on for five minutes about what he does and doesn't know about the Dandy,
click here- it's a two hour show and I'm on at the 50 minute mark. It'll be up till Wednesday 22nd August.
4 comments:
Very interesting, NP, but while it's true that sales of most printed publications are on the down-side, there are still some that far outsell The Dandy by a wide margin. And for sales to plummet by half within months of the relaunch tends to suggest that it wasn't popular and, in fact, had something to do with it. Not that it was your fault of course. Without your artwork (and one or two others), circulation would probably have declined far sooner. (Don't be modest now.) At least, that's my take on it - I don't expect you to necessarily agree.
I get the feeling that had the 2010 revamp happened in 2007 (i.e. Xtreme never happened), this situation wouldn't have got so bad so fast. The problem is, the comics fans deserted the Dandy when it went Xtreme, the kids who liked the non-comics ditched it in 2010, and those fans that ditched the Dandy in 2007 never came back and weren't replaced. Xtreme was a grave, and ultimately fatal, mistake, one which DCT themselves have admitted - the fact it has one page in The Art and History of the Dandy, not a full chapter, speaks volumes.
Comics are a well-loved part of the childhoods of several generations. In the fifties I hesitated between Dandy and Beano, and then moved on to one called "Adventure" - my mum approved as it was more like a book as it had fewer pictures, but that closed to become "Rover and Adventure", so closures and mergers seem to be a part of general comic history. I suppose certain playstation games or something equivalent will evoke similar memories in today's youngsters as they grow up. Every time I see Jessie J's jawline I'm reminded of Captain Hurricane.
Very nicely said, Nigel - it's such a shame it had to end though but like you said "Buy a copy this week and if you like it - buy it again next week." because after all, there#s still life in that dying publication yet!
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