Today's DANDY

Here's a glimpse at today's new Harry Hill story, We also did Little Gordon Ramsey, where my appreciation of early Hulk stories in SMASH! can be identified!

Count Arthur

Yesterday evening I travelled all the way to Manchester to watch five people record a radio show. Yes, that's right, watched a radio show! Here they are:

Alistair Kerr, Mel Geidroyc, Count Arthur Strong, Barry Cryer and Dave Mounfield.

A splendid time was had by all.

Dennis, take a Bow!

Sometimes you get asked to do a one-off, special drawing. Sometimes it's forgotten about and only remembered when it falls out of a pile of other stuff - like this one did yeaterday! I don't know why Dennis is charming the Liver birds from the Liver Building with his awful guitar playing- but as it was only published in a Liverpool newspaper you may like to see it!

The New Dandy

Well, it's one week old, the second issue is out, and I was going to post more stuff about it but decided I couldn't say it any better than our friends over at ComicsUK, who, over the last seven days collectively think:

• • I bought a copy and whisked it off home for a read and, I must say, found it bloody brilliant! I loved the new strips and the comic itself was full of excitement. I just loved it. Now I can't wait for next week's issue.  Welcome back, Dandy. You have been missed.
  • CONGRATULATIONS to the creators, the editorial team and DCT for being bold with this relaunch.
  • I will let my sons read it as well (they are 12 and 10) and try to post their opinions in next few days but I think they are going to LOVE it!
  • Just read it. FANTASTIC! Enjoyed it from start to finish, I love Jamie's little doodle characters throughout the comic!
  • I've read it...liked the flavour of it..also some nice puzzles to make the Dandy last longer.. this is a comic worth keeping and rereading..Also Postman Prat is fun!! The best of all has to be Harry Hill and Pre Skool Prime Minister liked how he stopped a nuclear war. Also love the different colours on each border..
  • I like the Dandy better than The Beano!! Great to see zany and silly in large doses in the comics again..
  • After all this fuss, I just had to have a look through this comic today: bright and colourful, with much better quality paper than the DANDY I remember. [twice as many pages as I remember as well]: very 21st-Century outlook and design.
  • The cartoonists and writers all seem to have had great fun working on this, and I wish this new update of the comic great success.
  • The comic certainly does stand out on the shelf. It's design is very modern and not like any other comics.
  • Bought it, read it, loved it!
  • I am really really impressed. The artwork is great and the stories are funny. I think Harry Hill is fab and Postman Prat has so much potential. I always liked Desperate Dan,but now he's in another league -I was looking at some of his recent strips on Jamie's website. Very funny.
  • Very nice looking comic indeed, if I was 10 years old again I'd be a happy bunny with this version - lovely bright colours , great paper and modern art styles
  • Liked all the strip art (the stories are aimed at kids and go over my head re humour, but if was 10 I'd be gutting myself lol) in particular I really liked George V Dragon,Harry Hill and Kid Cops.
  • I think the new Dandy is brilliant. It's all comic strip, and all the comic strips are good.
  • Picked my copy up this morning as an old fart I found it refreshing, I now declare Dandy the best humour comic on the market.
  • Some good art and stories, I tended to like the strips that had some familiar detailed background to them, like Harry Hill,Postman Prat,Little Simon & Pepperoni Pig,
  •  Well done everyone who has worked on the new 'Dandy'I hope it's a great success and I don't see why not.
  • Got the New Dandy, really liked it There's several strips in there that I'll happily buy it every week in order to read.
  • I'll add myself to the list of people who are massively impressed at Wayne's range of art styles
  • As a 54 year old I picked up the new Dandy expecting not to be impressed but the opposite turned out to be the case. I like it. It is alive!
  • t's a MASSIVE improvement from the quality of the paper as soon as you pick it up you know your in for a treat. Im sure the kids will love it. It's a real contender,it looks like the Beano has it's old rival back and the games on to win over the kiddies with two top quality productions! Strips like the new bananaman made me chuckle just for the drawing style and poses, very lively! Same goes for the energy in Harry Hill and the others it's got a great boisterous attitudeit's a fabulous production huge congratulations to everyone who was involved, you have made me feel more optimistic about the future of British comics!
  • My personal favourite was George and Dragon, but I did like the Harry Hill script as it harks back to the feel of the Krazy Gang in Cheeky.The funniest thing was listening to my 16 year old moaning that the likeness of Simon Cowell wasn't good enough!
  • I grabbed a copy yesterday, and I have to say I was so impressed. Its fresh and just what was needed. It would be great for the beano and dandy rivalry to return, now that the Dandy is a comic again

Nicely put.

44 years? surely some Mistake?

Apparently this comic is 44 years old today - that of course cannot be true as I read it and loved it as a child. So it can't be THAT long ago- anyaway, let's have a look at it:
1. Cover- these covers were awaited with bated breath and near-hysteria every Wednesday morning in the 60s, as they provided the ONLY colour photos of the Thunderbirds, Stingray or Fireball models.
2. Speaking of which, this Fireball XL5 page by Mike Noble is from the era where he achieved what many consider his finest work. I personally prefer his earlier fireball work, but I wouldn't go to war about it.
3. Bill Titcombe again at his peak, with that casual, cool style that personified 1960s cartooning.
4. John M Burns, in his early days but already so distinctive and brilliant. Can you believe we had to make do with his black and white pages way back then?!
5. Back cover by Ron Turner, again at his peak, and what a terrific sense of design.
(If you're wondering why I didn't include Frank Bellamy's Thunderbirds, at the time of this particular issue, he was taking a break to design the Winged Avenger images for The Avengers ABC TV series.)

With all these guys working at or near their full potential, is it any wonder we sad 1960's readers look back with fondest memories at those days?

Dandy Day Again

Yes, it's week 2 of the NEW all-funny Dandy so I'm off to buy a couple and I hope you do, too, it can't hurt and you may get a laugh or ten out of it. This week, Harry Hill finds out exactly how many cooks spoil the broth.                                  

Dennis goes a little (tea)potty

Sometimes it's required for this sort of thing to happen. Over the summer, I was asked to paint this teapot, so I did. You can't buy one, it was a one-off for charity. And that's about it. Cheers!

From the Archive

1993 and I'd been drawing 'Baywatch' for 37 weeks (according to the numbers at the bottom of the page!). I would continue to do so for another 26 weeks or so. This was written by Nick Pemberton, who had written for stage and TV (certainly 'Brookside'), and would later write 'Hadrian's Heroes' for me, and drawn (and coloured) by me. At that time I used dip pen, W&N black ink and Pantone pens to colour (the original health-draining ones!) I did my own lettering as well, can't recall anything about how I did it, except it was done on overlay. The title logo took HOURS to get right.

French Light

I've had this cool-looking Jielde signal desk lamp for several years- and it's been pretty good until the last few months, when it's taken upon itself the inability to move! I can't angle it anywhere, anyhow, any time. Anything other than this angle (left) and it falls flat on it's face. Any ideas? it's a French 'design classic', you know the one I mean.

A Certain supermarket

A certain supermarket has had a big display of The Dandy this week - and has sold quite a few copies - there are 60 in this pic, the following day there were 10 - so, good sales thus far? Hope so!