Here comes Summer!

Summer Specials for both The Dandy and The Beano should be arriving in the shops in June, or you could order them directly from the publisher DC Thomson. (Update: Available around June 16th.) 

Yes, although The Dandy sadly ended as a weekly in 2012 it still continues as a Summer Special and an Annual. I'm not sure how much of The Dandy Summer Special 2015 is new or how much is classic reprint, but I know some of its contents are new. (Nothing by me in there I'm afraid.)

According to the cover blurb, The Beano Summer Activity Special contains "All New Beanotown Adventures", but I haven't seen either Special yet so I don't have a clue as to the contents. Covers for both issues are by Nigel Parkinson.

I presume that, as with last year's editions, both publications will be in the squarebound 'bookazine' format with card covers. 

Summer has well and truly arrived!

D.C. Thomson have moved into merchandise quite a bit in recent years, with various items available using their comic brands. Amongst the items you can now buy are a Dennis the Menace long-sleeved stripey T-shirt, a box of 100 Beano postcards, and T-shirts featuring covers from Jackie comics magazine. Check out the DC Thomson Shop for more information.  

All images in this post are Copyright © D.C. Thomson and Co. Ltd.

Summer Specials 2014

The Summer Specials finally arrived at my local shops yesterday (although they've been in some parts of the country for a couple of weeks). These days they're no longer in the tabloid format they had years ago, but they're twice as thick and squarebound with sturdy card covers. 

The Dandy Summer Special 2014 has caused a little controversy in some fan circles because last year's edition promised to be the "Last Ever". Indeed, that was the intention, until WH Smith suggested to DC Thomson that as it sold so well it might be a good idea to continue it. This last minute decision to revive the title sadly meant that there was no time to commission new material (save for covers by Mike D) but what we have instead is a fine collection of reprints spanning the 1960s to 2010. Yes, as some have noted, one page of a Blinky story is printed twice by mistake (due to the short production time), but hopefully the other 66 pages in the comic will prove sufficiently rewarding. My opinion: focus on the positives. There's a lot of misery in life but a mistake in a comic isn't part of it.

I was particularly pleased to see one of my favourite Smasher strips by Hugh Morren from The Dandy Summer Special 1967, and a Dudley Watkins Desperate Dan from that year too. And look, - The Smasher strip features a teacher whacking him. It seems Political Correctness hasn't gone mad after all. 

There are also a couple of Winker Watson strips by Eric Roberts (from the 1970s I think) and a 1983 Brassneck strip by Bill Holroyd. For those of you with more recent nostalgia, there's a good selection of material from the 1980s and 1990s too.

The Beano Summer Activity Special 2014 contains a free gift of bound-in stickers, although a few people have reported these are not in their copies so check before you buy. 

The Beano one is all new, and features a good balance of comic strips and puzzle pages. Only the main Beano characters are included, so there's plenty of fun with Dennis, Minnie, Bash Street etc. but no appearances by Rasher, Tricky Dicky and suchlike. 

Both specials should now be available from WH Smith, Asda, and other retailers at £4.99 each for 68 pages. 

General Jumbo saved my life! (Perhaps.)

When I was growing up we lived in an area where there was a bridge at the end of the street leading to the nearby fields. There was a railway line below, often used by freight trains and passenger trains. I used to play in those fields a lot, as did other kids. Some of the kids used to play down the embankment and trespass on the track. I never did. My parents had warned me not to of course, but it was something else which was the main deterrent. The Beano Summer Special 1964.

That first Beano Summer Special contained a two page General Jumbo story drawn by Dave Sutherland in which a boy had his foot trapped between the rails as the points changed. It stuck with me forever. 

Back then, when I was only 5 years old, I hadn't developed the habit of saving comics so I threw out the special after I'd read it. However, this image was so powerful that it was committed to memory...

...and I also remembered there was an oncoming train in the story...

I found that panel with the trapped foot such a powerful image that even to this day, 50 years later, it comes to mind sometimes if I'm near a railway track. Heck, it even springs to mind every time I walk over the tramlines at Blackpool! Even though there were no points on the stretch of track at the bottom of my street, the message that trespassing on the lines was dangerous still hit home.

Back then, after throwing out the comic, the details of the story were mainly forgotten. (For years I'd misremembered it as Jumbo himself getting his foot trapped.) The only panels that were burned into my mind were the one with the foot trapped and the onrushing train. I knew that in reality there would be no toy soldiers to save the day, so the message was clear: keep off the track!  Subsequently I never played on, or crossed, the track as a kid. (Or as an adult, in case you were wondering.)

As far as I know, no one was ever killed or injured on the railway line near my old house, and perhaps I'd have been safe too, but thanks to that General Jumbo story I didn't chance it. 

As I said, that Beano Summer Special is long gone but a few years ago comics historian Ray Moore kindly sent me a photocopy of that story which I'm showing here. So thanks to Ray, thanks to artist Dave Sutherland for drawing such an influential image, thanks to whoever wrote it, and thanks to General Jumbo for (perhaps) saving my life.

Images Copyright © DC Thomson & Co. Ltd. Click on the strip to see it at a readable size.