This week in 1965...

I haven't done one of these for a while, where I look back at several comics from years ago that were published in the same week. Above is my photo of how a newsagents counter may have looked this week exactly 50 years ago when all of these issues were on sale! Half a Century ago! Blimey!

Let's start off with the issue of Valiant that went on sale Saturday 20th February 1965. Cover by Mike Western which looked back on other events of this week in times past...

Inside, the dark, tense artwork of Solano Lopez with the latest Kelly's Eye chapter. These old strips certainly knew how to deliver a great cliffhanger!

As the topline on the cover promised, this issue saw the start of a new adventure with The Wild Wonders, drawn by Mike Western...

A good horror/mystery serial in Valiant at that time was Jack O'Justice, drawn by Tom Kerr... 

That issue also carried a half page ad for that week's Buster and The Big One which featured a free gift...

Monday 22nd February 1965 saw the publication of The Dandy No.1214 with a very amusing Korky the Cat strip drawn by Charlie Grigg...

Inside, Dudley D. Watkins proved what a master comic artist he was with a Desperate Dan strip with 17 panels on one page...

The Smasher was up to mischief as usual, drawn by Hugh Morren. Note the advert at the foot of the page, heralding the start of Greedy Pigg the following week! (Greedy Pigg would replace George Martin's Sunny Boy which ended that week.)

The Dandy carried a regular feature page back then called My Home Town. Humour illustrations by Frank McDiarmid, with the 'straight' artwork by Thomson staff artist Alan Gibson. (Thanks to Ray Moore for correcting me on that.) Note the ads for that week's Bimbo and Diana at the bottom of the page...

The same day saw the publication of Wham! No.37, with a cover by Graham Allen doing his best to 'ghost' Leo Baxendale's style...

This issue of Wham! saw the debut of two new strips. In actuality they were both reprints from Swift. Western serial Johnny Straight by Don Lawrence was a re-lettered reprint of Wells Fargo...

...whilst The Bouncers by Peter Maddocks was also reprinted from Swift.

The rest of Wham! was still all-new though, and worth every penny. Especially with Leo Baxendale's glorious centre-spread strip Eagle Eye: Doomsday School...

This week in 1965 saw the publication of TV21 No.6. (Apologies for my copy having a bit missing from the cover.)

An important issue as it saw Mike Noble's arrival to TV21, taking over the art duties on Fireball XL5...

On the back page, The Daleks were proving to be more devious and cunning than they'd be portrayed in some of their TV appearances. Artwork by Richard Jennings...

Sparky was also on issue No.6 that week. Cover by Ron Spencer. My apologies if anyone is offended by the strip. Presented as it was in different times. Thankfully things have moved on since.

The centre pages featured another adventure with Dreamy Dave and Dozy Dora with artwork by George Ramsbottom. (Thanks to Ray Moore for that info.) One of the weirdest things about this strip was that every week the sleepy siblings shared the same dream! 

On the back page, another nice Moonsters strip by Bill Ritchie...

Just a few examples of the wide variety of strips from the many British comics that were available 50 years ago. It was a great time to be a child!

Here comes Brassneck! (1964)

It's been just a few weeks over 50 years since Brassneck made his debut in the pages of The Dandy. The character must have proven popular as he'd return again and again many times over the years. I was certainly a big fan of the strip back in 1964.

The strip was heralded a week earlier, in The Dandy No.1201 (dated November 28th 1964) with a small ad (shown above). DC Thomson's art staff could always design a good ad and this was a great teaser for the series. Brassneck was to replace Joe White and the Seven Dwarfs which had concluded that week. 

A week later, in The Dandy No.1202 (dated Dec. 5th 1964, on sale Nov.30th) Brassneck's adventures began! For the first few episodes, Brassneck had three pages, which then reduced to its standard length of two pages. The artist was the excellent Bill Holroyd, who was perfectly suited to this type of comedy adventure story.

Here's that very first episode, with Chuckler Charley Brand (they soon dropped the 'Chuckler') meeting his new metal pal all those years ago. Click on each page to see it larger. 

Christmas Comics: The DANDY (1998)

Throughout its 75 year run The Dandy was a top class comic, and the Christmas issue of 1998 was no exception. A fantastic front cover by Keith Robson served as a perfect taster for an excellent edition. 

There was so much good material in this issue that it wasn't easy narrowing it down to a few to show here but here we go, starting with an Owen Goal page by Nigel Parkinson and a really nicely designed festive logo...

On page 10, Beryl the Peril by Robert Nixon, who excelled at Christmas scenes. Just look at that final panel, crammed with festive iconography...

Next, The Smasher drawn by Brian Walker. Just about as Christmas as it gets. Excellent stuff.

This issue had a number of special one-off strips, such as The Night Before Christmas by Ken Harrison...

There were three pages of jokes in this issue under the title Tis the Season to be Jolly, all by different illustrators. This one was by veteran artist Ken Hunter...

Finally, a text story, Bedtime Tales by Bradley Bedsock. Actually it was illustrated by Dave Sutherland...

Another Christmas treat soon. Which year will the Blimey-Timey Machine choose next? 

Arena documentary on comics (1988)

Just a quick post today as I'm very busy this month. In 1988, the BBC arts programme Arena took a trip to Dundee to film a documentary on The Dandy and The Beano. It interviewed Dandy editor Morris Heggie, Beano editor Euan Kerr, and Beezer editor Alan Digby (later to become a Beano editor). The first editor of The Dandy, Albert Barnes, and The Beano's first editor, George Moonie, also appear in the documentary along with several others including Leo Baxendale.

Some of you will have seen it before, but it may be new to others. It's on You Tube in three parts. Part 1 is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FiMdohGcEs

Part 2: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=702wXJi9lCQ

Part 3: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6gbHXH6a_k

TV ad for The Dandy (2004)

In 2004 sales of The Dandy were continuing to fall so it received quite a drastic revamp with a new logo, more pages, glossier look, new design, new strips, etc. DC Thomson even splashed out on TV advertising (something comics had given up on in the 1980s). Here's the ad...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3VocrV1yOg

Sadly it didn't stem the fall in sales faced by all comics. Nor did the next revamp in 2007 (to Dandy Xtreme) or the final revamp in 2010, but each attempt should be applauded for at least trying to improve the situation. And at least it went out on a high with the creativity and variety of its last two years. 

(Incidentally, whoever posted that ad to YouTube made the mistake of thinking it was advertising a 75th anniversary relaunch! It was definitely for the 2004 issues.) 

The Comics that won The War!

Who could have believed that in 2014 we'd see an annual with a cover strip featuring Big Eggo blowing up Adolf Hitler and Hermann Goering? That's exactly what we get with The Beano and The Dandy: The Comics that won The War!, the latest collection of classic DC Thomson strips. 

These archive books have been published every year since the 50 Golden Years book in 1987 and I think this is the best one yet. Many of the previous books have often chopped up strips or overlapped pages to present a busy layout to appeal to children, but this one presents full page strips with no intrusions or redesigning. It gives the impression that this book is aimed at the older reader and the collectors so I hope it sells well in order to encourage DC Thomson to stick to this design.

The contents are marvelous, with numerous strips scanned from wartime editions of The Dandy and The Beano. My only quibble is that most of the art is uncredited, which isn't what one expects from a book aimed at collectors. 

One artist who is given his due is Dudley Watkins, and there's a fantastic pencil sketch of his in here that I've never seen before. There are also many of his Desperate Dan and Lord Snooty strips reprinted, showcasing some very bizarre and surreal stories. 

Just when you think the book is solely about The Dandy and The Beano it throws a curveball with some fantastic cover art from The Rover, The Skipper and The Hotspur story papers. 

There are also a few post-war strips that had WW2 themes, such as a complete Blitz Boy story from an early sixties Dandy Book, drawn by Paddy Brennan.

One of the weirdest strips in the book is a Wild Boy of the Woods episode which features a giant robot Hitler! That's right, - a giant robot Hitler! So bizarre it's worth the cover price alone. 

All in all, The Beano and The Dandy: The Comics that won The War is an excellent collection and deserves a place on the bookshelves of every collector of British comics. The R.R.P. is £12.99 but you'll find it cheaper than that if you shop around. 

Return of the Summer Special - Part 2

When I posted about the 2000AD Sci-Fi Special making it's comeback last month there was some other news I couldn't reveal at the time. Today, DC Thomson have released the news so I guess it's ok to mention that there will also be Summer Specials for both The Dandy and The Beano. 

The Dandy Summer Special 2014 is 68 pages collecting a bunch of classic stories from Specials of the past. Although last year's collection boldly stated it was the "Last Ever" Dandy Summer Special, it obviously sold well enough for a rethink. (Amazingly, some shops still have last year's Special on sale!)

The Beano Summer Activity Special also has 68 pages, but filled with all-new content. Strips will focus on the core Beano characters (Dennis, Minnie, Roger, etc), plus there'll be lots of activity/puzzle pages and free stickers.  

I understand that both Summer Specials will be in the shops on July 2nd, but you can order them right now from the DC Thomson website:

https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/the-dandy-summer-special-2014.html

https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/the-beano-summer-special-2014.html

UPDATE: Both specials are also available to buy as a discounted double pack:
https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/our-brands/dandy/books-comics/the-beano-and-dandy-summer-special-pack-2014.html

David Torrie

I was sorry to hear of the passing of former DC Thomson editor David Torrie last week. Mr.Torrie worked for the company from 1961 to 2006, editing a number of comics including The Dandy in the early 1980s, the Fun-Size editions of Beano and Dandy, and serving as the first editor of Classics from the Comics. He gave artists such as Nigel Parkinson their first work on The Dandy and is affectionately remembered by those who worked with him.

More information can be found at The Courier website:
http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/obituaries/former-editor-of-the-dandy-david-torrie-1.382445

My condolences to Mr.Torrie's family and friends for their loss.

The photograph above shows David Torrie at a DC Thomson get-together in 2010 talking to Minnie the Minx artist Jim Petrie. My thanks to artist Keith Robson for sending it to me.