It was never going to be easy to comfortably cover 80 years of Dandy history into one 68 page comic and still please readers of all ages, but this special makes a good job of it. Personally I'd have liked to have seen more pages on the 1960s (represented solely by a couple of Winker Watson strips) but that's just me.
In most cases, the special attempts to represent how Dandy characters have changed over the years, so we get examples of a (very early) Desperate Dan strip by Dudley Watkins, compared to ones by Ken Harrison and Jamie Smart.
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| Desperate Dan's first cover strip is reprinted in full. |
We also get several examples of Korky the Cat by various artists, but the character has undergone so many redesigns over the years that even that only cat-scratches the surface. A nice selection though!
With space being limited, it surprised me that ten pages are taken up with a five-part Jack Silver story from 1981. Artwork by Bill Holroyd is always welcome of course, but it's a shame so much of Jack Silver meant there was no room for memorable characters such as Corporal Clott, Black Bob, Brassneck, and more. No straight adventure strips are represented either, so there's no Umbrella Men, Iron Hands, or Crimson Ball.
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| Jack Silver by Bill Holroyd. |
Apart from Jamie Smart's Desperate Dan, none of the 2010 revamp is covered, but the 2004 redesign is, along with samples of Wayne Thompson's Jak. The back of the bookazine features a cover gallery of selected annuals and specials. (Sadly, one summer special cover is stretched to fit, giving Korky an odd shaped head.)
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| Cuddles and Dimples by Nigel Parkinson. |
If this comes across as a bit negative, don't be put off. These are just things that niggled me a little personally, but over all, the Special is a very nice selection of top quality strips and a reminder of just how great The Dandy was. It credits a lot of the artists too, which would have been unthinkable when some of these strips were first printed. A good sign of how things have changed for the better at D.C. Thomson.
I felt it was a bit strange that there was no mention whatsoever that the weekly comic actually ended five years ago, but as the Dandy brand survives in the all-new annual every year, and a reprint special every summer, it still counts as celebrating its 80th birthday.
The Dandy 80th Birthday Special, 68 pages, bookazine format, out now for £6.99.
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