The Dandy (comics)

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Desperate Dan himself.

The Dandy is a long-running children's comic published in the United Kingdom, running several different stories and characters. Published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. The first issue was printed in 1937, making it the world's third longest running comic, after Detective Comics and Il Giornalino.

The first issue, under the name The Dandy Comic, was published on 4 December 1937. It was published weekly until September 6th 1941, when wartime paper shortages forced it to switch to fortnightly, alternating with The Beano. It returned to its weekly schedule on 30 July 1949. From 17 July 1950, the magazine changed its name to just The Dandy.

After issue 3282 (October 16th 2004) The Dandy underwent a radical format change, reflecting a more television-oriented style, and printed on glossy magazine paper instead of newsprint. In August 2007 (issue 3426), The Dandy had another update, becoming the fortnightly comic Dandy Xtreme. It cost £2.75 (with some issues costing up to 2.99 depending on how many "gifts" there were). It later reverted to something like its original form, which limped on amid falling sales until its 75th anniversary (4th December 2012), after which it switched to an ill-fated online version. As of 2023, The Dandy survives solely as two annual publications, the Summer Special and the "Book", which has an unbroken run from the beginning.

See The Beano, The Dandy's partner-in-mischief.

Not to be confused with The Dandy.

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Tropes used in The Dandy (comics) include:

• Animated Adaptation: Banana Man
  • Conversely, there were Comic Book Adaptations of Our Gang (1937-47) and Potsworth and Company (1993-94)
• Boisterous Bruiser: Desperate Dan. In his early days he was something of a Jerkass, but he's quietened down over the years
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: New favourite Kid Cops always ends in one of these.
• Cool Pet: Dan has an elephant at one point, and a fierce cat that may have been a baby leopard. Just for the hell of it.
• Comics Merger : Merged with Hoot and Nutty (original home of Banana Man).
• Deconstructive Parody: Early Hitler satire, Addie and Hermie.
• Everything's Better with Monkeys: Monkey Business.
• Friend to All Children Desperate Dan is always solving the neighbourhood kids' problems in ridiculous, over-the-top ways.
• Generation Xerox: Dan's family tend to be rather hale and hearty, as well as having an Uncanny Family Resemblance.
  • This gets exceptionally disturbing when you meet Desperate Gran.
• Heroic Dimples: Desperate Dan is a giant, intimidating-looking cowboy, but his cheek dimples highlight his good faith — especially because he's extremely clumsy.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: Many titles and character names can fall into this, though it often become Narm Charm.
• Nephewism: Dan had Katey and Danny, whilst Korky the Cat had The Kits: Nip, Lip and Rrrip.
  • Put on a Bus: None of those nephews appear any more, even though both Dan and Korky remain in the comic.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Harry Hill became a cover star, even writing his own strip (with art courtesy of a long-time Dandy artist). Compared to the other strips in The Dandy, most of which are very much with the times, Harry's strip seems a little more in keeping with the tradition of The Dandy of yore - and all the better for it.
  • The new Dandy also saw more than one Affectionate Parody of some British Series, such as Deal or No Deal and Dragons' Den
• No Fourth Wall: As with The Beano, characters from The Dandy have been known to have a chat now and then with their writers and artists.
  • In one Dandy Book, Dan's greatest enemies Dangerous Dan McGrew and Cactusman managed to hold the editor of The Dandy hostage, so that they would always win. Naturally, they didn't succeed and Dan managed to pull a few strings with the editor of The Beano. The last page of Dan's story showed the two baddies on the cover of the latest issue of The Beano, reduced to picking daisies, where a certain spiky-haired youth observed them from a distance...
• Power-Up Food: Aunt Aggie's cow pies do fall under this category somewhat.
  • Played straight with Bananaman, who's normally a weedy schoolboy called Eric Wimp until he eats a banana and transforms.
• The Rival: Since The Eighties, Desperate Dan and Bananaman have had an on-again, off-again (i.e. whenver the writer for either strip can't think of anything and needs to spin a story out for a few weeks) rivalry to see who's the Dandy's Strongest Man.
• Robot Maid: The premise of the Tin Lizzie strip, which appeared in the 1950s.
• Spoiled Brat: Molly. Who has doormat parents.
• Take That: The Beano and The Dandy have a friendly rivalry which often involves taking popshots at each other (e.g. characters being threatened with the possibility of getting sent to the other comic).
• Trademark Favourite Food: Desperate Dan and Cow Pies.
• World's Strongest Man: Desperate Dan. One memorable strip (reproduced in the Beano and Dandy 50 Golden Years book) shows various exotic strongmen from countries all over the world competing, each of them lifting up huge weights, other people or even an elephant...only to reveal that Dan has tunnelled up from beneath and is holding up the podium, all the strongmen and everything they're lifting as well!