Is The Dandy Doomed To Die?

The Dandy, launched on 4th December 1937 is the world's longest running comic, bringing laughter and smiles into the homes of millions of children around the world. In it's heyday, the comic sold two million copies a week, featuring characters such as Desperate Dan, Korky the Cat and Brassneck.

When The Dandy relaunched two years ago, D.C. Thomson were taking a bold move, taking in new artists to handle a majority of the comic. Artists like Andy Fanton, Stu Munro and Nik Holmes. 

But now D.C. Thomson have come forwards, and it's time to face the worst - the end of The Dandy. A spokesperson stated: "We are carrying out a review of our magazines business to meet the challenges of the rapidly changing publishing industry. There are many challenges within the industry at present, but we're excited that the digital revolution has also given us an opportunity to innovate and develop. We're confident that future generations will continue to enjoy our much-loved products and characters."

They went on to say: "The major difficulty comics have is their distribution, kids have other things to spend their time and money on these days like playing computer games and things like that, We do workshops and lots of kids want to create their own stories and do enjoy reading them, but there are definitely challenges." 

They stated that whilst they may close the comic itself, the stories would continue to survive online, and popular characters such as Desperate Dan would appear in it's sister comic - The Beano.

I'm sure that nobody reading this wants The Dandy to be fade away, but what can you do to change Thomson's minds? The answer is simple - buy a Dandy!

And maybe send them an email or two. Or three.


The Dandy - out every Wednesday, only £1.99!

Jamie Smart has written an excelent blog piece here:

http://www.fumboo.com/blog/the-dandy-to-close/

And you can read more here: 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/aug/13/oldest-comic-the-dandy-faces-closure

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-19248459

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2188036/The-Dandy-Britains-oldest-comic-faces-closure-75-years-sales-fall-just-8-000-week.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/the-dandy-comic-is-set-to-be-closed-by-publisher-1260182