Jamie Smart’s Desperate Dan takes on Dennis, also drawn here by Jamie in this week’s Arena Of Awesome. Ad knocked together by Andy Fanton. Too cool.

76 pages for a penny under £4. Currently on Molly’s bedside table. Available pretty much anywhere for the next couple of weeks.

(Pic from, and more details at, Lew Stringer’s blog.)

Out tomorrow, cover by Nigel Parkinson. Harry Hill would be the thing that Parkinson was talking about here then:

“What was needed was something so unusual, so daring, so big, so appealing, that all the other components would slot into place naturally. …. I was sceptical, but I made The Phone Call. And it took 5 seconds to make it happen!” (from his blog 13th Oct)

The spirit of Film Fun is alive and well in The Dandy it seems, bringing back the celebrity strip – hopefully it will do the trick. Everyone down to the newsagents 9am tomorrow.

UPDATE – Both Lew Stringer and Nigel Parkinson have posted more information on the comic and the strips at their blogs. Strips include Harry Hill, two by Lew Stringer (Kid Cops and Postman Prat), Jamie Smart on Desperate Dan, Bananaman and Korky The Kat.

(Pic from The Dandy Facebook page)

This week we’ll see issue 3508 of The Dandy on the shelves of local newsagents over the country. Gone is Dandy Xtreme, in it’s place we’ll get what is being touted as the The all-new, all-different Dandy.

I know we’ve heard all that before, and whenever any sort of revamp of either The Beano or The Dandy is on the horizon there’s usually an awful lot of hype, lots of wailing about horrible changes in the redtop papers and we’re usually given something only slightly different from what was on the shelves the week before.

(Four Dandy covers through the ages: 1946, 1982, 2006, 2010. Images kindly borrowed from Lew Stringers excellent blog, where he has even more covers and much commentary.)

But this time it seems to be something different. For a start there’s very few people really talking about it beyond speculation and rumours. Sure, little sneak peeks have been slipping out and there are rumours everywhere, but until it’s unveiled on Wednesday, we’re not going to really know.

It was a big source of speculation last weekend at BICS though, with a lot of artists really talking it up as something special.

The good news is that it’s reverting to a weekly publication, and it’s dropping in price to £1.50 each week. And possibly best of all, gone are the text pieces, quizes and other magazine features from Dandy Xtreme. The new Dandy is promised as being nearly 100% comics – just like it should be.

The logo at the top of this piece is meant to be the new logo (although absolutely nothing is confirmed yet), designed by Jamie Smart, who’s rumoured to be continuing his brilliant Desperate Dan strips (examples at Jamie’s site here)..

(The Desperate Dan next issue trailer by Jamie Smart)

Steve Holland has various bits of news at Bear Alley, including a look at his estimated Dandy sales, which includes this rather horrifying stat: “Sales of Dandy have been collapsing for some years, shedding 23,000 (61%) readers in four years.” Which pretty much tells you exactly why this sort of potentially radical revamp is needed. Could this be a last roll of the dice?

So far the only confirmed strips are:

George Vs Dragon by comics newcomer Andy Fanton.

Robot On The Run by Alexander Matthews.

Lew Stringer has two new strips, including this one – the picture above is labelled blurP, but like Lew says here, you really shouldn’t assume a blurred picture labelled blurP is the name of the character.

Perhaps the most intriguing online voice so far has been artist Nigel Parkinson, who’s been posting cryptic speculations about the release like these:

“What I can tell you is, no matter HOW excited you may be feeling about this new Dandy, my guess is that it will be NOTHING compared to how excited you will be when you actually hold it in your hands and DOUBLE NOTHING compared to how excited everyone involved is!” (13th Oct)

“What was needed was something so unusual, so daring, so big, so appealing, that all the other components would slot into place naturally. So he asked me if I could help, by circumventing the usual red tape and long negotiations that would normally surround such a big step and often prove so daunting that proposed projects never see daylight. I was sceptical, but I made The Phone Call. And it took 5 seconds to make it happen!” (13th Oct again)

So, what is the ”something so unusual, so daring, so big, so appealing?” No one knows, not yet.

Wed 27th October.  Head to the newsagents with your £1.50. I think I will.

All images © DC Thompson.