Dandy Comics

It was the job of Albert Barnes, The Dandy Comic editor to usher in a new era in British comics. On 4th December 1937, The Dandy Comic, as it was originally called, made its debut. The Dandy differed from its predecessors in a number of new and innovative ways. The Dandy rejected the broadsheet format of its contemporaries and adopted the tabloid size of the story papers. The Dandy also introduced the use of speech balloons inside some of the stories although not all of them. Some of the stories retained the traditional style of having a picture with the text written beneath.

A character who was never in a story, but had an unbroken run of 23 years was the Dandy Bellboy. He used to appear next to The Dandy title on the front cover of each issue, and at the end of each text story, where he would let you know what would happen in the following issue. He was to last until October 1960. Other famous characters which appeared over the first couple of years were James Crighton's feline creation, Korky The Cat - who hardly spoke from 1937 to 1942, Desperate Dan and Our Gang (drawn by Dudley D. Watkins), Hungry Horace and Keyhole Kate (Both drawn By Allan Morley), Wig And Wam (by Sam Fair), Podge (by Roberts) and Freddy The Fearless Fly .
 
Both The Dandy and The Beano were launched prior to the war. Both comics were both effected and influenced by the onset of the Second World War. In practical terms The Dandy had to restrict its publication from once a week to once a fortnight due to paper shortages and other restrictions. The Dandy was also influenced by the war and reflected this in its story lines. Many characters were enlisted in the war effort. Desperate Dan acted as a human minesweeper, tied German aircraft to the moon and joined the RAF where he blew the Nazi air force out of the sky.

As for The Dandy, it was joined by artists Bill Holroyd (1948) and Paddy Brennan (1949). Bill's Dandy work gave us Plum McDuff (1948), Wuzzy Wiz - Magic Is His Biz (1949), The Streakolight Express (1954), the great Screwy Driver (1955), Boy With Iron Hands (1959), Jo White And The 7 Dwarfs (1963), Brassneck (1964), Spunky And His Spider (1968) - could they still use a title like that in todays Dandy? and the colourful Jack Silver (1973).

Paddy Brennan also worked on The Beano, Dandy, Topper, Beezer and even Cracker. His work for The Dandy included Sir Solomon Snoozer (1949), Rusty (1950) - a very firm favourite of mine, Fighting Forkbeard - The Sea Wolf From Long Ago (1951), Willie Willikin's Pobble (1952) - the unusual creature who could only say, "pobble", Lionheart Logans (1955), the very popular, Robin Hood (1958), Around The World In 80 Days (1959), Crackaway Twins (1960), Island Of Monsters (1969) and Ironhands (1971). Paddy's work schedule included many famous Beano stories like, Jimmy And His Magic Patch (1950), The Shipwrecked Circus (1951), Red Rory Of The Eagle (1952) and General Jumbo (1953). Paddy sadly passed away in the early 1980's.

On 17th June 1950, the title changed from The Dandy Comic to The Dandy. The Beano did likewise. This was simply because no-one ever refered to the publications by their full name. A bit like Battle Picture Weekly which was always called 'Battle'.

Other stories that appeared during the 1950's were, Tin Lizzie (1955), Just Jimmy (1956), Charlie The Chimp (1957), The Smasher (1957.

By 1960 Robinson And His Dog Crusoe were on page 2, while Charlie The Chimp still had two pages of text narrated stories. In fact, 7 of The Dandy's 12 pages consisted of text narrated stories which included Ginger's Super Jeep, Young Dandy, The Boy With Iron Hands and Black Bob . Also in 1960 we saw the start of Dirty Dick and Ali Ha-Ha , then on the 12th November 1960 it was the beginning of the excellent Corporal Clott by David Law.