{"id":31158,"date":"2024-12-22T09:00:49","date_gmt":"2024-12-22T09:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=31158"},"modified":"2024-12-19T18:38:34","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T18:38:34","slug":"dandy-and-beano-present-the-comics-at-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/12\/22\/dandy-and-beano-present-the-comics-at-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Dandy and Beano Present The Comics at Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Robert Duncan Low<\/strong>, Dudley D. Watkins<\/strong>, Allan Morley<\/strong>, James Crichton<\/strong>, Davey Law<\/strong>, Eric Roberts<\/strong>, David Sutherland<\/strong>, Ken Reid<\/strong>, Bill Holroyd<\/strong>, Reg Carter<\/strong>, Jim Petrie<\/strong>, Malcolm Judge<\/strong>, Robert Nixon<\/strong>, Barrie Appleby<\/strong>, Gordon Bell<\/strong>, Sam Fair<\/strong>, John Brown<\/strong>, James Clark<\/strong>, Basil Blackaller<\/strong>, Vic Neill<\/strong>, Hugh Morren<\/strong>, Bob McGrath<\/strong>, Tom Paterson<\/strong>, John Sherwood<\/strong>, Hugh McNiel<\/strong>, Jimmy Hughes<\/strong>, Charlie Gordon<\/strong>, George Martin<\/strong>, Jack Prout<\/strong>, Sandy Calder<\/strong>, Charles Grigg<\/strong>, Ron Spencer<\/strong>, the Dinelli Brothers <\/strong>\u00a0& many & various (D.D. Thomson & Co, Ltd.)
\nISBN: 978-0-85116-636-0 (HB)<\/p>\n

Win\u2019s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Evergreen Seasonal Traditions Celebrated and Ideal Last-Minute Gift… 10\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

DC Thompson\u2019s publications have always played a big part in Britain\u2019s Christmas festivities, so let\u2019s revel in the Good Old Days of comics and look at what their publications have offered to celebrate the season via a lovingly curated accumulation of Scotland\u2019s greatest cartoon stars and artisans.<\/p>\n

Released in 1997 as part of DC Thomson<\/strong>\u2019s Sixtieth Anniversary celebrations of their children\u2019s periodicals division – which has, more than any other, shaped the psyches of generations of kids – this splendidly oversized (297 x 206mm), exceedingly jolly 144-page hardback compilation justifiably glories in the incredible wealth of ebullient creativity that paraded through the flimsy colourful pages of The Beano<\/strong> and The Dandy<\/strong> during the days and weeks of December from 1937 to the end of the century.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, the book required some careful editing and paste-up additions – editorially explaining for younger or more socially evolved readers the subtle changes in attitude that occurred over more than half a century – to tone down and\/or expurgate a few of the more egregious terms that don\u2019t sit well with 21st<\/sup> century sensibilities, but otherwise this is a superb cartoon commemoration of a time and state of mind that means so much to us all. It\u2019s also an exquisitely evergreen tribute to cartoon storytelling at its best which could stand a bit more curating and re-release…<\/p>\n

The shape and structure of British kids\u2019 cartoon reading owes a huge debt to writer\/editor Robert Duncan Low (1895-1980) who was probably DC Thomson\u2019s greatest creative find. Low began at the publishing monolith as a journalist, rising to Managing Editor of Children\u2019s Publications where he conceived and launched (between 1921 and 1933) the company\u2019s Big Five story-papers for boys. Those rip-roaring illustrated prose periodicals comprised Adventure<\/strong>, The Rover<\/strong>, The Wizard<\/strong>, The Skipper<\/strong> and The Hotspur<\/strong>. In 1936 his next brilliant idea was The Fun Section<\/strong>: an 8-page pull-out supplement for Scottish national newspaper The Sunday Post<\/strong> consisting of comic strips. The illustrated accessory premiered on March 8th<\/sup> and from the very outset The Broons<\/strong> and Oor Wullie <\/strong>– both limned by the incomparable Dudley Watkins – were its unchallenged star turns. In December 1937, Low launched DC Thomson\u2019s first weekly pictorial comic. The Dandy<\/strong> was followed by The Beano<\/strong> in 1938 and early-reading title The Magic Comic<\/strong> one year after that. War-time paper shortages and rationing sadly curtailed this strip periodical revolution, and it was 1953 before the next wave of cartoon caper picture-papers. To supplement Beano<\/strong> and Dandy<\/strong>, the ball started rolling again with The Topper<\/strong>, closely followed by a host of new titles like Beezer<\/strong> and Sparky<\/strong> augmenting the expanding post-war line.<\/p>\n

Every kid who grew up reading comics has their own personal nostalgia-filled nirvana, and DC Thomson have always sagely left that choice to us whilst striving to keep all eras alive with the carefully-tooled collectors\u2019 albums like this one. These offer the appeal and panache of coffee-table art books; gathering material from nearly nine decades of publishing – plus oodles of original art reproductions – but rather than just tantalising and frustrating incomplete extracts, here the reader gets complete stories starring immortal characters from comics and Christmas Annuals past…<\/p>\n

Once upon a time The Dandy<\/strong> was the third-longest running comic in the world (behind Italy\u2019s Il Giornalino<\/em><\/strong> (launched in 1924) and America\u2019s Detective Comics<\/strong> in March 1937). Premiering on December 4th<\/sup> 1937, it broke the mould of traditional British predecessors by using word balloons and captions rather than narrative blocks of text under the sequential picture frames. A monster success, it was followed eight months later by The Beano<\/strong> (July 30th<\/sup> 1938) and together they utterly revolutionised how children\u2019s publications looked and, most importantly, were read. Over the decades the \u201cterrible twins\u201d spawned a bevy of unforgettable and beloved household names to delight generations of avidly devoted readers. and end of year celebrations were blessed with extraordinary efforts in the weeklies as well as bumper bonanzas of comics\u2019 stars in breathtakingly addictive hardback annuals.<\/p>\n

As WWII progressed rationing of paper and ink forced the \u201cchildren\u2019s papers\u201d into an alternating fortnightly schedule: on September 6th<\/sup> 1941, only The Dandy<\/strong> was published. A week later just The Beano<\/strong> appeared. Happily, they returned to normal weekly editions on 30th<\/sup> July 1949. During the war the Annuals alternated years too.<\/p>\n

This superb celebration of Celtic creativity is packed literally cover-to-cover with brilliant strips. The fun starts on the inside front with a riotous party scene featuring all the assorted favourites, illustrated by indisputable key man Dudley D. Watkins, followed by Korky the<\/strong> Cat <\/strong>frontispiece (by James Crichton), and bombastic title page with western wonderman Desperate Dan<\/strong> standing in for Santa. An introductory spread follows, reliving a manic Davey Law Dennis the Menace<\/strong> Xmas episode from the 1960s, as well as a quartet of Beano Christmas cards from the same era, presaging seasonally-themed comic strip offerings beginning with Dandy<\/strong> delinquent Dirty Dick<\/strong> (by Eric Roberts) and guest star stuffed \u2018Xmas Shopping with<\/em> Biffo the Bear\u2019<\/em> (David Sutherland) and Jim Petrie\u2019s Minnie the Minx<\/strong> impatiently ransacking the house for her prezzies also from the 1960s.<\/p>\n

There is a selection of Christmas week front pages (actually covers but we never wasted an opportunity for a full gag strip here!), beginning with Beano<\/strong> #169, (December 20th <\/sup>1941) featuring Reg Carter\u2019s obstreperous ostrich Big Eggo<\/em> getting well-deserved revenge via Xmas lights during a blackout, after which Colonel Crackpot\u2019s Circus<\/em> (Malcolm Judge) and Sutherland\u2019s Bash Street Kids<\/strong> frolic as prelude to robot schoolboy Brassneck <\/strong>(Bill Holroyd) demonstrating the meaning of the season in a savvy and sterling spin on A Christmas Carol<\/strong>, even as Robert Nixon – or perhaps Ron Spencer – details how \u201cRed Indian\u201d scamp Little Plum<\/em> gets a tree for the tribe, before Ken Reid\u2019s wild west rogue Bing-Bang Benny<\/em> scores a free dinner from his worst enemies, as the triumphs of Roger the Dodger<\/strong> are encapsulated in a multifarious montage of strips by Ken Reid, Barrie Appleby, Gordon Bell and others.<\/p>\n

Watkins illuminates Desperate Dan\u2019s attempts to enjoy a white Christmas and Law details similar catastrophic capers for Dennis the Menace before Watkins reveals how the upper class live in a party favour from Beano <\/strong>starring veteran class warriors Lord Snooty and his Pals<\/strong>, after which \u2018Jimmy and his Grockle\u2019<\/em> (a kind of Doberman dragon) reap just rewards for wrecking other folks\u2019 presents. Illustrated by James Clark, the feature stems from Dandy<\/strong> in 1938, recycled and adapted from prose 1932 \u201cBoys Paper\u201d The Rover<\/strong> – where it was Jimmy Johnson\u2019s Grockle<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Holroyd\u2019s The Tricks of Screwy Driver<\/em> (a junior handyman inventor of variable efficacy – especially in the Holiday Season) segues to a Biffo front cover strip (Beano <\/strong>#649, December 25th<\/sup> 1954) before the Bash Street Kids destroy a school concert and 1940s feudal adventurer Danny Longlegs<\/em> (Watkins) delays his voyage East to share the Yule festival with an embattled knight. A montage of Beano<\/strong> B-stars including Sammy Shrinko<\/em>, Have-a-go-Joe<\/em>, Little Nell and Peter Pell<\/em>, The Magic Lollipops<\/em>, Maxi\u2019s Taxis<\/em> and Rip Van Wink<\/em> compliment a triptych of \u201940\u2019s Dandy<\/strong> strips Freddy the Fearless Fly<\/em> (Allan Morley), Hair Oil Hal<\/em> (John Brown) and Sam Fair\u2019s Meddlesome Matty, <\/em>easing us into a section concentrating on gluttony and the big blowout as seen in Eric Robert\u2019s hospital-ward feast feature Ginger\u2019s Super Jeep<\/em>, Basil Blackaller\u2019s Hairy Dan<\/em> and the saga of a stolen plum pudding and The McTickles<\/em> (Vic Neill) salutary tale of an escaped Haggis. A classic Korky the Cat Christmas yarn segues neatly into a Reid fantasy romp starring Ali Ha-Ha and the 40 Thieves<\/em>, after which Hugh Morren\u2019s The Smasher<\/strong> fights for his right to party as prelude to a look at a wartime classic. Sam Fair was – as always – in excoriating top form with superbly manic Addie and Hermy<\/em> – slapstick assaults on Adolf Hitler and Hermann Wilhelm<\/em> Goering<\/em> – and the selection here helped counter Home Front austerity by punfully positing how bad the German High Command were having it…<\/p>\n

Football mad Ball Boy<\/em> (Malcolm Judge) and a vintage Desperate Dan strip lead to more Watkins wonderment via a double-length revel in Lord Snooty\u2019s castle (and no, the topper-wearing posh boy was never the pattern for a certain over-privileged Tory lounging lizard!!! It\u2019s just an uncannily creepy coincidence cum laude and example of life imitating art), before Colonel Crackpot\u2019s Circus<\/em> stages an encore and Billy Whizz<\/strong> (Judge again) finds time to attend multiple nosh-ups in one short day. Odd couple Big Head and Thick Head<\/em> (Reid) work far too hard for their places at the youth club bash whereas the ever-ravenous Three Bears<\/strong> (Bob McGrath) literally fall into a festive feast but eternal loser Calamity James<\/em> (Tom Paterson) loses out yet again, unlike Law\u2019s Corporal Clott<\/strong> who manages to become a hero to his comrades by getting rid of Grinch-like Colonel Grumbly<\/em>…<\/p>\n

A 1940\u2019s Biffo extravaganza starring the entire Beano<\/strong> cast takes us neatly into a rousing comedy romp starring wonderful Eric Roberts\u2019 immortal rascal-conman Winker Watson<\/strong>, who saves his chums from being stuck at school over the holidays in a full-length fable.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s Christmas without loot? A host of comics stars weigh in on presents in a section that begins with the cover of The Dandy<\/strong> #358 (December 20th<\/sup> 1947) as Korky\u2019s greed is aptly rewarded, before John Sherwood\u2019s dreamer Les Pretend (He\u2019s Round the Bend!)<\/em> wakes up frustrated, Dennis the Menace turns unwanted gifts into offensive weapons and – from December 1950 – Hugh McNeil\u2019s Pansy Potter, the Strongman\u2019s Daughter<\/strong> gives Santa Claus an uncomfortably emphatic helping hand…<\/p>\n

From 1987, Appleby\u2019s unlovable infants Cuddles and Dimples<\/em> wreck another Christmas before Desperate Dawg<\/em> (from 1973 by George Martin) uses canine ingenuity to pimp that legendary sleigh, whilst Dodgy Roger outsmarts himself but still comes up trumps in the gift department. Lassie<\/strong>-like wonder dog Black Bob<\/strong> was popular enough to support his own book series in the 1950s (illustrated by Jack Prout) and here traditionally rendered \u2018Black Bob the Dandy Wonder Christmas dog\u2019<\/em> sees the hairy paragon raise the flagging spirits of a ward full of ailing bairns before Charles Grigg\u2019s Prince Whoopee (Your Pal from the Palace)<\/em> (and a strip that could be revived instantly for today\u2019s more cynical, satire-saturated market) learns the downside of childish pranks, after which a tantalising photo feature on assorted Beano<\/strong> and Dandy<\/strong> figurines leads to a montage of ancient robot romps starring with Tin-Can Tommy, the Clockwork Boy <\/em>(by the Dinelli Brothers & Sam Fair), featuring the mechanical misfit as well as his brother Babe<\/em> and tin cat Clanky<\/em>. An extended Xmas excursion for Minnie the Minx and vintage larks with Keyhole Kate<\/strong> (Allan Morley), Gordon Bell\u2019s Pup\u2019s Parade starring the Bash Street Dogs<\/strong> and George Martin\u2019s Sunny Boy<\/em> – in Santa\u2019s Grotto – bring us to another brilliant cover spread: this one for The Dandy<\/strong> #204, from December 27th<\/sup> 1941, with Korky losing out after trying to outsmart Santa.<\/p>\n

A rare prose yuletide yarn starring sagacious moggy Sooty Solomon<\/em> shares space with a Christmas comic caper concerning Raggy Muffin the Dandy Dog<\/em>, before Pleasant Presents<\/em> offers a gaggle of want\u2019s lists from the comics characters before the animal antics resume with doses of doggerel clipped from annual feature Korky\u2019s Christmas Greeting<\/em> and a lengthy yarn starring Gnasher <\/strong>and his hairy pal Dennis the Menace. Stocking stuffing and tree trimming occupy Roger the Dodger and Tom, Dick and Sally<\/em> (Dave Jenner?) but Nixon\u2019s Ivy the Terrible<\/em> is all about the packages. Focus shifts to excerpts from other times of year next, beginning with Prince Whoopee\u2019s bath day, Billy Whizz on \u2018Shoesday\u2019<\/em> and an April Fool\u2019s Day cover for Dandy<\/strong> #70, from 1939. Following on, \u2018Sports Day\u2019<\/em> is celebrated on Beano <\/strong>#465 (June 16th<\/sup> 1951)\u2019s cover whilst Desperate Dan turns April 1st<\/sup> into April dooms day before similarly wrecking Easter, Pancake Day and Bonfire Night in a mini marathon of smashing strips. Equally tough and disastrously well-meaning, Pansy Potter in Wonderland<\/em> makes herself persona non grata with fairy tale folk prior to Lord Snooty and his Pals\u2019 good deed resulting in a catastrophic \u2018Biff-day\u2019<\/em> before Dennis discovers the joy of graffiti on \u2018\u201cMark-it\u201d Day\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The section concludes with a Big Eggo Beano<\/strong> cover (#321; November 1st<\/sup> 1947) on a windy day, allowing pint-sized dreamer Wonder Boy<\/em> to aspire to Santa\u2019s job as Billy Whizz gets a job in the old boy\u2019s grotto and Bully Beef and Chips<\/strong> (Jimmy Hughes) inevitably clash at a party. Watkins delights in depicting Jimmy and his Magic Patch<\/strong> as the lad with a ticket to anywhere stumbles into a north pole plot to burgle Saint Nick. Desperate Dan\u2019s plans to play Santa are sabotaged by his niece & nephew before Sandy Calder\u2019s acrobatic schoolboy avenger Billy the Cat<\/strong> brings to justice a thief who stole the silver from Burnham Academy – and still gets back in time for the school\u2019s Xmas party. George Martin\u2019s school master Jammy Mr. Sammy<\/em> uses his phenomenal luck to deal with pranksters and thugs whilst Winker Watson fosters a festive feud between his schoolmasters and a local police training college; Nixon\u2019s Grandpa<\/strong> gets Gnomework at a local grotto and Ron Spencer\u2019s bonny bouncing bandit Babyface Finlayson<\/em> gets locked up to get stuffed, even as The Jocks and the Geordies<\/strong> go to war over sharing an Xmas party, courtesy of the utterly unique stylings of Jimmy Hughes.<\/p>\n

Hurtling towards the Eighth Day of Christmas, the final strips here focus on a Ha-Ha-Happy New Year!<\/em> with a classic Korky confrontation, a harsh Hogmanay hash-up starring Corporal Clott and a frankly disturbing exploit of animal excess and conspicuous consumption from 1940s Bamboo Town<\/strong> as limned by Charlie Gordon. Disaster-prone Dirty Dick shows Eric Roberts at his inspired best in a cautionary tale about resolutions first seen in 1963, allowing the Bash Street Kids and Grandpa to have the cacophonous last words in a brace of action-packed slapstick strips anticipating many more years of fun to come…<\/p>\n

Sadly, none of the writers are named and precious few of the artists in this collection but, as always, I\u2019ve offered a best guess as to whom we must thank, and of course I would be so very grateful if anybody seeing this could confirm or deny my suppositions. A miracle of nostalgia and timeless comics marvels, the true magic of this collection is the brilliant art and stories by a host of talents that have literally made Britons who they are today. Bravo to DC Thomson for letting them out to run amok once again and can we do it again, please?<\/p>\n

This sturdy celebration of the company\u2019s children\u2019s periodicals division rightly revels in the incredible wealth of ebullient creativity that paraded through their back catalogue: jam-packed with some of the best written, most engagingly drawn strips ever conceived: superbly timeless examples of cartoon storytelling at its best.
\n\u00a9 D.C. Thomson & Co., Ltd. 1997. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Robert Duncan Low, Dudley D. Watkins, Allan Morley, James Crichton, Davey Law, Eric Roberts, David Sutherland, Ken Reid, Bill Holroyd, Reg Carter, Jim Petrie, Malcolm Judge, Robert Nixon, Barrie Appleby, Gordon Bell, Sam Fair, John Brown, James Clark, Basil Blackaller, Vic Neill, Hugh Morren, Bob McGrath, Tom Paterson, John Sherwood, Hugh McNiel, Jimmy Hughes, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Dandy and Beano Present The Comics at Christmas”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[113,78,102,125,97,108,127,296,107,93,156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comedy","category-comic-strip-classics","category-fantasy","category-humour","category-kids-all-ages","category-miscellaneous-superhero","category-nostalgia","category-school-stories","category-science-fiction","category-war-stories","category-world-classics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-86y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31160,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31158\/revisions\/31160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}