Showing posts with label Desperate Dan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Desperate Dan. Show all posts
Monday, November 11, 2013
Dudley D. Watkins to be honoured with commemorative plaque
From The Dandy No.1212 - Feb.13th 1965
One of the greatest and most skilled comic artists of the 20th Century, Dudley D. Watkins, is to be honoured by the Scottish government with a commemorative plaque. As I'm sure all readers of this blog are aware, Dudley Watkins was the original artist of Desperate Dan, Lord Snooty, Biffo the Bear, The Broons, Oor Wullie and many other strips. His versatility enabled him to master both humour and adventure strips for The Dandy and other DC Thomson titles.
Although born in Manchester, Mr.Watkins grew up in Nottingham and later moved to Dundee. He sadly passed away in 1969 but his work continues to be appreciated by artists and collectors far and wide.
For more information see John Freeman's excellent Down the Tubes website:
http://downthetubes.net/?p=12906
Monday, May 07, 2012
Desperate Dan's long road to cover stardom
Desperate Dan was always one of The Dandy's top strips, right from his debut in issue No.1 back in 1937. How could it not be, with fantastic artwork by Dudley D. Watkins? However, editors chose not to make him the cover star until 1984! My guess is that perhaps they felt that Korky the Cat was a more appropriate opener, with its simplicity and slapstick. I loved both strips as a child but for me Korky was the ideal cover strip.
So, Dan was kept off the cover for almost 50 years. Well, not quite. Here's an example above from The Dandy No.1398 (September 7th 1968) which actually addresses the situation with Dan wanting to know why he's not the cover star. Artwork by regular Korky artist Charlie Grigg who would also become the artist on Desperate Dan in the annuals and specials after Dudley Watkins' untimely death a year later.
Dan also guest starred on the cover of The Dandy No.1663 (October 6th 1973) in the Korky the Cat strip promoting that week's free gift.
A rare example of Dan drawing his gun.
The idea was repeated nine years later on the cover of The Dandy No.2105 (March 27th 1982). The concussed cat could also be considered as Dan getting his own back on Korky for the prank the moggy pulled on him in 1968!
Dan gets a new shirt.
A year later and Desperate Dan takes up residence beside the new Dandy logo for The Dandy No.2149 (January 29th 1983). A waxwork of Dan also appears in the Korky strip, along with figures of other Dandy characters. Korky's star was falling...
That same issue saw the beginning of all-new Desperate Dan strips running across the centre pages. Previous to this Dan had been a single page black and white strip, and reprints of Dudley Watkins' classics had been running since 1969, with occasional new ones by Charlie Grigg. But Charlie was about to retire from regular comics work so for the new colour series came a new artist on the strip, - Ken H. Harrison - and a shift towards Dan's personality becoming more childlike...
Finally, with The Dandy No.2243 (November 17th 1984) Desperate Dan was established as the new cover strip, elbowing Korky the Cat into the interior pages, although Korky gained a place by the masthead with a vignette drawn by Charlie Grigg. (Korky's first interior strips, now drawn by David Gudgeon, were obviously originally intended for the covers as a large Korky logo and house ad took up the space where the cover masthead would have been.)
Desperate Dan appeared as the cover story for over ten years, eventually being replaced by Cuddles & Dimples, Jak and various others, but he still makes an appearance on covers at times, now drawn by Jamie Smart. You can't keep a good Dan down. Besides, who's going to argue with him?
Wednesday, October 05, 2011
Always keep a Dandy handy
The artist Jamie Smart's work on childrens comics has come in for some harsh and over-the-top knocks recently from a handful of critics. It even reached the ludicrous extreme of one of them setting up a hate page littered with vile personal abuse. However, perhaps even those critics would find Jamie's cover to this week's Dandy a superb example of great design and funny cartoonery. Shown here for your viewing pleasure is one of the best covers seen on The Dandy since its relaunch, and it's had some stiff competition.
Hats off to the cover designer too. That logo with its blue background should really jump off the shelves, assuming the retail staff don't place it back to front or behind The Beano again.
There are 22 pages of brand new material in this week's issue (not counting the jokes pages and suchlike). Highlights for me were Nigel Parkinson's Harry Hill strip as always, plus Alexander Matthews' Nuke Noodle, and, my particular favourite this week, the hilarious Swamp Bloke, the latest story in Wilbur Dawbarn's Rocky's Horror Show series.
There's also a new Postman Prat, with a script by David Mason and artwork by me.
As they used to say, "Always keep a Dandy handy". A phrase that never quite caught on like "Never Be without a Beano", but the intention was the same. The Dandy No.3555, out now, £1.50. Support Britain's longest-running comic!
And for those of you who prefer vintage Desperate Dan, don't worry. Jamie's equally valid and hilarious version didn't erase the original Dan from history. He's still out there, either in your old comics or popping up in parts of the Internet when you least expect him. For example, check out Nigel Parkinson's blog, where Nigel recently showed a classic early Desperate Dan strip from 1938, when Dudley Watkins was drawing in a more raw but nevertheless excellent style:
http://nigelparkinsoncartoons.blogspot.com/2011/10/dudleys-dan.html
Labels:
Dandy,
Dandy. Postman Prat,
Desperate Dan,
Jamie Smart
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