AUGUST 2012
The Art and History of The Dandy by Morris Heggie.
Waverley Books ISBN 978-1849342414, 6 August 2012, 288pp, £20.00. [£14.00 from
Amazon]
A chronicle of 75 years of the world's longest-running comic,
The Art
and History of The Dandy is a beautiful gift book and treasury of
everything that has made The Dandy so anarchic and special.
The Dandy is
king of the comics!
The Dandy is a record breaker: in 1999 it became
the world's longest running comic.
The Art and History of the Dandy is a
chronicle of 75 years of comic violence and madcap antics from the
likes of Desperate Dan, Korky the Cat, Beryl the Peril, Keyhole Kate and
other intrepid figures who have long since left the comic.
The Dandy
first hit the streets on December 3, 1937, six months before its sister
comic
The Beano. By the 1980s, it was the world's largest-selling comic
with a circulation of around 2 million. The late Albert Barnes, who
edited the comic from 1937 to 1980, summed up its philosophy: 'There is
never any real violence, only the cartoon kind to be found in Tom and
Jerry where the victim always springs back unharmed. It gives children a
chance to cock a harmless snook at authority, and sublimate their
desires to kick against the traces.' Barnes was also behind Desperate
Dan, who became
The Dandy's biggest star. Talking about his cowboy
creation, Barnes said: 'He is to be the roughest, toughest cowboy. He
has to be the strongest man in the world: a man who can chew iron and
spit rust.' Desperate Dan was never happier than when confronted by his
daily diet of cow pie, a species of dish which involved the entire
animal, including horns and tail, protruding through the pastry. Dan was
eventually stopped from eating his favourite dish because of the
emergence of BSE (or mad cow disease). There was a similar crisis in
1997 when Desperate Dan sailed off with the Spice Girls after striking
oil and temporarily retired from the pages of
The Dandy. There was such
an outcry, including a Bring Dan Back campaign, threats of boycott, and
protests from as far away as Australia, Saudi Arabia and the United
States, that the hero was swiftly restored. Changing values caused
Morris Heggie, editor in the 1990s and now scriptwriter for The Broons
and Oor Wullie, to say: 'Desperate Dan is not now quite the same old
desperado that he was. He is now quite laid-back in comparison with the
old days. At one time he used to smoke a dustbin full of rubbish through
a drainpipe ...What is important though, is that, unlike in real life,
the kids always win in
The Dandy. That's our recipe for anarchy.' An
eight-foot tall bronze statue of Desperate Dan has stood in the centre
of Dundee since 2001. Desperate Dan is one of Britain's favourite
characters, and has appeared in nearly every issue of
The Dandy since
1937. * 288 pp gift book chronicling the world's longest-running comic.
* Fully illustrated, colour throughout. * A must for every comic fan. *
Extensive endmatter, with detailed archive history of each comic with
notes on artists and writers. * Notes on what happened each year;
changes to characters and how they appeared. * Produced by the same team
as 'The History of the Beano'.
Order from Amazon.
The Art of Denis McLoughlin by David Ashford.
Book Palace Books ISBN
978-1907081088, August 2012, 272pp, £45.00.
Written by David Ashford, one of McLoughlin's close friends, the book
celebrates every aspect of the artist's career, from examples of his
earliest work whilst still in uniform to his lengthy association with
T.V. Boardman, for whom he produced hundreds of dust jackets for their
Bloodhound crime series and their yearly best-selling Buffalo Bill
Annual.
__The Boardman covers are almost unique in British
publishing history as no major publisher relied on a single artist to
produce so many of their jackets. But tracking down useable examples has
proved to be a long and gruelling process. As Peter says: "We needed
high quality scans of all the covers we sought and the logistics of
having to carry a scanner and computer to spend a day getting under the
feet of a McLoughlin devotee, which would have secured us a reasonable
number of scans but by no means all the ones I craved gave us pause for
thought. Photographing the books would have been quicker, but the
results are light years away from a scan. It simply wasn't an option.".
__Hooking
up with San Francisco-based collector Mark Terry gave fresh impetus to
the book as Mark already had a network of contacts with collectors
through his facsimile dustjacket business; the finished book will now
contain dozens of examples, carefully restored.
__The book
contains many examples of McLoughlin's comic strips and a biography by
David Ashford, as well as behind-the-scenes photos and examples of his
original artwork.
__The definitive book and biography of Denis McLouglin, packed with full colour images of his art and a complete bibliography.
__The
book features reproductions from the surviving original artwork,
"pulls" in high quality print, never-before-seen photos chronicling the
artist's life and page after page of some of the most stunning artwork
ever to see print in the 20th century.
Order from Amazon.
Harker: The Book of Solomon by Roger Gibson & Vince Danks.
Titan Books ISBN 978-0857689740, 17 August 2012, 144pp, £14.99. [£7.94 from
Amazon]
When a series of gruesome cult killings take place near the British
Museum, DCI Harker and his assistant DS Critchley are called to London
to solve the case. Middle class satanists, dusty old bookshops, a
labyrinth under the museum, a frantic car chase and wry, cutting humour
all combine in this graphic novel love letter from creators Roger Gibson
and Vince Danks to classic British detective television series.
Order from Amazon.
Judge Dredd: Restricted Files 04 by John Wagner, Mark Millar, Bryan Talbot, Henry Flint, et al.
Rebellion ISBN 978-1781080467, 16 August 2012, 272pp, £19.99. [£13.99 from
Amazon]
Mega-City one: an especially violent city of the future that requires a
special kind of police force - the Judges - to maintain law and order.
toughest of them all is Judge Dredd. He is the law! Featuring rare
thrills from 2000 AD annuals and specials released through the
mid-'nineties into the new millennium. Experience some of the most
outrageous Dredd stories ever published, including the rib-tickling 'Mr
Bennet joins the Judges,' by Mark Milar (Kick-Ass), and the very english
'Dredd of Drokk Green.'
Order from Amazon.
Rat Pack Vol. 1: Guns, Guts and Glory by Gerry Finley-Day et al.
Titan Books ISBN 978-1848560352, August 2012, 160pp, £14.99. [£11.40 from
Amazon]
War is a dirty business...
so who better than criminals to fight it? When Major Taggart breaks
four military convicts out of jail, they think they’re headed for Easy
Street... but they couldn’t be more wrong. Before, they were scum — now,
they’re the Rat Pack! A collection of classic strips from the British
boys’ comic, Battle.
Order from Amazon.
Shakara: The Destroyer by Robbie Morrison & Henry Flint.
Rebellion ISBN 978-1781080382, 16 August 2012, 160pp, £14.99. [£10.49 from
Amazon]
The Shakaran warrior known as Cinnibar Brennekka has activated a
terrifying weapon called the God Machine, and once it destroys
everything he will be the ultimate master of a new universe created in
his image. Only one thing can stop Brennekka from succeeding... a
vengeance-fuelled being called Shakara - he living embodiment of a
murdered species - is out to kill the last of his kind, and there isn't
another creature in the whole of existence that will get in its way! Be
prepared for a tale of monumental carnage and devastation!
Order from Amazon.
Whaur's Oor Wullie?.
Waverley Books ISBN 978-1849342551, 1 August 2012, 48pp, £8.99. [£6.74 from
Amazon]
'Whaur's Oor Wullie?' or 'Where's Oor Wullie?' for our non-Scots
friends, is a fun puzzle book that features Oor Wullie, the comic strip
character as he adventures all over Scotland with his pals. Oor Wullie
is Scotland's favourite boy, with his trademark spiky hair, dungarees
and upturned bucket as a seat. In Whaur's Oor Wullie? Oor Wullie travels
around Scotland's most famous and popular places with some of the
familiar characters who appear in his Sunday Post weekly comic strip.
The challenge is to spot them in the crowd! Each spread is illustrated
in full colour with a list of items and characters to spot. The 'Oor
Wullie' comic strip was originally created by D C Thomson editor, R D
Low, and drawn by cartoonist, Dudley D Watkins. Whaur's Oor Wullie? is
illustrated by Jimmy Glen. Find Oor Wullie and his pals at the following
places among others: *the Edinburgh Military Tattoo *The Open Golf
Championship at St Andrews *Stirling Castle *Kelvingrove Museum
*Hogmanay *Braemar Highland Games *Dundee's Comic Characters' Convention
*The biggest-ever Burns Supper *Largs Viking Festival *'T' In the Park
*The Royal Highland Show *Falkirk's re-enactment of the Romans being
fought back by the Picts. 'Oor Wullie' was launched in 1936 in The
Sunday Post in Scotland, and is still going strong. The frequent tagline
on the strip is 'Oor Wullie! Your Wullie! A'body's Wullie!'
Order from Amazon.
-02739-a+Haldeman+Marsbound.jpg)
