AUGUST 2012
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'.
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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.
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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.
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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.'
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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.
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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!
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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!'
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Harker is a great read, two quirky detectives and a great story. I'm loving UK independent publishing at the moment including Bear Alley Books!
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