Thursday, February 21, 2013

This Week In ... 1968 - The Dandy!


We head back to the 1960's for this post, to take a look at the Dandy that was released this week, with a cover date of 17th February. The Dandy was excellent at this stage, with a fantastic line-up of artists including Jack Prout (Black Bob), Davy law (Corporal Clott) and Dudley Watkins (Desperate Dan).

The first strip inside the comics is good old Desperate Dan, and this episode is very wacky and random, and it all starts with Dan kicking back a football to a group of school kids!



A very popular strip was Winker Watson, following the "wangles" of an extra crafty school kid! The strip was illustrated by Eric Roberts.




Unfortunately we only get one page of excellent Black Bob artwork, which is illustrated by the amazing Jack Prout!



The weirdest strip in the comic would probably go to Spunky and His Spider, a strip I'd never heard of before. Basically, Spunky has a giant pet spider called Scamper who, although he doesn't talk, is a lot smarter than your average spider! It was illustrated by Bill Holroyd.




A nice, classic humour strip in the comic was The Smasher, or Smasher for short, who appeared on the same spread as the equally popular Greedy Pigg. The Smasher was usually drawn by Hugh Morren, but strangely this episode is by James Hughes! (Thanks Andy!)



One feature I enjoy reading in old Dandy's are the 'My Home Town' articles, which always prove a fascinating read about a town voted in by a reader! This time it is Farnham, which is located in Surrey.



And finally, the back page is taken up by Bully Beef and Chips, a very funny strip and is very well illustrated, and was illustrated by James Hughes (Thanks Lew!).



7 comments:

Lew Stringer said...

The artist of Bully Beef was James Hughes.

Andy Boal said...

Jimmy also drew that particular episode of the Smasher. That's the first strip from that run before the late 80s I've seen drawn by anyone other than Hugh Morren.

Kid said...

'...is a lot smarter than your ordinary, average, run-of-the-mill spider" is close to what you meant to write I'm sure.

George Shiers said...

At Lew and Andy: Thanks for the artists names! Interesting that this is the only one you've seen from before 1980 too...

At Kid - That is what I meant - don't worry, I wasn't insulting your spider! ;)

Kid said...

You've hurt his feelings - he won't come out from under the bed for his dinner.

George Shiers said...

:'(

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