The Dandy's 80th anniversary
Reading time: 1 minute
Today marks 80 years since The Dandy No.1 was in newsagents. Although like most comics, December 4th 1937 was only the cover date, so it would likely have been out a few days or even weeks before then, but December 4th is the date that is usually celebrated.
Sadly for Dandy fans, five years ago this week was when the final issue of The Dandy appeared, with a huge bumper issue to celebrate its record-breaking 75 year run for a British comic series, whilst also becoming the third longest world-wide. Despite a few reinventions over the years, they couldn't find a way to halt the fall in sales, but it was remarkable how long they hung on. Even sadder was the final issue, that was so sought-after that it had to go to a second printing.
In the 1950s, The Dandy was selling close to 2 million comics a week. Fast forward to the end of it's run and sales were around 8 thousand a week. A huge difference. After its remarkable print run of 75 years, The Dandy relaunched as an online comic, The Digital Dandy, appearing on the Dandy website and in the Dandy App. Unfortunately for D. C. Thomson & Co., The Dandy's publishers, it was not successful and the online comic ended after just six months after some technical problems and fans preferred old print versions.
So happy 80th anniversary to The Dandy! The Beano might have always won for me as a child, but The Dandy was still a fun one to pick up now and then, and it's never nice to see a run like they had end.
Support Us
Enjoyed this article?
Supporting us on Ko-fi helps keep Comic Book News UK running and lets us continue championing indie comic creators across the UK. Every contribution makes a real difference.
100% goes towards supporting indie creators
