A chronicle of 75 years of the worlds longest-running comic The Art & History of The Dandy is a beautiful special gift book & treasury of everything that has made The Dandy so anarchic & special. The Dandy is king of the comics! The Dandy is a record breaker: in 1999 it became the worlds longest running comic. The Art & History of the Dandy is a chronicle of 75 years of comic violence & madcap antics from the likes of Desperate Dan Korky the Cat Beryl the Peril Keyhole Kate & other intrepid fi gures who have long since left the comic. The Dandy fi rst hit the streets on December 3 1937 six months before its sister comic The Beano. By the 1980s it was the worlds 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 & Jerry where the victim always springs back unharmed. It gives children a chance to cock a harmless snook at authority & sublimate their desires to kick against the traces. Barnes was also behind Desperate Dan who became The Dandys 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 & 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 & 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 & temporarily retired from the pages of The Dandy. There was such an outcry including a Bring Dan Back campaign threats of boycott & protests from as far away as Australia Saudi Arabia & the United States that the hero was swiftly restored. Changing values caused Morris Heggie editor in the 1990s & now scriptwriter for The Broons & 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. Thats 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 Britains favourite characters & has appeared in nearly every issue of The Dandy since 1937. TITLE: THE ART & HISTORY OF THE DANDY
- 75 YEARS BIFFS BANGS & BANANA SKINS ISBN: 978-1-84934-241-4 Publication: August 6 2012 Format: Hardback 285 A-- 229 mm Colour illustrated throughout Extent: 288 pp Price: GBP20.00 Genre: Comics / Nostalgia / Humour Brand tie-in: The Dandy Similar titles: 288 pp gift book chronicling the worlds longest-running comic Fully illustrated colour throughout A must for every comic fan Extensive endmatter with detailed archive history of eac