Harry Hill joins The Dandy as DC Thomson relaunches comic
DC Thomson is to release a new look format and new characters for its long-running-running comic, The Dandy.
The new design for the comic, which relaunches on 27 October, will include 18 new characters including a comic strip starring and written by comedian Harry Hill.
The Dandy will also no longer look to over cover mounted free gifts and focus more on its characters, including Harry Hill’s Real-Life Adventures in TV-Land running exclusively in the now weekly title.
As well as Harry Hill, other celebrities will make appearances within the pages of comic as it looks to spoof popular culture, while new characters will include Pepperoni Pig, Postman Prat, Clive 5, Bill Oddie-Watch, The ZZZ-Team, The Y-Factor and Bear Thrills.
Another major change for the title will see readers be given more control, allowing them to vote on The Dandy website to decide which characters stay and while will go to make way for new characters.
Craig Graham, editor-in-chief of The Dandy, commented: “The Dandy has constantly evolved over its 73-year history, but the brand new Dandy is the best and funniest it’s ever been. We’re providing something quite different to our competitors in terms of content, format and price-point that’s based on the unique Dandy heritage, exceptional British cartooning talent and that’s all backed up by compelling reader insight and market research.
“The icing on the cake is having Harry Hill join the team. With a renewed focus on comedy characters, it’s a real thrill to be working with one of the nation’s favourite family commedians. As he writes the strip himself, I’m not always exactly sure what’s going to be appearing each week so I’m as eager as everyone else to find out.
“With subscribers living all across the world there’s a huge affection for The Dandy and readers can be reassured they’ll still find lots of our much loved characters like Desperate Dan and Bananaman inside. But, it was important for us to reinvigorate The Dandy and so there’s lots of new, exciting stuff to attract and delight a new generation of readers.”
The Dandy will also lower its cover price to £1.50 and be available every Wednesday.