Finally got it today after a long struggle, thank goodness!
Okay, first quick scan through and I can sadly confirm that about 90% of it is reprints annoyingly, luckily I have never read any of them!
Contents:
PG 1: Front Cover
PG 2: Whiteness...
PG 3: Beano Stickers
PG 4: More whiteness...
PG 5: Dennis telling you about 'Magic 3D'
PG 6: Introduction...
FINALLY! ONTO THE...
PG 8: Puzzle: Search and Colour - Barrie Appleby? REPRINT
PG 10: Puzzle: Great Dino Search - David Parkins REPRINT
PG 12: Puzzle: The Lost Beano World - Nigel Parkinson REPRINT
PG 14: Puzzle: Bite-Size Puzzles - Mixture
AND NOW FINALLY THE COMIC STRIPS!
PG 16: Minnie the Minx - Nigel Parkinson REPRINT
PG 18: The 3 Bears - Unknown REPRINT
PG 20: Board Game: Rumble in the Jungle - Jimmy Glen REPRINT
PG 22: Puzzle: The Beano Spooky Castle - Mixture
PG 24: The Bash Street Kids - Barrie Appleby REPRINT
PG 29: Puzzle: Wordsquare REPRINT
PG 30: Puzzle: Summer Sizzlers - Robert Nixon REPRINT
PG 32: Puzzle: Sea Search - Mixture REPRINT
PG 33: Puzzle: Summer Fun - Mixture REPRINT
PG 34: 'Bizarre' (In other words, boring page-waster)
PG 35: Dennis the Menace and Gnasher ('Apparently' Retro Beano, more like...) REPRINT!
PG 41: Roger the Dodger and Tricky Dicky - Barrie Appleby REPRINT
PG 42: Board Game: Meet Nessie - Jimmy Glen REPRINT
PG 44: Poem: Summer Time Rhymes - Gordon Bell REPRINT
PG 46: The Numskulls - Nigel Parkinson REPRINT
PG 48: Billy Whizz - Wayne Thompson/Stripz - Duncan Scott REPRINTS
PG 50: Crazy for Daisy - Nick Brennan REPRINT
PG 52: Ivy the Terrible - Tony O'Donnell REPRINT
PG 53: How to Draw Ivy - Bob Dewar
PG 54: Dennis the Menace and Gnasher (Not Dennis and Gnasher, silly title...) - Nigel Parkinson REPRINT
PG 56: Puzzle: What a Pair!
PG 57: Les Pretend - John Sherwood REPRINT
PG 58: Freddie Fear - Dave Eastbury REPRINT
PG 59: Robbie Rebel - Ken Harrison REPRINT
PG 60: Billy Whizz - Nick Brennan (possibly a reprint, looks like his older style...)
PG 61: Joke Page: Mad Jokes - Duncan Scott REPRINT
PG 62: Jack Flash - Nigel Parkinson REPRINT
PG 63: Puzzle: Funfair Wordsearch - Mixture REPRINT
PG 64: Puzzle: Spot the Difference
PG 65: The Bash Street Kids - David Sutherland NEW!
PG 73: Puzzle: Awkwardly placed Spot the Difference
PG 74: The Bash Street Kids - David Sutherland NEW!
PG 77: Puzzle: Spot the Difference
PG 78: Minnie the Minx - Tom Paterson REPRINT
PG 80: The Numskulls - Unknown/Stripz - Duncan Scott REPRINT
PG 82: Roger the Dodger - Barrie Appleby REPRINT
PG 84: Casino Beano - Nigel Parkinson REPRINT
PG 85: Ivy the Terrible - Diego Jourdan NEW!
PG 89: Board Game: Bubble Game - Jimmy Glen REPRINT
PG 90: Joke Page: Jokes with the Beano Gang in space for some reason. - Unknown REPRINT
PG 92: Photo Laffs: Fun and Highland Games - Trevor Metcalfe REPRINT
PG 94: Little Plum - Hunt Emerson REPRINT
PG 96: The Numskulls - Barry Glennard NEW!
PG 100: Bicycle Repair Kids - David Sutherland REPRINT?
PG 102: Puzzle: Tricky History REPRINT?
PG 104: The Bash Street Kids - David Sutherland NEW!
PG 108: Bea - Nigel Parkinson REPRINT
PG 109: Picture: Rascals' Regatta - Unknown REPRINT
PG 111: Tongue Twisters - Mixture
PG 112: Minnie the Minx - Steve Bright REPRINT
PG 114: Roger the Dodger - Barrie Appleby REPRINT
PG 116: Minnie the Minx goes under Fred's Bed - Tom Paterson NEW!
PG 120: Puzzle: The Ancient Egypt Quest
PG 122: The Bash Street Kids - David Sutherland REPRINT
PG 124: Roger the Dodger - Barrie Appleby NEW!
PG 128: Ball Boy - Dave Eastbury REPRINT
PG 130: Puzzle: Batty Maze
PG 131: Whiteness...
PG 132: More whiteness...
PG 133: Guess what? That's right, more whiteness...
PG 134: Back Page: Synopsis
Okay, I hate reprints but there are a few good things about this, e.g. I haven't read ANY of them! And there are quite a lot of new stories...
- The Bash Street Kids x2 (11 pages/4 pages)
- Ivy the Terrible (4 pages)
- The Numskulls (4 pages)
- Minnie the Minx goes under Fred's Bed (4 pages)
- Roger the Dodger (4 pages)
My only problems with this annual are...
1) The white pages, in total there are 5 pages of it, they could easily of added at least two more comic strips then!
2) The quality of the reprints, some are terrible. The colours look awful.
3) The 'magical 3D effect' A.K.A. A load of rubbish. You don't even need the 3D as 1) It doesn't work and 2) It hurts my eyes.
4) The front cover. It's terrible. Really bad. Couldn't they at least make a decent front cover like the Broons/Oor Wullie Summer Annual front cover? No, obviously not.
5) It's paperback, not hardback. It feels more like an activity book than an annual.
6) The fact it claims: 'and all your favourite Beano pals' when it doesn't, where's Super School, Ratz, Lord Snooty the Third, Biffo and Calamity James? The awkward thing is the stickers have pictures of all the 'current' characters yet only half of these actually feature in a comic strip!
7) The choices of comic strips. Why? Why did they think this was a good idea, no Calamity James, Biffo or Ratz to name a few, yet they used Jack Flash, I ask once again, WHY?!
Anyway, is it worth buying? Yes, it is, the comic strips are mostly decent, Diego's 4 pager Ivy is fantastic as is Minnie the Minx goes under Fred's Bed. However others like Jack Flash and Robbie Rebel are just terrible. All in all it's a good buy, has it's few faults but overall is a brilliant book which any comic collector should have on their shelf.
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
The Dandy - Issue 3537
What a brilliant week for comics this week, we had the 44 page Beano and Dandy and the Beano Summer Comic No.1, yippee!
Anyway, on with the review and this week was yet another brilliant week for the Dandy, let's see why...
PG 1: Front Cover: Harry Hill's Real Life Adventures in TV Land - Nigel Parkinson
(Groan! Just when I thought would escaped celeb front covers)
PG 2: Jokes (Harry Hill's Real Life Adventures in TV Land - Nigel Parkinson)
PG 3: What's Inside? (Harry Hill's Real Life Adventures in TV Land - Nigel Parkinson)
PG 4: Pre-Skool Prime Minister - Jamie Smart
PG 6: Harry and his Hippo - Andy Fanton
PG 7: Madvertisement: Zzz $aver$! - Nigel Auchterlounie
PG 8: Little Little Richard Hammond - Nigel Parkinson
(What, Jeremy Clarkson is Richard's DAD?! My mind is blown...)
PG 9: Shorts: Rubbish Superheroes (The Flush) - Garry Davies NEW!, Simples! 101 Ways to use a Meerkat (No. 91) - Wayne Thompson, Freddy the Fearless Fly - Phil Corbett, Old MacDonald's Facebook Farm - Karl Dixon
PG 10: Hysterical History: William Wallace - Karl Dixon NEW!
PG 11: Where's Harry? - Nigel Parkinson
PG 12: Justin Beaver - Stu Munro
PG 13: Yore - The Etherington Brothers
PG 14: Bone-O - Mike Donaldson
PG 15: Sea Dogs - Steve Beckett
PG 16: Bananaman - Wayne Thompson
PG 18: Puzzle: Gaz of the Titans - Nik Holmes
PG 19: Shorts: Rubbish Superheroes (Captain Wonder) - Garry Davies, Terror Byte - David Banks (So glad it's back!), Knock! Knock! - Garry Davies, The Grown-up Way VS The Right Way: Organisation - Karl Dixon
PG 20: Desperate Dan's Cowboy Talk! - Jamie Smart (sort of)
PG 22: The Arena of Awesome - Jamie Smart
(Pullout: The Bogies Stickers)
PG 24: Prank: Dandy Fake Report Cards
PG 25: Harry Hill's Real Life Adventures in TV Land - Nigel Parkinson
PG 29: Shorts: Saint Evils - Stephen Walker, The Grown-up Way VS The Right Way: Fear of Spiders - Karl Dixon, Fat Cat - Paul Palmer NEW!, Rubbish Superheroes (Bogey Man) - Garry Davies
PG 30: Dandy Subscription Page
PG 31: The Gleeks - Nigel Auchterlounie
PG 32: The Bogies - Nigel Auchterlounie
PG 33: Smashed Hits: All the Dinner Ladies (All the Single Ladies - Beyonce Knowles) - Paul Palmer
PG 34: Mailbag
PG 36: Advert: Dandy YouTube Channel/Dandy Website
PG 37: Korky the Cat (or should I say 'Xorky the Cat'?) - Phil Corbett
PG 38: Clown Wars - Nik Holmes
PG 39: Shorts: Rubbish Superheroes (B.O. Boy) - Garry Davies, Simples! 101 Ways to use a Meerkat (No. 92) - Wayne Thompson, Twit-ter - Nigel Auchterlounie, Jibber & Steve - Nigel Parkinson
PG 40: Puzzle: Korky's Wool Wars - Phil Corbett
PG 41: George VS Dragon - Andy Fanton
PG 42: Desperate Dan - Jamie Smart
PG 43: Next Week: (Harry Hill's Real Life Adventures in TV Land, Rubbish Superheroes (The Incredible Guff), Justin Beaver, Pre-Skool Prime Minister and Little Ant and Dec)
PG 44: Back Page: Inside!(Pre-Skool Prime Minister, Desperate Dan, Clown Wars, The Arena of Awesome)
Review very soon
Anyway, on with the review and this week was yet another brilliant week for the Dandy, let's see why...
PG 1: Front Cover: Harry Hill's Real Life Adventures in TV Land - Nigel Parkinson
(Groan! Just when I thought would escaped celeb front covers)
PG 2: Jokes (Harry Hill's Real Life Adventures in TV Land - Nigel Parkinson)
PG 3: What's Inside? (Harry Hill's Real Life Adventures in TV Land - Nigel Parkinson)
PG 4: Pre-Skool Prime Minister - Jamie Smart
PG 6: Harry and his Hippo - Andy Fanton
PG 7: Madvertisement: Zzz $aver$! - Nigel Auchterlounie
PG 8: Little Little Richard Hammond - Nigel Parkinson
(What, Jeremy Clarkson is Richard's DAD?! My mind is blown...)
PG 9: Shorts: Rubbish Superheroes (The Flush) - Garry Davies NEW!, Simples! 101 Ways to use a Meerkat (No. 91) - Wayne Thompson, Freddy the Fearless Fly - Phil Corbett, Old MacDonald's Facebook Farm - Karl Dixon
PG 10: Hysterical History: William Wallace - Karl Dixon NEW!
PG 11: Where's Harry? - Nigel Parkinson
PG 12: Justin Beaver - Stu Munro
PG 13: Yore - The Etherington Brothers
PG 14: Bone-O - Mike Donaldson
PG 15: Sea Dogs - Steve Beckett
PG 16: Bananaman - Wayne Thompson
PG 18: Puzzle: Gaz of the Titans - Nik Holmes
PG 19: Shorts: Rubbish Superheroes (Captain Wonder) - Garry Davies, Terror Byte - David Banks (So glad it's back!), Knock! Knock! - Garry Davies, The Grown-up Way VS The Right Way: Organisation - Karl Dixon
PG 20: Desperate Dan's Cowboy Talk! - Jamie Smart (sort of)
PG 22: The Arena of Awesome - Jamie Smart
(Pullout: The Bogies Stickers)
PG 24: Prank: Dandy Fake Report Cards
PG 25: Harry Hill's Real Life Adventures in TV Land - Nigel Parkinson
PG 29: Shorts: Saint Evils - Stephen Walker, The Grown-up Way VS The Right Way: Fear of Spiders - Karl Dixon, Fat Cat - Paul Palmer NEW!, Rubbish Superheroes (Bogey Man) - Garry Davies
PG 30: Dandy Subscription Page
PG 31: The Gleeks - Nigel Auchterlounie
PG 32: The Bogies - Nigel Auchterlounie
PG 33: Smashed Hits: All the Dinner Ladies (All the Single Ladies - Beyonce Knowles) - Paul Palmer
PG 34: Mailbag
PG 36: Advert: Dandy YouTube Channel/Dandy Website
PG 37: Korky the Cat (or should I say 'Xorky the Cat'?) - Phil Corbett
PG 38: Clown Wars - Nik Holmes
PG 39: Shorts: Rubbish Superheroes (B.O. Boy) - Garry Davies, Simples! 101 Ways to use a Meerkat (No. 92) - Wayne Thompson, Twit-ter - Nigel Auchterlounie, Jibber & Steve - Nigel Parkinson
PG 40: Puzzle: Korky's Wool Wars - Phil Corbett
PG 41: George VS Dragon - Andy Fanton
PG 42: Desperate Dan - Jamie Smart
PG 43: Next Week: (Harry Hill's Real Life Adventures in TV Land, Rubbish Superheroes (The Incredible Guff), Justin Beaver, Pre-Skool Prime Minister and Little Ant and Dec)
PG 44: Back Page: Inside!(Pre-Skool Prime Minister, Desperate Dan, Clown Wars, The Arena of Awesome)
Review very soon
Wednesday, 25 May 2011
The Dandy - Issue 3536
THE DANDY - ISSUE 3536
Let's try and revive my blog and go back to normal schedule shall we? Okay, this week's Dandy was incredible, from front to back this comic was beautiful, 44 pages of brilliance, what made it so brilliant? This is what:
PG 1: Front Cover: Pre-Skool Prime Minister - Jamie Smart
PG 2: Jokes (with Pre-Skool Prime Minister) - Jamie Smart
PG 3: What's Inside? (with guess who? That's right, Pre-Skool Prime Minister!) - Jamie Smart
PG 4: Pre-Skool Prime Minister - Jamie Smart
PG 6: Harry and his Hippo - Andy Fanton
PG 8: Madvertisement: The Money Tree - Nigel Auchterlounie
PG 9: Shorts: Britain's NOT got Talent - Karl Dixon, Simples! 101 Ways to use a Meerkat (No. 87) - Wayne Thompson, Freddy the Fearless Fly - Phil Corbett, Old MacDonald's Facebook Farm - Karl Dixon
PG 10: The Mighty Bork - Wayne Thompson (Au revior Bork!)
PG 12: Justin Beaver - Stu Munro
PG 13: Yore - The Etherington Brothers
PG 14: Bone-O - Mike Donaldson
PG 15: Sea Dogs - Steve Beckett NEW!
PG 16: Bananaman - Wayne Thompson
PG 18: Puzzle: Get the Wind Up! - Steve Beckett
PG 19: Shorts: Not the Greatest Car Parker - Dave Mostyn, Simples! 101 Ways to use a Meerkat (No. 88) - Wayne Thompson, Knock! Knock! - Garry Davies, Britain's NOT got Talent - Karl Dixon
PG 20: Create a Comic: George VS Dragon - Andy Fanton
PG 21: Harry Hill's Real Life Adventures in TV Land - Nigel Parkinson
PG 25: Competition: Make a Monster
PG 26: Clown Wars - Nik Holmes
PG 27: Smashed Hits: Pokerface - Unknown (Mark Bennington perhaps?) :/
PG 28: Puzzle: Gaz of the Titans: The Maze of the Golden Fleece - Nik Holmes
PG 29: Shorts: Saint Evils - Stephen Walker, Not the Greatest Cook - Dave Mostyn, Britain's NOT got Talent - Karl Dixon, Simples! 101 Ways to use a Meerkat (No. 89) - Wayne Thompson
PG 30: Dandy Subscription Page
PG 31: The Gleeks - Nigel Auchterlounie
PG 32: The Bogies (Hot Snot) - Nigel Auchterlounie
PG 33: Madvertisement: 3D Comic - Nigel Auchterlounie (with a nice mention of Winker Watson and Greedy Pigg, hopefully a little clue to two characters returning! ;) )
PG 34: Mailbag
PG 36: Advert: Dandy YouTube Channel, Dandy website
PG 37: Korky the Cat - Phil Corbett
PG 38: Puzzle: Gaz of the Titans: The Lair of Medusa - Nik Holmes
PG 39: Shorts: Terror Byte - David Banks, Simples! 101 Ways to use a Meerkat (No. 90) - Wayne Thompson, Britain's NOT got Talent - Karl Dixon, Jibber and Steve - Nigel Auchterlounie
PG 40: George VS Dragon - Andy Fanton
PG 42: Desperate Dan - Jamie Smart
PG 43: Next Week (Harry Hill's Real Life Adventures in TV Land, Bananaman, Korky the Cat, Worst Superheroes Ever!)
PG 44: Back Page: Continued Back Page (Desperate Dan, Harry and his Hippo, Dragon (from George VS Dragon), Little Eric (with Ant and Dec), Zeke, the Blue Blobs, The Foreign Thingy Man from PSPM and some Chef...)
ROUND UP:
TOTAL OF PAGES: 44
TOTAL OF COMIC STRIPS: 19
TOTAL OF COMIC STRIP PAGES: 27
TOTAL OF ADVERTS: 1
TOTAL OF DANDY RELATED STUFF (that's not a comic strip): 17
Not bad! :D
NEW/BRING BACK:
Harry and his Hippo
Pre-Skool Prime Minister
Terror Byte
Jibber and Steve
RATINGS:
PRE-SKOOL PRIME MINISTER - 10/10
Brilliant seeing it back and I really enjoyed, loved the drill bit! :D
HARRY AND HIS HIPPO - 10/10
Best story this week! Beautiful two pager by Andy with a fantastic storyline, loved the taking over bit with the title! Classic cartoon humour!
THE MIGHTY BORK - 9/10
Very sad to see it go, such a good strip, loved Corporal Clott and Colonel Grumbly's cameos, Wayne should seriously bring them back!
JUSTIN BEAVER - 9.5/10
Not enough cameos for me plus the story wasn't brilliant this week but still very high.
YORE - 8/10
Lovely artwork yet a poor storyline, what a shame.
BONE-O - 9/10
Quite liked it, nice story, reminded me of Foxy but with a dinosaur and a cockerel with an iPhone.
SEA DOGS: 10/10
Beautiful, just beautiful, Steve has done a brilliant job!
BANANAMAN - 9.5/10
Not too heroic sadly but still funny story, I seriously thought the animal was hanged! ;)
HARRY HILL'S REAL LIFE ADVENTURES IN TV LAND - 9/10
God I hate that title. anyway not bad, felt it only needed to be 2 pages though with the speech bubbles.
CLOWN WARS - 10/10
YAYY!! Hurrah rah for guest appearances! Loved Desperate Dan Solo and the ending, brilliant!
THE GLEEKS - 10/10
So funny, thought I'd hate this strip but I LOVED IT!
THE BOGIES - 10/10
Ha ha! Love Hot Snot, love the innocent passenger, love Gobzilla, love the artwork. Brilliant stuff!
KORKY THE CAT - 9/10
Okay-ish. Korky looked a bit camp...
GEORGE VS DRAGON - 10/10
Two pages, lovely artwork, funny story, just brilliant. Very entertaining indeed!
DESPERATE DAN - 10/10
Aww bless... Poor Dan! Loved it!
BRITAIN'S NOT GOT TALENT (Strip 1) - 5/5
SIMPLES! 101 WAYS TO USE A MEERKAT (No. 87) - 4/5
FREDDY THE FEARLESS FLY - 4.5/5
OLD MACDONALD'S FACEBOOK FARM - 3/5
NOT THE GREATEST CAR PARKER - 4/5
SIMPLES! 101 WAYS TO USE A MEERKAT (No. 88) - 5/5
KNOCK! KNOCK! - 3/5
BRITAIN'S NOT GOT TALENT (Strip 2) - 5/5
SAINT EVILS - 5/5
NOT THE GREATEST COOK - 4.5/5
BRITAIN'S NOT GOT TALENT (Strip 3) - 5/5
SIMPLES! 101 WAYS TO USE A MEERKAT (No. 89) - 5/5
TERROR BYTE - 5/5
SIMPLES! 101 WAYS TO USE A MEERKAT (No. 90) - 3/5
BRITAIN'S NOT GOT TALENT (Strip 4) - 5/5
JIBBER AND STEVE - 4.5/5
FREE GIFTS:
Mystery Gift (Mine was the Agent Dog 2 Zero's Kitty Hitter)
Haribos (Tangfastics) (Unlucky Rose! :( )
So yeah, end of the review. This week's was brilliant, you'd be a fool not to miss it!
The Dandy, 44 Page Mega Comic, £2.50, on sale now!
Let's try and revive my blog and go back to normal schedule shall we? Okay, this week's Dandy was incredible, from front to back this comic was beautiful, 44 pages of brilliance, what made it so brilliant? This is what:
PG 1: Front Cover: Pre-Skool Prime Minister - Jamie Smart
PG 2: Jokes (with Pre-Skool Prime Minister) - Jamie Smart
PG 3: What's Inside? (with guess who? That's right, Pre-Skool Prime Minister!) - Jamie Smart
PG 4: Pre-Skool Prime Minister - Jamie Smart
PG 6: Harry and his Hippo - Andy Fanton
PG 8: Madvertisement: The Money Tree - Nigel Auchterlounie
PG 9: Shorts: Britain's NOT got Talent - Karl Dixon, Simples! 101 Ways to use a Meerkat (No. 87) - Wayne Thompson, Freddy the Fearless Fly - Phil Corbett, Old MacDonald's Facebook Farm - Karl Dixon
PG 10: The Mighty Bork - Wayne Thompson (Au revior Bork!)
PG 12: Justin Beaver - Stu Munro
PG 13: Yore - The Etherington Brothers
PG 14: Bone-O - Mike Donaldson
PG 15: Sea Dogs - Steve Beckett NEW!
PG 16: Bananaman - Wayne Thompson
PG 18: Puzzle: Get the Wind Up! - Steve Beckett
PG 19: Shorts: Not the Greatest Car Parker - Dave Mostyn, Simples! 101 Ways to use a Meerkat (No. 88) - Wayne Thompson, Knock! Knock! - Garry Davies, Britain's NOT got Talent - Karl Dixon
PG 20: Create a Comic: George VS Dragon - Andy Fanton
PG 21: Harry Hill's Real Life Adventures in TV Land - Nigel Parkinson
PG 25: Competition: Make a Monster
PG 26: Clown Wars - Nik Holmes
PG 27: Smashed Hits: Pokerface - Unknown (Mark Bennington perhaps?) :/
PG 28: Puzzle: Gaz of the Titans: The Maze of the Golden Fleece - Nik Holmes
PG 29: Shorts: Saint Evils - Stephen Walker, Not the Greatest Cook - Dave Mostyn, Britain's NOT got Talent - Karl Dixon, Simples! 101 Ways to use a Meerkat (No. 89) - Wayne Thompson
PG 30: Dandy Subscription Page
PG 31: The Gleeks - Nigel Auchterlounie
PG 32: The Bogies (Hot Snot) - Nigel Auchterlounie
PG 33: Madvertisement: 3D Comic - Nigel Auchterlounie (with a nice mention of Winker Watson and Greedy Pigg, hopefully a little clue to two characters returning! ;) )
PG 34: Mailbag
PG 36: Advert: Dandy YouTube Channel, Dandy website
PG 37: Korky the Cat - Phil Corbett
PG 38: Puzzle: Gaz of the Titans: The Lair of Medusa - Nik Holmes
PG 39: Shorts: Terror Byte - David Banks, Simples! 101 Ways to use a Meerkat (No. 90) - Wayne Thompson, Britain's NOT got Talent - Karl Dixon, Jibber and Steve - Nigel Auchterlounie
PG 40: George VS Dragon - Andy Fanton
PG 42: Desperate Dan - Jamie Smart
PG 43: Next Week (Harry Hill's Real Life Adventures in TV Land, Bananaman, Korky the Cat, Worst Superheroes Ever!)
PG 44: Back Page: Continued Back Page (Desperate Dan, Harry and his Hippo, Dragon (from George VS Dragon), Little Eric (with Ant and Dec), Zeke, the Blue Blobs, The Foreign Thingy Man from PSPM and some Chef...)
ROUND UP:
TOTAL OF PAGES: 44
TOTAL OF COMIC STRIPS: 19
TOTAL OF COMIC STRIP PAGES: 27
TOTAL OF ADVERTS: 1
TOTAL OF DANDY RELATED STUFF (that's not a comic strip): 17
Not bad! :D
NEW/BRING BACK:
Harry and his Hippo
Pre-Skool Prime Minister
Terror Byte
Jibber and Steve
RATINGS:
PRE-SKOOL PRIME MINISTER - 10/10
Brilliant seeing it back and I really enjoyed, loved the drill bit! :D
HARRY AND HIS HIPPO - 10/10
Best story this week! Beautiful two pager by Andy with a fantastic storyline, loved the taking over bit with the title! Classic cartoon humour!
THE MIGHTY BORK - 9/10
Very sad to see it go, such a good strip, loved Corporal Clott and Colonel Grumbly's cameos, Wayne should seriously bring them back!
JUSTIN BEAVER - 9.5/10
Not enough cameos for me plus the story wasn't brilliant this week but still very high.
YORE - 8/10
Lovely artwork yet a poor storyline, what a shame.
BONE-O - 9/10
Quite liked it, nice story, reminded me of Foxy but with a dinosaur and a cockerel with an iPhone.
SEA DOGS: 10/10
Beautiful, just beautiful, Steve has done a brilliant job!
BANANAMAN - 9.5/10
Not too heroic sadly but still funny story, I seriously thought the animal was hanged! ;)
HARRY HILL'S REAL LIFE ADVENTURES IN TV LAND - 9/10
God I hate that title. anyway not bad, felt it only needed to be 2 pages though with the speech bubbles.
CLOWN WARS - 10/10
YAYY!! Hurrah rah for guest appearances! Loved Desperate Dan Solo and the ending, brilliant!
THE GLEEKS - 10/10
So funny, thought I'd hate this strip but I LOVED IT!
THE BOGIES - 10/10
Ha ha! Love Hot Snot, love the innocent passenger, love Gobzilla, love the artwork. Brilliant stuff!
KORKY THE CAT - 9/10
Okay-ish. Korky looked a bit camp...
GEORGE VS DRAGON - 10/10
Two pages, lovely artwork, funny story, just brilliant. Very entertaining indeed!
DESPERATE DAN - 10/10
Aww bless... Poor Dan! Loved it!
BRITAIN'S NOT GOT TALENT (Strip 1) - 5/5
SIMPLES! 101 WAYS TO USE A MEERKAT (No. 87) - 4/5
FREDDY THE FEARLESS FLY - 4.5/5
OLD MACDONALD'S FACEBOOK FARM - 3/5
NOT THE GREATEST CAR PARKER - 4/5
SIMPLES! 101 WAYS TO USE A MEERKAT (No. 88) - 5/5
KNOCK! KNOCK! - 3/5
BRITAIN'S NOT GOT TALENT (Strip 2) - 5/5
SAINT EVILS - 5/5
NOT THE GREATEST COOK - 4.5/5
BRITAIN'S NOT GOT TALENT (Strip 3) - 5/5
SIMPLES! 101 WAYS TO USE A MEERKAT (No. 89) - 5/5
TERROR BYTE - 5/5
SIMPLES! 101 WAYS TO USE A MEERKAT (No. 90) - 3/5
BRITAIN'S NOT GOT TALENT (Strip 4) - 5/5
JIBBER AND STEVE - 4.5/5
FREE GIFTS:
Mystery Gift (Mine was the Agent Dog 2 Zero's Kitty Hitter)
Haribos (Tangfastics) (Unlucky Rose! :( )
So yeah, end of the review. This week's was brilliant, you'd be a fool not to miss it!
The Dandy, 44 Page Mega Comic, £2.50, on sale now!
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
The Phoenix Comic
It's looking very promising indeed, after the saddening fall of the DFC comic I believed it was all over for the company, and then this happens, a brand new comic named the Phoenix Comic, does it look good? We don't know yet, but I can say I love the logo!
Four frame funnies eh? Maybe trying some mini strip stories like the Dandy? Not surprised really, they work like a charm, we have mini strips/shorts as well in the Wizzo!
 |
| The logo for the Phoenix Comic |
It's claimed to be a humour/adventure comic which I quite like the sound of, I hope there's more humour than adventure but I doubt it. Anyway, here's a promotion poster for the comic which tells you a lot of info, a lot more than I can say! ;)
 |
| Ooh, poster!! |
The only thing that worries me is 'Real World Wonders', apparently this comic is non-fictional as well, that makes it surely more like a magazine! :O
Hopefully they'll use some old DFC comic strips as well as new ones, I'd love to see more of Fish Head Steve, Vern and Lettuce, Bodkin and Bear and Little Cutey. All brilliant strips!
Wednesday, 18 May 2011
The Beano - Issue 3586
 |
| The Beano - Issue 3586 |
So, The Beano, first review in around 13 days or so. So, on with the review!
PG 1: Front Cover: Dennis and Gnasher - Barrie Appleby
(Incredibly poor compared to last week's. Looked like it was put together in 10 minutes...)
PG 2: Advert: Donkey Kong Country Returns
(1. 2 page advert. Yippee. -.- 2. DK Country Returns came out AGES ago, why advertise it now?!)
PG 4: Contents
PG 5: Dennis and Gnasher - Barrie Appleby
PG 8: Ratz - Hunt Emerson
PG 9: Advert: Beano Comic Maker Kit and Beano Summer Annual
PG 10: The Numskulls - Barry Glennard
PG 12: Minnie the Minx - Ken Harrison
PG 14: Meebo and Zuky - Laura Howell
PG 15: BSK Pull Out Cover
(1. What happened to 'BSK Fact File'? 2. Same picture now 3 weeks in a row...)
PG 16: The Bash Street Kids - David Sutherland
PG 18: Playground Pleasers
PG 19: Ball Boy - Dave Eastbury
(I don't care what the Beano Review say about Dave, he's one talented man.)
PG 20: Retro Beano: The Country Cuzzins - Hugh Morren
(Yippee! I've never heard of this strip! Nice choice because it's not one a lot of people had heard of.)
PG 21: Gimme! Gimme!
PG 22: Fred's Bed - David Sutherland
PG 24: Fred's Foul Facts
(Brilliant new title, looks fantastic! Only problem is it's a bit too big now meaning less facts....)
PG 25: Beano Subscription Page
PG 26: Billy Whizz - Nick Brennan
PG 27: Advert: LEGO Pharoh's Quest
PG 28: Roger the Dodger - Robert Nixon
(I'm sorry but what on earth. What was going on here? I'm very scared how Roger's feet are twisted around. O.o Also what's with the joke being a mirror image one, in other words 'flipped'?! Also doesn't take much to fool Roger's mum...)
PG 30: Gnasher's Bite - Jimmy Hansen
(Sadly not on the back cover, and why is that... Cos there's two frickin' adverts on the second to last and back page!!) >:(
PG 31: Advert: Donkey Kong Country Returns Puzzle
PG 32: Advert: Donkey Kong Country Returns
ROUND UP:
New part in my blog:
TOTAL OF PAGES: 32
TOTAL OF COMIC STRIPS: 12
TOTAL OF COMIC STRIP PAGES: 19
TOTAL OF ADVERTS: 6
TOTAL OF BEANO RELATED STUFF (that's not a comic strip): 8
The rest of my blog entry will be coming soon!
Sunday, 1 May 2011
I've found another one!
Okay, you're probably wondering, 'what do you mean?' well, I can explain.
On the Dandy Facebook Page, a kid by the name of Josh Champion posted 3 comic strips of past Dandy characters (which can be found here, here and here), I got in touch with him and soon he got a deviantART account, from here it was simple, after he uploaded some AMAZING artwork I asked whether he wanted to join the Wizzo, to which he basically replied yes.
He got to work and started producing stories for a new comic strip which was originally just an adventure series of his own but then became a Wizzo story... Anyway, I'm now rambling on so I'll just get to the point...
The first of Josh's strips is called 'Team Time', it's a brilliant strip which involves 3 kids, one from 1911 called Timothy (some humour having him in black and white unlike the rest of them!), one from the present day called Timmy and the final boy from the year 2111 called Tinny, all three are related and it's the same kid through different time periods. You can read the first and second strips here and here!
The second strip is a combined effort between Josh and I, it's a short strip (soon we're having a third page of shorts for you! Ooh you lucky people!) anyway, Josh does the drawing and I write some of the scripts. So far there's been 3 Baldy strips with more on the way! You can read them here, here and here. It's basically about a man who's been very unfortunate to be named 'Baldy' by his parents, anyway, the strips show the good and bad things to being bald and his crazy adventures of trying to get hair and so on. Also as if that's not bad enough, he's soon introduced to the 'Bald Hate Club' who basically go after bald people. Poor, poor Baldy...
Anyway, that's about all for now, be sure to check out his devaintART page and follow him on his Twitter page, okay, that's about it so yeah, bye and stuff!
On the Dandy Facebook Page, a kid by the name of Josh Champion posted 3 comic strips of past Dandy characters (which can be found here, here and here), I got in touch with him and soon he got a deviantART account, from here it was simple, after he uploaded some AMAZING artwork I asked whether he wanted to join the Wizzo, to which he basically replied yes.
He got to work and started producing stories for a new comic strip which was originally just an adventure series of his own but then became a Wizzo story... Anyway, I'm now rambling on so I'll just get to the point...
The first of Josh's strips is called 'Team Time', it's a brilliant strip which involves 3 kids, one from 1911 called Timothy (some humour having him in black and white unlike the rest of them!), one from the present day called Timmy and the final boy from the year 2111 called Tinny, all three are related and it's the same kid through different time periods. You can read the first and second strips here and here!
The second strip is a combined effort between Josh and I, it's a short strip (soon we're having a third page of shorts for you! Ooh you lucky people!) anyway, Josh does the drawing and I write some of the scripts. So far there's been 3 Baldy strips with more on the way! You can read them here, here and here. It's basically about a man who's been very unfortunate to be named 'Baldy' by his parents, anyway, the strips show the good and bad things to being bald and his crazy adventures of trying to get hair and so on. Also as if that's not bad enough, he's soon introduced to the 'Bald Hate Club' who basically go after bald people. Poor, poor Baldy...
Anyway, that's about all for now, be sure to check out his devaintART page and follow him on his Twitter page, okay, that's about it so yeah, bye and stuff!
Saturday, 30 April 2011
The Dandy - Issue 3532
 |
| The Dandy - Issue 3532 |
Okay, first of all I'll mention that this week's issue was the Royal Wedding Special (as was the Beano's), luckily it didn't cost us any extra. Anyway on with the contents:
PG 1: Front Cover: Bananaman! - Wayne Thompson
PG 2: Jokes - Jamie Smart
PG 3: What's Inside? (With Desperate Dan and Clown Wars) (Minigame: Find 3 Clowns in this week's issue)
PG 4: Harry Hill's Real Life Adventures in TV Land - Nigel Parkinson
PG 6: Kid Cops - Lew Stringer
PG 7: Madvertisment: Commemomemomorative Happy Couple Confetti - Wayne Thompson
PG 8: The Mighty Bork - Wayne Thompson
PG 9: Shorts: Britain's NOT Got Talent - Karl Dixon, Simples! 101 Ways to use a Meerkat (No. 76) - Duncan Scott, Freddy the Fearless Fly - Phil Corbett, Thor - Andy Fanton
PG 10: Bananaman - Wayne Thompson
PG 12: Justin Beaver - Stu Munro
PG 13: Yore - The Etherington Brothers
PG 14: Bone-O - Mike Donaldson
PG 15: Dress-up: The Royal Wedding Kit - Nigel Auchterlounie
PG 16: The Arena of Awesome (Wizard VS Caveman) - Jamie Smart
PG 18: Puzzle: Dog Show - Phil Corbett
PG 19: Shorts: Grampire - Andy Fanton, Simples! 101 Ways to use a Meerkat (No. 77) - Duncan Scott, Thor - Andy Fanton, Britain's NOT got Talent - Karl Dixon
PG 20: Dandy Subscription Page
PG 21: Thingummyblob - Jamie Smart
PG 22: The Bogies (Slime Miner) - Nigel Auchterlounie
PG 23: Mailbag
PG 24: Advert: Dandy's Youtube Channel/WWE Kids
PG 25: Korky the Cat - Phil Corbett
PG 26: Clown Wars - Nik Holmes
PG 27: Madvertisement: Royal Wedding Memorabilia - Nigel Auchterlounie
PG 28: Space Dogz - Nigel Auchterlounie
 |
| George VS Dragon - Andy Fanton |
PG 30: George VS Dragon - Andy Fanton
PG 31: Next Time (Harry Hill's Real Life Adventures in TV Land, Justin Beaver, Bone-O, Britain's NOT got Talent)
PG 32: Back Page: Desperate Dan - Jamie Smart
Okay, another great issue, I'm torn between George VS Dragon, Grampire, Justin Beaver, Arena of Awesome, The Mighty Bork, Thingummyblob and Bananaman on this one, they were all great! Other good strips included Thor, Space Dogz, The Bogies, Yore and surprisingly Harry Hill. Worst strip this week being either Korky the Cat, Freddy the Fearless Fly, Simples! or Bone-O. Kid Cops was pretty good as was Clown Wars and Britain's NOT got Talent...
RATINGS:
HARRY HILL'S REAL LIFE ADVENTURES IN TV LAND - 9/10
A very funny story surprisingly, really enjoyed it!
KID COPS - 9/10
A good storyline but I wasn't too keen on Lew's artwork this week.
THE MIGHTY BORK - 10/10
Okay, so it was basically the same as last week's but I really liked this week's! Some beautiful artwork once again by Wayne.
BANANAMAN - 10/10
Yippee! 2 pages of Bananaman! This is more like it, 1 pagers aren't very good, not enough action... Some lovely artwork by Wayne, absolutely beautiful in fact.
JUSTIN BEAVER - 10/10
The story was brilliant but once again the story wasn't the best bit, the fact that Justin Beaver is also a 'find the comic cameos' game just makes it brilliant, plus how much effort goes into each one! This week (with the help of Stu himself) I found Olly the Octopus from 'Desert Island Dick' (Topper), Dragon from 'George VS Dragon' (Dandy), A Dodge Book from 'Roger the Dodger' (Beano), Foxy (Topper) (I thought at first that it was Wolfy from Maw, Paw and Porky/Porky in the Beezer), a brilliant hidden cameo by Pop from 'Pop, Dick and Harry' (Beezer) as 'Mr Big, Boss of Records' and Rafael from 'Teenage Mutant Ninja/Hero Turtles' hiding under a drain. Brilliant stuff!
YORE - 9.5/10
Seemed to go on a bit but still a great strip, I love Doombar! :D
BONE-O - 7.5/10
One which seemed to cause a bit of confusion this week as no one seemed to understand why Mike had made the 'Hot Dog Man' become a flying dog. Still the artwork was lovely and I really like hsi style.
THE ARENA OF AWESOME - 10/10
Once again this week's was not promoted in any way whatsoever, yet it has become one of my most favourite AoA's since the strip began (The others being Mutant VS Shakespeare and Skater VS Knight (I also loved Simon Cowelly VS David Hasseldyhoff)) For some reason the last three panels make me laugh every time, I also love the line "You.. hit me. On my brilliant head." Also "No really, can I call my agent?" was also very funny. :D
THINGUMMYBLOB - 10/10
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| Grampire- Andy Fanton |
THE BOGIES - 9/10
I laughed at the bit with Prince Harry saying "Ha, ha! Marian!" Dunno why but I found that very funny. I found Nigel's artwork pretty poor this week, seemed quite rushed, especially Panels 12 and 13.
KORKY THE CAT - 6/10
Oh dear. Phil, what have you done? This week's Korky was utterly dreadful. His artwork was okay-ish but to be honest, his artwork is quite poor, no charm about it, and as for the joke at the end, was it even funny? Phil's scrawly, rushed handwriting also ruins this strip making it basically impossible to read. I had to strain my eyes to read parts of it. And I hate to say it, but Korky was better as a mini strip.
CLOWN WARS - 8/10
Didn't really seem to be a joke or anything of the sort at the end... I liked the 'Johnson and his stinky feet' joke, nice humour here. I love the clown with green hair's face in Panel 4. Looks awesome!
SPACE DOGZ - 9/10
I'm really enjoying Space Dogz! There's hardly ever a joke at the end but the bits in between are the best, I mean The Kid asking why there's a 'Z' in space Dogz is brilliant and how while Mr Jack is looking for the bounty hunter, The Kid and Captain Cat-tastic just discuss why there's a 'Z' in Space Dogz and why it sounds cool than 'S'. I love the line "So how come we're not the Zpace Dogz then?" very funny and good logic! Also I really like the dialogue boxes with the pictures of the next to it, a really good idea! Also Nigel's artwork for this is brilliant, so much detail and charm about it.
GEORGE VS DRAGON - 10/10
Oh dear George, you are an idiot aren't you? This week's George VS Dragon was genius, the artwork, the storyline, the details, everything was brilliant. Best lines were defintely "Morning George, who are you talking to, eh?" and "Fetch the royal plasters!", only thing that saddened me about this week's was that we didn't see Dave the Squirrel or Wirlin, both of which I have really grown to like! Also I love 'Ye List', "Ye Prince's bride (commoner)", "Ye other Prince", "Mr A. Fanton" and "Mr D. Dan" were all very funny! :D
DESPERATE DAN - 9/10
It was okay, wasn't very funny if I'm honest, didn't have Jamie's randomness. Still nice artwork!
 |
| Korky the Cat - Phil Corbett Failed to impress me this week. |
BRITAIN'S NOT GOT TALENT (STRIP 1) - 5/5
I really liked this one, nice, cartoony artwork and a good storyline.
SIMPLES! 101 WAYS TO USE A MEERKAT (No.76) - 4/5
Not bad, an okay idea but the artwork was pretty poor.
FREDDY THE FEARLESS FLY - 2/5
For goodness sake, the same storyline ONCE AGAIN (Freddy does tricks, person says there's a fly on my ____ ) it's getting to samey, Phil's Freddy is an embarrassment.
THOR (STRIP 1) - 5/5
So funny, I was in stitches. Andy's sense of humour is great, just shows you don't need a bad pun to make a comic strip funny. You just need good humour.
GRAMPIRE - 5/5
I love this oldie! He looks really sweet and awesome, all his stories are funny plus he's a vampire past his sell by date! What's not to love about that?! Andy once again amazes me! :)
SIMPLES! 10 WAYS TO USE A MEERKAT (No. 77) - 1/5
I didn't like it. At all. Nuff said.
 |
| Thor - Andy Fanton |
Nice artwork but I don't like puns. Sorry Andy.
BRITAIN'S NOT GOT TALENT (STRIP 2) - 2/5
I didn't get it at all. What the hell was going on?!
THOR (STRIP 3) - 5/5
Very funny, not as good as the first one but still great! :D
SIMPLES! 101 WAYS TO USE A MEERKAT - 3/5
ANIMAL CRUELTY! I did not understand this one at all.
BRITAIN'S NOT GOT TALENT (STRIP 3) - 5/5
Very funny. I really liked this one, some nice, cartoony artwork once again by Karl Dixon. Plus a funny joke, excellent!
PROFESSOR DANDY'S WORLD OF FACTS - 3/5
Well, it's nice to see its return but that's about it, this week's story didn't make any sense to me.
So there you have it, another fantastic issue! You'll be a fool not to get it!
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| Royal Wedding Kit - Nigel Auchterlounie |
Friday, 29 April 2011
The Beano - Issue 3583
Okay, so this week is that week that there's some wedding going on in London which has made a lot of publicity. Anyway, this week's Beano has made the Royal Wedding Special for this week (As have the Dandy) but luckily it's only £1.50!
Anyway, if I'm right, this week saw the switch of editors from Alan Digby to Mike Stirling, now, I'm not impressed. The Beano have fallen into a trap here and it's not looking good. Usually along with new editors comes new characters, however this time, Mike hasn't added any new characters, instead, more magazine-based stuff. Not a good move. Look how it went for the Dandy Xtreme.
So anyway, there are lots of new things this week which I doubt anyone really gives one about. We have:
- Fred's Foul Facts
(Basically Horrible Histories with Fred telling us facts about the place he went this week, boring!)
- Roger's Dodge Diary
(So boring. Why not have Dodge Clinic there instead?!)
- B.S.K Pull Out
(Comprises of front cover (Fact File), BSK story and Jokes. That's it.)
- Year of the Menace
(Seems to of replaced Beano V.I.P. (Thank goodness!) but still it's bad.)
- Jokes at the bottom of Dennis and Gnasher
(That's right. Dennis and Gnasher has been made smaller in order to add rubbish jokes. Great.)
- Roger's in reprints
(Once again Roger is back to reprints, not looking good. And annoyingly, it's one I've already read. It's quite old by the look of it, definitely by Rob Nixon and around the 1980's as the story is a page and a half (The other used to be Dodge Clinic but is now Roger's Dodge Diary)
But bar all this, something good has come out of it! New borders and page number pictures!
Okay so they're not really that exciting to most people but to me, this is brilliant!
Dennis has a tomato, The Numskulls has a signpost (?), Billy Whizz has himself running, Minnie has a red and black striped border and a beret, Meebo and Zuky have a bomb, Ball Boy has a grassy border and a football, Retro Beano has a mushroom, Fred's Bed has a time vortex border and tentacles , Roger has a red and black checked border and Gnasher's Bite has a dog bowl.
It's brilliant, it looks amazing and I love how each page has it's own picture! It's these little details that make comics fantastic!
Also another great thing is that BFG (Britain's Funniest Gag has seemed to disappear! Instead replaced with Playground Pleasers (BSK Pull Out) most likely.
Anyway. Onto the contents.
PG 1: Front Cover: Dennis and Gnasher with Will and Kate - Barrie Appleby
PG 2: Contents
PG 3: Dennis and Gnasher - Barrie Appleby
PG 6: Year of the Menace NEW!
PG 7: Beano Subscription Page
PG 8: The Numskulls - Barry Glennard
PG 10: Billy Whizz - Nick Brennan
PG 11: Advert: Beano Summer Annual (I really want it!!)
PG 12: Minnie the Minx - Ken Harrison
PG 14: Meebo and Zuky - Laura Howell
B.S.K PULL OUT
PG 15: Fact File: Fatty
PG 16: The Bash Street Kids - David Sutherland
PG 18: Playground Pleasers
PG 19: Ball Boy - Dave Eastbury
PG 20: Advert: Fantastic Pets
PG 22: Fred's Bed - Tom Paterson
PG 24: Fred's Foul Facts
PG 25: Gimme, Gimme!
PG 26: Retro Beano: Dennis the Menace - Davey Law
PG 28: Roger the Dodger - Robert Nixon REPRINT ALERT!
PG 29: Roger's Dodge Diary
PG 30: Advert: The Dandy: Kid Cops - Lew Stringer
PG 31: Next Week
PG 32: Back Page: Gnasher's Bite - Jimmy Hansen
What a fantastic issue for stories, Gnasher's Bite was great, love that strip. Minnie the Minx was brilliant, very funny! Also loved Ball Boy, Meebo and Zuky and The Numskulls, Roger was also very good despite being a reprint. Billy Whizz and Dennis were both very good as well. The worst story this week was The Bash Street Kids without a doubt. Fred's Bed was also okay but the pun was terrible.
RATINGS!
DENNIS AND GNASHER - 10/10
A nice story with some brilliant artwork, quite a bit of menacing, Panel 9 being brilliant!
THE NUMSKULLS - 9/10
This is more like it! A great strip which is also backed up by Barry's brilliant artwork!
BILLY WHIZZ - 9/10
I liked it, a nice idea which seemed original enough. Also some good artwork by Nick as well.
MINNIE THE MINX - 10/10
Brilliant, just brilliant. Seemed like a classic. The story is well-written plus Ken once again amazes me with his beautiful artwork.
MEEBO AND ZUKY - 9/10
I only had one problem with this weeks... I swear on the 'Next Time' from the previous issue, Zuky is falling from a biplane yet there's no biplane in this one.
BASH STREET KIDS - 7/10
What's happened? Where's the menacing, the naughtiest thing they do this week is a cartwheel.
BALL BOY - 10/10
We've had a story like this before where Ball Boy is being bullied by some rough kids, then the netball girls help him then he goes into the wrong changing room. It's basically the same but I liked it.
FRED'S BED - 9/10
It was all good, until the end, a brilliant piece of work with amazing artwork once again by Tom, yet the ending ruined it.
ROGER THE DODGER - 8/10
Removed 1 whole mark for it being a reprint. As much as I love Rob's artwork and rather have new stuff by Barrie.
GNASHER'S BITE - 10/10
I loved it. Very good. A great strip.
The Beano - Issue 3583, the Royal Wedding Special, on sale now for only £1.50.
Anyway, if I'm right, this week saw the switch of editors from Alan Digby to Mike Stirling, now, I'm not impressed. The Beano have fallen into a trap here and it's not looking good. Usually along with new editors comes new characters, however this time, Mike hasn't added any new characters, instead, more magazine-based stuff. Not a good move. Look how it went for the Dandy Xtreme.
So anyway, there are lots of new things this week which I doubt anyone really gives one about. We have:
- Fred's Foul Facts
(Basically Horrible Histories with Fred telling us facts about the place he went this week, boring!)
- Roger's Dodge Diary
(So boring. Why not have Dodge Clinic there instead?!)
- B.S.K Pull Out
(Comprises of front cover (Fact File), BSK story and Jokes. That's it.)
- Year of the Menace
(Seems to of replaced Beano V.I.P. (Thank goodness!) but still it's bad.)
- Jokes at the bottom of Dennis and Gnasher
(That's right. Dennis and Gnasher has been made smaller in order to add rubbish jokes. Great.)
- Roger's in reprints
(Once again Roger is back to reprints, not looking good. And annoyingly, it's one I've already read. It's quite old by the look of it, definitely by Rob Nixon and around the 1980's as the story is a page and a half (The other used to be Dodge Clinic but is now Roger's Dodge Diary)
But bar all this, something good has come out of it! New borders and page number pictures!
Okay so they're not really that exciting to most people but to me, this is brilliant!
Dennis has a tomato, The Numskulls has a signpost (?), Billy Whizz has himself running, Minnie has a red and black striped border and a beret, Meebo and Zuky have a bomb, Ball Boy has a grassy border and a football, Retro Beano has a mushroom, Fred's Bed has a time vortex border and tentacles , Roger has a red and black checked border and Gnasher's Bite has a dog bowl.
It's brilliant, it looks amazing and I love how each page has it's own picture! It's these little details that make comics fantastic!
Also another great thing is that BFG (Britain's Funniest Gag has seemed to disappear! Instead replaced with Playground Pleasers (BSK Pull Out) most likely.
Anyway. Onto the contents.
PG 1: Front Cover: Dennis and Gnasher with Will and Kate - Barrie Appleby
PG 2: Contents
PG 3: Dennis and Gnasher - Barrie Appleby
PG 6: Year of the Menace NEW!
PG 7: Beano Subscription Page
PG 8: The Numskulls - Barry Glennard
PG 10: Billy Whizz - Nick Brennan
PG 11: Advert: Beano Summer Annual (I really want it!!)
PG 12: Minnie the Minx - Ken Harrison
PG 14: Meebo and Zuky - Laura Howell
B.S.K PULL OUT
PG 15: Fact File: Fatty
PG 16: The Bash Street Kids - David Sutherland
PG 18: Playground Pleasers
PG 19: Ball Boy - Dave Eastbury
PG 20: Advert: Fantastic Pets
PG 22: Fred's Bed - Tom Paterson
PG 24: Fred's Foul Facts
PG 25: Gimme, Gimme!
PG 26: Retro Beano: Dennis the Menace - Davey Law
PG 28: Roger the Dodger - Robert Nixon REPRINT ALERT!
PG 29: Roger's Dodge Diary
PG 30: Advert: The Dandy: Kid Cops - Lew Stringer
PG 31: Next Week
PG 32: Back Page: Gnasher's Bite - Jimmy Hansen
What a fantastic issue for stories, Gnasher's Bite was great, love that strip. Minnie the Minx was brilliant, very funny! Also loved Ball Boy, Meebo and Zuky and The Numskulls, Roger was also very good despite being a reprint. Billy Whizz and Dennis were both very good as well. The worst story this week was The Bash Street Kids without a doubt. Fred's Bed was also okay but the pun was terrible.
RATINGS!
DENNIS AND GNASHER - 10/10
A nice story with some brilliant artwork, quite a bit of menacing, Panel 9 being brilliant!
THE NUMSKULLS - 9/10
This is more like it! A great strip which is also backed up by Barry's brilliant artwork!
BILLY WHIZZ - 9/10
I liked it, a nice idea which seemed original enough. Also some good artwork by Nick as well.
MINNIE THE MINX - 10/10
Brilliant, just brilliant. Seemed like a classic. The story is well-written plus Ken once again amazes me with his beautiful artwork.
MEEBO AND ZUKY - 9/10
I only had one problem with this weeks... I swear on the 'Next Time' from the previous issue, Zuky is falling from a biplane yet there's no biplane in this one.
BASH STREET KIDS - 7/10
What's happened? Where's the menacing, the naughtiest thing they do this week is a cartwheel.
BALL BOY - 10/10
We've had a story like this before where Ball Boy is being bullied by some rough kids, then the netball girls help him then he goes into the wrong changing room. It's basically the same but I liked it.
FRED'S BED - 9/10
It was all good, until the end, a brilliant piece of work with amazing artwork once again by Tom, yet the ending ruined it.
ROGER THE DODGER - 8/10
Removed 1 whole mark for it being a reprint. As much as I love Rob's artwork and rather have new stuff by Barrie.
GNASHER'S BITE - 10/10
I loved it. Very good. A great strip.
The Beano - Issue 3583, the Royal Wedding Special, on sale now for only £1.50.
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
The Dandy - Issue 3531
1 week has gone and I haven't done my Dandy review yet?! I'm sorry comic fans!
Anyway, I'm going to refer to it like it was this week's if that's okay with you... Anyway...
So, a brilliant issue, this week's was another brilliant 44 pager and was also not only the Easter Special but also known as the Fanton Special as well as Andy does rather a lot in this week's issue!!
So, on with the contents!
PG 1: Front Cover - Bananaman - Wayne Thompson
PG 2: Jokes - Jamie Smart
PG 3: What's Inside? (With Rocky O'Flair - Wayne Thompson)
PG 4: Harry Hill's Real Life Adventures in TV Land - Nigel Parkinson
PG 6: The Mighty Bork - Wayne Thompson
PG 7: Madvertisement: Madbury's Chrome Egg - Andy Fanton
PG 8: Kid Cops - Lew Stringer
PG 9: Shorts: Springwatch - Andy Fanton NEW!, Britain's NOT got Talent - Karl Dixon, Mad March Hare - Andy Fanton NEW!, The Eggheads - Nigel Auchterlounie NEW!
PG 10: Puzzle: Is your Teacher an Alien? - Duncan Scott
PG 11: Advert: Beyblade (I played with them when I was a little 'un!!) :D
PG 12: Bone-O - Mike Donaldson
PG 13: Clown Wars - Nik Holmes
PG 14: The Bogies: Double Blow Seven - Nigel Auchterlounie
PG 15: Smashed Hits - Unknown
PG 16: The Arena of Awesome (Beano Editor: Mike 'First Strike' Stirling VS 'Crushin' Craig Graham) - Jamie Smart
PG 18: Yore - The Etherington Brothers
PG 19: Shorts: Springwatch - Andy Fanton, Britain's NOT got Talent - Karl Dixon, The Eggheads - Nigel Auchterlounie, Mad March Hare - Andy Fanton
PG 20: Puzzle: Hoff-MAZE-ing!
PG 21: Justin Beaver - Stu Munro
PG 22: What's Inside the Dandy Office - Dave Mostyn
(Pull out: Stickers - Jamie Smart)
PG 24: Competition: Make me a Monster - Lorenzo Etherington
PG 25: Bananaman - Wayne Thompson
PG 29: Shorts: Springwatch - Andy Fanton, Britain's NOT got Talent - Karl Dixon, Mad March Hare - Andy Fanton, The Eggheads - Nigel Auchterlounie
PG 30: Advert: Dandy Website and WWE Kids
PG 31: Cel-EGG-brity Easter Eggs - Nigel Parkinson
PG 32: Little David Hasselhoff - Nigel Parkinson
PG 33: Korky the Cat - Phil Corbett
PG 34: Thingummyblob - Jamie Smart
PG 36: Dandy Subscription Page
PG 37: Space Dogz - Nigel Auchterlounie
PG 38: Puzzle: Messi Bedroom - Chris McGhie
PG 39: Shorts: Springwatch - Andy Fanton, Simples! 101 Ways to use a Meerkat (No. 75) - Duncan Scott, Mad March Hare - Andy Fanton, Britain's NOT got Talent - Karl Dixon
PG 40: Farm-ula One - Wayne Thompson
PG 41: Mailbag
PG 42: George VS Dragon - Andy Fanton
PG 43: Next Week (Harry Hill's Real Life Adventures in TV Land, Thingummyblob, Thor NEW!, Royal Wedding Kit, Justin Beaver)
PG 44: Desperate Dan - Jamie Smart
Okay, a really good issue, my favourite being a toss between Bananaman, Springwatch, George VS Dragon, Desperate Dan and Thingummyblob which were all fantastic, the worst this week was probably The Bogies and Eggheads, with Smashed Hits also failing to impress me once again.
RATINGS:
1 PAGE OR MORE:
HARRY HILL'S REAL LIFE ADVENTURES IN TV LAND - 7/10
I didn't find it funny at all and found it very boring.
THE MIGHTY BORK - 9/10
Lovely to see his return after his sad absence last week. Seemed good enough, Easter related and a nice story.
MADVERTISEMENT (CHROME EGG) - 9.5/10
Some lovely humour here, loved the whale bit! Beautiful artwork by Andy Fanton as well!
KID COPS - 9/10
I liked it, wasn't too funny but it was drawn nicely and it was a nice idea, modernised as well.
BONE-O - 9.5/10
It's awkward, I love the artwirk, it looks professional, but for some reason there's something I don't like abotu this strip...
CLOWN WARS - 9/10
It was okay, not some of Nik's better pieces of artwork. Also I don't like the use of the 'Splat' so much plus how tacky it looks.
THE BOGIES - 5/10
Oh dear. And it was doing so well. Possibly the worst Bogies strip since the revamp. The artwork was rushed, the story wasn't at all funny and it just seemed boring and bad.
THE ARENA OF AWESOME - 8/10
After a massive build-up, this is what we get, a boring fight with hardly any references towards the comic, I was at least hoping to see some Beano and Dandy characters fighting. Seems when they show the AoA in the Next Week and promote it, it's bad, when they don't, it's good.
YORE - 8/10
Nice artwork, beautiful in fact, but this was the only thing good about this week's episode.
JUSTIN BEAVER - 10/10
Ah, finally a 10/10! I loved it, from all the comic cameos up to hidden references, I know when I see a good strip and this was one of 'em!
BANANAMAN - 10/10
4 pages of brilliance, Wayne Thompson, thank you for treating us! The Banker and Fta Cat are brilliant, I hope to see them back, also fantastic to see the return of Chief O'Reilly!
LITTLE DAVID HASSELHOFF - 9.5/10
Funny, nicely drawn (apart from his nose, it doesn't look right!), some nice comedy as well, yet another great Little Celebs strip!
KORKY THE CAT - 7/10
I don't like his artwork, it looks rushed and his speech bubbles are so hard to read, the story wasn't too good either.
THINGUMMYBLOB - 10/10
JEHHHHHHHLLYY!! Jamie Smart, you're a genius. A true genius. This week's Thingummyblob was both funny and touching, panels 10 and 18 made me feel sorry for him, this is what makes Jamie so brilliant, he can make the readers feel emotions for his characters, he's brilliant.
SPACE DOGZ - 9/10
I liked it. Some nice artwork by Nigel A, not as rushed and looks like more thought has gone into it. At the moment I'm loving Space Dogz!
FARM-ULA ONE - 7/10
Urrrrgghhh. Last one, thank goodness. Well. It wasn't bad, I'll give it that and Wayne's artwork makes it look a lot better. But it was still a poor strip story-wise.
GEORGE VS DRAGON - 10/10
Oh man, this strip is hilarious! So glad it has returned, love the bit with Pat! Also a lovely appearance again from Dave the Squirrel as well as Wirlin, yippee!
DESPERATE DAN - 10/10
To the FUTURRRRRR!! This was brilliant, great artwork, very funny and I loved all the 'FUTURRRRRR' bits!
SHORTS:
SPRINGWATCH (STRIP 1) - 5/5
BRITAIN'S NOT GOT TALENT (STRIP 1) - 4/5
MAD MARCH HARE (STRIP 1) - 4/5
THE EGGHEADS (STRIP 1) - 2/5
SPRINGWATCH (STRIP 2) - 5/5
BRITAIN'S NOT GOT TALENT (STRIP 2) - 5/5
THE EGGHEADS (STRIP 2) - 2/5
MAD MARCH HARE (STRIP 2) - 4/5
SPRINGWATCH (STRIP 3)- 5/5
BRITAIN'S NOT GOT TALENT (STRIP 3)- 3/5
MAD MARCH HARE (STRIP 3) - 5/5
THE EGGHEADS (STRIP 3) - 2/5
SPRINGWATCH (STRIP 4) - 5/5
SIMPLES! 101 WAYS TO USE A MEERKAT (NO. 75) - 4/5
MAD MARCH HARE (STRIP 4) - 3/5
BRITAIN'S NOT GOT TALENT (STRIP 4) - 5/5
So there we have it, once again very sorry for not doing this blog entry before!
Anyway, The Dandy - Issue 3531, NOT on sale now for £2.50!
Anyway, I'm going to refer to it like it was this week's if that's okay with you... Anyway...
So, a brilliant issue, this week's was another brilliant 44 pager and was also not only the Easter Special but also known as the Fanton Special as well as Andy does rather a lot in this week's issue!!
So, on with the contents!
PG 1: Front Cover - Bananaman - Wayne Thompson
PG 2: Jokes - Jamie Smart
PG 3: What's Inside? (With Rocky O'Flair - Wayne Thompson)
PG 4: Harry Hill's Real Life Adventures in TV Land - Nigel Parkinson
PG 6: The Mighty Bork - Wayne Thompson
PG 7: Madvertisement: Madbury's Chrome Egg - Andy Fanton
PG 8: Kid Cops - Lew Stringer
PG 9: Shorts: Springwatch - Andy Fanton NEW!, Britain's NOT got Talent - Karl Dixon, Mad March Hare - Andy Fanton NEW!, The Eggheads - Nigel Auchterlounie NEW!
PG 10: Puzzle: Is your Teacher an Alien? - Duncan Scott
PG 11: Advert: Beyblade (I played with them when I was a little 'un!!) :D
PG 12: Bone-O - Mike Donaldson
PG 13: Clown Wars - Nik Holmes
PG 14: The Bogies: Double Blow Seven - Nigel Auchterlounie
PG 15: Smashed Hits - Unknown
PG 16: The Arena of Awesome (Beano Editor: Mike 'First Strike' Stirling VS 'Crushin' Craig Graham) - Jamie Smart
PG 18: Yore - The Etherington Brothers
PG 19: Shorts: Springwatch - Andy Fanton, Britain's NOT got Talent - Karl Dixon, The Eggheads - Nigel Auchterlounie, Mad March Hare - Andy Fanton
PG 20: Puzzle: Hoff-MAZE-ing!
PG 21: Justin Beaver - Stu Munro
PG 22: What's Inside the Dandy Office - Dave Mostyn
(Pull out: Stickers - Jamie Smart)
PG 24: Competition: Make me a Monster - Lorenzo Etherington
PG 25: Bananaman - Wayne Thompson
PG 29: Shorts: Springwatch - Andy Fanton, Britain's NOT got Talent - Karl Dixon, Mad March Hare - Andy Fanton, The Eggheads - Nigel Auchterlounie
PG 30: Advert: Dandy Website and WWE Kids
PG 31: Cel-EGG-brity Easter Eggs - Nigel Parkinson
PG 32: Little David Hasselhoff - Nigel Parkinson
PG 33: Korky the Cat - Phil Corbett
PG 34: Thingummyblob - Jamie Smart
PG 36: Dandy Subscription Page
PG 37: Space Dogz - Nigel Auchterlounie
PG 38: Puzzle: Messi Bedroom - Chris McGhie
PG 39: Shorts: Springwatch - Andy Fanton, Simples! 101 Ways to use a Meerkat (No. 75) - Duncan Scott, Mad March Hare - Andy Fanton, Britain's NOT got Talent - Karl Dixon
PG 40: Farm-ula One - Wayne Thompson
PG 41: Mailbag
PG 42: George VS Dragon - Andy Fanton
PG 43: Next Week (Harry Hill's Real Life Adventures in TV Land, Thingummyblob, Thor NEW!, Royal Wedding Kit, Justin Beaver)
PG 44: Desperate Dan - Jamie Smart
Okay, a really good issue, my favourite being a toss between Bananaman, Springwatch, George VS Dragon, Desperate Dan and Thingummyblob which were all fantastic, the worst this week was probably The Bogies and Eggheads, with Smashed Hits also failing to impress me once again.
RATINGS:
1 PAGE OR MORE:
HARRY HILL'S REAL LIFE ADVENTURES IN TV LAND - 7/10
I didn't find it funny at all and found it very boring.
THE MIGHTY BORK - 9/10
Lovely to see his return after his sad absence last week. Seemed good enough, Easter related and a nice story.
MADVERTISEMENT (CHROME EGG) - 9.5/10
Some lovely humour here, loved the whale bit! Beautiful artwork by Andy Fanton as well!
KID COPS - 9/10
I liked it, wasn't too funny but it was drawn nicely and it was a nice idea, modernised as well.
BONE-O - 9.5/10
It's awkward, I love the artwirk, it looks professional, but for some reason there's something I don't like abotu this strip...
CLOWN WARS - 9/10
It was okay, not some of Nik's better pieces of artwork. Also I don't like the use of the 'Splat' so much plus how tacky it looks.
THE BOGIES - 5/10
Oh dear. And it was doing so well. Possibly the worst Bogies strip since the revamp. The artwork was rushed, the story wasn't at all funny and it just seemed boring and bad.
THE ARENA OF AWESOME - 8/10
After a massive build-up, this is what we get, a boring fight with hardly any references towards the comic, I was at least hoping to see some Beano and Dandy characters fighting. Seems when they show the AoA in the Next Week and promote it, it's bad, when they don't, it's good.
YORE - 8/10
Nice artwork, beautiful in fact, but this was the only thing good about this week's episode.
JUSTIN BEAVER - 10/10
Ah, finally a 10/10! I loved it, from all the comic cameos up to hidden references, I know when I see a good strip and this was one of 'em!
BANANAMAN - 10/10
4 pages of brilliance, Wayne Thompson, thank you for treating us! The Banker and Fta Cat are brilliant, I hope to see them back, also fantastic to see the return of Chief O'Reilly!
LITTLE DAVID HASSELHOFF - 9.5/10
Funny, nicely drawn (apart from his nose, it doesn't look right!), some nice comedy as well, yet another great Little Celebs strip!
KORKY THE CAT - 7/10
I don't like his artwork, it looks rushed and his speech bubbles are so hard to read, the story wasn't too good either.
THINGUMMYBLOB - 10/10
JEHHHHHHHLLYY!! Jamie Smart, you're a genius. A true genius. This week's Thingummyblob was both funny and touching, panels 10 and 18 made me feel sorry for him, this is what makes Jamie so brilliant, he can make the readers feel emotions for his characters, he's brilliant.
SPACE DOGZ - 9/10
I liked it. Some nice artwork by Nigel A, not as rushed and looks like more thought has gone into it. At the moment I'm loving Space Dogz!
FARM-ULA ONE - 7/10
Urrrrgghhh. Last one, thank goodness. Well. It wasn't bad, I'll give it that and Wayne's artwork makes it look a lot better. But it was still a poor strip story-wise.
GEORGE VS DRAGON - 10/10
Oh man, this strip is hilarious! So glad it has returned, love the bit with Pat! Also a lovely appearance again from Dave the Squirrel as well as Wirlin, yippee!
DESPERATE DAN - 10/10
To the FUTURRRRRR!! This was brilliant, great artwork, very funny and I loved all the 'FUTURRRRRR' bits!
SHORTS:
SPRINGWATCH (STRIP 1) - 5/5
BRITAIN'S NOT GOT TALENT (STRIP 1) - 4/5
MAD MARCH HARE (STRIP 1) - 4/5
THE EGGHEADS (STRIP 1) - 2/5
SPRINGWATCH (STRIP 2) - 5/5
BRITAIN'S NOT GOT TALENT (STRIP 2) - 5/5
THE EGGHEADS (STRIP 2) - 2/5
MAD MARCH HARE (STRIP 2) - 4/5
SPRINGWATCH (STRIP 3)- 5/5
BRITAIN'S NOT GOT TALENT (STRIP 3)- 3/5
MAD MARCH HARE (STRIP 3) - 5/5
THE EGGHEADS (STRIP 3) - 2/5
SPRINGWATCH (STRIP 4) - 5/5
SIMPLES! 101 WAYS TO USE A MEERKAT (NO. 75) - 4/5
MAD MARCH HARE (STRIP 4) - 3/5
BRITAIN'S NOT GOT TALENT (STRIP 4) - 5/5
So there we have it, once again very sorry for not doing this blog entry before!
Anyway, The Dandy - Issue 3531, NOT on sale now for £2.50!
Saturday, 23 April 2011
What's that comin' over the hill?
IT'S A DINOSAUR!
Why's he here? Why that's simple, to spread the news of my best friend's new blog!
That's right, after long last, Hannes has now got his own blog. You can view it in all it's dinosaury brilliance right HERE!
You know you want to click it!
Please make him feel welcome to blogging by following is fantastic blog; I'm sure he'd like that very much!
So, why are you still on here? Check out his brand new blog right now! :D
Why's he here? Why that's simple, to spread the news of my best friend's new blog!
That's right, after long last, Hannes has now got his own blog. You can view it in all it's dinosaury brilliance right HERE!
You know you want to click it!
Please make him feel welcome to blogging by following is fantastic blog; I'm sure he'd like that very much!
So, why are you still on here? Check out his brand new blog right now! :D
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