IT'S DESPERATE, DAN...

I must confess to not being greatly impressed by sections of the new DANDY. It seems indisputable to me that the overall look could be improved by a few simple steps, namely in the lettering department.

Which is not to say that all the lettering is bad, but it would still benefit from a change to upper case to make it easier to read. I don't even mean that the current style is too small, but it is definitely too rough in places to flow smoothly.

So far, I have studiously avoided specifically naming any particular strip or artist that I'm not so keen on, but JAMIE SMART'S DESPERATE DAN strip seems to be the focus of a lot of less-than-positive attention elsewhere on the internet. I'm assuming he letters the strip himself in the new Dandy, but if so, he really isn't doing himself any favours. Have a look at the DD trailer page (above) from the OLD Dandy. His art doesn't seem quite as roughly finished, and the overall look of the strip is vastly improved with more uniform frame borders and consistently rendered, upper case lettering. I'm sure at least some of the critics would look more favourably on the strip if it looked like this. (Although I'd still prefer a slightly more detailed  version - after all, the original look had been established for nearly 70 years.)

The editor did no one any favours when he abandoned the above slightly more polished-looking finish for the current one.

Okay, D.C. THOMSON - you've had your fun - change it to the above look - NOW!