Reburying the dog

Well, that was quick.

This week, The Dandy relaunched. To be honest, I was surprised it was still going. Now, when I was a kid, I tended to avoid it. Even at a tender age, it and its stablemate, The Beano, seemed like the establishment, the most subversive they ever seemed to get being Dennis the (UK) Menace bullying a weaker boy on a regular basis. I used to get Buster Comic instead, which seemed more attuned to my fledgling sense of humour (though I can only assume that Chalky using the word "dickhead" in an issue circa 1990 was either misunderstood by the editorial staff at the time as being a bona fide expletive, or one that a disgruntled letterer decided to slip in). At the tender age of 6 and a half, I had a letter published in Buster. I spotted that a character (possibly Tony Broke) was on the bus in another strip (possibly Chalky). I was told that they were drawn by the same artist. The concept that someone actually worked on comics for a living blew me away. All the free crap they sent me for getting my letter printed was pretty good, too. Ambrosia: Cream Of The Tops on cassette. Wicked.

Anywho, as I got older I moved away from humour comics and onto Marvel stuff. The stuff I drew started to alter to fit this new aspect of comicdom I'd discovered, and Ray Red Nose, a character I designed when I was 5, was left behind. Remember that name for a few minutes.

Nearly 30 years on, and The Dandy was relaunched this week. I sent them a submission.

It was rejected within an hour.

Still, kudos to them for getting back to me so quickly, or indeed at all. I would have loved to get some artwork published, albeit not my usual stuff, especially in the same comic that one of my heroes, Lew Stringer, now works on.

However, it was not to be. It was deemed "inappropriate" for The Dandy, and I was wished the best of luck in my career in the comics industry. I bought the new Dandy this week, the first copy I'd bought in nearly 30 years. Apparently, bodily waste and emission gags are appropriate. This isn't, though:

That was my submission. Random Ray. Ray being the dog. Look at the colour of his nose. Yep, it's the character I made up when I was 5. I resurrected him, added a bit of schadenfreude and set up the template: each strip would be 2 panels, the first being the setup, the second being a random event ruining everything. It would have been a meteor crushing his shiny new bike, falling off a previously unseen cliff, being suddenly abducted by aliens, that sort of thing. Shame, I would have enjoyed doing that every week. But alas, it was not to be. Looking at what they've done to Korky the Cat and Desperate Dan, alongside the new strips they've introduced, they're a far cry from the humour comics I used to read, all stylised jutting angles and square fingers (though George vs. Dragon is great, and Lew Stringer is, well, Lew Stringer). It's alien to me. It's probably for the best I got the rejection. I don't think I belong in that world.

I'll be sticking to what I know, even though it seems to take bloody ages, and not get paid doing it. After a long delay, I've been working on Destinauts. Here's some proof:

The second issue will be due very shortly. One day, I may self-publish it as a graphic novel when I finish it. Dunno how much that would be, but I'd like to see it printed either way. I'm not going to send it to any publishers.

Oh yeah, Dystopian Fuchsia's a year old next week. I may do some kind of competition to tie in with it. I still don't know how I'm going to mark the anniversary. Maybe a bumper Children's TV: The Re-Imagining thing, since that's how it started. I'm not sure. Only about 3 people read the 100th blog post (which is one person per day it took me to write it). Any ideas, let me know.

I'm going to write more blogs soon. I've been absent from here for a while, due to illness, work, drawing and a generally gloomy outlook. I have a lot to be angry about. Something to look forward to, eh?