The Beano and Dandy Summer Specials 2022

Summer is very much before us as I heard a familar thud through the letter box as the pre-ordered Summer Specials arrived.

See the thing is we're off into Summer not that on Friday you'd of know it with the heavy rain we had in this part of the midlands and for some of us it means only one thing.

This week is an important week in that it is the one which D C Thomson publish what was for many of us a highlight of the year.

As regulars know we no longer have the Dandy as a regular 52 week comic since the end of the print run in 2012 and the demise of the digital edition in 2013 so we have an annual in time for Christmas and interestingly enough, a Summer Special each year.

What that amounts to is unlike its stablemate, the Beano, it inhabits the same world we remember, more or less as any comic does with those characters we grew up with and a few newer ones and to a larger extent, it keeps the feel and theme.

This years cover pays homage to a classic 1957 beano book cover by James Crighton as they were called back then and not annuals like today by design drawn by Steve Bright and runs with a football focused theme throughout that makes for a refreshing change from the "at the beach" covers we usually see.

Like last years edition this carefully treads a path of reprints from summer specials of the past, in this years instance mainly football based ones, and new carefully drawn and conceived new stories featuring our favourites with Lew Stringer doing some new Keyhole Kate, that gives an idea of how a regular Dandy might of been by the top comic artists of our time.

Equally we have a new Dreadlock Holmes story by Wayne Thompson while amongst the reprints is the very first Brassneck story, very much an iconic series in the Dandy from 1964.

This is this years Beano Summer Special looking very much like a regular edition but themed as a " Summer Activity Special" so it will have quizzes, find the missing words and things to colour alongside the totally themed storyline that features all the current inhabitants of Beanotown in one great summer time travel adventure that runs seamlessly through separate comic strips per page.

Unlike The Dandy this is very much in the present recognizable to today's ten year old readers very much in the style of the regular weekly comic

It has within it the ever popular stickers and jokes too which usually have me in stitches whenever I read them as a regular reader of the normal weekly edition.

This should be available from the middle of this week in the usual outlets although you can order via D C Thomson's own online shop 

The things that remain for good or bad

This week I'm looking a few things that stay in my mind for either good or bad reasons.

"Chip the Crip" and his female counter part were a thing I saw a lot of growing up because they were collection boxes for the Spastics Society, now called Scope which many of us where disabled such as myself who was classed as "Spastic" back then loathed.

The main problem was it portrayed us as helpless boys and girls who needed your handouts as non disabled people while reducing our personalities down to being just a medical case.

It isn't that things need to be done to ensure we have equality of opportunity - doors that can be easily opened and making paces easier to get around  is something that really irritates me even today - but the approach then was of exclusion having your own schools, own spaces to socialize in and so on.

As I said before I was very fortunate to have a Headmaster who help me toughen up to hold my own against abled bodied boys earning their respect rather than being a charity case that inspired me to fight from time to time attempts to place me in institutions that would of hindered my growth as person.

There's a couple of things going on within that short-lived magazines cover illustration one was how that boy is staying back to finish his work.

Unfortunately I missed out by a few years from having a "Classroom Assistant" help me get things down from the chalkboard, see to it any notes could be duplicated before the lesson as being dyslexic I not only struggle with reading but toss in holding a pen and spelling it makes taking notes old school a real pain.

The other thing is although the language used tends to be frowned upon in disability activist circles, the magazine did show disabled people learning to find their place in society and achieve things when the only place for many of  us after leaving school would be a Day Care Centre rather than study or employment.

Teddy Bear Picnics were more my idea of fun for a very long time with lots of space for ones imagination something that lasted with me until my time in the sixth which was very out of sync with my peers by that stage.

It was just an indication of how permanently in that time parts of me were and for that matter remain

April Outro

After last weeks groovy trip into the past we return to the more mainstream sort of entry while I write this on a rather overcast day.

Wondering around was always a part of my childhood not for most part being that keen in being indoors being more in tune with the whole "Why don't you Switch off the television and do something less boring instead?" idea so you'd decide what you needed on and went out for a few hours or so.

Thus it's not so surprising that a few days ago I just did which mobile phone in pocket but switched off where I noticed this.

Sometimes we can focus on just the object but not see what the overall view was and the reflections don't just show symmetry but tend to emphasize the calm restful nature which plays a part in such activities not least with some of tensions currently in the world. 

Another thing I did then and still do is reading usually relatively short stories which might be fiction such as that boy is reading or for me single story comic books.

I get the Commando series of war based comic books and recently as we mark the Fortieth Anniversary of the Falklands War which I remember as a child at high school a number of issues had looked at that conflict and the risks and sacrifices in resolving that conflict.

Take four Rollers albums

 After munching through one egg and starting on another I thought I would return this week to a subject that has cropped up in this blog a few times.

Some of my past posts about this band was more reflective looking at what being that Rollers fan was to me and some of those records we bought while this looks at the four core albums and their reception.

Most things on this blog tend to be "connected" in someway to my life rather than blog of reviews and the like.

This entry is about four albums that were part of that life.

The first album got off to a good start with Saturday Night, the first single since September 1971 to actually go top 30 in late 1973 and Remember from early 1974 recorded with Nobby Clarke on lead vocals before Les joined the band.

The success of Shang-a-lang in the Spring of 1974 made recording an album by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter easy and those first two songs were re-recorded with Les on vocals together with new songs such as Summerlove Sensation which meant by release in October it didn't just come out as the bands popularity was on the march, it had four hit singles.

The album sold extremely well aided by having those four hits split between two sides mixed with some of Bill and Phil's own songs plus a a few from Eric Faulkner and Stu "Woody" Wood such as Ain't It Strange which is a folk flavoured favourite of mine from it.

All Of Me Loves All Of You, a non album single had done well in October and so they were the poster child of a new brand of hysteria in pop bigger than anything Mud, Slade or Gary Glitter could muster. 

It was "screaming "do or die" access your idols mania!

In March of 1975 Once Upon a Star, the second album had been released recorded with them playing most of the instruments following criticism of the use of session players which was very common place back then.

The packaging of this album was something special for it had five posters that form part of the front cover with pictures of each Roller. 

Let it not be said the Rollers didn't give us value packed albums.

This album had a high proportion of self composed songs too so it was no surprise this record was played when I transferred to boarding school that year which the act of talking about my love for band aided the transition. 

They came to the Victoria Hall here in the Stoke on Trent city region where hysterical scenes followed in and out of the venue reminiscent of Beatlemania captured by the local paper photographers for posterity.

Timed for the Christmas market, Wouldn't You Like It was released December 1975 featuring Give A Little Love which had been a Number 1 single but interestingly missed out Money Honey their newest.

Again apart from being a gatefold, initial copies also had a tartan bag that contained pictures of the individuals the idea being you'd separate and stick upon your bedroom wall.

As you would expect, it was highly promoted in the music press and featured Too Young To Rock 'N' Roll which was the theme song of the Glam rock movie that came out that year.

The following review shows just how much respect reviewers had for their maturing musical and lyrical talent, something the band has over the years been unfairly ridiculed for.

By September 1976 things were changing in the UK  with funk based disco and the "New wave" on the rise just as North America experienced Rollermania and this lead to the fourth album being recorded in Toronto, Canada which captured their maturing sound and was the only album Ian Mitchell who had replaced Alan at the end of 1975 played on before he too left.

Interesting the UK edition did feature 1975's Money Honey but ignored both Love Me Like I Love You a number 4 hit single we all song on the school bus and the cover of I Only Wanna Be With You, the latter did make the Canadian and U.S. versions of this album.

To me this is easily their best album mixing great ballads with exquisite power-pop such as Rock 'N' Roll Love Letter, hit in Europe and North America that I have the Japanese single of with insert.

These are albums that I still own, well cared for for the memories associated with them during that era.

Easter edition

This is likely to be a text book syncro-post which is not something that happens every week but given the way Easter fits into the publishing schedule you can't avoid it although each will be tweaked.

Some of us are blessed with people who do see the more child-like side with them taking the role of being aunt or uncle substitutes who treat us more as that boy or girl although we don't have formalized relationship, certainly involving living with or being a carer of.

So it was that they after visiting them this Tuesday presented me with this lovely white choco Egg which is a bit bigger than I normally have which was really kind of them.

It's been rather damp and actually windy here across the week needing to find more protective attire than usual so this seems apt as I took positive delight in jumping into puddles feeling more like a carefree little boy

Deja vu and reset VI - it's here!

Way back last year, November 5th to be exact I mentioned Monster Fun on this blog, the comic Rebellion Publishing have decided to revive.

Well come Monday April 4th, guess what arrived!

In this Easter special, Frankie Stein manages to lose his own brain! Helly, the sweet-natured demon tries to help the Easter Bunny, but may have ruined the holiday foreverand the Leopard from Lime Street springs into action, investigating secrets from his past.

Sweeny Toddler will be up to some EGGS-TREMELY naughty behaviour!

The deal was simple: that Halloween special plus being revived aimed at actual children rather than retro adults although the latter will just lap it up from this April as a bi monthly.

They've got this right, the plots where contemporary strips referencing modern life such as streamed programming and cat cafés are there but are drawn more in the traditional comic strip form with just better colour and sharpness being printed in glossy paper unlike the newsprint we grew up on.

Traditional stories like Leopard from Lime Street retain their anachronistic pasts reflecting the eras they are set in.

There are quizzes competitions and draw your own bit for under 16's to send in and a fair number did from that Halloween special which shows they like a traditional plastic tat free comic.

Jolly fun, what?

Tumblr and Boy life

This week I'm looking at two things with a connection.

Firstly as most of you know, Tumblr for me started around April 2018 as an outgrowth from the original ASB site and from this blog although it would be a gross understatement to say I was pretty upset that that first Tumblr and those set up within that initial twenty month period are no longer with us.

With care and after much drama that I could do well without I still have accounts there and recently two things have come into being.

The first was you could pay away advertisements often at odds with your interests and gender too by either a monthly payment or a year subscription.

I'm as not keen on paying for things as the next boy but the reason Tumblr introduced advertising in 2012 was because it needed the money so apart from anything else that does give it a revenue stream and any business in the real world needs one.

The second thing was so much of that stuff just wasn't me so I opted to make a yearly payment being the cheapest option and that's working better.

It doesn't remove the sponsored stuff which in the ideal world I'd soon have as an opt in but it helps.

The other element is to do with how posts display on your Dashboard.

They are now rolling out a optional post size reducer so when scrolling long post don't take up large amounts of space but by tapping/clicking on expand tab you can see the whole if the post interests you.

That to me is sensible.

It's also Thirty Years since Calvin And Hobbes arrived on the cartoon strip scene.

Calvin and Hobbes follows the humorous antics of the title characters: Calvin, a precocious, mischievous and adventurous six-year-old boy; and Hobbes, his sardonic stuffed tiger. 

Set in the contemporary suburban United States, the strip depicts Calvin's frequent flights of fancy and friendship with Hobbes also examining Calvin's relationships with his long-suffering parents and with his classmates, especially his neighbour Susie Derkins. 

Hobbes' dual nature is a defining motif for the strip

You see to Calvin, Hobbes is a living anthropomorphic tiger, his best mate, while all the other characters see Hobbes as an inanimate stuffed toy. 

One of things I like about it  is although the series does not frequently mention specific political figures or contemporary events, it does explore broad issues like environmentalism, public education, philosophical quandaries and the flaws of opinion polls.

From a cartoon strip base, it get you to explore and question ideas and practises without preaching.

I follow two Tumblrs connected to this cartoon strip whose main character connects deeply with my understanding of boyhood.