Desperate Dan - Modernisation

Modernisation

With the first revamp of The Dandy (from issue 3282, 16 October 2004) Dan, though still drawn by Ken Harrison, was redesigned slightly. His eyes and chin became much bigger and exaggerated. Dan's personality was changed to that of a bumbling fool, a change to which many fans objected. He was originally going to be left out of the revamped issues, but focus group tests objected to his absence.

But, as of the "re-revamp" in August 2007, the strips became classic reprints on the back cover of Dandy Comix in The Dandy Xtreme. While the first few issues ran them in the original monochrome, they have since been run in coloured form, all reprints were adopted from the 1997 Legend of Desperate Dan book which was released to celebrate his 60th anniversary. For the "MegaComix Special" in February 2008, there were two Desperate Dan strips. One was the usual Dudley Watkins reprint, the other was a brand new one by Jamie Smart, who later became Dan's artist and writer for 12 issues in April 2008. The MegaComix Special also featured a guide to drawing, by Jamie Smart, which showed how he drew the Desperate Dan strip (which was over the page). This didn't actually feature, nor did the comic strip, inside the Comix pullout.

Later, in early April 2008, Jamie Smart took over writing and illustrating the Desperate Dan comic strips and changed Dan's personality into a big hearted dope who was constantly getting into trouble because of his fantastic strength. Zeke's personality was also changed into a person who loved 're-refried beans'. Danny and Katey also disappeared.

A number of spin-off strips have appeared in The Dandy over the years, including Desperate Dawg in the 1970s and 80s, Danny and Katey in the late 1980s and Aunt Aggie in the 2000s (before the 2004 relaunch). A statue of him (and his dog Dawg) can be found in Dundee, Scotland – The Dandy is published by D. C. Thomson & Co. who are based in Dundee.