While the shelves in newsagents are now heaving with children's comics like 'Spawn', 'The Simpsons', 'Tots Tv' and countless others, the old favourites still stand out among them.

No one could have guessed, way back when, that the words "cow pie", "Desperate Dan" and "Aunt Aggie" would still be on children's lips, an amazing sixty years ago D C Thompson Publishers, along with editor Albert Barnes and cartoonist Dudley Watkins, couldn't have guessed they were creating history in the making.

But in their own way, on 4th Dec 1937, that's what they did, with the very first issue of The Dandy.
As was the trend for forty seven years to come, Korky the Cat adorned the front page of that very first issue. And for your 2 old pennies you got a free "express whistler" inside!

During the Second World War, The Dandy only came out fortnightly, due to scarcity of paper, but good old Desperate Dan done his bit for the war effort by encouraging young readers to save waste paper. Incidentally, Dan has appeared in every issue since 1937, although he didn't achieve front cover status until Korky retired from the position!

Once it became obvious that the comic was a big success, the next step was an Annual. The first one, The Dandy Monster Comic, went on sale in the Autumn of 1938, in time for Christmas. The Annual continued to be published every year until 1953, when it's name was changed to just "The Dandy Book", which is still the case today. For lots of kids, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without Annuals and The Dandy is no exception. The only two characters to have appeared in every Annual since it's first issue are Korky the Cat and Desperate Dan.

No doubt, anyone who remembers early issues of The Dandy will remember characters such as Charlie Chutney (1944-47), Corporal Clott (60-75), Zogg (43-44), Peter's Pocket Grandpa (70's) and Winker Watson (1961).

And if none of them ring a bell, then perhaps other comics do. Remember The Topper? Their first issue was 1953, originally home to Beryl the Peril. She's changed residence since to The Dandy.
And what about The Beezer, first issue 1956? Magic comic, 1939? The Buster, Whoopee??? No?, well, maybe not, but we all know Denis the Menace. Before he got his own TV show, and was made into a film, he catapulted to fame in The Beano in 1951. His pet dog Gnasher arrived in the late 60's.

Other favourites from The Beano were and still are The Bash Street Kids, originally known as "When the Bell Rings", until 1956, Biffo the Bear, Baby Face, Lord Snooty, the list is endless.
Obviously, so too is the list of comics that have emerged since the late 30's. And although things have changed to move with the times and now we have X ~Files comics and feature length films with daring special effects, there's still a place for The Dandy's and The Beano's. If not on the shelves, then in the hearts of now adults who can remember when Desperate Dan was a hero and two shillings got you a whole days, if not weeks, reading entertainment.