Review by Win Wiacek
Scotland is an ancient and proud nation steeped in unique history, character and culture that has enriched the entire world. That noted, there’s a rather odd and frequently disturbing fascination with the notion of cowboys.
A timeless case in point is an icon of action and hilarity who began life as a mere half-page feature in the very first issue of The Dandy. The rowdy roughneck (and chin, and chest and…) was first seen fleeing town on December 4th 1937, but has since mellowed, found a family and settled down, He’s still the Strongest Man on Earth and always in trouble because he doesn’t know his own strength.
As seen in the eponymous opening historical section of this oversized tome, Desperate Dan predates Superman’s arrival, but and owes more to Elzie Segar’s maritime masterpiece Popeye by way of a countless stampede of Saturday morning movie two-reelers. Dan didn’t roam too long on the range and swiftly garnered a family including formidable Aunt Aggie, super-tough nephew Danny, niece Katey, the hard-pressed Mayor, Sheriff and so forth. Additionally, lots of put-upon, shell-shocked neighbours are usually caught in the catastrophic aftermath of Dan’s latest efforts to help Cactusville.
Like so many of D.C. Thomson’s most memorable stars, the Big Guy was the brainchild of Dudley D. Watkins (1907-1969) at his most imaginative and culturally adroit. A tireless and prolific illustrator equally adept at comedy, adventure, educational and drama storytelling, Watkins’ style more than any other shaped the pre and especially post-war look and form of the Scottish publishing giant’s comics output.
Dan was instantly popular. Famously, Dandy editor Albert Barnes – who hired Watkins and was the comic’s boss until 1982 – was the model for that unmissable chin, and he wrote the feature for several years. Almost everything else was made up.
This collation offers a wealth of strips, beginning with calamity-stuffed half-pagers, filled with mighty gaffes, massive consumption and appalling comedic animal cruelty. These precede the inevitable war contributions as the officially neutral US citizen kept finding ways to foil Hitler and Goebbels’ plans for Britain. Another cautionary note: back then smoking tobacco was MANLY, so Dan did it in vast and generally competitive amounts.
Monochrome trips feature eating, fighting, shaving, Dan’s Girlfriend Lizzie, eating, fighting some more and getting even, pausing for a colour featurette on ‘The Dandy Monster Comic’ as Dan hoved further westward into books and annuals. Thereafter Cactusville slowly morphs in all but name into a fair-sized Scottish town as Dan inflicted ever more outlandish punishments on the weary, wary Wehrmacht.
Features on firsts follow with Dan shouting out to his ever expanding cast, after which post-war tales encompass a momentous trip to the North Pole; jobs; cow pie; sweet rationing; clothing for the bigger man; bank robbers; how feeble modern buildings are; toothache for tough guys and how meat rationing impacts on the mightiest appetite ever known. Once again it’s some pretty hard sledding for us wimpy modern animal-lovers.
Covers, strips and other treats from the Christmas tomes explore Dan’s unstoppable progress and includes a spread on ‘Back Covers on Annuals’ – the cowboy’s sole province from 1954 to 1965 – before segueing into a 1950s selection as Britain, Empire & Commonwealth and Dandy underwent dramatic revision and change.
Also featuring a few smaller sized contemporary strips by Ken Harrison and Charles Grigg, The Legend of Desperate Dan is timeless, hilarious and not nearly as tame as you thought. Desperate Dan is a pure paradigm of our lengthy comics glory – and disregard for other people’s culture.
