Line #20 Creator/DCThomson


1	[[quoteright:307:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/logo_77.png]]
2
3	'''D. C. Thomson & Co.''' are a British publisher of [[BritishComics comics]], [[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers newspapers]] and magazines.
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5	!History
6	The company was founded in 1905 in Dundee, UsefulNotes/{{Scotland}}, and originally published a number of Scottish newspapers including ''The Sunday Post'', ''The Dundee Courier'' and ''The Weekly News''.
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8	In the [[TheRoaring20s 1920s]], the company diversified into [[PulpMagazine story papers]]. Their story papers became known as ''The Big Five'', the five being ''Adventure'', ''The Wizard'', ''The Rover'', ''The Skipper'' and ''The Hotspur''. Over the years they began to feature more and more comic content, and so did their newspapers with the classic [[NewspaperComics newspaper comic strips]] ''ComicStrip/TheBroons'' and ''ComicStrip/OorWullie'' first appearing in 1936. This lead DC Thomson to attempt to release a Big Five but for comics as opposed to story papers. They first released ''ComicBook/TheDandy'', in 1937, followed by ''ComicBook/TheBeano'' a year later and then ''The Magic Comic'' in 1939. They originally all featured story paper-style serial text stories, and they also all released large hardback annual versions of the comics every year. Then UsefulNotes/WorldWarII led to a reduction in the number of pages in most of their comics, their formats changing from weekly to fortnightly, and the closure of ''The Magic Comic''. The war also led to numerous propaganda comic strips, including "[[UsefulNotes/BenitoMussolini Musso the Wop]]" in ''ComicBook/TheBeano'' and "[[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Addie]] and [[UsefulNotes/HermannGoring Hermy]]" in ''ComicBook/TheDandy''. Many of these [=WWII=]-era strips were quite bizarre, with ''The Dandy''[='=]s [[FunnyAnimal Korky the Cat]] fighting UsefulNotes/{{Nazi\|Germany}} mice and ''The Beano'''s Big Eggo (an Ostrich) also helping fight the war.
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10	It took a while for the company to recover from the effects of the war[[note]]with ''The Beano'' and ''Dandy'' not reaching their pre-war page count until the [[The90s 1990s]][[/note]], but The50s is often though as a golden age for DC Thomson's comics. The decade saw sales reach their peak, the introduction of a number of long running comics such as ''ComicBook/TheTopper'' in 1953, ''ComicBook/TheBeezer'' in 1956 and ''Bunty'' in 1958 [[note]] ''Bunty'' was a comic solely aimed at girls[[/note]]; it also saw the introduction of a number of classic comic strips such as ''[[ComicStrip/DennisTheMenaceUK Dennis the Menace]]'', first appearing in ''The Beano'' in 1951, ''[[WackyHomeroom The Bash Street Kids]]'', first appearing in ''The Beano'' in 1954, and ''Beryl the Peril'' and ''Minnie the Minx'', both in 1953 and in ''ComicBook/TheTopper'' and ''Beano'', respectively. This period also saw some of the most iconic artists start drawing for the comics including Creator/LeoBaxendale, Creator/KenReid and Creator/DavidLaw.
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12	However, The50s also saw a decline in the traditional story papers, with a number of papers switching to the comic format and text stories disappearing from the comics. The real decline for the story papers took place in The60s when the Big Four[[note]]the fifth Big Five story paper, ''Skipper'', closed at the same time as ''Magic'', due to paper rationing[[/note]], all now comics, began [[ComicsMerger merging]] into one another, although ''The Hotspur'' survived until 1981. They were being replaced by a new breed of adventure comics including ''The Victor'', ''Hornet'' and ''ComicBook/{{Commando\|Comics}}'', the latter of which is still running.
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14	The60s, The70s and [[The80s early '80s]] was also something of a good period for the company's comics. The period saw a number of new comics being introduced. Most did not last very long before being merged, but there were some notable exceptions to this, including the ScienceFiction comic ''Starblazer'' (1979-1991), the war comic ''Warlord'' (1974-1986), the girls comic ''Mandy'' (1967-1991), the girls' magazine ''Jackie'' (1964-1993), ''Bimbo'' (1961-1972) and ''Twinkle'' (1968-1999), the latter two both aimed at young children. This period also saw the release of ''Nutty'' (1980-1985) home to ComicStrip/{{Bananaman}}, who went on to be the first DC Thomson character to get his own cartoon.
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16	The [[The80s late '80s]] and [[The90s early '90s]] proved to be a dark period for DC Thomson's comics as this period saw the end of a large number of their comics and a large number of mergers. By the mid-'90s, the only comics left were ''ComicBook/TheDandy'', ''ComicBook/TheBeano'', ''Bunty'', and ''ComicBook/{{Commando\|Comics}}'' as well as a number of ''Beano''-related spin-offs. These spinoffs included ''Beano Superstars''[[note]]which featured long stories involving characters from just one strip in ''ComicBook/TheBeano''[[/note]], ''Classics from the Comics''[[note]]which featured reprints from not only ''ComicBook/TheBeano'' but other humour comics made by DC Thomson and evolved out of two earlier reprint only comics called ''The Best of [[ComicBook/TheBeezer Beezer]]'' and ''The Best of [[ComicBook/TheTopper Topper]]''[[/note]], and the ''Beano Fun Size Comics'', which also had a ''Dandy'' version[[note]]both of these had evolved out of the earlier ''Beano'' and ''Dandy'' comic libraries which had begun in The80s and these featured longer stories similar to the ''Beano'' superstars, but in A5 format as opposed to the Superstar's A4[[/note]]. Some of the now defunct comics continued their annuals a short while after their closure, with ''The Beezer'''s last annual being released in 2002 almost ten years after the comic's closure. This period was not all bad, though, as it saw the beginning of the ''ComicStrip/{{Dennis the Menace\|UK}}'' TV series, as well as another TV series based on DC Thomson characters called ''The Blobs'' (themselves based on a series of books published by the company in 1980).
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18	The TurnOfTheMillennium saw the closure of ''Bunty'' and ''Beano Superstars'', but DC Thomson's other comics lingered on. This period, however, also saw the release of the monthly Beano spin-off ''[=BeanoMAX=]'', and ''ComicBook/TheBeano'' continued to top the Christmas book sales charts every year with the sale of ''The Beano Annual''. ''The Dandy'''s circulation dwindled, leading to a disastrous revamp in 2007 as ''The Dandy [[XtremeKoolLetterz Xtreme]]''.
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20	TheNewTens did not start off well for DC Thomson's comics, with the end of the ''Fun Size Comics'' and ''Classics from the Comics'' in 2010 and the end of ''ComicBook/TheDandy'' in 2012 on its 75th anniversary. The company still had three comics left with ''ComicBook/TheBeano'', ''[=BeanoMAX=]'' and ''ComicBook/{{Commando\|Comics}}'', as well as their newspapers and a few magazines (including Wrestling/{{WWE}} Kids). In June 2013, both ''[=BeanoMAX=]'' and the digital ''Dandy'' closed. MAX was replaced with a new ''[[ComicStrip/DennisTheMenaceUK 100% Official Dennis the Menace and Gnasher Megazine]]'', while the ''Dandy'''s closure was blamed on technological problems, with a promise that it would be brought back at some point.
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22	!!List of DC Thomson comics
23	[[index]]
24	* ''ComicBook/TheBeano''
25	* ''ComicBook/TheBeezer''
26	* ''ComicBook/{{Bunty}}''
27	* ''ComicBook/CommandoComics''
28	* ''ComicBook/TheDandy''
29	* ''ComicBook/{{Mandy}}''
30	* ''ComicBook/TheTopper''
31	[[/index]]
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33	!!List of notable DC Thomson comic strips
34	[[index]]
35	* ''ComicStrip/{{Bananaman}}''
36	* ''ComicStrip/TheBroons''
37	* ''ComicStrip/DennisTheMenaceUK''
38	[[/index]]

Context Creator / DCThomson