New Royal Mail collection stars classic comic characters

SCOTLAND’S most iconic cartoon characters are featured in a collection of stamps issued by the Royal Mail.

The stamps, which will go on sale tomorrow to mark the 75th anniversary of The Dandy, include Dennis the Menace and Desperate Dan. The Dandy is the world’s third longest running comic, behind the American comic book Detective Comics and the Italian Il Giornalino.

Royal Mail spokesman Philip Parker said: “For more than a century Britain’s uniquely eccentric comics have brought cheer to generations of readers.

“More importantly, it has presented us with a cast of characters that, like the memories of those comics themselves, remain with us throughout our lives. The Dandy, celebrating its 75th birthday this year, and The Beano, which will do likewise next year, are almost British institutions and it feels appropriate to celebrate these comics and their characters on a set of very special stamps.”

The Dandy was first launched by DC Thompson in December 1937 and exceeded sales of two million copies a week during its heyday of the 1950s.

The Beano began being printed six months later and quickly raced to a weekly peak of more than one million copies. It remains the UK’s number one-selling weekly comic and its popularity led to the launch of the Dennis the Menace Fan Club in the 1970s, which reached more than one million members.

The characters and their publications in the collection are Desperate Dan and The Dandy, Dennis The Menace and The Beano, Dan Dare and Eagle, Beryl The Peril and Topper, Roy Of The Rovers and Tiger, The Four Marys and Bunty, Buster and Buster, The Steel Claw and Valiant, Twinkle and Twinkle, and Judge Dredd and 2000AD.

The first-class stamps will be available at Post Office branches and online.

Comic characters are not new for philatelists. The US Mail has previously issued stamps featuring Superman, Batman, Betty Boop, Garfield and the Bugs Bunny set of Warner Brothers cartoon personalities.

Last year, the Royal Mail marked the 50th anniversary of Thunderbirds.

Later this month, promotional artwork for The Beano and Dandy, valued at £2,000 each, will go on sale in Glasgow by McTear’s Auctioneers.

A copy of the first issue of The Dandy was sold for £20,350 in 2004 and is the current highest price paid for a British comic.