DESPERATE DAN

Statue of Desperate Dan in Dundee UK city centre. Desperate Dan" (1972) #17 UK A 1972 single by Lieutenant Pigeon which reached 17 in the charts. A song by HOTLEGS who would later become 10CC

A nursery rhyme of unknown origin

Desperate Dan,

The dirty old man,

Washed his face

In a frying pan;

Combed his hair

With the leg of a chair;

Desperate Dan,

The dirty old man.

History

The strip was drawn by Dudley D Watkins until his death in 1969. Although THE DANDY Annuals featured new strips from other artists from then on, the comic continued reprinting Watkins strips until 1983 (though the then KORKY the Cat artist Charles Griggs drew new strips for annuals and summer specials), when it was decided to start running new strips. Desperate Dan was promoted to the front cover of The Dandy, replacing Korky who had been there since issue 1. Ken Harrison was the main artist from 1983 to 2007, John Geering took over the strip between 1994 and 1997, after which Harrison returned as full-time artist. When the Dandy was redesigned and renamed to Dandy Xtreme, the writers used reprints of the old comic strips, until Jamie Smart took over drawing and writing the Desperate Dan comic strips in April 2008.

Characteristics

Desperate Dan's favourite food is cow pie – a type of enormous meat pie with the horns sticking out, "cow pie"

Initially Dan was a desperado on the wrong side of the law, hence the name Desperate Dan. Later on, however, he switched sides and become a friendlier character, helping the underdog. The first member of his family to appear in the strip was Aunt Aggie (issue 107, dated 16 December 1939) followed by his nephew, Danny (issue 304, dated 27 October 1945) and niece, Katey in 1957. In 2001, Desperate Dan's girlfriend Little Bear appeared; she was a native American squaw.

Dan desperate for bronze prize

The statue takes pride of place in Dundee

Desperate Dan - possibly the most famous comic character of all time - has been immortalised in Dundee, the city of his "birth".

The grizzly-faced strong man with a passion for cow pie has been cast in an 8ft-tall bronze statue unveiled by schoolchildren in Dundee High Street on Thursday. Dan is shown striding out with his faithful pet Dawg in tow and stalked by a life-size version of The Beano prankster catapult-wielding Minnie the Minx. The latest issue of Dandy, which has featured Dan virtually every week since it first appeared in 1937, shows him packing his bags en-route from Cactusville to Dundee, the home of DC Thomson, publishers of the comic.

Dan hails from Dundee, home of publisher DC Thomson

The Dandy editor, Maurice Heggie, said: "The huge bronze of Desperate Dan striding across the City Square will be the colossus of Dundee.

"It is a tribute to a Dundee character who has brought fun and laughter to decades of youngsters.

"The scale of the sculpture is fitting for a true comic giant."