eBay auctioneer Phil Shrimpton of Phil-Comics has teased an upcoming lot shedding light on the intended audience for DC Thomson’s The Beano and The Dandy in the early 1990s.
Coming up for sale soon is an “advertising pack” for the two leading DC Thomson comic titles, which offers an interesting insight into the demographic of The Beano and Dandy readership in the early 1990s. The rate card claims the titles appeal to kids as young as four years to a more “mature” 19, but mainly the 7-13 year age group.
The advertising rates for the comic are also seen – a full colour, full page was £2000.
“I’m not sure what the print runs were like in the early 90s,” Phil notes, but from what I saw once from early 80s sales figures, they’d be far less than the published readership figures, which are impressive (comics shared between siblings and friends, no doubt).
“We presume this was a pre-prepared pack ready to be sent out to businesses enquiring about advertising in the two comics. This will be in our next eBay auction.”
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: Auctions, British Comics, Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Other Worlds
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