The Desperate Dan books, featuring the

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

character

Desperate Dan Desperate Dan is a wild west character in the now-defunct Scottish comic magazine ''The Dandy'', and became its mascot. He made his appearance in the first issue which was dated 4 December 1937. He is apparently the world's strongest man, ...

, were published in 1954, 1978, 1990, 1991 and 1992. Since they were traditionally released in the

autumn Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September ( Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Sou ...

and in time for

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

, all bar the first (which had no date) had the date of the following year on the cover. Although not a Desperate Dan Annual, a book celebrating his 60th birthday was released in 1997 called The Legend of Desperate Dan (60 years of classic cartoon art). It featured a history of the strip, and reprints of strips from 1937 to 1967.

Covers

*The Dandy's Desperate Dan featured Dan's face in the middle, surrounded by four pictures of him doing things like bending a lamppost. *The Desperate Dan Book 1979 featured Dan shaving his stubble with a

blowtorch A blowtorch, also referred to as a blowlamp, is an ambient air fuel-burning gas lamp used for applying flame and heat to various applications, usually metalworking. Early blowtorches used liquid fuel, carried in a refillable reservoir attache ...

and meat cleaver. *The Desperate Dan Book 1991 (from

The Dandy ''The Dandy'' was a British children's comic magazine published by the Dundee based publisher DC Thomson. The first issue was printed in December 1937, making it the world's third-longest running comic, after ''Il Giornalino'' (cover dated 1 Oct ...

) featured Dan wearing 4 costumes- a cowboy costume, an Indian chief costume, a gambler costume and an outlaw costume. Underneath was an envelope featuring a normally dressed Dan on the stamp, saying "If you want me on a Cactusville stamp, it's got to be the real me!" *The Desperate Dan Book 1992 featured Dan eating cow pie, surrounded by small

aliens Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, intelligent extrate ...

. Speaking to the aliens, he was saying "Ain't seen you around Cactusville before-care for a piece of cow-pie?" *The Desperate Dan Book 1993 featured 4 pictures of Dan posing on a bearskin. The first was from when he was 6 months old, the second from when he was 2 years old, the third from when he was 4 years old, and the fourth from today. In the fourth picture, the bearskin is saying "You're a mite heavy for posin' on me now, Dan!" *The Legend of Desperate Dan (60 years of classic cartoon art) featured Dan looking into a mirror while shaving his stubble with a blowtorch.

Covers

See also