dandyandcompany

[dandyandcompany]

Okay, question: "In regards to your webcomic that you've been working on, does it involve the main characters of Dandy & Company with funhouse mirrors, at a carnival or an amusement park, by any chance?" Cause I've always wondered how they would reacted towards them, or any kinds of mirrors in general, ya know. So I'm hoping that I'll get a chance to see it in future pages, upon of which, I'm so glad that you've come so far to accomplish something this huge my friend.

There are currently no plans for anything related to fun House mirrors in any of the comics I'm working on, and certainly not in regards to Dandy and company, as that comic reached its conclusion a couple of years ago.

Thanks though.

[dandyandcompany]

Hey, I checked out the product pages for Dogpile, and it says the volumes are print-on-demand. Any chance you'll update the cover files? If there was an actual print run and you're selling already-produced books out of your garage, I'll just buy a set as-is -- but I'd love a set where the author credit is Dee Fish, if possible!

The files have been updated, but the preview image on the online store still shows the old cover. Any new copies ordered have the corrected cover. Thanks :)

[dandyandcompany]

Wow. So, this is it. This is the FINAL “Dandy & Company” webcomic. This strip first premiered online on October 11th, 2001 and has been running on and off for 17 years. The continuity of the strip, which comes to its end today began back in 1994 when I was a student at the Joe Kubert School, drawing dozens of strips and short stories that would lead to the webcomic. Before that, these characters began their lives when I was just 8 and drew their first comic strip on a tan manila envelope in Grade School. That was 36 years ago. And now it’s over. It was time, unfortunately. As a creator, my attention was split among different projects and concepts that deserved their own chance to shine and I didn’t want this strip to simply fade away as had happened before with the numerous false endings. I wanted to do it JUSTICE. And I hope I did.  I’d like to say thank you to all of you who stuck with me over the years, through the hiatuses and behind the scenes drama that often made it hard to continue.  Not too long ago, I thought that I’d be drawing this strip and these charactered until the day I died. And who knows what the future truly holds, but for now it’s time for me to move on. My semi-autobiographical webcomic, Finding Dee, will continue and hopefully, continue to find new readers and maybe inspire folks.  But Dandy & Company will always have a MASSIVE place in my heart. Dandy is the first character I ever created and my favorite “son”.  Thanks. :)

[dandyandcompany]

Happy Birthday to me. It’s weird to be wrapping up a comic I’ve been drawing in one form or another since I was 8, but here we are. Next week will be the FINAL Dandy & Company comic strip. I hope you’ve been enjoying this last adventure. :)

[dandyandcompany]

This will, of course, be explained fully next week. That said, we are within spitting distance of the end. There are only about 4 strips left to go and the “Dandy & Company” will be in the rearview. This is really hard for me, I’ll have you know. lol

[dandyandcompany]

Sometimes, the most epic disasters really do have somewhat straightforward solutions.

[dandyandcompany]

Never in all of history has a manila file folder had this much plot importance, but I wanted to make this final story as meta as possible and really lean on the strips actual history.

[dandyandcompany]

I enjoy getting to play around and do big action strips from time to time.

[dandyandcompany]

We’re in the final battle for real now as they’ve finally caught up with Evil Dandy. The first Dandy” comic I ever drew really was drawn on a manila file folder in 1982 that I still have to this day.

[dandyandcompany]

One thing that hasn’t changed over the years is that Mr. Fuzzy and Snuffles are still not overly friendly with each other. But they work fairly well together and It’s a bit funnier that way. 

[dandyandcompany]

In the upper right hand corner is a LOOSE recreation of my childhood home, 257 Ontario Ave. in Massapequa. It looks NOTHING like that now and was renovated into a 2 story house after my family moved out in 87 or 88. I’ve not been back in YEARS to the old town, but Google Earth let’s me virtually “walk” the streets from time to time.

[dandyandcompany]

And for the final pit-stop in the middle of this adventure, the team ends up in my other webcomic, the semi-autobiographical “FINDING DEE”. It was also a good opportunity to literally show the scope of the story by having myself appear and not recognize these characters at all, reinforcing the damage that was done by Evil Dandy. 

[dandyandcompany]

Hey kids, COLOR! This is the world of my newest comic, MARJORIE OF THE WEIRDLINGS which can currently be found exclusively on my PATREON page. However, while it’s fun to draw these different characters interacting, there IS a plot specific reason for all of these gratuitous cameos that will become clear in the next strip.

[dandyandcompany]

Longtime fans of my work will recognize this as the world of my graphic novel series, The Wellkeeper. If you DON’T recognize the terrible THRALL and the overly rendered details, you owe it to yourself to check it out. SHAMELESS PLUG! There will be more such plugs!

[dandyandcompany]

You’d think a strip with only ONE big panel would be easier to draw and take less time, but no. This strip took as long as any other one in this story.  GO fig.

[dandyandcompany]

Okay, so the exposition is over and we can really jump back into the adventure. Some of you suspected that Snuffles’ armored form from a few strips ago might be Mr. Fuzzy somehow, and now you can see that you weren’t entirely WRONG.  Longtime readers know that Mr. Fuzzy exists both in the present AND in the future with Mistake. Some will also remember that he does NOT like Snuffles due to Snuffles’ past misdeeds. THAT has not changed, mostly because I like writing Mr Fuzzy as being irritable and sarcastic. lol

[dandyandcompany]

So, when I restarted this comic back in 2014, I gave myself a couple of “rules” to follow. One rule was not mentioning certain older villains of plot points such as Evil Dandy. And this was largely because I wanted the strip to be as accessible to NEW readers as possible, so I skirted around such backstories. The second rule was to EXTREMELY limit breaking the fourth wall, which is to say limit how frequently the characters acknowledge that they KNOW they are in a comic strip.  Since Evil Dandy can’t EXIST as a character without acknowledging that this is a comic strip, those rules are OBVIOUSLY out the window here and for the remainder of the series.