In the world of British comics, there's big news happening near the Thames in the past week.

In an effort to turn around its declining sales, publisher DC Thomson has rebranded and relaunched its 73-year-old comics magazine, The Dandy.  

Starting with issue 3508 (!) which was on sale last week, The Dandy has been changed, revised, updated, modernized, you pick the word. New strips, new artists, a new look, a new price (dropping it by £1 to just £1.50, which is not at all bad news for the wallet, especially given the exchange rate), and cover-featuring a current British comedian as the star of his own strip.

I think this is a step in the right direction and I applaud publisher DC Thomson for making it. From 2006-2008, the newsstand comic had seen a 16% drop in sales, down to 23,000 copies an issue on average. Yet by June 2010, sales had dropped to 14,000. Something had to be done.

I have yet to see a copy - it’s not the kind of thing I’m likely to find over here, but I’m anxious to get back to London and grab a copy next time I’m there. In the meantime, I’m having a couple of issues sent to me by a friend.

In all the publicity surrounding the relaunch, there’s no mention of a digital component. Count me in as one of those people who’d love to be able to download issues for my iPad. In fact, the DC Thomson website, as of this writing (and almost a week after the debut of the first new issue), doesn’t feature the relaunch on its homepage, and the link to The Dandy is for the previous incarnation Dandy Xtreme. The Dandy homepage is a 401. Nice synergy, lads.

[Update: Found it. There's a separate Dandy-specific website with lots of cool stuff to look at and download for free.]

Even if you have no interest in the material, I think it’s a story worth following, because if DC Thomson does succeed in turning around the venerable print publication, it could show others that it can be done. If you’d like to follow The Dandy changes, here are several links to help you get your Dandy on.

Peter Gray has a note from one of the editors, taken from a UK comics forum.

Dandy cartoonist Nigel Parkinson talked about his involvement in one of the strips featuring British comedian Harry Hill and then rounded up reaction to the new issue.

Lew Stringer (who draws two ongoing strips in the new Dandy, Kid Cops and Postman Prat) talks about the new Dandy at his blog and then posts reactions which seem very positive.

Steve Holland’s Bear Alley runs down the various contributors to the new Dandy, and gives the comic fairly good marks.

And finally, a clip from Britain’s Sky News featuring an interview with one of The Dandy’s regular contributors, Nigel Auchterlounie.

[Artwork: Cover to the new Dandy, swiped from Bleeding Cool, © DC Thomson]