Dandy & Company

July 27, 2024

"Dandy & Company," is a webcomic created and produced by cartoonist Dee Fish, who has also produced the comic book "Scarred World: The Chronicles of Aegis" and currently co-produces the Half Moose Media title "Tails to Amaze" alongside writer Marc Hammond. 

The webcomic has been updated on its own site consistently since October 11, 2001. It chronicles the lives and adventures of a cairn terrier named Dandy, his owner Bernard, and their family and friends in the suburban neighborhood of Loudonville, Ohio. Dandy usually spends most of his time with Bernard by pulling pranks on him, having watergun fights, and in the more fantastical storylines, dealing with extraterrestrials or evil dopplegangers. The humor is a mixture from the likes of Calvin and Hobbes, Looney Tunes, and general science-fiction and geek culture, all presented within the context of the irreverent stories and with a sarcastic tone. Readers of the strip often remark on its vibrant, high-energy artistic style which would lend itself well to becoming an animated feature, much like PvP: The Series.

Aside from the webcomic itself, Derrick has made an assortment of bonus material, including side stories, guest comics, web accessories, printed collections, and even some short animations featuring the characters.

The strip finally ended on December 10, 2018 with a story arc that connects back to the very first D&C strip in the final strip.

Characters
Danforth Quentin Dog VI (Dandy) - a Cairn Terrier dog. The eponymous costar of the comic is somewhat of a foil to his human boy Bernard, with whom he shares a more or less "love-hate" relationship. Dandy spends most of his time plotting pranks against Bernard, but he also has an occasional romantic interest in a female dog named Maryweather.

Bernard - a human boy. He is a somewhat naive and cheerful soul simply trying to make his way through life in a normal manner, but his dog is constantly getting in his way...not to mention a lot of other strange things like an alien abduction or a hungry alligator. Nevertheless, Bernard often finds ways to get back at Dandy--an art which he seems to be learning from his dog. Bernard also possesses a "beanie hat" which may or may not be a mysterious magical item.

History
The strip and its core characters (Dandy, his younger brother Mistake, Dandy's human owner Bernard and his father George) were originally created by Derrick in 1982 at the age of 8 as part of a grade school art project. He continued drawing new strips and growing the cast and universe on and off for years before starting the current web comic. The official continuity of the current strip began with strips Derrick created while attending the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art in 1994. These short stories and strips were collected in a series of 6 self-published "fanzine-style" comics under an earlier title of "Dandy and Friends".

In March 2005, Derrick was approached by a fan of the comic interested in helping to bring it into the 21st century with a brand-new website powered by the Wordpress content management system which would heavily automate the comic posting process. Until then, Derrick, together with his wife Melissa, had been manually editing and updating the website for each new comic every day. The new website went live on May 2, 2005 and was one of the first webcomics to use Wordpress as a comic publishing platform.

Dandy & Company experienced a moderate hiatus between December 5, 2005 and July 3, 2006  due to personal reasons, during which time Derrick re-ran strips from the beginning. On March 19, 2007, Derrick announced another hiatus, although this time much shorter than previously. Four months later, strips began reappearing on the site and Derrick made a statement that he would finish the current storyline beginning August 24th after which the webcomic, and the site, would undergo a "rebranding" to bring all of his projects together under one roof.

On May 1st, nearly three years after first approaching Derrick, Dandy & Company's webmaster revealed a new version of the website with a more mature, colorful theme and new logo. The new design also featured re-envisioned archives, AJAX-driven in-page strip navigation, and additional opportunities for advertising.

In 2010, Derrick announced that he would be ending the strip by the summer. As of now, the website is inaccessible and the comic has not yet ended.

Storyline referencing furry
A storyline from Derrick Fish's Dandy and Company in 2004 involved Bernard getting turned into a werewolf of sorts. The transformation, oddly, leaves him wolflike in appearance 24/7―essentially anthropomorphic like his dog Dandy―but he turns into a giant, hulking killing machine when exposed to moonlight. To prevent the latter from occurring, Dandy chains him up in the basement (link) until morning. His mother enters the room and, horrified, exclaims, "Oh God, I've failed as a mother!" (Followup strips are here and here.)

A later storyline involved characters from the strip switching species (Dandy became a human strongly resembling Bernard, while Bernard and his parents were all dogs, etc.) at the hands of a prankish demon. Bernard wonders if other comics on the Web have been affected as well. The strip then cuts to the set of Player vs. Player: Brent has become a panda, and the Giant Panda has become human. Dandy (in human form) then quips, "All I know is that right now, every "furry" on the 'Net is twitching in a glee-induced seizure." (link)

Print versions
There are currently five, 128-page paperback print collections of the Dandy & Company strips being sold through Lulu:
 * 1) Dandy & Company: Vol. 1, Out of the Doghouse
 * 2) Dandy & Company: Vol. 2, Running with the Big Dogs
 * 3) Dandy & Company: Vol. 3, Old Dogs & New Tricks
 * 4) Dandy & Company: Vol. 4, Destiny in Dog Years
 * 5) Dandy & Company: Vol. 5, Going to the Dogs

...along with a full-color, 140-page anthology of every Dandy & Company color strip entitled "Dandy & Company and the Amazing Technicolor Yawn," available from Lulu Press.