SOME places erect statues to great generals or scientists.
Other places, like Huddersfield, give pride of place to bronze reminders of men who once led their country.
But Dundee is different. The statue in the centre of the Tayside city is dedicated to a fictional character who this week faces abolition.
Desperate Dan stands proudly in bronze in Dundee, home of publisher DC Thompson. But the comic which he has adorned for 75 years – the Dandy – is on the brink of closure.
Back in 1950 Dan and his buddies shifted two million copies a week. This year the comic’s circulation has fallen below 8,000.
I won’t pretend I had a childhood adoration of the Dandy. I was more of a Beano man myself.
I’m old enough to remember the pre-political correctness days when the comic’s annuals included story after story which ended with Dennis the Menace getting a good slippering from his dad.
But, despite my childhood allegiance to the Beano, I would be sad to see the Dandy go to the wall, as much for what this would say about how society has changed.
While passing through a second-hand market in Scarborough last week (yes, I know, I have a glamorous life) I spotted some annuals for long-dead 1980s TV shows like The A Team and Knight Rider.
Out of curiosity, I flipped through them and was surprised at what I saw. Words. Lots and lots of words.
The adventures of Hannibal and his mates, and the exploits of Kit, were described in stories which ran to thousands of words over several pages. Did we, children of the 1980s, once sit down and plough through all that text for fun? Apparently we did.
I wouldn’t mind the Dandy going to the wall if its closure was purely down to the fact that tales of cowpie have gone out of fashion.
But I fear that the comic’s demise is symptomatic of something far more serious – that today’s children have little interest in reading words printed on bits of dead tree.
