Unreleased comic strip starring Paul McCartney goes on display

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Nigel Parkinson, the cartoonist for the British comic magazine The Dandy, created a comic strip featuring a young Paul McCartney that was never published. In October 2022, it was reported that the unfinished story was now displayed at the Liverpool Beatles Museum.

Paul McCartney was featured in the last ever issue of “The Dandy” published in December 2012.

From Wikipedia:

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 October 1924) and Detective Comics (cover dated March 1937). From August 2007 until October 2010, it was rebranded as Dandy Xtreme.

One of the best selling comics in the UK, along with The Beano, The Dandy reached sales of two million a week in the 1950s. The final printed edition was issued on 4 December 2012, the comic’s 75th anniversary, after sales slumped to 8,000 a week. On the same day, The Dandy relaunched as an online comic, The Digital Dandy, appearing on the Dandy website and in the Dandy App. The digital relaunch was not successful and the comic ended just six months later.

From Ilford Recorder, October 20, 2022:

A comic strip starring Sir Paul McCartney which was never published has gone on display in a museum. The Little Sir Paul McCartney cartoon was created for The Dandy by cartoonist Nigel Parkinson, but was never used. Now, the half-finished storyboard has gone on display at the Liverpool Beatles Museum.

In 1963, the Beatles star told NME magazine it was his dream to appear in The Dandy.

Although the Little Sir Paul McCartney concept was never completed, he did feature in the comic in 2012. The final issue saw Sir Paul make a cameo appearance, drawn by Mr Parkinson, alongside characters including Desperate Dan.

Mr Parkinson – who draws Dennis the Menace for The Beano – said he sent the star two copies of the comic after it sold out in his local shop. He said: “He emailed me to say: ‘Thanks so much, it was brilliant.’ He told me some members of his family said it was the greatest thing he’d ever been associated with.”

The previously unseen Little Sir Paul McCartney strip shows the musician waking up in bed, with the Liver Building visible through his window, and catching a bus before being chased by fans. It references some of his famous lyrics, from songs including A Hard Day’s Night, Ticket to Ride and I Want To Hold Your Hand.

Mr Parkinson had previously created similar comic strips for X Factor judge Simon Cowell and presenters Ant and Dec. He said: “It was nerve-wracking drawing Sir Paul. I’ve drawn lots of celebrities before and normally I capture them quite quickly but I have been looking at him on TV since 1962, have seen him in magazines and I’ve seen him in concert a couple of times, so I thought it would be quite hard to capture all the different factors of his personality.”

Storyboards for the uncompleted cartoon strip and the version which was published have gone on display together in the Mathew Street museum. The museum, which houses a wide range of Beatles memorabilia, is owned by Roag Best, the brother of the band’s original drummer Pete.

The Dandy was one of Britain’s longest-running children’s comics, and featured famous characters such as Desperate Dan and Korky the Cat. Its final printed edition was published by DC Thomson on the comic’s 75th anniversary in December 2012.

Last updated on November 23, 2022