Desperate Dan is a British comic book icon. Or was.
The Scotsman has more:
“FOR decades, he gave not a jot for political correctness or cholesterol levels by encouraging his horse with jaggy spurs, six-gun at the ready and consuming live cow pies. Alas, the good times are over for Desperate Dan. The children’s favourite is the latest recipient of a makeover for more politically correct times. Dan is retaining his starring role in the Dandy, as he has since 1937, but the “new” DD is part of the legendary comic’s first revamp in nearly 70 years by its publishers, DC Thomson. Dundee’s most famous cowboy will even be required to lose weight to reinforce the fashionable healthy-eating message. Gone too is the pistol, which was said to promote gun culture. It used to be seen poking out of the top of Dan’s holster but has now disappeared – although the holster remains. Also axed are the spurs and Dan’s dramatic method of preparing his dinner by tearing cows apart, both of which are regarded as too overtly cruel to animals. The comic has been “reinvented”, in order to capture a more politically-correct generation.”
Sigh.