Korky the Cat

"Korky the Cat" is a fictional character in a comic strip in the UK comic The Dandy. It first appeared in issue 1, dated 4 December 1937, and was The Dandy's original cover star.

As the name implied, the strip's simple premise follows the adventures of a black male cat called Korky. Originally a mute character, he started speaking in 1942. The 1950s saw the introduction of his 'Kits', Nip, Lip, and Rrip, and in 1962, Charles Grigg took over from original artist James Crighton, and would go on drawing the strip for another 20 years until 1982, when he was succeeded by Dave Gudgeon. In 1984, after 47 continuous years, Korky was replaced on the front cover by Desperate Dan.

He still continued inside the comic, however, and a picture of him remained next to the Dandy logo until 1998. When Robert Nixon took over drawing in the Dandy issue dated November 1 1986, some changes were made. Korky, whose look had remained virtually the same since the 1940s, now looked noticeably different, particularly in the case of his eyes (though the picture of him next to the Dandy logo was never changed). The focus of the strip also switched more to the Kits, who had been promoted from their originally minor role. So much so, that at one point the strip had been renamed "Korky the Cat and the Kits".

When Nixon went into semi retirement at the beginning of 1999 (relinquishing Beryl the Peril at the same time) several different artists took up the pen, including David Sutherland (who also draws The Bash Street Kids from "The Beano", and used to draw Dennis the Menace) at first, Steve Bright [http://uk.geocities.com/pjgstevebright/korky.html] , Dave Windett [www.davewindett.com/thomson/korky.html] later on (who introduced a mouse called Squeak and his friends to the cast), and, by 2003, Henry Davies, who returned the look of the character to the Crighton/Grigg style.

By 2004, though, the popularity of Korky with readers had significantly dropped. In that year's readers poll, Korky had failed to receive a single vote, either as a favourite character, or a least favourite. With this in mind, it was decided to retire the character after almost 70 years. His apparent last appearance was in issue 3294, dated 8 January 2005, in which, possibly hinting at his unpopularity, he turned up at a school reunion and found that no one knew who he was.

However, on 21 September 2005, it was announced on the Dandy website that Korky was to return in December with a new artist and in new adventures. Quite why the Dandy staff decided to over-rule the decision to retire him is unclear, but most likely apathy from fans brought about this change. Korky returned from issue 3338, dated 19 November 2005, now being drawn by Andrew Painter on computer. The strip was again dropped when the Dandy was re-branded into the magazine-themed "Dandy X-Treme" and the mostly reprint-oriented "Dandy Comix," with occasional reprints of Robert Nixon's strips appearing in the Dandy Comix section.

Korky returned again the Holiday Special, drawn by new Bananaman artist C. McGhie.

Extrernal links

http://www.davewindett.com Dave Windett's website, includes some Korky artwork