Desperate Dan in Dundee

Whilst in Dundee for work today, I managed to blip Desperate Dan, who is a wild west character in the British comic The Dandy. He first appeared in its first issue, dated 4 December 1937. He is apparently the world's strongest man, able to lift a cow with one hand. Even his beard is so tough he has to shave with a blowtorch.

The company began as a branch of the Thomson family business when W Thomson became the sole proprietor of Charles Alexander & Co., publishers of The Sunday Post, Dundee Courier and Daily Argus. In 1884, David Coupar Thomson took over the publishing business, and established it as DC Thomson in 1905. The firm flourished, and took its place as the third J in the "Three Js", the traditional summary of Dundee industry ('jam, jute and journalism').

The company produces more than 200 million comic books (The Dandy, The Beano), magazines (People's Friend), and newspapers every year from offices in Dundee, Glasgow, Manchester and London. As of 2006, the company employed around 1,950 workers. Although the principal offices are located outside the city centre, the Courier Building has been retained. This 1902 building was designed to resemble an American red stone, steel reinforced office block. When a tower extension was added in 1960, the architect T Lindsay Grey kept the same style