Crazy for Daisy


Crazy for Daisy was a British comic strip published in the magazine The Beano. It was created and drawn by Nick Brennan and made its debut in issue 2865, dated 14 June 1997. It was part of an ongoing selection of six comic strips that were to be voted into the comic by readers. This strip was the winner, beating Camp Cosmos, Have a Go Jo, Sydd and Trash Can Ally.

Concept

The strip starred Ernest Valentine, a stupid boy who is hopelessly in love with Daisy. Daisy, however, has no feelings at all for Ernest, but Ernest always fails to get the message. He follows her around and even pops out of cakes to see her. Usually, by the end of the strip, Daisy ends up going out with another man who is in some way connected with the strip, e.g. a fireman that gets called out. Daisy has only one set of clothes, and, not counting the earliest strips, never wears anything else. In one strip she opens her wardrobe and she has many sets of identical clothes and then shops for more.
By the time the 2000s came, the strip was still going strong, but with a slight twist to the usual ending of the strip; rather than Ernest being jilted by Daisy for another man, Ernest usually ended up being beaten up, falling from a great height, or otherwise suffering some painful misfortune, which usually put him in traction. While probably not totally intentional, this was part of the Beano's recent move towards using more slapstick.
For a while Joe King's Joke Corner was at the bottom of this strip, but was moved later on.
Although no longer in the weekly Beano, Fun-Size Beano still reprints the stories from previous Fun-Sizes. It is now the most recent strip ever featured in Classics from the Comics, with a 2003 story appearing in the August 2008 issue, Number 148.