Jak (comics)

Jak Hurley and Todd Nolan
First appearance	1997
Created by	Wayne Thompson
Portrayed by	Wayne Thompson
Information
Aliases	Jak & Todd

Jak Hurley and Todd Nolan are two fictional comic strip characters from the UK comic The Dandy who rose to popularity as the comic's main strip after its re-launch in 2004. Originally known as simply Jak, both characters received equal billing after the popularity of Todd from readership.

Jak's first incarnation was drawn by Jimmy Hansen starting from issue 2924, dated 6 December 1997. The strip played mostly on his relationship with his father (though not to the same extent as Molly and Beryl the Peril from that time). The second incarnation in the early 2000s (decade) was drawn by David Sutherland, who drew Jak's dad with black hair and a beard, and introduced a cat called Spike. Both strips portrayed Jak as younger than his modern-day counterpart and Todd was absent.

Finally, Jak was reincarnated with the Dandy from issue 3282, dated 16 October 2004, coinciding with the relaunch of the comic that same week. This time it was drawn by Wayne Thompson, and the cast had changed again, introducing Jak's friend Todd and sister Mandy—and Jak got the surname Hurley. Unusually, this time Jak was promoted as a brand new character, even though he had only disappeared from the comic earlier that year. He replaced Desperate Dan on the cover and was brought in in an attempt to boost the comic to modern-day youth. He continued to be the cover star for two years until 2007 marked the second radical Dandy launch in a decade.

With the launch of Dandy Xtreme in August 2007, the strip was renamed Jak and Todd, giving Jak best friend equal billing. However, the comic's front cover no longer featured its original characters, favouring advertisements for new movies instead.

As the Dandy went through yet another re-launch (this time dropping the X-Treme tagline) Jak and Todd were dropped. However, they have made brief cameos such as members of The Dandy football team and as posters on the editors walls. They have also appeared both the 2011 and 2012 annuals.

Jak sports styled spiked blonde hair, a purple hooded T-shirt and baggy jeans. He is often illustrated with button eyes but this is occasionally changed depending on his emotions (e.g. if he is shocked they may bulge out) Todd is a black boy with a red T-shirt, baggy jeans and a comb neatly placed into his afro, however this has been removed in recent incarnations. Both the boys' appearances attempt to represent youth of the noughties, which was not often in many of DC Thomson's publications as they often favoured past characters whose appearance did not necessarily age but did not exactly represent a particular time zone either.

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