The Beano at 70

Britain's best loved comic The Beano celebrates its 70th anniversary today with a special bumper-sized edition of the long running weekly. With 25% extra pages (but sadly 50% more expensive) the 40 page issue is packed with strips and features to commemorate the event.

Nick Park, creator of Wallace and Gromit (and a keen Beano reader himself) steps in as guest editor. He also features in a special four page Fred's Bed strip drawn by David Sutherland, in which Nick, as a boy, travels through time to meet various Beano stars of the past, such as General Jumbo and Big Eggo.

Another celebratory strip features the return of The Beano's Sixties superhero Billy the Cat in a one-off story drawn by Laura Howell. It's an interesting idea to see an adventure character redone in a humourous / modern light-adventure style, and has potential. (Anyone fancy reviving The Iron Fish in this way?)


News items on this milestone issue are of course appearing across the media, including Sky News and ITN. Last night saw the opening of a Beano exhibition at the London Cartoon Musuem and several Beano creators were in attendance including editor Alan Digby and artists Nigel Parkinson, Laura Howell, Hunt Emerson, and Gary Northfield. The short ITN news item can be seen here:

http://itn.co.uk/news/a0a846e736194019d204be098cc4c791.html


Details of the exhibition, which runs until 2nd November, can be found here:

http://www.cartoonmuseum.org/