Over on The Beano's Facebook page there are photos of long-time Bash Street Kids artist Dave Sutherland making a visit to The Beano office to unveil a plaque celebrating the significant record-breaking issue. Dave has been drawing The Bash Street Kids since 1962, which is surely a record-breaker in itself? (Longer than Percy Cocking's 43 year run on Weary Willie and Tired Tim for Chips.)
The Beano has now been running since 1938 and long may it continue!
Visit The Beano Facebook page to see the above photos enlarged:
https://www.facebook.com/TheBeanoComic
The Beano website:
https://www.beano.com/
9 comments:
Sounds good and David Sutherland is a very good choice for the PR
Thanks for the tip off, Lew and Peter. I've just been out to buy this anniversary issue - I would have missed it if I hadn't read your blog!
I'm a a bit bewildered, as I thought The Franco- Belgian Spirou was the longest- running children's weekly still being published. It reached Issue 4,000 last December - and was first published during April 1938, three months before our beloved Beano. I dunno, Perhaps Beano warranted this prestigious title because Spirou wasn't published for a year or so during the war? - and I've read somewhere ( I think!) that the numbering continued despite no issues being published during that particular period, so Issue 4,000 May not be the true number.
Anyway, I'm sure the Guinness people will have their reasons - Congrats to the Beano and long may it continue!
And of course The Beano was fortnightly during the war, so I'm not quite sure how it works out. If Spirou skipped a year then that'd affect its status I suppose. (Pleased to hear Spirou is still going. I always thought a comic like that with humour-adventure serials would work here too, but the closest we have is The Phoenix.)
Yeah, Spirou's run would only count from 1945 onwards, it got suspended due to paper shortages. From Wikipedia: Near the end of the war, due to paper shortages, publication had to be stopped anyway, with only a few irregular almanacs to keep the bond with the readers intact and to provide work for the personnel to prevent them being deported to Germany.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirou_(magazine)
I think we're confusing the Beano's issue number with this record. I don't think the Guinness book is stating it's a record weekly at 3800 issues, just that it's the longest a comic has been published weekly. This would surely be from when it turned back from a fortnightly after the war until the present day. The issue number is just a happy coincidence. I really must pick this up!
Good points, Phil.
Im sure everyone else has noticed this but, i'd like to mention the fact that for a couple of years now Dennis the Menace has been his own father. When I was a kid. Dad was an oldish chap with a comb over. Now the father is like Dennis but with a slightly receading hair line. I like to think that this guy is my childhood Dennis and that Dennis is a sort of Dennis jr. Being an adult, this gives me some comfort and I identify with Dennis senior. Of course this would make Gnasher and Gnipper very old indeed. I wonder what they feed them. I notice minnie has had a similar parental upgrade, but as she always sports a grizzled face, I imagine she could be any age really, a trancendant of social adulthood perameters. I am reminded of Steve Bell's wonderful comic strip about the grown up Beano crew. I would love to see that again.
Hello Phil, yes I think you're right about the Issue number being irrelevant in this case. I realised that myself a few minutes after posting the comment. I was trying in my clumsy way to say Spirou is still alive and well - it published its 4000th issue recently, but as you say that isn't the point.
It looks like Spirou was suspended from publication after the 2 Sept 1943 issue and resumed publication eleven months later with the issue dated 5 Oct 1944. Whereas the Beano has had an uninterrupted publication schedule (be that fortnightly or weekly) ever since it was first published in 1938. I don't think you can only count from the Beano resuming weekly publication in (i think) Aug 1949, as that would make Spirou the longest running 'weekly'.
Having said all that, I'm so pleased Beano clinched the title - a truly British icon. The other thing that struck me is the coincidence that Beano and Spirou both began their amazing publishing history in 1938 and they are still being published when all their contemporaries have ceased. I was in Paris recently and noticed that Spirou was the only original kids' comic available, alongside a few bagged/free gifted children's mags and the ubiquitous Marvel, DC and Disney reprints. I think the evolution from the weekly comic to other formats is not only affecting the UK. french comics are booming - its just that they are appearing in album gormat. I saw 4 or 5 original french comic mags intended for a mature audience, but kids comics are catered for in dozens of albums.
Anyway, I apologise for going off topic - congrats to the guys producing the Beano and I'm looking forward to seeing the 4000th issue in 2019
Benpeter, yes they've actually established it in the comic that the new look Dennis' Dad is the Dennis the Menace of old and current Dennis is the son of the original.
DaveW, sadly I think the bagged mag format is the norm in quite a few countries now. I first saw it in Norway in the 1990s, although they did, and still do, have quite a few comics in their news kiosks too.
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