The 80th anniversary of The Beano continues with this unexpected surprise. You can now order personalised reprints of Beano annuals from any year! Hardback reproductions scanned from the books, and for only £19.99 each! (Naturally they cost more than the new annuals because they're being printed to order, rather than mass produced.)
Imagine; classic stories by Leo Baxendale, Ken Reid, Dudley Watkins, David Sutherland, Davy Law, and many more, reproduced in their original form.
I've ordered one of them, and will probably order more. Find out all about them at this link:
Yes! I've often waffled on about print on demand being a way to get archive material out there, so it's great to see them do it in some fashion.
ReplyDeleteYes, it makes sense to go p.o.d. on such projects. No unsold stock. I just hope they're not overwhelmed by demand but I'm sure they've allowed for that.
ReplyDeleteWhat year have you gone for...
ReplyDeleteWill do the same later... 40's..50's will be a lot cheaper than the real thing...of course have the reprinted Beano annual number 1
One of the best things, in my view is what's written on the site:
ReplyDelete"Some pages may contain references which are of their time, but would not be considered suitable today."
it's good to see them not white washing the past. Personally, I want them to point out WHY bits are iffy.. but oh well.. people prefer to remove the offenses of the past then show how they were bad and should not be repeated.. reminds me of an old good book.. It was Winston Smiths' job to remove the 'mistakes of the past' and pretend they didn't happen ^_^
Still, good to see them doing this.. though i'm not quite sure how they are going to handle the larger volumes for the same price as the smaller ones..
There's not a lot of difference between the page counts. 144 for the early ones, 112 now, so it wouldn't affect production costs too much. (And they'd have based the price on the 144 page ones.)
ReplyDeleteI still stand by their decision to edit out Peanut from Beano No.1, for the reasons I gave last week. Your comparison to 1984 isn't the same, in my opinion. It's not altering history to protect a fascist state, as in 1984, it's doing it to be considerate towards minorities.
Peter, I've ordered the 1957 book. I've never seen it but it features quite a bit of Baxendale and Reid so it sounds good to me.
ReplyDeleteNot quite any year. 1940 through to 2013. Still good to see them do this though. If it's a success, maybe they could try doing other titles too.
ReplyDeletefair enough, problem is attuites change. a lot. in 30 years time, a number of things we see as ethical and acceptable, won't be. There is already a lot of debate on the topic of 'paper boys'..
ReplyDeleteand of course, the term fascism has only in the last 100 years or so became a bad thing.. In fact, in Nineteen Eighty-four (nitpickingly but the title is in as letters, not numbers) states how the term fascism has no meaning anymore. Partly in reference to when it was created, it was a good thing meaning how a single person was weak, but a group together was good. But because of the people using the system, it was corrupted into what is known today as dictatorship. Quite often many have stated that the term fascism is used incorrected as they claim that National Socialism and Communism as classed as part of it, but aren't (people say Hitler was a Fascist but he was a National Socialist, Germany under his rule was nothing like Italy under Fascist rule).. which again points to another point that Orwell makes about the power of language and how words define thought. There are TONS of words that have been misused soo much that there original meaning is almost lost and so can't be used correctly. Ah, such debates are fun but.. sorry, hardly the place ^_^ As I believe in the rights of the individual but not where near as the evil that Ayn Rand talked about (her objectism view was that you should NEVER risk your life or anything for someone else and they shouldn't for you) which I'm against cause as a volunteer, I do ALOT of work for the sake of others even at the cost of stuff to myself (even if it's just time or money).. but also, as point is the party of Ingsoc stated out as a English Socialist party (in fact, the Labour party of the time, which is still a main member of the party of European Socialist), but when it has become totally corrupted by power and how the fact that Ingsoc has no part of Socialism left in it, it showed how much tools and methods could be corrupted. I understand your point of view but I agree with people like Dr Martin Luther King said there he understood where any totalitarian county would censor stuff but didn't agree with it at all, he wanted people to SAY the truth as there freedom, and you could equally give a reply with your own view. People can say the most racist hurtful things they could, and then I could reply to them why they are wrong and shouldn't be thinking like that. I just don't agree with censoring something and pretending it never happened. I can understand why some kids are too stupid to know better.. I can partly understand why they edit or refuse to show a lot of old cartoons, but I would be much happier if they showed them WITH a major bit saying why there were wrong. the Great 'Golden Collect' of Looney tunes cartoons makes a point to keep them uncensored BUT includes information (and for many volume, a forward video by Whoopi Goldberg on how she loves the cartoons but many are products of there times and include stuff that was acceptable then, but isn't now and must be remembered in it's own context. lest we forget and repeat.. I could quote a nice bit by Harlan Ellison now but that would be going over the top ^_^ anyway, I fully understand and respect your view but I disagree with it and I'm happy that we can both state our opposing view points without problem ^_^ doesn't affect my love of your work any more then my major anti-drug views affect my love of John Belushi's work
That's a long response to a simple issue, Ryan. Peanut was edited from the Beano masthead out of consideration for the feelings of minorities, not for any political reasons. It's a nice thing to do. Simple as that.
ReplyDeleteAs I said on the other post, had the box set been an academic work solely aimed at historians I'd agree it should be left in its original form. Instead, it's a fun package for young and old alike, and a racial caricature that could offend some of those families has no place being there.
Now, can we get on with talking about these books please, instead of diatribes on fascism?
This is a super idea, although i'm not going to be able to get as many as i'd like, i thought the best place to start would be the year of my birth: 1955
ReplyDeleteA good choice. Some very early work by Leo Baxendale in that one, plus Ken Reid, Charlie Grigg, Ron Smith etc.
ReplyDeleteHmmm. Am toying with the idea of buying either a book of my birth year or a copy of the first Beano book I ever had as a child.
ReplyDeleteThe latter would bring back good memories, so that'd be my first choice if I hadn't kept my first Beano Book. I've ordered the 1957 one, which is before my time but features some good material. After that, I'll probably go for the 1964 one, which was the year before I started reading the Beano annuals but I remember the ads for it and I've always been curious about it.
ReplyDeleteTell you exactly what will happen. I'll start off only intending to get the handful of Reid, Baxendale & Law era books that I don't have, then end up with a complete set. Even the modern era ones that you can pick up mint for a quid or two.
ReplyDeleteand fair enough ^_^ sorry I got too off topic really, though I didn't think it was a forceful attack but fair enough ^_^.
ReplyDeleteWant a bet in a few years time, you'll see some of these at eBay scalpers claiming them to be original and worth a lot of money like every time there is a comic reissue by DC Thompson.
It is tempting, Kal, although I'll hopefully show restraint. Some of the 1940s books interest me.
ReplyDeleteI hope this will lead to a P.O.D. Jonah collection, along with runs of Baxendale work, but time will tell.
On the topic of Peanut's deletion, I wonder why he wasn't on the annual covers? He hasn't been deleted from these, he was never there in the first place. The Dandy book did include their Bellboy, but Peanut wasn't even on the first Beano Book's cover.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I assume Sparky's earliest covers will never be reprinted again, as the character who shares the comic's name is a similarly racist design.
Similarly the Corporal Clott strips set in South Africa in the Dandy in the 1960s, full of black caricatures and racist terminology, and certain other strips too. Yes, there's quite a bit that wouldn't make comfortable reading today.
ReplyDeleteHats off to DCT what an excellent idea. No doubt I will get a few of these but I am struggling with which one to purchase first, nostalgia is tempting me to go for the first Beano I had, the 1965 annual (with Plum and Minnie blowing up a large balloon of Biffos head) or the one from my year of birth 1959. However I think I'll go for the 1963 annual as I seem to recall my late brother held onto that annual as a kid (as you did with annuals back then) for a few years after it was published (so technically my first Beano) plus it has a great cover. Does anyone know if Baxendale and Reid art is in that annual? The 1957, 58 and 1960 books books also intrigue.
ReplyDeleteI only have 2 Beano annuals (1961 and 1962) both before my (reading the Beano) time, but they are brilliant if anyone is thinking of getting them, full of great Reid and Bxendale art (plus many others).
Hi Paul, according to Ray Moore's Beano Diaries, there are pages by Baxendale and Reid in the 1963 book. (The one with the Bash Street Kids on the cover, - although that's drawn by Dave Sutherland.) I might go for that one eventually too!
ReplyDeleteI do wonder/hope this might lead to some print on demand comics or collections coming out too. Maybe (hopefully) those reprinted comics in the 80th Anniversary boxset were a trial run at selecting the right paper to reprint them on.
ReplyDeleteI hope there is and that they have the technology/software to offer print-on-demand individual old issues AND select any 20 (or however number is feasible) comics and have them bound into a book.
Instant DIY archive volumes of whatever issues you desire. Now that would make a lot of people happy and look great on a book shelf
It would be nice, although it'd mean so much work that I'd imagine they'd have to set up a new department and employ a lot more staff to deal with it. I'm not sure if that would be economically feasible for DCT but time will tell.
ReplyDeleteI've used the print on demand company Lulu to make myself several books and the software they use is very easy to use, so the software is out on the market.
ReplyDeleteOnce you have the pages in the required format, you just upload a pdf and they can handle books varying from 32 to 740 pages.
You can also upload several pdfs for inclusion for in one book and move them up and down in the order.
If DC Thomson are slowly digitalizing their archives, if would be easy to create pdf's of issue issue and then customers could create an account and select however many and whichever issues they wanted in their book.
The main investment would be buying the software and hosting it. A one or two man team could digitalize and add issues to the available 'print on demand library'
Maybe start on the Beano at certain points (say start of 1960, 1980 and 2000) and add issues in sequential batches, slowly building up.
I do see print on demand as the future.
A lot of material would likely need to be edited to remove Peanut and Polly (one of the early characters with her own strip who later joined Lord Snooty), which of course is extra work - and likely a big reason why they haven't done either print on demand or digital release for those old issues. They'd be nice to see since the original comics are often prohibitively expensive, but I think you're probably right about the financial concerns.
ReplyDeleteEven employing two new people to handle what you suggest, Target Who, might cost DCT more than what they'd earn from such reprints. I can't see them doing it. I'd like to be wrong though.
ReplyDelete