The Christmas BEANO (1971)

As you can tell from the name written above the logo, I was having The Beano reserved for me at the local newsagents every week back in 1971. In fact I'd had it saved for me since 1966. These days it's easier (and cheaper) to take out a subscription than ask shops to reserve comics, as they sometimes claim they can only stock what suppliers send them.

The interesting thing about The Beano at that time was that all of the original artists on their top characters had either left or passed away by then. Other artists had been assigned to imitate the original styles as best they could... and they not only did a exceptional job at it but made those styles their own. More importantly, the characters continued to be as popular as ever, and still are to this day. 

The Christmas Beano often delivered some nicely designed covers and this 1971 edition is no exception. The Biffo the Bear strip is by the very versatile David Sutherland. 

Grandpa had been a Ken Reid character from the 1950s but had been revived in 1971 under the artistry of Robert Nixon...

The Bash Street Kids story in this issue is absolutely superb, with great artwork by David Sutherland and a brilliant ending...

The Belles of St.Lemons is a Beano strip that's largely forgotten now. Perhaps the exploits of a St.Trinians style school became too dated, or perhaps it was always going to be in the shadow of Bash Street, but it didn't last too long. Nice artwork by Gordon Bell though...

Back then, Dennis the Menace was still a single page strip on the back page. Contrary to what some might think, the back page position was highly valued as it closed out the comic, leaving readers wanting to come back next week for more laughs. The artwork is by David Sutherland (told you he was versatile... and prolific too) inspired by Davy Law's style and mastering it...

The final comic in my Christmas selection will appear here soon!

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Cover preview: BEANO No.4011

On sale in newsagents and supermarkets from Wednesday 13th November, Beano No.4011 brings us another 36 packed pages of fun. The cover art is by Nigel Parkinson depicting Minnie Poppins, and inside, the three-page Minnie the Minx story by Andy Fanton and Laura Howell sees Minnie meet Mandy Ploppins! 

All the other regulars are in the issue too, with the Bash Street Kids, Dennis and Gnasher, Billy Whizz and more. Plus another Pup Parade strip from me, with this week's spotlight being on Manfrid! 

Beano No.4011, on sale 13th November, priced £2.75.

Advance preview: Next week's BEANO

Here's Nigel Parkinson's cover to Beano No.4006, which will be in the shops on Wednesday 9th October. Nice to see the Bash Street Kids so prominent. Brilliant characters that have endured the years. 

Inside, there's an assortment of lively strips including The Numskulls by Nigel Auchterlounie...

Tricky Dicky, with script by Andy Fanton and art by Rianne Rowlands...

Dangerous Dan by Ned Hartley and The Sharp Brothers...

...and lots more including another Pup Parade by me. I don't want to give away the gag so here's a tiny bit I've enlarged. I was pleased with the drawing of Bones' face in this panel...

Don't miss The Beano No.4006, on sale on Wednesday! £2.75.... or subscribe and pay less and receive your copy early! Here's the link:
https://shop.beano.com/beano-comic-subscription

BEANO No.4005

Here's the cover to this week's Beano (No.4005) by Nigel Parkinson. The comic goes on sale today and you'll find it in WH Smith, supermarkets, and various newsagents. 

All the usual favourites are inside, such as The Bash Street Kids, Roger the Dodger, Billy Whizz, Minnie the Minx and of course Dennis and Gnasher. There's another Pup Parade mini-strip by me too!

With so few British mainstream comics left now it's good to know that the Beano's sales have increased every year over the past few years. I'm sure they could sell a lot more if more newsagents stocked it. I meet a lot of readers at conventions, but I also meet an equal amount who have either never heard of the Beano or thought it ended years ago! I think if more corner shops stocked it, awareness of the comic would increase. After all, I'm guessing that most of us, like me, had our first comics bought us from the local newsagent... then when we were old enough to buy our own comics, it'd be those corner shops where we mainly visited. 

Of course, no one can convince local newsagents to stock comics if they don't want to. As my local retailer said, he can make more money using shelf space to sell booze, so why should he expand the magazine shelves? However, perhaps instead of using that limited space to stock 10 different nursery comics that don't shift, perhaps one could be dropped to try out the Beano? 

Thing is, as my newsagent told me, he no longer calls the shots on which magazines he stocks. The suppliers decide which ones he should try, and they change what he receives on a whim. Times have changed from the days when you could ask "Mr.Newsagent" to reserve your comics every week. It's a miracle that any comic survives, so we should celebrate the ones we still have instead of wistfully wishing for the golden age to return.

Celebrate BEANO No.4000 this Wednesday!

It's the longest running comic in British comics history and the Beano reaches it's 4000th issue this Wednesday! With a special red foil logo for the occasion, this edition contains a long story with the Beano stars encountering their future selves from the year 4000!

Meet characters such as Future Dennis...

The Bruised Banana...

...and Maximum Minx! 

With contributions from Andy Fanton, Nigel Parkinson, Laura Howell, Wayne Thompson and more, the Beano No.4000 arrives in shops on Wednesday 28th August, priced £2.75.

...and stick around for issue 4001 the following week, when Pup Parade returns in a new series of mini-strips written and drawn by me! 
https://www.beano.com/posts/inside-beano-no-4000

Cover Preview: BEANO CHRISTMAS SPECIAL 2019

Yes, we're still in summer but D.C. Thomson have revealed the cover to this year's Beano Christmas Special which you can pre-order from their web shop!

The cover art is by Nigel Parkinson and the all-new special will feature 68 pages of strips and activity pages, plus a set of free stickers! 

As there was some confusion in the past from some readers I should clarify that this Christmas Special is a stand alone publication. It is not the Annual, and it's not the Christmas issue of the weekly Beano. This Christmas Special will be in the shops months before Christmas, in September. 

So... if you feel like getting in the festive spirit while it's still over 20 degrees C outside, pre-order your copy today!

https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/beano-christmas-special-2019

Cover preview of this week's BEANO

Here's the cover, with art by Nigel Parkinson, of this week's issue of the Beano. You'll find it in supermarkets and all good newsagents today, with 36 pages for £2.75 featuring all-new content. 

I'm pleased to say that I'll be returning to the pages of this longest-running comic in September, with a new series of Pup Parade mini-strips! See my other blog for more details:
http://lewstringercomics.blogspot.com/2019/07/pup-parade-will-return-to-beano.html

Beano editor interviewed

It was a pleasure to be part of the Beano Panel at Comics Salopia last month, and great to find out it was the best attended panel of the weekend! Here's a podcast interview with Beano editor John Anderson that took place over that weekend... 
https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-m9ad8-b6e084

The Christmas BEANO (2018)

This year's festive issue of the Beano gives a new meaning to the phrase "Christmas box", as it is actually in a box! (Somewhat squashed in my local WH Smith, but still a box, albeit a slim one.)

Headlined the Ultimate Christmas Box, Beano No.3964 comes packaged with a set of pranks, a joke book, a double-sided poster, 9 stickers, - and 5 badges... but unfortunately the badges were missing from my box! (A pity, as they look like the most collectable item in there, with each badge being a letter of the word BEANO, and featuring a tiny Bash Street Kid.) 

The comic itself is the usual 36 pages of fun, with all-new Christmas strips featuring the regular characters. I don't work for the comic these days unfortunately but you'll find top comic contributors such as Nigel Parkinson, Wayne Thompson, and Hunt Emerson in there.

Beano No.3964 is on sale now in all good newsagents and supermarkets, and will be available until 27th December, priced £4.99. The next issue of Beano won't be out until 21st December. 

Isle of Menace

Available from today, a special set of Christmas stamps for the Isle of Man featuring Dennis and Gnasher! Exclusively drawn by Nigel Parkinson.

Even if you don't live on the Isle of Man you can still order a set from here:
https://www.iompost.com/stamps-coins/collection/a-beano-christmas-on-the-isle-of-man/

Can Minnie the Manx be far behind? 

This week's BEANO

Beano No.3926 is in the shops now, still going every week and building up to its 80th anniversary in July. It's never needed to reboot with a new No.1 and sales have even climbed over the last few years. Plus, unlike most other kids' comics today, it's very rarely bagged with a stack of gifts. Beano sells on its own merits.

At £2.50 for 36 full colour pages it's the best value comic on the stands too. Here's a list of this week's contents... 

Cover by Nigel Parkinson.

#SoBeano strip drawn by Laura Howell.

Roger the Dodger. 
Script: Danny Pearson. Art: Barrie Appleby.

Numskulls. 
Script and art: Nigel Auchterlounie.

The Bash Street Kids. 
Script: Andy Fanton. Art: David Sutherland.

Dangerous Dan.
Script and art: Paul Palmer.

Big Eggo.
Script and art: Lew Stringer.

Tricky Dicky.
Script: JD Savage. Art: Laura Howell.

Diary of a Prankster.
Art: Laura Howell.

Calamity James.
Script and art: Leslie Stannage.

PingPong. (Activity page.)
Art: Leslie Stannage.

Gnasher and Gnipper.
Script: JD Savage. Art: Barrtie Appleby. 

Minnie the Minx.
Script: Nigel Auchterlounie. Art: Nigel Parkinson.

Create a Minx-terpiece (activity page).
Art: Nigel Parkinson.

Rubi's Screwtop Science.
Scriot: Nigel Auchterlounie. Art: Emily McGorman-Bruce.

Learn to Speak Gnasherese.
Art: Barrie Appleby?

Dennis and Gnasher.
Script: Nigel Auchterlounie. Art: Nigel Parkinson.

Billy Whizz.
Script: Andy Fanton. Art: Wayne Thompson.

You're SO Beano.
Reader's pages.

Bananaman.
Script: Tommy Donbavand. Art: Wayne Thompson.

Wisecrack the Code. (Activity page.)
Art: Steve Beckett?

JJ.
Script: Nigel Auchterlounie. Art: Wayne Thompson.

Betty and the Yeti.
Script and art: Hugh Raine.

Make Me a Menace.
Script: Nigel Auchterlounie. Art: Hunt Emerson.

You can see a preview of this issue at Beano.com here:
https://www.beano.com/posts/inside-beano-no-3926-a-race-to-the-finish

Jonah spot-the-difference

When Buddy reprinted Ken Reid's Jonah strip in 1981, there were a few changes made from its original appearance in The Beano. The most obvious one being the change from hand-lettering to machine lettering for most of the dialogue. To my mind, this immediately deadened a lot of the humour. It just didn't "sound" right in such dull looking font. So why did they do it? 

Well, I'd imagine it's because some of the dialogue was rewritten for various reasons best known to them. Compare the two pages here. The original is from 1960. The reprint from 1981. "Cap'n" becomes "Captain", Jonah's "WE'VE HAD IT!" is redone in a quieter less effective size, the German's dialogue changes a bit, and that's just for starters. 

One glaring change is in the caption above the airship. The humour of "...the days of the airship are not finished - YET!" becomes "...the days of the airship are not yet finished". Someone may have thought that was more grammatically correct, but the emphasis on Jonah's impending damage to it has been totally lost. 

Note also, the absence of the dinghy going POP! in panel 7 of the Buddy reprint. The implication in the original was presumably that the crew met a watery grave. None of that downbeat stuff for the reprint! Sheesh. The black humour of Ken Reid's work was what made it popular!

Anyway, compare the pages and you'll no doubt find other changes too. It also happened in other weeks throughout the reprint run. Perhaps one day, they might reprint Jonah complete and uncensored in a nice book, but I'm not getting my hopes up. 

Here we go again!

The other day, as people were enjoying their Christmas holidays, the print and TV media stirred them into an uproar by announcing that the Beano's Dennis the Menace will no longer be called a Menace and that his supporting cast will include a girl in a wheelchair. 

Fact is, the "Menace" part of the title was dropped from the strip over a year ago! The "girl in a wheelchair", Rubi, has been in the Beano for a while now too. Also, the strip was simplified to Dennis and Gnasher for a while back in 2009, and the media stirred the pot back then too:
https://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/another-political-correctness-gone-mad.html

So... either none of the reporters remembered that they'd covered the same story eight years ago or they simply needed something to fill their papers and distract people from shady politicians and corporate bankers. Either way, it worked, and their readers hammered their opinions into their keyboards. The opinions were pretty much the usual blathering about "political correctness" and "snowflakes" as you can see from these examples...

Although the news items had included reassurances from Beano's publisher Mike Stirling that Dennis "still dances to the beat of his own drum as a mischief-maker and is very much a leader amongst his pals" the public were having none of it...

Dennis and Gnasher writer Nigel Auchterlounie stepped in to explain things further...

Beano artist/writer Kev F. Sutherland went on Sky News to put the record straight too:
https://news.sky.com/video/comic-artist-its-surely-not-a-great-worry-that-dennis-changes-over-the-years-11186714

Writer Cavan Scott (whose work includes the Beano) also posted a very good piece on his blog about it:
http://cavanscott.com/2017/12/29/dont-panic-its-not-the-end-of-the-world-dennis-the-menace-is-still-the-worlds-wildest-boy/

Phil Boyce had a thing or two to say about the silliness of the reactions on his blog too:

http://the-oink-blog.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/dropping-menace-kev-f-on-sky-news.html

A few things occurred to me about this whole hoo-ha:

1) A lot of people seemed upset that Dennis was no longer a bully. That says a lot about their personalities.

2) If you think a comics character in a wheelchair is a sign of modern "political correctness" perhaps you've forgotten Professor X from the X-Men and The Chief from Doom Patrol. Both of whom debuted back in the early 1960s. Also, if you have a downer on people who aren't able-bodied you're not very nice.

3) If you think Dennis shouldn't have a black friend you're a racist. 

4) People who got annoyed about it this week clearly haven't been reading the Beano for a long time or they'd have noticed the changes over a gradual period of years. So who cares what they think? The changes took place a while back and the actual readers accepted it and carried on enjoying the stories.

Here's the thing that most of these stories ignored or didn't bother researching: the main reason that the cartoon series is called Dennis and Gnasher and not Dennis the Menace is so that it can be sold internationally and not be confused with the American Dennis the Menace. By coincidence, both the British Dennis and the American one debuted in the same week in 1951. (Over here, the U.S. Dennis was sometimes called "The Pickle" so it's always caused problems.) I guess the practicalities of a business decision were too boring for the media so they chose to blow things out of proportion and pander to their readers by claiming it was all about "political correctness gone mad".

Thing is, once a rumour gets out, no matter how wrong it is, it's hard to counteract it. Thankfully, most of the people moaning about the "de-Menacing" don't buy the Beano anyway so their opinion is irrelevant. Trouble is, such nonsense could generate an unease about the comic, and could put some parents off buying it for their kids. On the other hand, it could also encourage more independently-minded parents to look out for it and see for themselves what the fuss is about. If they did, they'd find a comic that's still funny, still full of wild characters, and still enjoyed by children. In the end, the children it's aimed at are the only audience whose opinion matters. 

The Beano returns to the shelves after its Christmas break on Wednesday 3rd January. Check it out and have a laugh.

Halloween comics!

Over the years, Halloween has taken over from Bonfire Night themes in children's comics. Here are the covers of the latest issues of Beano and The Phoenix, in shops now (if you're lucky enough to have local shops that stock them). Alternatively, you could subscribe to each comic at their websites:

https://www.beano.com/subscribe

https://www.thephoenixcomic.co.uk/product-tag/subscription/

Never Be Without A...

Beano! The latest issue is on sale now and features an extra-length Minnie the Minx story, Monsters Minc. by Nigels Aucterlounie and Parkinson.

It's another packed issue full of your favourites, and there's a new artist on board, Rianne Rowlands, drawing Rubi's Screwtop Science. The second female artist to work for the Beano in its 79 year history! (Laura Howell being the first, who is still busy on the comic every week drawing Tricky Dicky.) 

There's a couple of strips in there by me too; Pup Parade and Ivy the Terrible. 

Don't miss Beano No.3876. Only £2.50.