The Beano
2008/9 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Cartoons
| The Beano | |
 The current logo |
|
| Publisher | D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. |
|---|---|
| Schedule | Weekly |
| Format | Children's |
| Editor(s) | Alan Digby |
The Beano comic is a long-running British children's comic, published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd of Dundee, Scotland in the United Kingdom.
The comic first appeared on 26 July 1938 and was published weekly, during the Second World War, The Beano and The Dandy were published on alternating weeks due to paper and ink rationing. D.C. Thomson's other publications also suffered with the Oor Wullie and The Broons annuals falling victim to paper and ink shortages. Paper and ink supplies were fully restored shortly after the end of hostilities and weekly publication of The Beano and The Dandy soon followed. As of 2007, over 3000 issues have been published. The Beano is currently edited by Alan Digby, who replaced Euan Kerr in summer 2006. Euan Kerr now edits the BeanoMAX, a version of the Beano for older readers.
Its iconic characters such as Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx, and The Bash Street Kids have become known to generations of British children. Earlier generations will remember other notable characters which have been phased out, such as Lord Snooty and Biffo.
The comics were distributed in some of the British colonies or former colonies as well. Because they were sent by seamail, they would go on sale some weeks after the date shown on the cover.
Strips
A number of strips in the comic have run for a very long time. The longest-running strip in the comic as of 2006 is Dennis the Menace. Dennis first appeared in 1951, where he was billed "The World's Wildest Boy". The previous holder of this title was Lord Snooty, drawn by Dudley D Watkins, which appeared in the very first issue, but disappeared from the comic in 1990. Other famous strips include The Bash Street Kids created by Leo Baxendale, and Minnie the Minx, and Roger the Dodger created by Ken Reid. Dennis the Menace's famous 'red and black' jersey had formed the colours of a few of the Beano characters' clothes (Minnie the Minx had the exact same top, Ball Boy's strip was a vertical red and black, Roger the Dodger has a chessboard design top and Danny (from the Bash Street Kids) has a similar cap) but the colours have changed for Minnie and Ball Boy (Minnie at one point had a red and yellow top and Ball Boy's strip now being black and blue).
There are frequent fictional crossovers between The Beano and Dennis and Gnasher, with most of the characters living in the fictional Beanotown. Many of the comic strips in The Dandy are drawn by the same artists, and crossovers between the two comics and The Beano also occur occasionally. Quite often, one comic will make a tongue-in-cheek jibe at the other (e.g. a character meeting an elderly lady, and stating that she's 'older than the jokes in The Dandy'). In the strips, it is expressed that the two towns are rivals with each other and before The Dandy did a drastic format change they had an embassy in Beanotown which many of the town's citizens attempted to overrun, but failed (the embassy had no existence in The Beano).
The Bash Street Kids Adventures written and drawn by Kev F Sutherland since 2004 have featured parodies of famous comic strip images, including Amazing Fantasy's first Spider-Man cover, Action Comics' first Superman cover, and most recently the cover of X Men #100. Sutherland created the rival schools to Bash Street, St Posho's and St Asbo's. He also revived old characters from the archives including Biffo the Bear, Keyhole Kate, Pansy Potter The Strongman's Daughter, and Desert Island Dick.
Publication information
The Beano comic takes its name from the English word beano which can be loosely interpreted as a good time.
The first edition of The Beano was dated 30 July 1938, and the 3000th issue was published in January 2000. It continues as of 2008. There are only 12 known copies of the first issue in existence, and only 5 known copies of the second issue (not including facsimiles).
A copy of this first issue sold for £12,100 on 16 March 2004 , which was at the time thought to be the highest price ever paid for a British comic at an auction. The current highest price is £20,350 which was paid for the first issue of The Dandy on 7 September 2004. The Beano is also the second longest running comic, the first being The Dandy, which is also published by the same publisher. Because the Dandy is now fortnightly, in terms of number of issues, The Beano will overtake the Dandy in January 2009.
Editors
The original editor was George Moonie, from 1938-1959, followed by Harold Cramond, 1959-84. Euan Kerr was editor from 1984 until he handed over to Alan Digby in early 2006. Alan had been Beano Chief Sub Editor when Euan first became editor, and later edited The Beezer. Euan has returned to edit BeanoMAX as of issue 2 (see below).
Sister comics
Since 1982 the comic, along with The Dandy, has also run "Comic Library" titles. Released monthly, these titles are a feature length (usually about 64 page) adventure, featuring a character from the comic itself. They are available in A5 size only. In 1998, these were replaced by the Fun Size Beano, which still runs today, although they became reprints in 2006. The comic also ran A4-sized "Beano Specials" in the early 1990s, which later were renamed "Beano Superstars". These were similar to the Comic Library series. The last few issues were printed versions of episodes from the 1996-1998 Dennis and Gnasher animated TV series.
- The Magic Comic was the third comic to the Beano and Dandy from 1939 until 1941 until paper shortages during the war ceased its run.
A Beano Poster Comic series was printed in the early 1990s.
On 15 February 2007, the first issue of a monthly sister comic entitled BeanoMAX was published. The sister comic features many of the same characters, however the stories in the sister comic are written in a longer format aimed for 8-13 year olds. The first issue was a Comic Relief special featuring assorted celebrity guests.
Gnashional Menace Day and the 70th Birthday
The 70th anniversary issue of the Beano will have a cover date of August 2nd 2008. As a celebration, in partnership with the CLIC Sargent charity, August 2nd will be Gnashional Menace Day, where children are sponsored to behave like Dennis. The anniversary will also be celebrated with a 40 page issue (instead of 32 pages; the 60th birthday issue also had extra pages, 48 instead of 24) guest edited by Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park, price £1.50 (not 99p, this has also happened to The Dandy on one occasion, see here) and an issue of Classics from the Comics devoted to the Beano. There is also a special 64 page book available, The Beano Special Collectors Edition: 70 Years of Fun, telling a brief history of the comic. In the Beano's home city of Dundee, a special exhibition is being held at the University of Dundee featuring original artwork and other memorabilia loaned from D C Thomson - it runs until 20 September 2008. In London the Cartoon Museum will be showing the exhibition Beano and Dandy Birthday Bash! from 30 July to 2 November 2008. It will show original artwork from all eight decades of both 'The Beano' and 'The Dandy' including work by Dudley D Watkins, David Law, Leo Baxendale and Ken Reid as well as David Sutherland and many contemporary artists. There will be events for children throughout August.
Trivia
- Private Eye refers to The Spectator as "The Hasbeano", with the Spectator's former editor Boris Johnson becoming "Boris the Menace" (occasionally "Beano Boris").
- The Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton album from the John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers band, is called "The Beano Album" by Eric Clapton fans, because on the album cover photo he is reading a Beano comic. That comic, No 1242 is extremely sought after by both collectors of the Beano Comic and Eric Clapton memorabilia, with issues sometimes exceeding £100 on eBay.
- Reece Shearsmith, known for being in The League of Gentlemen, once wrote in to The Beano, saying that he had lost his current copy. It ended up as the star prize.
- Big Eggo was replaced by Biffo the Bear as the cover star in 1948 as research showed that children identified more with characters that, like them, had 2 arms and 2 legs.
- British adult humour comic Viz has landed in trouble a number of times for parodies of Beano (and Dandy) characters including Desperately Unfunny Dan, and DC Thompson.
- The band Help She Can't Swim released an EP under the name of Bunty Vs Beano
- The song 'Riviera Hustle' by British hip-hop artists Braintax and Jehst on the album Biro Funk features a lyric about the Beano: "Sipping on vino, flicking through a copy of the Beano//Me and my amigo Joe in the casino"
- In the revival of the British television show Dr. Finlay the character of Dr. David Neil reads the Beano comics.
- In a Spitting Image special "Bumbledown: The Lives and Times of Ronald Reagan", when the puppet of former Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe appears, he was seen eating crisps and reading a copy of "The Beano".
- In Episode 13 of the CBBC series Young Dracula, Vlad can be seen reading a Beano (specifically, the Ball Boy strip) hidden inside a revision book for a "blood test" examination, a sort of vampire GCSE.
- The Libertines' song " What A Waster" refers to the Beano.
- The Beano is so popular that it has its own theme park, Beanoland, at Chessington World of Adventures. This opened in 2000, but is under threat of closure as the contract has expired.