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Minnie the Minx, "The World's Wildest Tomboy", was created as a female counterpart for Dennis the Menace. Since her debut in her own strip in 1953, she has become one of the most famous characters in The Beano. A young girl with red hair, a beret, a red and black jumper; she causes trouble by doing what she calls "minxing" to others.

Minnie lives with her mother, her father, and her pet cat Chester.

As of 2017, her real name is Hermione Makepeace and is cousins with Dennis the Menace.

Character history[]

Leo Baxendale strips (1953–1962)[]

Minnie the Minx, created and drawn by Leo Baxendale, first appeared in The Beano in December 1953. Her first strip introduced her as "wild as wild can be" and showed her exasperated mother attempting to get her to be more creative rather than fight. Taking a book, Minnie then proceeds to beat her classmates during a revenge scheme using the scrapbook as a weapon. The closing panel shows her thanking her mother for the scrapbook stating she has "won nine scraps with it." Most of Minnie's earlier strips consisted of six-panel boxes; however, as her popularity grew, it quickly became more plausible to give Minnie her own full page with added colour. This introduced her trademark flaming red hair and red and black jersey. Like many other Beanostars at the time, many of her later strips showed Minnie to get her comeuppance towards the end be it a cane, slipper or simply a case of karma. Minnie also appeared alongside Dennis the Menace in his own strip in the edition of 23 January 1954 of The Beano. In the strip, she swapped toys with Dennis for the day as she received his trusty catapult and he proceeded to 'menace' with her doll's pram. In the end, she got out of trouble scot free whilst Dennis had to suffer for all her minxing. It was possibly this that began their future eternal rivalry.

Jim Petrie strips (1962–2001)[]

In 1962, when Baxendale left D.C. Thomson, a new artist was taken on to continue Minnie's adventures. Young art teacher Jim Petrie was given the opportunity. His first strip, coincidentally, started similarly to Baxendale's in that Minnie is seen being asked by her mother to read rather than minx. Much to her mother's dismay, Minnie's chosen book influences her to take up red Indian traditions in which she gets up to much mischief. In the end, however, after aggravating a sleeping bull Minnie is caught by a farmer and taken home to be slippered by her father. Despite the pain, it appears Minnie still attempts to ensure to the public that she is still an Indian stating her name is 'Minnie – Ha!'. She appeared once again alongside Dennis in issue 1894, in which she states that Dennis' famous jersey are actually her trademark thus he has no right to call them 'Dennis Jerseys'.

The Beano's 50th Anniversary issue in 1988 was significant, as an increase in the number of colour pages in the comic led to Minnie appearing in full colour for the first time. In the strip itself, Minnie dressed up as Pansy Potter in compliance with the editor's wishes. Throughout the strip she attempts impossible feats in hope to appear just like Pansy. This even consists of attempting to sink war submarines, something the old character used to do during The Beano's war times. Despite the fact she is weaker than Pansy, Minnie does manage to with-hold four sailors before they finally manage to catch her and tie her up leaving her before her father. However, previously she had filled her father's jumper with balloons and using Pansy's unique hairstyle, manages to burst the balloons causing her father to flee home in the nude, the thought of punishing his daughter forgotten.

Minnie also made a cameo in the 1992 Beano Annual story, "Dennis Through The Beano Book", in which she played the Queen of Hearts. She has also been the star of several Beanotown pantomimes, playing the role of Cinderella in each.

With the turn of the new century, Minnie was featured in a feature-length strip alongside Dennis the Menace, Roger the Dodger and The Bash Street Kids. The plot revolved around treasure which was apparently buried sometime near the end of the 19th century. Minnie was called over to Dennis' house by Roger who had gained a copy of the Treasure Map due to Smiffy, the dipsy member of The Bash Street Kids, leaving the original in the photocopier machine in Beanotown Library. Upon finding out The Bash Street Kids were also hunting for the treasure, the trio followed them to London. Once the mystery had unfolded that the treasure was buried deep in the Millennium Dome and the Bash Street Kids instantly found it and celebrated their victory. However, Dennis attempts to intimidate the treasure off of Fatty but it quickly flattened leaving Minnie and Roger to chase after Danny, who had just ran with the treasure. Finding him hiding in a storage cupboard, Roger forms a plan to get Danny to duel with Dennis for the treasure. Whilst all seems fair at first, it is quickly discovered that the three menaces had no intent on fair play when it comes to treasure and it is revealed that Roger had in fact tied Danny's catapult to a piece of string thus yanking it away at a pinnacle moment. Appearing to have won, the trio leave a humiliated Danny and head home. However, a plot quickly unravels that Roger wasn't the only one who was intent on unfair play. Danny had switched the treasure with pebbles whilst hiding in the storage cupboard. Alongside Dennis, Minnie chased Roger through the streets of Beanotown for giving Danny the opportunity to switch the treasure.

Minnie also attended Dennis the Menace's 50th Birthday House Party. Like the other guests, Minnie bought Dennis a Beano Annual 2001. She participated in all menacing party games but due to her friendship with Dennis she was one of few to not get menaced. She can also be seen fighting in the final food fight and twirling her beret when the celebrities and Dandy characters arrive.

Petrie decided to retire with his final strip appearing on 13 January 2001. The story consisted of Minnie meeting her former artist and bidding farewell. The strip was Petrie's 2000th and last, a tally for one artist drawing the same strip in the Beano only surpassed by David Sutherland on the Bash Street Kids.

Tom Paterson strips (2001–2008)[]

The following week, Calamity James artist Tom Paterson took over the strip adding his own distinct trademarks and ideas on Minnie's canon. In 2003, Brain Duane from The Dandy visited Beanotown and proceeded to mock Minnie for her lack of intelligence. Choosing brawn over brains and fuelled with jealousy over Duane's new gadget-filled car, Minnie threatened Duane into making her a custom-built skateboard. The next week, after asking to meet Dennis she proceeds to minx him with her new weapon filled vehicle. This causes Dennis to get his revenge the next week with his own Menace Buggy. It was revealed in succeeding issues that this, along with several other strips from around the same time, was a buildup to a brand new PC Game Beanotown Racing. She appeared as a playable character in the video game upon its release date in 2003.

Initially Paterson drew the vast majority of strips, with the occasional story drawn by Keith Reynolds, but by 2003 other artists such as Leslie Reavey began to ghost the strip due to Tom Paterson's workload. Through 2004 and 2005 ghosted strips became increasingly common, and eventually in early 2006 Steve Horrocks took up the artistic duties. However, in the autumn of that year Paterson returned to the strip but in a different style, the most notable change being that Minnie's Parents appeared to look very similar to those of Sweeney Toddler. However, the following year Tom Paterson's style changed again, and the changes made to her parents were largely reversed, although Minnie's Dad's moustache was still absent. In October 2007, Minnie's jumper changed colour from her familiar black and red stripes to red and yellow, with her skirt also changing from black to blue. This style was also seen on the cover of the 1965 Beano book.

Ken Harrison strips (2008–2012)[]

By 2007, Minnie was struggling in the readers' poll, and in early 2008 several significant changes were made in response to this. Iain McLaughlin took over as writer, and in Beano issue 3422, dated 15 March 2008, former Desperate Dan artist Ken Harrison took over as the strip's artist. Harrison re-introduced many aspects of Leo Baxendale's original depiction of the character and reverted her jumper to its original colours. However, the style of writing changed, with McLaughlin placing greater emphasis on the relationship between Minnie and her Dad. Some minor changes were made to her appearances, with her standard brown or grey school shoes replaced with the more modern trainers. A new tagline was introduced, citing Minnie as the World's Wildest Tom Boy, similar to Dennis the Menace's original tagline of being the World's Wildest Boy. Minnie's Teacher also became a regular character during this time, and Minnie now attends what appears to be an all-girls school. The changes reinvigorated the strip as Minnie soon returned to a top four position in the poll.

Although Harrison has been the main artist throughout this time, when he has been unavailable to draw the strip the main ghost artist has been Laura Howell. Since 2009, occasional Jim Petrie reprints have been used, particularly during the postal strikes in autumn 2009.

In the summer of 2010, Minnie began a quest for fame which received a lot of media attention in the UK. Cheryl Cole, who was spotted sporting a red and black dress in her music video, was featured as well as Wayne Rooney and Jamie Oliver. Each attempt landed Minnie in more trouble than the last so in her final strip she decided to give up the search for fame and instead continue her day-to-day minxing.

On 30 July 2011, Minnie and several of her Beano co-stars were a part of a UK advertising campaign for National Trust. This included a special of The Beano which included a comic strip of her and her father exploring Northern Ireland for Finn McCool and Giant's Causeway.

In November 2012, Minnie loses her second page as it is reserved for Funsize Funnies (Gnash Gnews, Little Plum, Winston and Rasher)

Current Strips (2012–present)[]

Ken Harrison drew his last Minnie the Minx strip in November 2012, drawing the first Minnie story reduced down to a single page. The week after, Nigel Parkinson took over and both wrote and drew the strip from then on. He confirmed he was the new Minnie artist some months later, on his blog. For the 75th anniversary special, Minnie the Minx met Andy Murray in a tennis battle. Minnie also met Harry Hill, Jeremy Clarkson and Matt Smith (plus others) in the 2013 Comic Relief special. During Parkinson's time he tried to surprise the readers by never following a script template and allowing Minnie's character to dictate storylines. In 2013, Minnie stories went back up to two pages, with Nigel Parkinson and Paul Palmer and, later in 2015, Cavan Scott writing the scripts.

Laura Howell, the first woman to draw Minnie is the current artist, first appearing as Minnie's 65th Year in the comic approached. As of April 4th 2021, her work has appeared in 127 Beano issues.

Personality[]

Minnie is an uncontrollable schoolgirl. She can be described as a feisty energetic tomboy, preferring mischievous and violent antics over those that would be normal for a typical ten-year-old girl. Despite her tomboyish nature, Minnie has a bit of a girly side, as she has a very feminine hair style by having girlish pigtails, she wears a skirt, and in some strips she wears pink pyjamas and her room is pink. As opposed to Dennis' boisterous menacing methods, Minnie favours a more impish style of causing trouble which she refers to as 'minxing'. Despite this, she is still keen to get into brawls much like her other fellow Beano characters. She also seems to have a distinct hatred for snob-like behaviour and spoilt children. Minnie can be deemed as hyperactive as evident in several strips which show her destroying furniture in her home or a shop whilst playing one of her games. She also considers herself to be a rebelciting she hates people telling her what to do. Like her friend Toots, Minnie is good at Football, while not being as much into it as Toots, she still is really good at it. Starting from the 2010s, Minnie is shown to show traits of been sassy and vain.

Physical appearance[]

Minnie has long red hair tied in pigtails (formerly braids) with red bows (also known as ribbons), a black beret with a red furball above it, a jumper with red and black stripes, a little scruffy black skirt, black socks and grey trainers (originally brown boots). From 1953 to 2017, Minnie had buck teeth, but these were removed in 2017.

For her appearance over the years, see Minnie the Minx/Through the Years.

Trivia[]

  • Minnie describes herself as being clever, fearless and funny!
    • She describes her finger as being mischievous, nimble and useful.
  • Most of the time, she never leaves her house without her peashooter and some ammo. She also sometimes brings a lucky bit of bubble gum.
  • The first thing she can remember is when her dad left her pram while he nipped into a shop. Minnie slipped the brakes off, then sped downhill at about 50 miles an hour, all the way to the Town Hall. Her dad chased after her the whole way.
  • Minnie's most embarrassing memory that happened to her was when she once came second to Cuthbert in a face-pulling competition, and she thought she would never be able to show her face in public again. It turned out Wilfrid was standing on his toe, so she does not feel so bad about it now.
  • Minnie's biggest fear is losing her voice.
  • Minnie would trust her older brothers with her biggest secret.
  • Minnie most treasured possession is her peashooter.
  • Minnie owns a cat called Chester.
  • At Christmas, her favourite food are minx pies. But for the rest of the year, it is fish and chips.
  • Drawing her own comics makes her laugh the most.
  • If she had to be stuck in a lift for three hours with one person, it would be Rey from Star Wars, as Minnie thinks she is epic.
  • If she had insomnia, she would draw comics till she fell asleep.
  • Minnie's greatest strength is that she does not let other people stop her doing the things she wants.
  • Minnie's greatest weakness is that she sometimes does not listen to other people very much, even when they might be right. Which is hardly ever, but it has happened to her once or twice.
  • Minnie is good at football, making comics and standing up for herself.
  • Minnie is bad at homework, resisting temptation and doing what she is told. She likes to make her own decisions.
  • Minnie wants to be remembered for saving the world from boredom.
  • Minnie prefers cereal over toast because toast takes too long to make.
  • Minnie's dad wants her to be 'his little princess', 'more lady-like' and 'a good little girl'. Minnie responses by saying "Eww!".
  • Minnie got her real name 'Hermione' from her dad, who is a massive Harry Potter fan.[1]
  • Minnie has a crush on Zayn Malik.[7]

References[]

External links[]

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