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The Beano (formerly The Beano Comic, also known as Beano) is a British anthology comic magazine created by Scottish publishing company DC Thomson. Its first issue was published on 30 July 1938, and it became the world's longest-running comic issued weekly in 2018, publishing its 4000th issue in August 2019. Popular and well-known comic strips and characters include Dennis the Menace, Gnasher, Roger the Dodger, Minnie the Minx, The Bash Street Kids, Billy Whizz, General Jumbo, Ivy the Terrible, Lord Snooty and His Pals and Jonah.

The Beano was planned as a pioneering children's magazine that contained mostly comic strips, in the style of American newspaper gag-a-days, as opposed to the more text story based Story papers that were immensely popular before the Second World War. In the present, its legacy is its misbehaving characters, escapist tales and anarchic humour with an audience of all ages. Beano is a multimedia franchise with spin-off books and Christmas annuals, websites, theme park rides, games, cartoon adaptations, and a production company.

Characters[]

The comic stars as of the last Decade 2010-2020:

Dennis the Menace and Gnasher by Nigel Parkinson

Calamity James by Tom Paterson

Billy Whizz by Nick Brennan

The Numskulls by Barry Glennard and Nigel Auchterlounie

Minnie the Minx by Ken Harrison and Laura Howell

Freddie Fear by Dave Eastbury

Ball Boy by Dave Eastbury

Johnny Bean from Happy Bunny Green by Laura Howell

Ratz by Laura Howell and Hunt Emerson

The Bash Street Kids by David Sutherland

Fred's Bed by David Sutherland

Beano Manga by Laura Howell

Lord Snooty the Third by Nigel Parkinson

Les Pretend by John Sherwood (reprints)

A few funsize strips by Lew Stringer

Ivy the Terrible by Robert Nixon (reprints)

Roger the Dodger by Barrie Appleby

60 Second Dennis by Nigel Parkinson

Gnasher and Gnipper by Barrie Appleby

Strips[]

A number of strips in the comic have run for a very long time. The top five longest running Beano comic strips are, in ascending order, Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx, Bash Street Kids, Roger the Dodger and, the last holder of the title before Dennis, Lord Snooty. 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). Roger the Dodger had Red and Purple at one point.

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.

History[]

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, and so far (September 2008) there have been 3449 issues published. 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.

The Beano is so popular that it had its own theme park, Beanoland, at Chessington World of Adventures. This opened in 2000, but was Rebranded into Wild Asia in 2010.

Editors[]

The original editor was George Moonie, from 1938-1959. He was succeeded by Harold Cramond, who edited the comic from 1959-1984 and is the long serving editor to date. 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 later became editor of BeanoMAX in 2007 as of issue 2 (see below), although he left this role in 2009.

Sister comics[]

Since 1982 the comic, along with The Dandy, has also run "Comic Library" titles. Released monthly, each edition of the Beano Comic Library would include a single feature length adventure (usually about 64 page), featuring a character from the comic itself. They were available in A5 size only. In 1998, after 368 issues had been published, these were replaced by the Fun Size Beano, although these would become 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, but only featured Dennis the Menace and Gnasher, The Bash Street Kids, Minnie the Minx and Roger the Dodger. 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) 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.

References[]

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