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The Beano




''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 in 1938 and it has continued weekly ever since. As of 2007 , it has published over 3000 issues. Issue dates of British comics , page retrieved 30 March 2007

Its iconic characters have become known to generations of British children, including Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx, and The Bash Street Kids. 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.

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.


PUBLICATION INFORMATION

''The Beano'' comic takes its name from the English word ''beano'' which can be loosely interpreted as ''a good time''.For further discussion of the origin of this word, see The Meaning Of Beano

The first edition of The Beano was dated . 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 2004 . The Beano is also the second longest running comic, the first also 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 late 2007.

Editors

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 Beano Max 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 cartoon.
  • '' 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.


TRIVIA


  • '' Private Eye '' refers to '' The Spectator '' as "''The Hasbeano''", with the Spectator's former editor Boris Johnson becoming "Boris the Menace".

  • 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 UK£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 (he's a miserable sod)

  • 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" Lyrics To "Riviera Hustle"



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