The Beano - Issue 3500

[AndyB]

The 6-weekly Beano specials subsumed the Summer Special, and these in turn were subsumed by Beano Max.

[Digifiend]

Yeah, but this thread's talking about the recent irregular specials which are in reality just regular weekly Beanos with an increased cover price. Nobody mentioned the Summer/Spring/Christmas/Halloween Specials they did before Max launched.

[Jonny Whizz]

I'd have thought that the reason why they'd be plugging the TV series would be to attract readers to the comic who'd already seen Dennis on TV, rather than the other way around. I actually discovered Dennis and the Beano after watching the earlier series.

I seem to remember that 2006 was the last summer special they did, and even that was one of the Beano specials. Sadly the only one I have is the 2002 summer special - the year before the Beano specials started.

[Lew Stringer]

I'd have thought that the reason why they'd be plugging the TV series would be to attract readers to the comic who'd already seen Dennis on TV, rather than the other way around.

Exactly.

So anyway, - is there anyone out there who has all 3,500 issues of The Beano?

Lew

[Digifiend]

Given that there's what, 4 copies of issue 1 in existance? Probably not. Except for the DCT archive I suppose.

[Jonny Whizz]

I just thought I'd say that the 'Dennis through the decades' feature is very inaccurate.

Nigel Parkinson didn't start drawing Dennis until 2000, so there's no way his Dennis should represent the 1990s. And a Davy Law Dennis, from what appears to be the 1950s, or possibly early 1960s, represents the 1970s, when surely an early Sutherland Dennis would be better, given Davy only drew him until August 1970. For the 1990s, they could use David Parkins, as at least he did 1998-2004, whereas Nigel should have represented the 2000s, given his spell has been from 2000 to date. The new Dennis arguably should be for the 2010s, even though we've not quite reached them yet.

[Digifiend]

The 60s one is from the cover of the first Dennis annual, 1956. The 70s one was definitely actually from the 60s, you're right. Because Dennis didn't exist yet, the first 13 years of the Beano (i.e. the 1940s) were totally unrepresented, maybe they should've shown comic covers instead?

[Old Freddy]

I just thought I'd say that the 'Dennis through the decades' feature is very inaccurate.

Nigel Parkinson didn't start drawing Dennis until 2000, so there's no way his Dennis should represent the 1990s. And a Davy Law Dennis, from what appears to be the 1950s, or possibly early 1960s, represents the 1970s, when surely an early Sutherland Dennis would be better, given Davy only drew him until August 1970. For the 1990s, they could use David Parkins, as at least he did 1998-2004, whereas Nigel should have represented the 2000s, given his spell has been from 2000 to date. The new Dennis arguably should be for the 2010s, even though we've not quite reached them yet.

When I saw the issue yesterday at Morrisons I thought Sutherland's 1995-8 'promo shot' (The one shown as a comparison between the old dennis and the new dennis on the first post of the 'New makeover for Dennis... UPDATED' thread) would be more suitable for 1990's. I also thought that a 1954 dennis was a bit stupid for representing the 1960's.

[NP]

Nigel Parkinson didn't start drawing Dennis until 2000

Or 1998, to be accurate.
yes, I was surprised to see my 2007 Dennis in there representing the 90s but then again all the others are a bit wayward too. Still, nice page.

[Digifiend]

Classics did something similar, page 28 of the current issue: 1950s is the stumpy Davy Law version, 1960s is the stretched version wearing a backpack, 1970s is Dennis and Gnasher sliding down a bannister, drawn by Dave Sutherland, 1980s is another Sutherland of course, but he seems to wearing boots, which would make this not long before DS stopped drawing him, 1990s is Dennis in trainers, and 2000s is a Jimmy Hansen image.

Old Freddy, the 1960s one is from the cover of the 1956 annual, so it's from 1955, not 1954.

[kevf]

Can I just stick in my two penn'orth and say I hate the new look Dennis strip.

His permanent smile and wide round eyes are anodyne and childlike, losing all the power and character of his previous incarnations, and the layout of the strip, in tiny regulated boxes with knocked-back backgrounds and limited compositions makes it look like the screen-grab strips used in the comic version of Sponge Bob Squarepants.

Not that I've ever found the Dennis strip to be the best read in The Beano, but at least it was exciting to look at before.

Sigh. You'd think I'd have realised it was only for kids by now.

[Old Freddy]

Can I just stick in my two penn'orth and say I hate the new look Dennis strip.

His permanent smile and wide round eyes are anodyne and childlike, losing all the power and character of his previous incarnations, and the layout of the strip, in tiny regulated boxes with knocked-back backgrounds and limited compositions makes it look like the screen-grab strips used in the comic version of Sponge Bob Squarepants.

I do believe it's getting to be too much of a TV tie-in strip, with Nigel and Jim now ghosting the Cartoon Style, similar to how in the Spogebob and the simpsons comics where usually an artist comes along and tries to look just like the TV series style. The fact that now the front frame of the comic has nothing to do with the comic strip these days makes it even more like the spongebob comic format. (It was better, in my opinion, when there were 3 pages of Dennis) I also think that there's nothing wrong with Dennis at least having his trademark scowl nowadays and in the TV series.

[Digifiend]

I and someone else have actually suggested on Beanotown.com that they should change the cover of the Beano back to how it was a month ago, with Dennis's picture on the cover reflecting his story inside. The Dandy tried generic covers in 2004 and we know how that turned out. I wonder when we'll see Tom Paterson's take on the new style?

Kev F, I think this might be another reason why you had to go - you would've had to adopt Dennis's new style too, but it doesn't lend itself well to multi-strip crossovers (which is what almost all of your stories were), since Dennis's new style is unlike anything else in The Beano.

[kevf]

Kev F, I think this might be another reason why you had to go - you would've had to adopt Dennis's new style too, ..

I'll probably never know why I had to go, though I can think of half a dozen good reasons. Losing me's the least of the Beano's worries. I'd really like to see it carve out a niche in the market and be as successful as I think it could be.

The TV market is big and they've gone for it well. Whether the end result pays off we'll see, but the fact that it's a re-commission of a show that gets repeated, suggests that it is doing. If that then boosts the sales of The Beano, as an acutely-positioned and deliberately retooled TV spin-off, then that too will be good for business.

If that increased business leads to an expansion in sales for the sister titles, all the better. These things could grow and grow. And in an ideal world we'd end up with a stable of DCT TV shows (Desperate Dan & Derek The Sheep would be my first choices) with matching comics, books and toys, and we'd all be happy.

And possibly the new soft Dennis, which is how he's been on TV for years (who else has been horrified to hear his high pitched sweetly smiling Southern English accent?), is the way forward.

I've always been more of a fan of the quirky American cartoons from Dexters Laboratory and Ren & Stimpy to Family Guy & Fairly Odd Parents, but who can argue with the money Teletubbies and Balamory make?


PS: If the market expands, and leaves room for older-reader-oriented long-format stories, then I shall be awaiting that call. Not holding my breath.

[Jonny Whizz]

I agree that the new look Dennis is not to the same standard as the old one. I really don't like the uninteresting framing, and the red and black background doesn't make the strip very readable. Seeing his teeth seems wrong to me as well. I hope the 'revamped' Dennis is forgotten in the same way as Minnie the Minx's red and yellow jersey (anyone remember that?), or Wayne in Pain...

I can't help but feel though that it stands out as being particularly poor in the current Beano. Just about all the other strips - even the reprints - seem to be really high quality at the moment. Actually, speaking of Tom Paterson, does anyone think we've not really seen any of his best work for ages? I was recently looking through some old Beanos where he drew Minnie and Calamity James and they were great. I wouldn't go back to him drawing Minnie - Ken Harrison's version is excellent - but I just wish we could see some of his classic stuff again. With Dennis revamped, he's either lost that, or he'll be drawing it in the new style, and he's now doing Singled Out like Mike Pearse (which I might add Kev F was better at imitiating).

What about a Calamity James cartoon - that would be brilliant! I'm not sure it would be so great for younger children, but us James fans would love it!