A couple of Beano book questions

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Jonny Whizz
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A couple of Beano book questions

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I have two questions about the Beano books that hopefully someone on here will be able to answer.

1. Which was the first Beano book in colour? I'm not sure. The oldest book I've got is 1993, which is in full colour.

2. Why did Steve Horrocks draw Ivy the Terrible and Tom Paterson draw Billy Whizz in the 2008 annual? I can understand why Steve drew Ivy in 2009, and Wayne Thompson did Billy for the same annual, because they were both reprints at the time of the annual being prepared, but when the 2008 annual was being prepared in 2006, both strips were still new material, with Tony O'Donnell on Ivy and Trevor Metcalfe on Billy. I don't know why they didn't do the stories for the 2008 annual.

Thanks for any help that you can give me, though I suspect that the first question will be easier to answer than the second one.
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Digifiend
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Re: A couple of Beano book questions

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1989 was half colour half red black white, 1990 was the first Beano Book in full colour.

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Re: A couple of Beano book questions

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Depends when they started working on them. Tony and Trevor may have been fully occupied, or, more probably, they had probably already finished working on the weekly strips and Alan chose not to commission Annual strips from them.

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Jonny Whizz
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Re: A couple of Beano book questions

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Thanks Digi, now I know about the Beano book. I guessed it was late 80s/early 90s, because I remember seeing a black, red and white strip from the 1988 book. That clears that one up then.

As for my second question, I suspect that the best way of finding out may be to ask Alan Digby, or possibly the artists themselves. Also worth noting is that Ivy was reprints for several weeks in summer 2006, before Tony's strips started appearing again. They stopped using Tony's strips on the 17th March 2007 issue (3372), with Bob Nixon reprints appearing regularly from the following week. It's possible that some of the strips were stockpiled, though I doubt this was the case for eight or so months worth of strips. As for Trevor and Billy, his strips appeared consistently until the strip went reprint, although I do know that the Billy Whizz in BeanoMax No. 1 was not drawn by him (Tom Paterson I think it was, but I've not seen it). Other than that, Billy has mostly been David Parkins reprints in Max, though Steve Horrocks ghosted a few in David's style. I know this because he told me in a thread a while back.
'Michael Owen isn't the tallest of players, but his height more than makes up for it' - Mark Lawrenson

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Digifiend
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Re: A couple of Beano book questions

Post by Digifiend »

The Beanomax #1 Billy Whizz was drawn by Steve Bright.
Image
Image

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Jonny Whizz
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Re: A couple of Beano book questions

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Thanks for the scan. Nice artwork as well, and I notice that he ghosted Trevor's style. Looking at it, it's clearly not Tom Paterson. It's a shame about the header with the Graeme Hall Billy in it though!

The only BeanoMax I have is issue 11, and it contains a David Parkins reprint from about 1992-1993.
'Michael Owen isn't the tallest of players, but his height more than makes up for it' - Mark Lawrenson

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Jonny Whizz
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Re: A couple of Beano book questions

Post by Jonny Whizz »

Actually, who drew Billy Whizz in the 2004 annual? It looks like Wayne Thompson, but it somehow seems different from his normal style.
'Michael Owen isn't the tallest of players, but his height more than makes up for it' - Mark Lawrenson

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