The unofficial history of the Beano

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AndyB
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The unofficial history of the Beano

Post by AndyB »

Iain McLaughlin, who worked for DC Thomson for many years, including a spell as Editor, has now published his unofficial history of the Beano. Very strongly recommended.

My review for Down the Tubes
Amazon link
Publisher's link

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Tin Can Tommy
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Re: The unofficial history of the Beano

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I've been waiting for this to come out. Looks like an interesting read. I intend to buy a copy in a couple weeks.

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Tin Can Tommy
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Re: The unofficial history of the Beano

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I've got the book now and had a read. It's really good.

My only complaints are that its not very critical of the Beano except a couple times. Including the artwork of the short lived Gordon Gnome story and the first series of the 2009 dennis cartoon. I feel kind of sorry for that artist. he's the only one the book criticises.

Its written by Iain Mclaughlin, but he interviews himself a couple times. Its a bit bizarre when you read "Iain Mclaughlin writes..." as though he isnt the same person who wrote the book.

There's quite a few typos and errors too. Nothing major but it was noticeable.

Its quite a short book. I really wish it was a bit longer. There was a couple things I expected to be mentioned that werent including the long stories that appeared in the Beano by Mike Pearse, Kev F amongst others. There was no mention of Jamie Smart at all. Nor a mention of Tom Paterson's retirement. Reading this interview with Tom I just found: https://whackycomics.blogspot.com/2022/ ... erson.html and his Dandy rant makes me wonder if thats related.

Overall though I absolutely loved the book. Its really interesting reading about the changes in the Beano in the 2000s and reading about all the new stories I loved as a child and where they got the ideas from. And the older stuff was interesting too. I never knew Billy Whizz was almost named Flash Harry. The book makes a brilliant companion piece to 2008's big "official" History of the Beano book.
Last edited by Tin Can Tommy on 18 Apr 2022, 18:52, edited 1 time in total.

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Tin Can Tommy
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Re: The unofficial history of the Beano

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One thing that confused me that I'm not quite sure of is that the book mentions Euan Kerr worked on the New Hornet. I cant find anything online about a comic with that name. Is it just a mistake and the Hornet and the New Hotspur, which I think it merged with, were mixed up?

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dishes
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Re: The unofficial history of the Beano

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Tin Can Tommy wrote:
18 Apr 2022, 11:32


My only complaints are that its not very critical of the Beano except a couple times. Including the artwork of the short lived Gordon Gnome story and the first series of the 2009 dennis cartoon. I feel kind of sorry for that artist. he's the only one the book criticises.

Eh? What does he think is wrong with the Gordon Gnome artwork? It was a big hit with our household at the time. Will read this book with interest.
Is it weird to have no interest in keeping or collecting free gifts?

My artwork: http://www.iancockburn.co.uk

AndyB
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Re: The unofficial history of the Beano

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Tin Can Tommy wrote:
18 Apr 2022, 11:32
My only complaints are that its not very critical of the Beano except a couple times. Including the artwork of the short lived Gordon Gnome story and the first series of the 2009 dennis cartoon. I feel kind of sorry for that artist. he's the only one the book criticises.
The main reason why it isn’t very critical of the Beano is that, very simply, Iain was writing a fond memoir of a comic he loved working on. He was never going to do a hatchet job.

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