Favourite/Least favourite Beano strips

[Digifiend]

About Minder Bird - the annual strip would've been drawn before the vote result was known. In fact, it may have been the first one drawn, given how early the annual strips are produced. I guess the vote result really surprised editor Euan Kerr, else he wouldn't have used a new strip in the annual without testing opinion first.

[Old Freddy]

I bought the 1996 annual not too long ago, and was very surprised to see Minder Bird, which hadn't been around in August/September 1994 when (most) of the strips had been drawn. The character may have been invented in possibly June 1994 whereas Vic volcano and the others were possibly October/November 1994, they just weren't "Born" until 1995.

[Jonny Whizz]

I agree with you about Vic Neill. I like his Billy Whizz strips as well. In fact, most of your favourites match mine. I've liked most of the recent additions to the comic (Johnny Bean and Super School, plus Fred's Bed which was originally reprint).

Vic Neill was never properly replaced in the Beano office - neither of the artists recruited to replace him for Billy Whizz or Tim Traveller worked well. The readers did not receive G Hall's Whizz well and the editor disliked the Tim Traveller artist's style. Actually I thought Keith Reynolds did a decent job, but Hall's Whizz was poor. They didn't even try and find a replacement for the Germs which was dropped.

Here are my least favourite Beano strips:

Robbie Rebel - Never liked the character. Still think Ken Harrison is a very good artist though, as seen on his Minnie strips.

Joe Jitsu - Thought it was a bit limited. Didn't like the artwork, and I felt it spoilt Wayne Thompson's style on Billy Whizz simultaneously (which was great before then).

Zap Zodiac - My all time LEAST favourite strip. Steve Horrocks later did some good stuff, but his style was far too scratchy on that (he admitted himself he was learning his trade in an old thread). I didn't like the way they used other Beano characters in the stories especially when it was in the vote, as it looked like a con to make the readers vote for it. I was glad when it finished.

Nicky Nutjob - Very badly drawn. Not 'different from the usual', just plain bad. Pointless and a waste of space (why give a brand new untried comic strip two or three pages from the off, when Billy Whizz, Lord Snooty and Biffo never usually had (have had on the Billy) more than one page)

There's no strips or characters I strongly dislike in the current comic, but Lord Snooty The Third remains my least favourite, if perhaps almost by default.

[Old Freddy]

Here are some others I forgot to mention:

LEAST FAVOURITES

Christmas Carole: Wasn't bad in the Beezer anualls from the late 1990's (which beano got most of their guest-star characters from) but was horrible in the beano (come on, who wants to read a comic about a loser who wants it to be christmas everyday.) It was OK in the Beezer annuals because it was only one episode a year, and therefore was entertaining. but just imagine 52 episodes revolving around a cristmas-obsessed loser per year? Hope its burning in hell with minder bird (which is probably already burnt)

Big Brad Wolf: Can't remember if he was in a vote or not, but it was rather unimaginitive when I re-discovered the Beano (Starting from 2005 onwards; I had stopped in 2003 beforehand) I just skipped it.

Joe King: Not that I didn't like the strip, but absolutely loathed the artist. does anybody know who he was? I know he also drew Emelyn the Gremlin and Briefly drew Cuddles and Dimples in a cartoon book.

FAVOURITES:

Singled Out; Mike pears did a good job on the 3 bears and a good job on The Bash Street Kids. It was quite imaginitive although I must say it lost a lot of uniquity once Tom Paterson took over; not saying He's a bad artist, but sometimes it revolved around two characters instead of one and this made it especially hard to know who the strip was meant to be about, because at the time it didn't even display the name of the character.

[Digifiend]

Well the character featured in Singled Out has to have someone (other than the reader) to talk to and interact with right?

Totally agree about Christmas Carole, it was inappropiate when it wasn't Christmas! Only good thing about it was the name, a pun on the Christmas carols you'd sing at that time of year.

Big Brad Wolf was a shortlived replacement for Robbie Rebel, not a vote candidate. When Brad ended, Robbie returned.

[Jonny Whizz]

Technically, Joe King wasn't a strip. This was a degree of controversy when Kashgar ran the Beano top 100 (a thread you might want to read if you have a lot of time on your hands! ) series last summer - he ranked 63rd in the list of all time appearances, but was never in a comic strip of his own. Bob Dewar was the artist for Joe King. There was a thread about him last year, have a look in the 'Artists and Writers' section. You're one of the few people I've talked to on here who didn't like his style, most of the people on here liked his psychedelic and funny artwork. He also drew for a number of nursery comics such as Bimbo (not that I read nursery comics!).

Actually, I go around telling a number of people some of Joe King's jokes. I have a Beano Book of Britain from about 1996, and in it there is a Joe King story where he tells all sorts of wacky popular culture jokes like, 'Where does 007 keep his fish? In James Pond!

[AndyB]

I have to say I loved Keith Page's work on Christmas Carole - but it would have taken a lot to keep those pencils going!

I loved Big Brad Wolf. I think it was one of Euan's last commissions as Beano editor.

[Jonny Whizz]

Boy, that was quick! I think that Christmas Carole had a lovely artwork style, but the pencils would have become a problem, and who'd want to read a strip about Christmas in July? The department stores start Christmas early enough already .

I thought Big Brad Wolf was a good strip. It will have been one of Euan Kerr's final comissions as Beano editor. I think there's a noticeable difference from issue 3335 (the Queen's 80th birthday issue) and the weeks following that (including the infamous Danny cover, which as far as I know no one has ever quite worked out what happened there). A number of strips disappeared at that time (Little Plum, Nicky Nutjob and Colin the Vet, for example) and a few new ones started (Ratz, Pirates of the Caribeano) plus reprints of The Three Bears, and occasional Bob Nixon strips (Roger and Ivy) - no one seemed bothered by them at the time, but look at the situation now.

To be honest though, the reprints in the Beano aren't that bad. They're usually well chosen, and they're not as old as some of the strips used in Dandy Xtreme (when you could still guarantee it would contain a reasonable amount of comic content every week, sorry fortnight ), like Desperate Dan from the 1940s, Bananaman from Nutty in the 1980s and the Red Hot Chilli Dogs/Snip and Snap from the 1970s.

[Old Freddy]

Technically, Joe King wasn't a strip. This was a degree of controversy when Kashgar ran the Beano top 100 (a thread you might want to read if you have a lot of time on your hands! ) series last summer - he ranked 63rd in the list of all time appearances, but was never in a comic strip of his own. Bob Dewar was the artist for Joe King. There was a thread about him last year, have a look in the 'Artists and Writers' section. You're one of the few people I've talked to on here who didn't like his style, most of the people on here liked his psychedelic and funny artwork. He also drew for a number of nursery comics such as Bimbo (not that I read nursery comics!).

Actually, I go around telling a number of people some of Joe King's jokes. I have a Beano Book of Britain from about 1996, and in it there is a Joe King story where he tells all sorts of wacky popular culture jokes like, 'Where does 007 keep his fish? In James Pond!

Well I've began to appreciate and even go as far as enjoying his work now, but back when I first saw his work I saw him as being somewhat slapdash and crude. When I was young I actually called Dewar "Joe Kingy" in the same respect I called Malcom Judge "Billy Whizzy" when I was little because I didn't know the name. I first started "liking" his work when I saw his work on the 3 bears during the late 1980s. Basically, I only knew the name of an artist if he had a signature. (for about a year or so, I called Robert nixon RT Nixon)

[AndyB]

I'm pretty sure that Joe King did have a few pages of non-stop gags, but I could be wrong.

[Steve Henderson]

I was never a fan of londonB412 in the Beano didn't like the drawing style or the characters but mostly didn't like the setting. Like they tried to be contempory but didn't quite pull it off

[Digifiend]

I think the readers agreed with you en masse Steve, considering how quickly London B4 12 was quietly dropped.

[Jonny Whizz]

I wonder what the shortest lived Beano strips of all time are? I will have to count how many issues London B412 appeared in, as I've never checked that. It was one of those strips that you didn't notice had gone until it was long gone. On the other hand, there are some strips that are always conspicious in the absence (for example, on the rare occasions Minnie wasn't in the comic)

Here are a few contenders (not counting losers in any votes) - sorry if the numbers aren't quite right:
Gordon Bennett (2000 and 2005) - 22 appearances
Nicky Nutjob (2006-07) - 20 appearances
Zap Zodiac (2005) - 17 appearances (including in the 2005 vote)
Dot Along Dash (late 1950s; appeared in 'Classics from the Beano') - 13 appearances

My 50th post as well!

[Digifiend]

Dot Along Dash (late 1950s; appeared in 'Classics from the Beano') - 13 appearances

That should read Dash-Along Dot (late 1950s; appeared in 'Classics from the Comics') - 13 appearances

[Jonny Whizz]

Correct - a mistake on my part.

I checked; London B412 appeared 13 times, the same as Dash-Along Dot. The strip first appeared in issue 3404 (October 2007) and last appeared in issue 3420 (February 2008). That wasn't a very long run, and they missed a few issues. Most of the strips were drawn by Barrie Appleby, although about three were drawn by Wayne Thompson (but were unsigned). I didn't think it was a very good strip and was rather unsurprised when it disappeared shortly after being introduced. Indeed, pointless might be just the word to describe it, as they never did anything much.