This week's issue

[Digifiend]

Actually, I've heard cases of the law getting involved when parents smack their kids. And there was one bloke recently who gave their kid a clip on the ear when he got arrested... only to get arrested himself for assaulting his son.

[Raven]

Actually, I've heard cases of the law getting involved when parents smack their kids. And there was one bloke recently who gave their kid a clip on the ear when he got arrested... only to get arrested himself for assaulting his son.

But had it left marks in those cases? If so, probably illegal. Were there suspicions of more abuse?

As for clipping on the ear: hitting about the head will undoubtedly be considered differently. And if the kid had got arrested, he was presumably a teenager - and it's probably illegal if the kid's over a certain age, anyway.

[Lew Stringer]

Anyone posted this already? A little video from the Cartoon Museum in London focusing on Dennis's birthday:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12759011

That kid's a pretty good artist, but if he's sold over 200 copies of his comic his future clearly lies in marketing!

Thanks Laura for posting that. I had to go out so I missed it this morning on BBC Breakfast.

Another item on comics and The Beano here, about 2.09 in:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0 ... 7_03_2011/

[big bad bri]

Actually, I've heard cases of the law getting involved when parents smack their kids. And there was one bloke recently who gave their kid a clip on the ear when he got arrested... only to get arrested himself for assaulting his son.

parents should be allowed to smack their kids when they are naughty lets be honest if the kids of today got a few good beatings ae home they would prob be a lot better behaved and more respectful especially the area of london i live,i used to get hit all the time as a kid and it never did me harm granted it was the late 70'searly 80s.

[Jay]

Do you not think this weeks Beano was a missed oppotunity? They could've had a big special Dennis story or maybe Dennis and Gnasher guest starring in all the other strips.

[Digifiend]

Take a good close look at the window in panel 3 of Minnie (Dennis's arm and hair can be seen), the picture on the wall in panel 15 of Numskulls (it's a picture of Rasher), behind the wall in panel 17 of Bash Street (top of Dennis's head is visible) and behind the building in panel 17 of Roger (Dennis's arm and foot can be seen). So Dennis did actually cameo in the other strips (the Numskulls was the only one done by the actual artist though - the Dennis body parts were added using Photoshop or some similar software).

[swirlythingy]

Wasn't Rasher banished in 2009 and replaced with some object named Harley? At the same time as Gnipper was relocated to Granny's?

I agree wholeheartedly with Jay - for a 60th birthday special, the Beano could not have been a bigger disappointment. It reads as if they just didn't give a damn. There was nothing remotely special about it whatsoever - just the ten pages of ancient reprints (a lot of which had already been republished elsewhere), and a completely bog-standard issue in all other respects.

Not even the merest mention of Dennis in the non-Dennis stories, Photoshopping aside. Not a single extra page of new Dennis material. Anyone would think they didn't even realise they were supposed to be making a birthday special until fairly late in the production process, and then they retrofitted a couple of token elements on the cheap.

For those of you who still have the 50th birthday special, go and dig it out, and read it, and see what was missing from this week's not so much 'Big' as 'Bargain Basement Birthday'.

[Digifiend]

Yep, Rasher hasn't appeared since Dennis's revamp...but this week's issue not only has him cameoing as a photo on Edd's kitchen wall in the Numskulls, it also mentions that he first appeared in 1979... could they be about to bring him back? I hope so.

As for the issue being sub-standard, you should be glad that at least we didn't have to pay extra for it.

[Lew Stringer]

There was nothing remotely special about it whatsoever - just the ten pages of ancient reprints

Nothing special except for a third of the comic? Sounds pretty special to me. Aren't "ancient reprints" a good way to celebrate sixty years? I doubt the 7 to 10 year olds the comic is mainly aimed at will have seen those before so it's an ideal way to demonstrate how the strip has evolved.

As I pointed out to you on your own forum the other day, The Beano didn't celebrate character's anniversaries at all until more recent times. You're only judging it within the last ten years by comparing it to the 50th anniversary one. If you look at the bigger picture (ie: the entire history of the comic) you'll see that this is a special issue.

[Raven]

As I pointed out to you on your own forum the other day, The Beano didn't celebrate character's anniversaries at all until more recent times.

The comics often didn't even celebrate 'landmark' issues of the titles themselves - for example, I have issues 400 and 600 of Sparky and issue 600 of Victor here and it's not even mentioned, apart from the regular numbering on the front.

Ten extra pages of Dennis sounds quite generous.

[AndyB]

I've never seen that first back page of Dennis before (look at the detail on that locomotive!), nor the first 2/3 page with added red. I've only ever seen the second page of the 1974 issue once before.

[Peter Gray]

I loved seeing the old Dennis pages.also great poster by David Sutherland..has said before its a real treat seeing these reprints in such good quality, as they were seen in colour and on glossy paper..great reproductions..

[RamblingSid]

Just read this week's issue. Really enjoyed seeing the old beano stories - and the David Sutherland poster was lovely. My own two little menaces loved the birthday Beano. My son liked Gnasher jumping on the birthday cake but my little girl was caught by the old Dennis the Menace stories. So, thumbs up from this house.

[swirlythingy]

Nothing special except for a third of the comic? Sounds pretty special to me. Aren't "ancient reprints" a good way to celebrate sixty years? I doubt the 7 to 10 year olds the comic is mainly aimed at will have seen those before so it's an ideal way to demonstrate how the strip has evolved.

In a word: no.

I don't think you fully appreciate just how much kids do know about the comic's history. Old annuals pop up regularly in charity shops and get snapped up rapidly by aspiring collectors; the same goes for reprint anthologies, which is where the usual suspects (first ever Dennis and Gnasher's debut being two of the most common) would have been read beforehand.

I can personally attest that I started collecting annuals a matter of months after buying my first issue, after my parents brought back a 1988 Beano Book from god-knows-where, and told me they thought I might like it.

And don't forget that a lot of readers are luckier than I was, and had parents (or even grandparents!) who bought the comic decades ago, and still have their old annuals or, better still, issues in a box in the loft ready for a new generation to spend happy summer afternoons flicking through.

If in doubt, pictures of annual and comic collections are printed in almost every issue of the Beano, often including old, and sometimes very old, material. Proud readers boasting about their miraculously old annuals (1986! Imagine!!) which they heroically acquired through magic charity-shopping powers are also a regular feature of Beano.com comment threads.

So, yes, bearing this in mind, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that a fairly large proportion of readers would have seen at least some of the reprints before. (And they didn't even "demonstrate how the strip has evolved" - they stopped at 1974.)

What I find more worrying, though, is the principle of the thing. A "third of the comic", as you put it, entirely turned over to essentially free comic strips dragged out of the archives does not send nice messages about their enthusiasm for a celebration. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this week's issue cost considerably less to put together than an ordinary one!

As I pointed out to you on your own forum the other day, The Beano didn't celebrate character's anniversaries at all until more recent times. You're only judging it within the last ten years by comparing it to the 50th anniversary one. If you look at the bigger picture (ie: the entire history of the comic) you'll see that this is a special issue.

I didn't say it wasn't a "special issue", I said it was a very bad one.

Also, a development which must be appreciated in the past 25 years or so is that the Beano has become a comic old enough to be notable solely on this basis, and understandably they've been paying a bit more attention to their own history. I also cannot imagine a character as iconic as Dennis the Menace not having his 50th anniversary celebrated; there would have been a national outcry if it hadn't been.

Even if what you say about not celebrating anniversaries of individual stories is true (I can't confirm or deny it; maybe some collectors could help out? Does anyone have his 25th birthday issue somewhere?), the Beano most certainly does have a track record on celebrating its own history. Massive celebrations were launched in 1988 when the comic itself turned 50, and even on its 25th birthday it had a commemorative cover. A special cover was also drawn for issue #1000, and issue #2000 not only had a special cover but prominence given to the occasion throughout inside as well - rather unlike what happened this week. (Not sure about #3000; being a Euan Kerr issue, I think it was probably commemorative in every story in some way, too, but unfortunately I've never seen one. )

I also think your given example of 10th, 20th or 30th birthdays in your other post was irrelevant, because nobody ever celebrates those. As I said, collectors with 25th birthday issues welcomed.

The comics often didn't even celebrate 'landmark' issues of the titles themselves - for example, I have issues 400 and 600 of Sparky and issue 600 of Victor here and it's not even mentioned, apart from the regular numbering on the front.

#400 and #600 hardly count as 'landmark'. Personally, I was quite surprised the Beano even mentioned its recent passing of #3500.

Ten extra pages of Dennis sounds quite generous.

I'd have agreed with you, if only they hadn't been reprints. Celebrating the number of new scripts commissioned for a character by refusing to commission more sends mixed messages...

I've never seen that first back page of Dennis before (look at the detail on that locomotive!), nor the first 2/3 page with added red. I've only ever seen the second page of the 1974 issue once before.

Yes, some of them (notably the second page of the front cover debut) were new to me as well, but I still would have preferred new material in those ten pages, and preferably extending over all the other stories in the comic, which had no right to be there, as well!

If they're going to run reprints (outside of the 'Retro Beano' feature), they should put them in a stand-alone book - either a full-blown volume like that produced for the 50th, or simply a small comic packaged with the main one. Chewing up 10 pages of 32 (and not even putting any celebratory material in the remaining 22, except in the 3 pages plus cover of regular character slots) is unforgivable.

Still, Digifiend's right - if this comic had been any more expensive it would have added financial injury to insult. I would have been willing to pay a premium if it had contained a mini-comic of reprints, though.

Why doesn't the Beano give away mini-comics more often? They're just about the only things it is worth paying extra for.

[NP]

Old annuals pop up regularly in charity shops and get snapped up rapidly by aspiring collectors

But the Beano is aimed at a general readership, not collectors, aspiring or otherwise. For them, this could well be their first look at Dennis of the Past. After all, every issue is someone's first Beano.

Not sure about #3000 ... I think it was probably commemorative in every story in some way, too.

Maybe it was. Nice stickers, though. (ahem!)