The Beano annual is good. The highlights are probably Dangerous Dan strip. I think its really well drawn and takes advantage of all the extra things you can do with digital artwork rather than the classic way of drawing. I didnt like the mini strips (especially Calamity James which has gone from my favourite to least favourite strip). But the Angel Face investigates mini-strip was actually really good, it was nice how each mini strip followed on from the last. There was a lot of that in the annual actually, stories told over multiple parts. I didnt find it weird how Billy Whizz, the Numskulls and Ball Boy werent in the annual at all (except for a Billy Whizz cameo in another strip), have they been dropped? Strange not seeing them but Biffo the Bear, who disappeared years ago, does have his own story.
The Dandy annual was good too. The choose your own adventure style Dreadlock Holmes strips were an interesting experiment. Its good to see them try something new.
The 2023 classic Beano and Dandy annual was a real treat. probably my favourite of the 3 annuals. This year's theme was "spooky" strips and the comic was full of them. The inside covers being big full page (Double Page?) Laughing Planet strips by Tom Paterson, which are a real work of art. There were stories from all over both comics run (and even a Beryl the Peril story from the Topper or one of the Beryl annuals?) but there definitely seemed to be a lot of newer strips from the 90s, 00s and even one from the 10s. I'm not used to seeing stuff this new in the classic annuals but the stuff they reprinted was really good. There was a Mike Pearse long Bash Street Story that I loved and it was one that I dont think I had read before. I googled it and found it was from a year 2000 issue of the Beano but it must have been edited to appear in the classic annual because Dennis' old dad has been replaced by his redesigned appearance. Was this done especially for this year's classic annual or was this story reprinted elsewhere?Tin Can Tommy wrote: 25 Dec 2021, 23:40 Just started on the 2022 classic beano and Dandy annual. It seems to be made up almost entirely of reprints from annuals. Which would be good if I didn't already have most of them
My guess is that this was because of the pandemic and most of the annuals have already been digitally archived so they could compile it whilst working from home.
