Bash Street Kids cloned in cloned storyline

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Digifiend
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Bash Street Kids cloned in cloned storyline

Post by Digifiend »

This week's Beano features a Bash Street story which may give you deja vu feelings. Drawn by regular artist Dave Sutherland, it shows the kids cloned. A similar story is in an old Beano Book, except the prof now obtains samples (like Plug's toenail clippings) instead of the kids actually going into the cloning machine. Same premise, completely different story - the ending is totally different as well.

Nice Fred's Bed in the same issue as well. Features Isaac Newton and the famous apple falling on his head scene - though it doesn't happen as in the history books! The best of the three themed issues in my opinion (the theme being science). Only down point is yet again it's £1.99!

What do other readers think?

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tony ingram
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Re: Bash Street Kids cloned in cloned storyline

Post by tony ingram »

Digifiend wrote:This week's Beano features a Bash Street story which may give you deja vu feelings. Drawn by regular artist Dave Sutherland, it shows the kids cloned. A similar story is in an old Beano Book, except the prof now obtains samples (like Plug's toenail clippings) instead of the kids actually going into the cloning machine. Same premise, completely different story - the ending is totally different as well.

Nice Fred's Bed in the same issue as well. Features Isaac Newton and the famous apple falling on his head scene - though it doesn't happen as in the history books! The best of the three themed issues in my opinion (the theme being science). Only down point is yet again it's £1.99!

What do other readers think?
It's the fluctuating price that puts me off reading it regularly these days.How many people do they honestly think haven't noticed that they're paying for the free gifts?

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Steve Henderson
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Re: Bash Street Kids cloned in cloned storyline

Post by Steve Henderson »

Do subscribers avoid any occasional price bump?

After 50+ years I'm not surprised the Bash Street Kids tead old ground although if its intentional or not I don't know! Im sometimes surprised how they have managed to keep the same characters going for so many years i.e Billy Whizz 40+ years worth of stories about a boy who runs fast!?! all credit to them! ha ha

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stevezodiac
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Re: Bash Street Kids cloned in cloned storyline

Post by stevezodiac »

I have always admired those writers who can come up with new stories for a character with a single premise. Keyhole Kate was probably the hardest and it ran for decades.

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Digifiend
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Re: Bash Street Kids cloned in cloned storyline

Post by Digifiend »

tony ingram wrote:It's the fluctuating price that puts me off reading it regularly these days.How many people do they honestly think haven't noticed that they're paying for the free gifts?
Yeah, I've mentioned that here before. Why don't they offer two versions like computer mags do? All the computer magazines used to offer a CD version cover disc cheaper than the DVD (most only do DVD now, but some do still offer a cheaper CD). Nowadays somemags also do an even cheaper online version (PDF or eBook) with no disc. I can't see why the Beano (and Dandy Xtreme, which has been known to charge £2.99 instead of £1.99/£2.25) can't offer a no gift version at the regular cover price? I know we're probably the minority, but adult collectors would undoubtably go for the cheaper version - as would kids who only get a small amount of pocket money - how many won't be able to afford tomorrow's Dandy Xtreme, or the latest Toxic, for example, because today's Beano cost extra?

Subscribers, by the way, pay £76.50 per year. 4 weeks at £1.25 = £5. 8 weeks = £10. 16 weeks = £20. 32 weeks = £40. 48 weeks = £60. 52 weeks = £65 - yep, looks like the subscribers pay the extra too, although they claim it's cheaper than in the shops. That better not mean an imminent severe price increase or Xtreme style relaunch any time soon! :x

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Jonny Whizz
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Re: Bash Street Kids cloned in cloned storyline

Post by Jonny Whizz »

Returning to the subject of recurring stoylines, it is weird how some characters with supposedly limited premises, like Keyhole Kate and Billy Whizz (who was expected to last a year until ideas dryed up), can go on for years, but sometimes other characters have been underutilised. For example, I think that the Beano could have done a lot more with Tim Traveller (time travel creates endless possibilities) and Colin the Vet.

When the Beano did Comic Idol back in '04, I voted for Colin because I thought he would be a better strip than Joe Jitsu, who had a catchy title but little else, and there could be loads of stories involving different, and wacky, animal patients (I also thought the art was much better on Colin the Vet). I was glad I voted - if I hadn't, he might never have made the comic (there was less than a 1% margin in the vote between Colin and Joe).
'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: Bash Street Kids cloned in cloned storyline

Post by Digifiend »

Actually Tim Traveller's demise was caused by the death of the artist. The editor apparently didn't like the replacement's style, and it was quickly dropped. Bad timing though, since this was just before Doctor Who came back on TV!

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Jonny Whizz
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Re: Bash Street Kids cloned in cloned storyline

Post by Jonny Whizz »

There is something a little odd about this though. Vic Neill - artist for Billy Whizz, Tim Traveller and The Germs at the time (and before that, The McTickles, Plug etc.) died in 2000. I once picked up a number of old Beanos dating from 1999-2001. In the earliest of these from May '99, Neill was still drawing all those strips.

I have issue 3007 from March 2000 when Neill drew Billy Whizz - the other strips didn't appear in that issue. In the next issue I have in chronological order, 3017 (they weren't continuous), G. Hall has taken over Whizz. However, I have issues as late as March 2001 which have what appear to be Neill-drawn Tim Traveller strips. Backing this up, the Beano book 2002 has Tim's strip clearly drawn by the artist. I think I'm correct in saying that annual stories are drawn a year before the annual is published. As the 2002 book was published in autumn 2001, that suggests the strips were drawn in the summer of 2000. But hadn't Neill died at that point? To back this up, the Billy Whizz strip was drawn by Hall.

Back to the subject of the latest Beano - I agree it's annoying to have to pay extra for the odd issue now and then, but I don't let it stop me buying it.
'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: Bash Street Kids cloned in cloned storyline

Post by Digifiend »

Most likely, they simply had a stockpile, including that annual strip.

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Steve Henderson
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Re: Bash Street Kids cloned in cloned storyline

Post by Steve Henderson »

Which album is the cloned storyline from? I wouldn't mind comparing them, Its obviously one I don't have.

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Digifiend
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Re: Bash Street Kids cloned in cloned storyline

Post by Digifiend »

Can't remember... 90s I think, if I find it when re-reading my Beano Books, I'll post the year. :oops: :sorry:

More info about the earlier strip - the ending was that the kids end up getting chased by a cloned Teacher, while the real Teacher believes the kids are sat in class. Teacher gets a nasty surprise and the kids escape when the clones disappear! The prof had advance warning when a cloned apple disappeared first, but he was too late to warn Teacher. Like I said, the new ending is totally different - in fact, only the cloning premise is the same, but when I saw the front cover picture, my first thought was "reprint". I won't actually mention the new ending in case some of you haven't read this week's Beano yet.

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Re: Bash Street Kids cloned in cloned storyline

Post by NP »

Jonny Whizz wrote: I think I'm correct in saying that annual stories are drawn a year before the annual is published.
Yes and no and no.
usually, an annual is drawn about a year before publication but;
My first Beano annual job was specifically written for the 2000 book (published September 1999) which I drew in August 1997! (That's two years!)
Books are generally printed in 'measures' (you can see these on some books, the 24 or 36 or x number of pages stitched together which are then collected into four or five or six sets and bound into the cover) which are printed seperately, sometimes months apart. At the Beano, it's not uncommon to be drawing a six page story in November for the first measure, and a four page story in April for the last measure.

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Digifiend
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Re: Bash Street Kids cloned in cloned storyline

Post by Digifiend »

Which also means theoretically you could be working on strips for the 2011 and 2012 annuals right now! Guess that explains the Banana Bunch story in the 2005 Dandy Annual - it was meant for a 2004 Beezer Annual which was never made.

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Re: Bash Street Kids cloned in cloned storyline

Post by Lew Stringer »

Digifiend wrote:Which also means theoretically you could be working on strips for the 2011 and 2012 annuals right now!
Yes, work is soon to start on the 2011 books.

Lew
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Steve Henderson
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Re: Bash Street Kids cloned in cloned storyline

Post by Steve Henderson »

Looking forward to seeing Superschool on more than one page!

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