This week's issue Take 2

[yanobandy]

I personally hope Super School doesn't replace anything on its return the more comic pages the better

I'd love an issue where it was all comic strips as well.

[Gilly]

I guess Jonny that the era in the summer of 2007 that you mentioned is like this one where there is a new editor that wants to leave his mark on the comic.

Who knows maybe in 2 years time things will be similar to the era in 2009

[AndyB]

I think Mike's mark has been made more in what the writers have been able to write - Dennis returning to his roots, Gnasher's strip returning, Meebo and Zuky getting wilder, etc.

[Jonny Whizz]

Good points Andy, and I think all three have been considerable improvements. In particular, it's great that Dennis is now a proper menace again (we just need the original title to be restored now!), but also I think Gnasher's Bit(e) is better than Sixty Second Dennis as it's a strip focussing specifically on Gnasher rather than another Dennis page.

The most noticeable change during Alan's first year as Beano editor was unfortunately the increase in reprints, which was beyond his control. Having said that, the choice of Fred's Bed was excellent, but I did feel it was a shame that Ivy and Billy went into reprints - the one time when Alan really blotted his copybook in my opinion was the way he handled dropping Trevor Metcalfe from Billy Whizz. From what I remember reading, he was unnecessarily harsh towards Trevor (telling him he'd never draw for the Beano again), who deserves credit for taking it on the chin.

The other main changes in that time were that Little Plum, Calamity James and Crazy for Daisy all finished, though the first two later returned as reprints, with Ratz starting in August 2006 and Pirates of the Caribeano debuting the following month.

[swirlythingy]

Good points Andy, and I think all three have been considerable improvements. In particular, it's great that Dennis is now a proper menace again (we just need the original title to be restored now!), but also I think Gnasher's Bit(e) is better than Sixty Second Dennis as it's a strip focussing specifically on Gnasher rather than another Dennis page.

Gnasher's Bit(e)'s main strength is the quality of its jokes - frequently funnier than the main strip. I'm also a bit suspicious of the frequency with which Gnipper seems to be turning up, with Granny never mentioned or even alluded to. I'm inclined to think that particular TV canon reboot was reversed months ago and we didn't notice.

And speaking of things nobody's noticed... amid all the discussion and the flapping and the hype over the revamp that never was, the Beano this week sneaked some rather more significant news almost literally out of the back door. On page 31 (the inside back cover), there's a subscription advert, just like everybody studiously ignores every week. This makes it an ideal place to squirrel away a little nugget which, with the fans' attention suitably distracted by the extra pages and the reprints (with one particularly blatent one located right on the opposite page), might all too easily have slipped under the Comics UK radar:

GR8 Reasons to sign up!

1. Never miss an issue of your favourite comic
2. SAVE over £20 on the yearly cover price
3. Includes all cover gifts!
4. Special subscriber offers 100% awesome! (sic)
5. A FREE welcome gift worth £15.99!
6. Get your copy sent to you before it's in the shops
7. Get the latest laughs, jokes and pranks before anyone else!
8. COMING SOON! Digital editions FREE to all print subscribers!

How about that, eh?

the one time when Alan really blotted his copybook in my opinion was the way he handled dropping Trevor Metcalfe from Billy Whizz. From what I remember reading, he was unnecessarily harsh towards Trevor (telling him he'd never draw for the Beano again), who deserves credit for taking it on the chin.

That's the first I've heard of that, and it certainly seems surprising given Metcalfe's long and distinguished record. References, please?

I'm sure he wasn't the first (or last) editor to realise a style wasn't working and write a certain letter to the artist in question. I wonder what Graeme Hall's last correspondence read?

debuting

Veering off at a complete tangent: how exactly does one pronounce 'debuting'? Is it 'debooting', 'debooing', or 'debutting'?

[Jonny Whizz]

Regarding Trevor being dropped in 2007, I think this is the post I recall - Peter Gray showed an email he received from Trevor on the forum.

http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Forum/viewtop ... evor#p6941

There's another reference to it here. The overall picture is a bit vague, but there's enough information to have some idea about what happened.

http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Forum/viewtop ... alfe#p7132

It was quite sad actually, because Trevor had been drawing for D.C. Thomson for over four decades at the time and I felt he deserved more respect than he appears to have been given.

Re: Gnasher's Bite, Granny was featured in the strip a few weeks ago riding a motorbike alongside Gnipper, so I don't think she has been dropped, but whenever Gnipper's appeared in Gnasher's Bite recently, Granny hasn't been mentioned. I'm pleased by most of the reversions, though I wish Granny would go back to being her old self, as I find the newer one simply isn't as much fun. Maybe this could be retconned by having Dennis claim they're from different sides of the family?

[Phoenix]

Veering off at a complete tangent: how exactly does one pronounce 'debuting'? Is it 'debooting', 'debooing', or 'debutting'?

It should be pronounced daybiewing, with biew pronounced like view. The t is as silent as the p in bath.

[AndyB]

For clarification, all we know is that Trevor was written to by someone in DCT. We do not and cannot know without asking Alan or Trevor directly whether Alan was the author of the letter.

[swirlythingy]

I'd be very surprised indeed if a decision carrying the weight and importance of the permanent sacking of an artist (never mind how long he'd been working for them) went through without editorial involvement.

[colcool007]

I'd be very surprised indeed if a decision carrying the weight and importance of the permanent sacking of an artist (never mind how long he'd been working for them) went through without editorial involvement.

It's not exactly a permanent sacking if the artist is a free-lancer, more a failure to recommission the artist as each story is a commission with copyright being retained by the company. This happens all too frequently and probably leads to more professionals leaving the business than being "sacked" from what we would class as full-time employment. I would hope that one of the working artists on the board can correct me if I am wrong.

[LauraH]

Not going to talk specifics here peeps, but I felt I should wade in and point out that the Beano editor may rule the Beano office but there are other levels of power above him, all of which can make decisions that he may have to act on but not necessarily have any say over.

So don't leap to conclusions about the actions of any individual editor unless you have got the full story from the editor themself. There's a bit too much of a tendency to speculate and put two and two together to make five on these forums (and indeed on Internet forums in general), which just isn't helpful to any of us.

[Phoenix]

There's a bit too much of a tendency to speculate and put two and two together to make five on these forums (and indeed on Internet forums in general), which just isn't helpful to any of us.

In the absence of facts, speculation is all we have, Laura. Members are comics enthusiasts and are only expressing thoughts and musings. They cannot be saying anything that could possibly be any sort of threat, or in any way unhelpful to you or your colleagues. Perhaps you shouldn't be quite so thin-skinned.

[AndyB]

Laura made the point more eloquently than I did. It was only assumed that Alan Digby was the DCT person who told Trevor Metcalfe he would not be recommissioned, and as Laura and I both pointed out, none of us regulars know who actually did.

The point was that not only may decisions about which artists will receive future art commisions be made well above the level of the editor of the Beano or the Dandy, the editors may not necessarily be the persons who advise the artists of this, and it is therefore not helpful to attach blame to individuals.

In addition, those who do know which individuals made the decision will generally not tell you, because it would be highly commercially sensitive information.

We can be genuinely sorry that Trevor is no longer drawing for DCT, but that's about it.

[Lew Stringer]

In the absence of facts, speculation is all we have, Laura.

That statement sums up everything that is wrong with the Internet.

[LauraH]

Let me clarify. I don't have a problem with speculation about things, as long as we're all clear it's just that - speculation. Jonny Whizz's post made me realise that the idea that Alan decided to send a rather curt sacking letter to Trevor Metcalfe is now being treated as Fact, when, if we go back to the original thread, we see that we have no way of knowing who sent the letter, nor what their motivation was.

An example of why this makes me uneasy: I recall ages ago someone commented that (a certain artist) hadn't been in the Beano for a while, and finished by saying something along the lines of "maybe he's been sacked." Possibly leaping to conclusions a bit, but just a speculation. OK. But it only takes someone a couple of posts later to say in passing "Now that (a certain artist)'s gone...", and that speculation suddenly becomes a factual error. And just in case you're tempted to say "why would it matter?", consider this scenario - maybe (a certain artist) doesn't visit these forums, but someone he knows does. That person emails him to say "Sorry you're out of the Beano mate". Next thing you know you've got an irate artist on the phone to the Beano office demanding to know why he's finding out about being sacked through an Internet forum.

We can be passionate comics fans and speculate as much as we want about "What if..." scenarios involving old comics, or sales strategies, or characters, or whatever. But it's sensible to keep a healthy distance between fact and speculation in situations where real people and events are involved, that's all I'm saying.