This week's issue Take 2

[Gilly]

Has anyone else noticed the Roger the Dodger reprint this week was originally from the 50th Birthday Beano. Obviously the dialogue has been changed to get rid of all the 50 years references e.g. Roger originally called his Dad a 50 year old comic which has now been changed to a very old comic.

[Jonny Whizz]

I didn't notice it (not being familiar with the 50th birthday issue), although it makes sense now you mention it. I think the Beano did a good job of disguising that reprint - the strip worked well without the 50 years reference, and the change wasn't jarring, as has sometimes been the case in the past when reprints have been retconned.

[Digifiend]

I knew it looked familiar but couldn't place from where! Thanks!

[swirlythingy]

The Beano's reprints really are drawn from a very limited range of dates right now, aren't they? We've already seen the Number 13 strip from the same birthday issue.

What with this and the masthead redesign, it all feels like a very deliberate attempt to market the comic specifically at the generation who both currently have children just reaching Beano-reading age, and are nostalgic for the comic as it was during their own childhoods in the mid- to late 1980s. As opposed to, you know, marketing it at the children.

[Digifiend]

Not really worth starting a new thread for, but the latest Pokemon game has a rival character who seems to share Dennis's taste in hairstyles.


Just a coincidence of course, since Dennis is likely unheard of in Japan.

[Gilly]

looks like Dennis has decided to go for a change of career.

The point that Swirlythingy made about The Beano lately is valid. It's almost as if with the classic cover design and 80s reprints that it's aiming to the generation that bought The Beano back then. The majority of them will probably have kids now so they will buy it for them to read and there is enough new material inside to keep it from looking out of date.

Clever sales tactic if that is the truth.

[David Gerstein]

It's a clever tactic—but it's spoiled by Dennis and Gnasher looking so different from how they did "back then."

In fact... what's happened to them? The CBBC redesign already represented a break from the earlier styles of the character; but the most recent Beanos have evolved the look even further away, with enormous pupils in everyone's eyes and extremely flat, big-headed proportions for all of the characters.
The result looks... for want of a better word, "childish" in a way that even the CBBC cartoon doesn't; and markedly different from all the other Beano main characters, to the point where Minnie and the Bash Streeters look quite sophisticated by comparison.

Whence this sort-of unprecedented Dennis devolution? Not to say, by the way, that the new scripts are poor; I like that he's back to being a real menace, and I've noted the returns of Rasher and Foo-Foo. It's only the design style that strikes me as detrimental.

[matrix]

Not really worth starting a new thread for, but the latest Pokemon game has a rival character who seems to share Dennis's taste in hairstyles.


Just a coincidence of course, since Dennis is likely unheard of in Japan.

Not quite unheard of! Although this is from Nov 2000, Dennis was a favourite with some Japanese students at that time, with the help of a Beano enthusiast!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1030733.stm

[Digifiend]

Numbskulls? Rodger? I hope their research has improved over the last 12 years! Thanks for the link anyway.

[swirlythingy]

In fact... what's happened to them? The CBBC redesign already represented a break from the earlier styles of the character; but the most recent Beanos have evolved the look even further away, with enormous pupils in everyone's eyes and extremely flat, big-headed proportions for all of the characters.

Until early 2011, art duties on Dennis were shared between Nigel Parkinson, Jim Hansen and Tom Paterson. Almost all Dennis stories since his 60th birthday (pretty much to the week) have been drawn by Barrie Appleby - he of the original Cuddles and Dimples, and Roger's most recent artist before that strip went into reprints.

Personally, I like the change - quite apart from the fact that the Beano's main character desperately needed some artistic consistency, Barrie's one of those artists who really excels at drawing action scenes. The main problem there is that there isn't a whole lot of action in the stories any more - two pages of talking heads followed by a splash panel is more common, and I just don't think he's being used to his full potential.

[Digifiend]

That only applies to the weekly comic - Nigel still draws him for Max.

[Gilly]

It's a clever tactic—but it's spoiled by Dennis and Gnasher looking so different from how they did "back then."

I never said it had exactly gone back to how it was, my point was that the current Beano is a mixture of new and old.

[swirlythingy]

I note in this week's Bananaman, he buys the Beano from a local newsagent, but the sign above the door reads "M. Heggie"...

[Jonny Whizz]

I think they'll get away with that one - not many of the comic's readers will know the significance of the name, and if they do recognise Morris's name then they'll probably also know that the strip is a reprint from the Dandy anyway.

One thing which did jar this week, though, was the Germs title banner - I personally think the 'Totally Gross' part ruins the excellent original banner, and it's resemblance to the sort of labels you'd see in the Dandy Xtreme era makes it even worse.

[swirlythingy]

One thing which did jar this week, though, was the Germs title banner - I personally think the 'Totally Gross' part ruins the excellent original banner, and it's resemblance to the sort of labels you'd see in the Dandy Xtreme era makes it even worse.

Oh, that's been going on since October, and there's been much worse. At least they had the decency to alter it to "The Totally Gross Germs" this time, as opposed to one particular banner which has been printed loads of times and announces the strip as "Totally Gross The Germs"...

I couldn't agree more about the unfortunate Xtreme connotations.

On the subject of the October reprints, something strange went on with Number 13 this week. It looks like it was drawn to fill two-thirds of a page, but has now been padded out to a whole one - mostly with the title banner, which contradicts the title inside the actual strip which hasn't been retrofitted with "Beano Street"! (Duplicate titles aren't unknown - I remember a Freddie Fear strip which was furnished with both its standard banner and one drawn directly into the first panel, but that was a simple cock-up of some description, as opposed to a reprint problem.)