The Beano merges..UPDATE its not a merge!!!!!!!!!!

[Lew Stringer]

Yeah, the digital subscription prize is almost worthless to existing readers.

But not to all the new readers they're hoping to attract.

[PaulTwist]

As someone who rarely buys The Beano (but did buy it this week), a free digital subscription would be lovely. And once my free sub runs out, maybe I'll decide I can "never be without a Beano", and either renew the digital sub or pick it up from my local newsagents every Wednesday. And maybe I won't be alone. And maybe more people will be reading The Beano weekly because of it. And that's what we all want, right?

[swirlythingy]

Only reprint this week was Bananaman.

Wrong. Minnie is a reprint as well. One of the first ones Ken did. Speech bubbles give it away, plus the art is slightly different.

Correction: It's exactly the first one Ken did. Issue #3423 (2008-03-15) - previous week's was by Tom Paterson.

Normally Minnie gets ghosted instead of reprinted, and when reprints are used, they're usually Jim Petrie era. I fear one reprint run of one of the comic's most major strips has been swapped for another...

It sounds as if DC Thomson's ever-reliable digital department have failed to deliver yet again. Three free months of the Beano to anyone who buys a copy could be a reader-winner, and goodness knows they need to try new tactics to increase sales, but not managing to get either the free subs ready in time for the opening night, or their new promotional website uploaded a full week after the URL was first advertised, is shocking (if not unprecendented) incompetence.

[WizzKid97]

Normally Minnie gets ghosted instead of reprinted, and when reprints are used, they're usually Jim Petrie era. I fear one reprint run of one of the comic's most major strips has been swapped for another...

Are you sure? I swear the week before was a one-off by Hunt Emerson - then in the issue with Ken's Minnie debut - the caption was "What's happened to Minnie?!" and I remember thinking "Yeah, what happened to her? She looks nothing like she did last week!" - and then I was able to work out the artist as being Ken.

Also, I sadly agree - I think we're about to see a repeat of all of the Minnie stories since Ken's first one. A complete waste of time. I thought better of The Beano - with ghost artists such as Nigel and Laura - why go back to using Ken reprints and not even bothering to change the speech bubbles?!

[WizzKid97]

Apologies for the double post but I've just discovered something that links back to Nigel's mysterious "On which, more soon."

SPOILERS BELOW:

In the Beano Annual 2013 - we are shown a new-look Mum and Dad - notably younger than the previous parents. This baffled me - why the strange redesigns? Well, I know why now thanks to this week's story.

When Gok whisks away Dennis' parents for a special makeover - it's never again mentioned. The makeover? Most certainly the same strange "parents" we saw in the 2013 Annual - probably another poor attempt to get "down wiv da kidz" - because clearly older parents aren't cool so replace them with younger ones.

This had better all be one big story-arc of which at the end - the parents return back to normal as believe me, the 2013 annual versions look horrific.

[Lew Stringer]

Also, I sadly agree - I think we're about to see a repeat of all of the Minnie stories since Ken's first one. A complete waste of time. I thought better of The Beano - with ghost artists such as Nigel and Laura - why go back to using Ken reprints and not even bothering to change the speech bubbles?!

Because every publication has to work within the confines of the budget allocated to it unfortunately. The comic now has brand new Roger the Dodger strips, which is a glass half full in my view. The revamped Roger series looks like it's going to be good fun. Let's see how it goes.

[philcom55]

I guess it's all a question of economies of scale. Back in the days when DC Thomson were shifting vast quantities of Dandy and Beano every week the artists' fees would have represented a relatively minor percentage of the total production costs. Now that they sell far less all new strips could well make the difference between profit and loss.

- Phil R.

[WizzKid97]

Because every publication has to work within the confines of the budget allocated to it unfortunately. The comic now has brand new Roger the Dodger strips, which is a glass half full in my view. The revamped Roger series looks like it's going to be good fun. Let's see how it goes.

A fair point - I'm glad to see Roger out of reprints and I actually quite like the parent redesign. Roger's dad looks slightly odd but I can still accept the redesign (although I have no idea how old he must be to have not grown up with video games!)

Roger's mum looks fine though - Roger's mum has always looked young so I have no problem with her new design.

They do need more content in there though - hopefully the Pups and Ratz are back next week. And of course, I'd love to see Super School, Dangerous Dan, Ivy and Derek the Sheep back but three of four have been "rested" plus Dan has seemed to have ended thanks to all his hate on the Beano website which was a shame as the older readers loved the new addition!

[Lew Stringer]

I guess it's all a question of economies of scale. Back in the days when DC Thomson were shifting vast quantities of Dandy and Beano every week the artists' fees would have represented a relatively minor percentage of the total production costs. Now that they sell far less all new strips could well make the difference between profit and loss.

- Phil R.

Pretty much. Along with the readers, everyone in the industry wishes it wasn't like that but that's how it is unfortunately. Personally I don't think reprints help a comic at all as they make it less topical and more dated in style, but it's either that or more feature material, pin ups etc. ("Filler" as it's called on this forum. ) Reprints are the lesser of the two evils, but it certainly doesn't feel like it when freelancers lose out. (See the fates of Buster, Sonic the Comic, new Eagle etc.....). That said, I think the new Beano has made a great job of filling its pages with a fair balance of strips and features and has a busy but clear design. If I was seven years old, coming to The Beano as a new reader, I think I'd find plenty in it to keep me occupied for a while.

[swirlythingy]

Oh, yes, that reminds me... The new cover design is rank. Is a happy medium between the 1980s and Toxic really too much to ask?

If Minnie has indeed been sacrificed for Roger, they must have given up altogether on the idea of having the Beano's four biggest and longest-running strips continuing indefinitely. Considering that Ratz and Pup Parade are also not in this issue, the only way a budgetary case could be made for reprinting Minnie as well is if the comic's budget has recently been drastically reduced. I counted 16 non-reprinted pages in the new issue, which is exactly two less than last week.

It's still possible the situation is temporary, since Minnie is more prone than most to emergency reprints, but we'll know soon enough.

I can't find the issue number printed anywhere in the comic. This needs to be fixed, fast. Unless they're channeling IPC Smash! and attempting to convince buyers it's a new comic?

[Lew Stringer]

Considering that Ratz and Pup Parade are also not in this issue, the only way a budgetary case could be made for reprinting Minnie as well is if the comic's budget has recently been drastically reduced.

Budgets are under review at least once a year, just as they are in any business. Besides, promoting this issue in Smiths, with prominent displays, wouldn't be cheap. I don't know if it's the same in every branch but my WH Smith had the comic in its own special box and on its own display shelf, side on at the end of the shelves.

The hard facts are less kids are buying comics, so comics need to make themselves noticed. It all costs money.

[AndyB]

Don't assume it's the start of a sequence of reprints, at least not for more than a few weeks if even that. It could as easily be a case of Ken being behind and nothing being available from Laura or a busy NP as deadline day loomed.

I think Roger is different, because you couldn't imagine anyone other than Barrie drawing him since Bob died, and when he took on Dennis, Barrie couldn't do both (plus Gnasher's Bite every other week or more) - I think Minnie is far too popular to leave in reprints as long as Ken is available.

[swirlythingy]

And I thought Roger was far too popular to leave in reprints. As you say, considering Minnie's historical propensity to temporary fill-ins since Ken took over, we can't assume anything yet, but don't count your chickens...

[swirlythingy]

STOP PRESS: The Beano is advertising on TV!

http://beanoforum.freeforums.org/post1669.html#p1669

That'll be where all the budget went, then...

[el293_comics]

I think rogers new "younger" dad is gonna take some getting used to because I'm so used to the older design. But I do think change is good sometimes as it keeps things fresh. And now roger's out of reprints. HOPEFULLY that's one less reprint. I just hope Minnie isn't going to end up as reprints now.