This week's issue Take 2

[Raven]

Thanks for the heads up..

How groovy..

my catch phrases are very out of date..

But groovy is so far out it's in.

[Lew Stringer]

Nice to see a prose story in The Beano again, in the form of Plug's journal.

Also interesting to see continuity and more character interaction in some strips. When I was doing stuff like that in Combat Colin years ago it went down well with readers (makes them feel the characters are more alive) so good to see it being employed. I've always felt that UK humour strips needed that to evolve beyond the banana skin gags of the 1930s but obviously it's not always easy to do it if space is limited. However it's ideal for strips of 2 pages or more.

[Digifiend]

Yeah, I liked the panel in the last strip where Minnie doesn't believe anything that happened in Bananaman! Bananaman also directly led into one of the mini-strips.

The Dennis strip was more like BeanoMAX's Beano All Stars strips. It felt like he had no solo story this week (it was shared with Minnie, Roger and BSK), and next week will be the same, as it's a multi-parter.

Bash Street's continuity needs work though. Last week, they were said to be going to Beano High because their school was destroyed. This week, it's referred to as the new bit of the (unnamed) school... and certainly isn't a high school considering it's the same one Dennis goes to. Not only that, but Creecher referred to "that Bash Street teacher", yet if it's another bit of Bash Street school, she's a Bash Street teacher too. Also, Dennis's strip a few weeks ago already referred to his school as Bash Street. Basically, "Beano High" should've been referred to as a new wing of Bash Street School in the first place.

And is 2.50 gonna be the normal price now school hols?

For the next four weeks after this week, yes. Those Turbo Battlerz aren't free.

[felneymike]

Ooh, I was recently thinking that The Beano should take a more "solid" approach to the concept of Beanotown, with the characters not existing in total isolation. And also that the Bash Street Kids should perhaps be a bit younger or older than the other characters, who are in another class at the same school.

[Ginger]

I can only hope that Ant knocking out the keystone and bringing down Bash Street doesn't turn out to be the perfect metaphor for a great British institution being destroyed by shallow, celebrity-obsessed modernity.

[Phoenix]

I don't think that having the Bash Street Kids age is a particularly good idea. Writers are inventive, and they would be able to come up with ideas for further adventures and chaotic situations for the boys for years to come. Change does not necessarily lead to improvement, and if I am getting the correct impression from the comments above, these changes do not appear to have been properly thought through anyway. The writers for The Magnet, The Gem, Schoolgirls' Own etc., living, virile entities in their day, knew well enough not to change a winning formula, and in Thomsons' case, The Four Marys were in the same form at St. Elmo's for well over forty years. It will be very interesting to see the feedback over the next year or so from those children who have been reading The Beano for some years, and who themselves are now within a year or so of their own secondary education, or have perhaps just started it. I really hope this is not the beginning of the end for such an iconic strip.

[TwoHeadedBoy]

I can only hope that Ant knocking out the keystone and bringing down Bash Street doesn't turn out to be the perfect metaphor for a great British institution being destroyed by shallow, celebrity-obsessed modernity.

Interesting observation there!

[Lew Stringer]

I don't think that having the Bash Street Kids age is a particularly good idea.

As far as I can see they haven't aged. However, back in 1955 The Wizard did make them "over thirteen years old" for its Bash Street text stories, presumably so that the paper's older readers could relate to them better.
http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2008/ ... izard.html

I can only hope that Ant knocking out the keystone and bringing down Bash Street doesn't turn out to be the perfect metaphor for a great British institution being destroyed by shallow, celebrity-obsessed modernity.

I wonder if readers of The Funny Wonder felt the same when a Charlie Chaplin strip was introduced to the cover in 1915?

Not to mention Film Fun in 1920. Or Radio Fun in 1938. Too modern? How's about Dan Leno's Comic Journal in 1898?

Our "celebrity obsessed" culture has been around for generations. Publications exploiting the public's fascination with celebrity are nothing new. I'm not quite getting why some Beano readers are so disturbed by it, especially as it's often poking fun at the celebrities.

[Phoenix]

As far as I can see they haven't aged. However, back in 1955 The Wizard did make them "over thirteen years old" for its Bash Street text stories, presumably so that the paper's older readers could relate to them better.

That is quite true, Lew. In the first episode on April 16th Sidney Pye introduced himself thus, I'm Sidney Pye. I was fourteen last week, and I'm in class II.C at Bash Street. It's quite a place. It did last 33 weeks but it didn't return for further series, so not really a great success overall. Regarding the age issue, if the children are moving from Bash Street School, which is a Primary School, to Beano High, which presumably is a Secondary School, the children must be assumed to be a year older.

[philcom55]

Does this mean that all the other school-age inhabitants of Beanotown will now be going to the same school as the kids from Bash Street?

- Phil R.

[Lew Stringer]

Regarding the age issue, if the children are moving from Bash Street School, which is a Primary School, to Beano High, which presumably is a Secondary School, the children must be assumed to be a year older.

Presumably, but the comic isn't making an issue of it so far. The Kids still look the same, the anarchic fun is the same, and the trousers are still short, so there's no visible aging of the characters to put the readers off.

Does this mean that all the other school-age inhabitants of Beanotown will now be going to the same school as the kids from Bash Street?

- Phil R.

As you can see from this week's issue, Dennis, Minnie, and the Bash Street Kids are all at the same school, albeit in different classes.

[Ginger]

I wonder if readers of The Funny Wonder felt the same when a Charlie Chaplin strip was introduced to the cover in 1915?

Not to mention Film Fun in 1920. Or Radio Fun in 1938. Too modern? How's about Dan Leno's Comic Journal in 1898?

Our "celebrity obsessed" culture has been around for generations. Publications exploiting the public's fascination with celebrity are nothing new. I'm not quite getting why some Beano readers are so disturbed by it, especially as it's often poking fun at the celebrities.

I think it's perhaps the nature of the celebrities, and the nature of the comic (over the last 75 years)

Charlie Chaplin was not a 'celebrity' in the modern sense of the word, he was a genuine comic genius film star, and he lent himself well to the cartoon form, as did Laurel and Hardy in TV Comic. That's the difference between these guys and the celebrities now appearing in the Beano. I, or my kids, don't watch the TV shows being referenced, we have no idea who Will.i.am is other than a vague idea that he's on one of those crap talent shows, and we don't want to know, either, thank you very much. The problem is that you don't get the jokes unless you watch the crappy TV. It's not self-contained, and it's slightly insulting. I think you could read and enjoy the old Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy strips whether or not you'd ever seen any of the films.

The other thing is the nature of the comic. I know the Beano has had occasional guest stars, I remember Mike Read appearing years ago, and that was fine, but it was very occasional, and quite different from the wholesale celeb invasion that now appears to be happening. The birthday issue could have been all the old characters coming back to Beanotown for a party, that would've been so much more appropriate, instaed of all these celebs who have nothing to do with the comic.

[Lew Stringer]

I, or my kids, don't watch the TV shows being referenced, we have no idea who Will.i.am is other than a vague idea that he's on one of those crap talent shows, and we don't want to know, either, thank you very much.

I won't tell you then. But he's done more than be a talent show judge.

Thing is, a lot of kids do watch The Voice, Doctor Who, X-Factor, etc. I take your point that a few of the jokes are reliant on the reader knowing who the celebs are, but many of the gags work without that knowledge. I'd never heard of 'Sean, the presenter of Weekend Breakfast' but I still perfectly understood this week's Dennis story. (Kids invade a radio station. It's all you need to know. And it's funny.) I've never watched Mexican wrestlers but I still understood El Poco Loco.

Even if you're hostile to celebrities being featured, there's still a lot in there which isn't centred around celebs. Roger the Dodger, Billy Whizz, Minnie, for example. Yes, Bananaman has a cameo by David Cameron, but surely kids know who the Prime Minister is.

It's just a bit of fun. It's not like the actual celebrities are in there, like Gordon Banks writing for Tiger or pull out posters of Donny Osmond in Look-In. They're just cartoon parodies.

[Ginger]

Yes, well, it's all just opinions isn't it? And at the end of the day, mine doesn't matter very much. What matters is what the vast majority of readers think of it, and we'll see soon enough.
I wish the comic well, I really do, I'd like to see it running for another 75 years, but I worry for it if it's going to go too far down the Dandy-style celebrity route, I really do.

[Lew Stringer]

Yes, well, it's all just opinions isn't it?

It's not all opinions. I threw a few facts in there as well. Hope they don't break the Internet.