Comics UK

Sorry, I hold up my hands for getting us into this mess. I'd assumed it was Alan Digby's decision to drop Trevor, when there's no clear evidence to support this.

The decision was probably at least partly out of his hands - the fact that Billy Whizz became reprints suggests that budget cuts were being made around that time. If it had been purely Alan's choice I suspect Billy would simply have been taken over by a different artist, like when Wayne Thompson replaced Graeme Hall on the strip a few years earlier.

I'd be surprised if he had no input whatsoever though, as he was the Beano editor. I'm guessing that the people at the head of D.C. Thomson decide that cutbacks have to be made, but then the editor decides how the money will be saved, by determining which artists and/or strips or dropped, though again I might be completely wrong.

It's that day again, it's Wednesday, it's comic day!! Well, I've been out and bought my new Beano & Dandy and enjoyed reading them today, but were they really worth the extra pound? I'm sure I'm not the only one to say this, but no they were not. I'd rather do without the stuff on the front than pay extra. Anyway, onto this weeks Beano...

I really liked this weeks Dennis. It was a great idea to see Dennis causing trouble without doing anything and instead just worrying Slipper into causing a mess. Minnie The Minx, a favourite of mine, I really like the artwork on this nowadays. Those 2 panels at the end with the old ladies fighting looks great. I feel sorry for the old grannies at the bingo hall if Minnie does come back every week I enjoyed this weeks issue, but I hope they change the idea of needing to charge more for a toy. I think a lot of parents won't let their kids have the comic if they see that it costs more as, like myself, they will remember when gifts were free. Obviously it makes sense to charge more to make up for the cost of having the gifts made, but it all depends on whether or not they make up for those who don't want it.

Anyway, what were your thoughts on this weeks Beano??

I noticed a bit of an error was made with the Freddie Fear reprint - in the second frame, Freddie asks his mum whether she's going to help him like she did with his Henry VIII essay.

I remember reading the strip when it first appeared in 2004 - a few weeks earlier, there had been a story where his mum had got Henry VIII's ghost to help Freddie with his history homework. That strip hasn't been reprinted yet, and he hasn't featured in any recent Freddie Fear stories, so the reference is meaningless and should have been removed.

I'm not sure why both Number 13 and Freddie Fear are being reprinted as they are quite similar. If I was to choose between the two I'd probably actually go for Number 13, as I've not seen the strips before, whereas I'm familiar with all but the very early Freddie Fear stories.

I hadn't noticed that mistake, not being a Beano reader at that time. I did notice another mistake though, in Gnasher's Bite. In the second to last frame, Dennis's Dad says "Sigh. I'm here to collects Gnahser." Not quite sure who Gnahser is lol.
Also, I would agree, if I could choose between which strip to reprint, I would go for Number 13. Although I've probably read them all before when I was younger, my memory is not quite so good as some of the other's on this forum and I only occasionally remember re-reading a strip from the past. Number 13 is just my favourite of the two.

It should be borne in mind that if a blanket ban was imposed on all speculation, all parts of this forum would be virtually silent. DC Thomson in particular are extremely cagey about pretty much everything, and so this subforum would be left only with weekly reviews of new issues.

We'll never know who personally wrote the letter in question (which may well not have been Alan), but I find the scenarios of both a higher power dictating exactly which artists he can and can't employ (why should they care?), or a lower power making a highly significant budget-cutting decision behind his back, implausible. He may not have made the decision or sent the letter, but he must have been at least complicit in both. And, finally, even if the matter was completely out of his hands and he had no knowledge, he could at least have written his own letter to Trevor after he heard about it. (Which he may have done, but since it's all apparently a deadly secret, I guess we'll just have to go on speculating.)

And now, a general note: Please, if you have facts, and other people don't and are instead posting or repeating untruths, don't post generic flames on the thread without addressing anything at all. You don't have to give specifics, but you also don't have to be childish. This request isn't aimed at LauraH; I've seen much nastier stuff than her level-headed posts lying around elsewhere.

swirlythingy wrote:It should be borne in mind that if a blanket ban was imposed on all speculation, all parts of this forum would be virtually silent. DC Thomson in particular are extremely cagey about pretty much everything, and so this subforum would be left only with weekly reviews of new issues.

We'll never know who personally wrote the letter in question (which may well not have been Alan), but I find the scenarios of both a higher power dictating exactly which artists he can and can't employ (why should they care?), or a lower power making a highly significant budget-cutting decision behind his back, implausible. He may not have made the decision or sent the letter, but he must have been at least complicit in both. And, finally, even if the matter was completely out of his hands and he had no knowledge, he could at least have written his own letter to Trevor after he heard about it. (Which he may have done, but since it's all apparently a deadly secret, I guess we'll just have to go on speculating.)

What good does it do to continue "speculating" about this? It's none of our business unless Trevor or Alan choose to clarify the matter further here, and it seems they don't. It's just idle gossip and nothing to do with the topic. I'm sure you wouldn't want your personal business discussed on a public forum so why do you feel you have the right to speculate about theirs?

swirlythingy wrote:...since it's all apparently a deadly secret, I guess we'll just have to go on speculating...

It's not a 'deadly secret' it's just not public knowledge, it's the personal business of someone other than yourself; and no speculation is necessary - you'll somehow manage to survive without knowing all the facts.

I do have some background on several of the topics that have been wildly speculated upon here, but I won't be sharing any information on a public forum, unless it's directly about me, maybe. It's hard for some to understand, but there are such things as decorum and discretion and a dictionary will tell you what those words mean.

Back on topic: was that Evi de Bono being reprinted again?

where's dennis is in the beano again? do they still have badly photoshopped in heads of dennis which makes the whole point of trying to find Dennis pointlessly easy. I would think of it as a glaring error and put it in that thread if it werent for the fact that it wasnt an error it appears they really thought it necessary to replace where's dennis' head with that of the newer dennis.

It appears that Beano Max is settling into a regular pattern - 7-8 page All-stars strip, 3 pages of Wallace and Gromit, 32-page old Beano Superstars printed half size, two pages of Evil Edgar, 3 pages of Kick-ass koalas, one or two pages of Where's Dennis edited, at least eight pages of reprint, and the rest ads and features (possibly with a new strip like Super School if space allows!)

To me it sounds like a balance - on the one hand, they are distinguishing the two comics a bit by having 8 pages of absolutely exclusive content whose characters do not appear in any other comic, and taking space for an all-stars strip (how much did we miss that when Dennis's corner of Beanotown disappeared off to CBBCworld?). On the other hand, the weekly comic is getting more brand new strip content, and taking up more budget per issue.

I got Beanomax and liked
Nigel's work nice seeing Jonah and great underwater colouring and mermaids ...Wallace...Koala..
the rest the reprints were too new for me..like seeing older stuff...bring back Beano retro..

Tin Can Tommy wrote:where's dennis is in the beano again? do they still have badly photoshopped in heads of dennis which makes the whole point of trying to find Dennis pointlessly easy. I would think of it as a glaring error and put it in that thread if it werent for the fact that it wasnt an error it appears they really thought it necessary to replace where's dennis' head with that of the newer dennis.

Wasn't Where's Dennis this time. It was Spot Spotty, probably from a Bash Street Kids Summer Special.

Digifiend wrote:Wasn't Where's Dennis this time. It was Spot Spotty, probably from a Bash Street Kids Summer Special.

It was also drawn by Jim Hansen rather than Evi de Bono.

Sorry for double post!

Got the Halloween Special today, quite surprised no one's shared their thoughts yet!

When I saw the front cover I was very excited, it looked brilliant! Then I saw Dasher the Spider, one pet I never thought we'd see again! Eagle-eyed readers may also notice Minnie the Minx is drawn by Laura Howell! Yippee!

Inside I was welcomed with an advert for Kre-O Transformers. Yay. At least it was only one page rather than the two pages in the Dandy. Dennis and Gnasher was great, nice idea having Number 13 "Beano Street" in it as well. But I didn't feel Dasher was introduced very well, they could have had an excuse why he's been missing for so long.

Ratz was the third and final story of the squirrel story arc we've been reading and was the ending good? Yes, very. Amazing artwork as well by Hunt Emerson as well as a funny, strong storyline. Minnie the Minx was good but not creepy enough for my liking. Minnie could've at least kept on her Dracula outfit.

Ball Boy was great and had a nice, Halloweeny feel to it. Loved Ball Boy's football obsession even interrupting with Trick or Treat! Good idea having Rocky's Horror Show as the Dandy Advert, a good, spooky strip.

Wenlock and Mandeville wasn't anything to do with Halloween for obvious reasons and was okay... I suppose... Good artwork by Nigel but I wish the stories were funnier! Meebo and Zuky was the highlight of the comic, a scary story with some ingenious cameos! Loved all the old Beano and Dandy characters being zombies, anyone spot The Mayor from Johnny Bean from Happy Bunny Green? I thought Keyhole Kate, Big Eggo and Corporal Clott looked the scariest!

The Bash Street Kids was good but didn't have much of a Halloweeny feel to it despite the joke being about Cuthbert's Halloween Party! It was still very good, I love how Smiffy claimed Kevin helped as well, silly Smiffy! Pup Parade was fantastic as well and had some Halloween-ish stuff in it I suppose.

Billy Whizz was okay, an average strip. Not brilliant but alright... The Numskulls sounds interesting but I wish it didn't have to be the beginning of a story arc in the Halloween Special! The Numskulls could have a brilliant Halloween story so I found it a shame they went for a story arc.

Fred's Bed was freaky, the fact that Fred doesn't survive his trip makes the strip dark and spooky. Amazing work by Dave Sutherland and a pat on the back to the scriptwriter! Number 13 was funny and didn't really need a Halloween=based storyline as every story is about monsters. The Germs was also very funny, the ending made me chortle. But my question is, are there Halloween related stories for these two reprints? There must be at least one!

Oh, now will be a good time to mention there is a two page Kre-O advert near the back, the advert taking up the Real Construction story perhaps and the one page advert taking up Freddie Fear's slot. Roger the Dodger was interesting, I say this because Ivy the Terrible featured and it wasn't mentioned he was going to draw one of his favourite "Retro" characters, instead they just made it seem like she's still going. A good strip and I enjoy the Bob Nixon reprints, they're very good.

Gnasher's Bit(e) was okay but I really don't like Barrie's version of the strip, Jimmy Hansen's is much better, I hope Jimmy's returns soon. It was also too bright on the eyes, the blue floor was way too bright. Put me off reading it. Oh, and there's a Kre-O advert on the back as well. Grr!

Overall:

AMOUNT OF PAGES: "40" (without Trick or Treat Kit Pullout, 36)
AMOUNT OF COMIC STRIP PAGES: 21.5 (including Wenlock and Mandeville) (with Dandy Advert, 22.5)
AMOUNT OF NEW COMIC STRIP PAGES: 17 (including Wenlock and Mandeville)
AMOUNT OF REPRINTED COMIC STRIP PAGES: 4.5 (with Dandy Advert, 5.5)
AMOUNT OF ADVERTS: 6 (with Wenlock and Mandeville comic strip, 7)
AMOUNT OF BEANO RELATED ADVERTS: 2
AMOUNT OF FILLER PAGES: 4.5 (with Beano Related Adverts, 6.5)
AMOUNT OF ESSENTIAL, NON-COMIC STRIP PAGES: 2

A good issue which is definitely worth £2.50! (or 50 bob )

Freddie Fear got pre-empted by an advert? Why did that have to happen this week of all weeks, the whole strip is horror themed so it would have been a perfect week to include him.