Comics UK

ISPY, Billy saw Katie kissing another boy, they didn't kiss each other.

You can marry yer cousin in the UK legally, Lew [and presumably go far beyond the 'ass-patting' stage on the wedding night]......not that I'm advocating it!

Digi: I did say that I never actually saw the kiss, but the actual act of kissing seems to be a fairly new avenue for BEANO to explore: in the past, most comic-kissing ended with embarassed guys like OOR WULLIE [especially] reacting bewildered and unprepared for the act, unlike this Billy the Cat story kiss, which seems more akin to what JACKIE comic strips used to put out.

Sensual kissing is a new direction for BEANO, whether the act is perpretated by Billy or Katie.

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote:You can marry yer cousin in the UK legally, Lew [and presumably go far beyond the 'ass-patting' stage on the wedding night]......not that I'm advocating it!

Perhaps so but Billy and Katie are still schoolchildren, and they weren't kissing each other anyway.

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote: Sensual kissing is a new direction for BEANO, whether the act is perpretated by Billy or Katie.

I'm not sure I'd describe the scene in the book as "sensual" Rab.

Anyway, here's a snogging pic from this week's Dandy. It's ok. They're adults. And not cousins.

I was only really joking about putting 'sex' into kid's comics, Lew. Any references to incest or other unwholesome activities were down to my misinterpretation through not actually seeing the Billy the Cat story. All this nit-picking and needless pedantry has actually put me off seeking out the Billy the Cat story: I'm giving it a bodyswerve. I don't want to see it anymore.

I am not picking up the 2011 BEANO annual on the grounds I associate it with this po-faced thread which I find depressing and humourless.....I'm more interested in deriving pleasure from comics, all this psuedo-PC lecturing is irritating and off-putting. I am not returning to this thread again, because I am not enjoying it. Write what you like, but I definately won't be reading it.This preaching has got absolutely nothing to do with enjoying or appreciating the craft of comics......this is the sort of right-wing propaganda put out by the DAILY MAIL, it's not for me, it's tedious and tiresome.Try it out on others by all means, but I've personally had enough of it. No more: please! Coz I ain't listening anymore.......


All the amusement factor within this Billy the Cat strip has been killed stone-dead forever for me at least...... This sort of over-analysis just takes all the fun out of appreciating comics. It's only comics, ferchrissakes...it ain't the Russian Revolution or Freudian anaylsis!

Nice cartoon of a BEANOtown-styled 'smooch' by the way. [yes, I know that PP is a DANDY character, but the style is more Beano-like in my view].


Rant over and out!

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote:All this nit-picking and needless pedantry has actually put me off seeking out the Billy the Cat story: I'm giving it a bodyswerve. I don't want to see it anymore. I am not picking up the 2011 BEANO annual on the grounds I associate it with this po-faced thread which I find depressing and humourless.....I'm more interested in deriving pleasure from comics, all this psuedo-PC lecturing is irritating and off-putting. I am not returning to this thread again, because I am not enjoying it. Write what you like, but I definately won't be reading it.This preaching has got absolutely nothing to do with enjoying or appreciating the craft of comics......this is the sort of right-wing propaganda put out by the DAILY MAIL, it's not for me, it's tedious and tiresome.Try it out on others by all means, but I've personally had enough of it. No more: please! Coz I ain't listening anymore.

I have just reread this thread, ISPY, and I have to say that I cannot see anything in it that might justify such a petulant reaction, one that is particularly surprising given that your posts are generally measured and thoughtful. I would have thought that any comments about the kiss, whether analytical or otherwise, are actually dealing with the very issues you quite rightly expect from this forum, namely deriving pleasure from comics and enjoying or appreciating the craft of comics. I think, under the circumstances, it would be helpful if someone could post the relevant page or pages from the annual so that we can all judge for ourselves how the kiss fits into the wider context of the humour in the strip.

Lew Stringer wrote: No wonder Britain's never appreciated comics as much as its European neighbours have when reviews such as this are so unenthusiastic.

Private Eye's literary column knows its place, and its place is to throw rotten eggs. I don't think they've ever run a good review. This is in fact one of the best reviews I've seen there. It clearly wishes the Beano well, and offers constructive criticism. Not surprising Private Eye writers should be Beano fans with such Private Eye strips as "Dave Snooty and his Chums" and "Boris the Menace"

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the UK adopting a continental enthusiasm, respect and support for comics. Just not in the Eye literary column.

dishes wrote:

Lew Stringer wrote: No wonder Britain's never appreciated comics as much as its European neighbours have when reviews such as this are so unenthusiastic.

Private Eye's literary column knows it's place, and it's place is to throw rotten eggs. I don't think they've ever run a good review. This is in fact one of the best reviews I've seen there. It clearly wishes the Beano well, and offers constructive criticism. Not surprising Private Eye writers should be Beano fans with such Private Eye strips as "Dave Snooty and his Chums" and "Boris the Menace"

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the UK adopting a continental enthusiasm, respect and support for comics. Just not in the Eye literary column.

Fair point.

As for them being Beano fans regarding their spoof strips, I think that again it's guided by nostalgia, rather than the present day comic.

As for Rab's outburst, I'm sorry it's now considered "lecturing" or right-wing to correct an assumption by someone who hasn't even read the comic he's talking about!

Regarding kissing in humour comics, it's hardly anything new. School Belle was snogging every boy in school back in Buster as I recall, as were The Dolls of St.Dominics in Pow! in 1967 when they had the chance.

By a bizarre coincidence I'm just drawing a kissing scene for an upcoming Toxic!

Lew Stringer wrote:What a cynical piece. The reviewer sounds like he just wants the world to be like it was when he was seven.

Have you never read this forum? I thought that was our default setting.

Kev F
(Who doesn't want the world to be like when he was seven, cos we didn't have colour telly then and I still had to wear shorts)

kevf wrote:Who doesn't want the world to be like when he was seven?

That is a very interesting question, but the answer isn't as straightforward as people might think. I'm as nostalgic as anyone on this forum, but over the years I've realised that, while there are many things in my past that I enjoy recalling, whether at 7, 9, 12, 18 or whenever, these recollections are always partially invaded by others from roughly the same age, some of which are equally pleasurable and others which are very much not. It genuinely took me years before I realised that in all cases what I was nostalgic for was the feeling of pleasure that I experienced at the time, not the incident itself. It is impossible, of course, to relive such experiences completely, partly because memory is unreliable, and partly because they need to include environmental things like the warmth of a coal fire, the smell of dinner cooking, as well as other pleasurable feelings like being on holiday from school or being happy that an uncle and aunt have come to visit for the afternoon, especially if they've just given you the comic you are enjoying. We can all remember happy times at whatever age but in trying to revisit them we need to be selective, editing out all the unpleasant memories. Yet despite knowing the task is impossible I still keep trying.

Yesterday's Times published the top 50 best selling books of 2010. The Beano Book came 49th with sales of 201,277. Lets hope it doesn't slip out of the 50 this year.

Stieg Larsson's Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was first and his other two books were 3 and 4. Oddly Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals came second. I'll wait until the Stieg Larsson films come out as a three film box set before I buy them.

kevf wrote: (Who doesn't want the world to be like when he was seven, cos we didn't have colour telly then and I still had to wear shorts)

You're right. I'd rather live in the present and not see you in shorts Kev.

stevezodiac wrote: Yesterday's Times published the top 50 best selling books of 2010. The Beano Book came 49th with sales of 201,277. Lets hope it doesn't slip out of the 50 this year.

If that's accurate, and I see no reason why it shouldn't be, it's an impressive number of books.

Rab, read the book for yourself and judge it after that. It's worth more than the £1 you can probably get it for now Christmas has been and gone.

Missed this at first:
Amusing that Private Eye should dismiss another publication as a "mere fortnightly"

It was better in the old days. They should never have ruthlessly axed Mrs Wilson's Diary.