This week's issue

Post by **AndyB** » 09 May 2010, 19:35

I noticed the absence of Sidney and his menagerie!

Digifiend · Post by **Digifiend** » 09 May 2010, 19:37

Eek, you're right, Sid only appears in the title panel, not even a cameo in the strip itself. That's ironic, to say the least.

Peter Gray · Post by **Peter Gray** » 02 Jul 2010, 21:19

I enjoyed Super school this week.like the twist with the teddy and the bogey joke being teleported...I love small details like this very Calamity James..

also liked the Minnie story a nice clever one..liked the ending..
Ken has certainly put his stamp on Minnie I like the flavour..and like the teacher aspect...

Peter Gray · Post by **Peter Gray** » 07 Jul 2010, 23:19

I liked Laura's work on Beano Manga and Johnny Bean
also loved the game for Minnie..the teacher is a great addition to Minnie's world..shes almost becoming Minnie's Mum!!!

Also Fred's Bed was good and educational..didn't know about the Pharaoh Hatchepsut..
loved the bully wearing a baby's outfit as fancy dress

Classic Comics · Post by **Classic Comics** » 08 Jul 2010, 14:00

Peter Gray wrote:I liked Laura's work on Beano Manga and Johnny Bean
also loved the game for Minnie..the teacher is a great addition to Minnie's world..shes almost becoming Minnie's Mum!!!

Also Fred's Bed was good and educational..didn't know about the Pharaoh Hatchepsut..
loved the bully wearing a baby's outfit as fancy dress

Hatchepsut was a fascinating woman and a very successful Pharaoh. Joyce Tyldesley's book on her is really excellent and worth a look for anyone who's interested. I've been told that I tend to default to writing about Egypt. Given that a lot of my Doctor Who and radio work seems to gravitate there as well, it may be a good point.

I use Minnie's Teacher a lot because I wanted to enlarge Minnie's world a bit. A lot of her escapades were with her Mum and Dad. Now she still causes chaos for them but she has other regular stooges like the Teacher and the Haarm Brothers as well as Fatty Fudge (the Fatty Fudge movie spoofs of the late 80s were one of my very favourite things ever in the Beano) and PC Thyme. I think recurring background characters and themes add a lot for regular readers and it's much more fun than Minnie coming up against a random stooge-of-the-week.

Digifiend · Post by **Digifiend** » 08 Jul 2010, 16:04

Yeah, true. Dennis has Walter and the Softies, The Colonel, Sargeant Slipper, and new characters such as Mrs Creecher - his background roster was large enough already thanks to the intake from the 1996 TV series, and the new TV series added a few more (albeit removing Foo-foo and replacing Spotty Perkins with Algernon - political correctness I guess). Until recently though, other than her parents, Minnie only had Fatty Fudge and Soppy Susan (and she was pretty much AWOL during Tom Paterson's tenure). Expanding the roster was a good idea. It's the same for Roger, he now has a best friend, Dave, to act as his foil, the way Curly or Gnasher do for Dennis.

Jonny Whizz · Post by **Jonny Whizz** » 08 Jul 2010, 19:59

I'm surprised no one's mentioned that since last week, The Three Bears have returned (yet again) - this time as reprints of Mike Pearse's work.

Also, I noticed that this week's Freddie Fear strip was in Dave Eastbury's old style (for Freddie Fear, pre-December 2009), presumably it was just from stock.

NP · Post by NP » 08 Jul 2010, 20:03

Classic Comics wrote: Hatchepsut was a fascinating woman and a very successful Pharaoh. Joyce Tyldesley's book on her is really excellent and worth a look for anyone who's interested.

There is a small but growing consensus that Hatchepsut was also the Queen of Sheba from the Biblical story of Solomon and Sheba. I think this was first suggested 50 years ago but is continually being reasserted. If true, it would explain a lot - as well as demand a thorough revision of history's time scale. Sounds like a proper hoot.

Kashgar · Post by **Kashgar** » 09 Jul 2010, 09:14

Her mortuary temple on the banks of the Nile is also one of Egypt's most filmed and photographed landmarks after the pyramids at Giza and the Sphinx. A truly beautiful building.

Classic Comics · Post by **Classic Comics** » 09 Jul 2010, 13:23

NP wrote:
Classic Comics wrote: Hatchepsut was a fascinating woman and a very successful Pharaoh. Joyce Tyldesley's book on her is really excellent and worth a look for anyone who's interested.
There is a small but growing consensus that Hatchepsut was also the Queen of Sheba from the Biblical story of Solomon and Sheba. I think this was first suggested 50 years ago but is continually being reasserted. If true, it would explain a lot - as well as demand a thorough revision of history's time scale. Sounds like a proper hoot.

When I first heard the Queen of Sheba theory I thought it sounded a bit iffy but there's a persuasive body of evidence from a number of diverse sources including the Qur'an. And talking of hold books, I also read a theory that Hatchesut's line of pharaohs were descended from Moses, which must open a whole different can of worms... still, keeps the historians and the theologians in work for a while, doesn't it?

philcom55 · Post by **philcom55** » 09 Jul 2010, 16:51

Seeing as we've wandered off onto this interesting tangent can anyone think of other outstanding British comic strips that were set in Ancient Egypt? Offhand one of my favourites would have to be Prof Kraken's journey to the Land of the Pharaohs in Valiant & Knockout.

- Phil Rushton

Post by **AndyB** » 10 Jul 2010, 00:42

Is the Minnie game another of Laura's creations?

Kashgar · Post by **Kashgar** » 10 Jul 2010, 10:18

philcom55 wrote:Seeing as we've wandered off onto this interesting tangent can anyone think of other outstanding British comic strips that were set in Ancient Egypt? Offhand one of my favourites would have to be Prof Kraken's journey to the Land of the Pharaohs in Valiant & Knockout.

- Phil Rushton

Jimmy Watson, he of the Magic Patch, visted Ancient Egypt on three seperate occasions but most other examples of Ancient Egypt impinging on a storyline I can think of involved strips set in later times. In that category you could include 'Wulf of the Arrows' (Topper) and The Dark Domain (Victor) both strips set in medieval times but including visits to Africa and Egypt in particular. Then of course you have the 'Pharoah's curse' genre set in modern times which would include the text stories 'Vengeance with a Smile' (Rover), 'The Flaming Vulture' (Wizard) (and later a great picture strip version in Victor) and 'The Horror of the Mummy's Curse' a Victor Drago story in Tornado. Both Smash characters Janus Stark and Cursitor Doom had run-ins with Egyptian curses as I recall as did the Trouble Seekers in Valiant. The Lion characters Rory Macduff and schoolboy Sandy Dean were in turn both involved with mysteries that centred on an Egyptian Mummy. Jag's crimefighter 'The Indestructible Man' was a Ancient Egyptian restored to life in modern times and Valiant had the wrestling story Kid Pharoah.
Then, playing it strictly for laughs, there was 'The Mummy's Curse' in Whizzer and
Chips, 'Oliver's Travels' and its sequel 'Jiffy and the Glyphs' in Topper and the Sparky's
'Some Mummies do 'Ave 'Em'.

philcom55 · Post by **philcom55** » 10 Jul 2010, 11:15

Gosh! - that's really surprising when you think how many strips were set in Ancient Greece, Rome and Britain over the years! (I'll have to see if I can find any other examples - maybe amongst the various film adaptations and Bible stories? ).

- Phil Rushton

Digifiend · Post by **Digifiend** » 10 Jul 2010, 14:00

AndyB wrote:Is the Minnie game another of Laura's creations?

Yep. Her signature's on the rugby picture.

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