Comics UK

the Beano cover has a one off has a larger cover..the letters are cut out at the top of the logo..

Biffo is on the cover with a new comic strip..a good gag one..

other old characters are back...as comic strips..

What? Did you just say that we're back to a pre 1974 cover style? Not pleased about the larger cover though, I hate when the cover is taller than the rest of the comic. Makes it hard to find an undamaged copy in the shops, and awkward to store.

Dennis and Gnasher are the main cover...
a picture of Biffo is shown with Billy whizz..Roger the Dodger..

Biffo has his friend buster back:0)

Lord snooty is also back in his top hat and old outfit..

one other oldie is back as a comic strip..
clue 1- its a She..

Peter Gray wrote:one other oldie is back as a comic strip..
clue 1- its a She..

I'm guessing Pansy Potter?

It could have been Ding dong Belle...

oh well my clue was too easy...

Sounds good can't wait to buy it this week, feels like a lifetime since the Christmas issue.

Yeah, I don't like these Christmas hiatuses either. I don't understand why they can't do them 52 weeks a year like they used to. What changed? You'd think distribution would've always been a problem, how is that any different now compared to ten years ago, when we didn't have missed weeks? Even digital Dandy is skipping two weeks, and that doesn't have the distribution problems because of the lack of a physical edition. They could've easily automated the releases.

I think it's a number of things: distribution over Christmas (which has changed since we were kids - expect a double issue over the Jubilee weekend this year again to make sure it gets out on time); persuading supermarkets to take them for less than seven shopping days (shock horror!) and maximising exposure of a special issue by having it on the shelves for longer so it sells more copies (suiting the marketing bods and bean counters wanting to maximise income!)

I would suggest that editorial could handle publishing 52 hard copies a year ok. My guess re the Digital Dandy is threefold: they may feel that people might forget to check due to the holidays; the budget is probably based on 49-50 issues a year, same as the print version; and more to the point, they might not yet fully trust the automated publication system and want someone watching when it goes live.

Peter Gray wrote:It could have been Ding dong Belle...

oh well my clue was too easy...

Hah, it IS Pansy?
More cheerful kids with sardonic humour and bone-breaking strength are what we need. I'm very pleased to hear that one of my favorites is back!

Artists for new Funsize Funnies:

Biffo the Bear by Wayne Thompson
Pansy Potter by Nigel Parkinson
Lord Snooty by Alexander Matthews
Gnipper by Graham Howie

This now means the current roster is rather huge! These are:
Dennis the Menace and Gnasher, Billy Whizz, Gnasher's Bite, Minnie the Minx, The Bash Street Kids, Bananaman, Calamity James, The Numskulls, Roger the Dodger, Ball Boy, Ratz, Meebo and Zuky, Biffo the Bear, Baby-Face Finlayson, Lord Snooty, Pansy Potter, Pup Parade, Les Pretend, Little Plum, Simply Smiffy, Winston, Gnipper, Gnash Gnews and Rasher
That's a pretty strong line-up and should hopefully please older readers as well! The comic still needs Fred's Bed though - and after speaking to Steve Beckett on Facebook, he seems very keen to reboot it as an adventure-humour strip with educational stories and far funnier. Perhaps a consideration for The Beano Ed, eh?

I definitely agree that the current line up in the Beano is really strong WhizKid, it's like a celebration of The Beano through it's history which is fitting as it turns 75 this year.

In fact this weeks Beano has at least one character that has started in each decade The Beano has been in print. I bet that is a first for a long time.

Presumably the extra-tall cover this issue was to help make the comic stand out on the newsstands, where, as Lew Stringer always points out, comics can easily get lost. I hope it works because it seemed to me that a big part of Dandy's problems were its scarcity - I looked regularly for a copy through last year and never saw a single one in any newsagents in central London! It's also a shame that the big comic stores in London (Forbidden Planet, Gosh, Orbital) never sold the Beano or Dandy - anyone know why that is?

In the interests of keeping on this fine forum a catalogue of every last mistake or inconsistency in The Beano (pedantry being a peculiar byproduct of our love...), I'd like to be the first to point out that this week's Roger The Dodger is a reprint - from last week

None subscribers can point this out again on Wednesday...

As you were.

Only one thing to say to that Mike.....


Carry on.

Yeah, epic fail. I can understand it on a quarter-pager (happened in the Dandy a couple of times), but how did a two-pager go unnoticed before it got sent to the printers?