Web Page No 2516

6^th October 2018

1^st Picture. Beano Logo

 2nd Picture. Beano Stamp

 3^rd Picture. Minnie the Minx

  

4^th Picture. Lord Snooty

The Beano

Can you believe it the Beano is older than us!! 80 years this year!

In 1921, D. C. Thomson entered the field of boys' story papers with Adventure which led to five further publications, The Rover and The Wizard in 1922, The Vanguard in 1924, The Skipper in 1930 and The Hotspur in 1933. Although The Vanguard folded in 1926, the others were a great triumph and became known as "The Big Five".

Another success was the Fun Section of Thomson's Scottish weekly newspaper The Sunday Post, which included Oor Wullie and The Broons by artist Dudley Watkins, as well as other funnies and various puzzles and adventure stories. This gave R. D. Low, the head of children's publications at D. C. Thomson the idea to create another Big Five, this time of comics intended for both boys and girls and consisting mainly of 'funnies' and more light-hearted adventure and text stories. The first, The Dandy, started in 1937 and was followed by The Beano in 1938. 

The Beano  takes its name from the English word beano, a short form of bean-feast or a good time. A third paper, The Magic aimed at a slightly younger audience, followed in 1939, but ended in 1941, due to paper rationing.

The first edition of The Beano was dated 30^th  July 1938.  There are only 12 known copies of the first issue in existence, and only five known copies of the second issue. A copy of the first issue sold for £12,100 on 16 March 2004, which was at the time thought to be the highest price ever paid for a British comic at an auction. (The current highest price is £20,350, which was paid for the first issue of The Dandy in September 2004.)

During the  War, The Beano and The Dandy were published on alternating weeks because of paper and ink rationing. Oor Wullie and The Broons annuals also falling victim to paper and ink shortages. Paper and ink supplies were fully restored shortly after the end of hostilities and weekly publication of The Beano and The Dandy resumed in 1949.

The 3,000th issue of The Beano was published in January 2000. The Beano is now the longest-running weekly comic, since The Dandy became a fortnightly comic in 2007 and later ceased in 2013.

The Beano's weekly circulation in April 1950 was 1,974,072; it currently sells slightly over 31,000 copies per week.

The Beano is so popular that it had its own section of the Chessington World of Adventures theme park, "Beanoland". This opened in 2000 and survived for a decade before sponsorship was lost. Most of the major Beanoland attractions remain in operation today but have been rethemed as "Wild Asia".

On 19 March 2012 Royal Mail launched a special stamp collection to celebrate Britain's comic book history this featured The Beano, The Dandy, Eagle, The Topper, Roy of the Rovers, Bunty, Buster,  Valiant, Twinkle and 2000 AD.

The Beano's first major revamp was in the 50th birthday issue of 1988, when the page number was increased and more colour was used throughout. Another occurred in issue 2,674, dated October 1993, when the whole comic was printed in full colour. No major revamps happened until 1998, when Dennis's baby sister Bea was born and 8 extra pages were added.

Since April 2007, The Beano has had five revamps to help it keep up to date. Strangely in certain areas of the UK, such as Lancashire, the price was increased to 99p, while elsewhere it remained as 85p.In 2007. The price increased to 99p across the whole UK.

As a celebration, in partnership with the CLIC Sargent charity, 2nd August 2008 was Gnashional Menace Day, where children were sponsored to behave like Dennis. The anniversary was also celebrated with a 40-page issue.

In the 75th Anniversary Special, The Beano had another revamp. 

A number of strips in the comic have run for a very long time. The top five are, in descending order, Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx, Bash Street Kids, Roger the Dodger, and then the last holder of the title before Dennis, Lord Snooty. ^]

During the 1980s, The Beano ran a 'Readers' Request' feature where readers could request for a particular comic strip to feature in the Beano. This led to the return of dropped characters, including Little Plum, Baby Face Finlayson and The McTickles, but also led to the introduction of new strips such as Little Monkey.

Reader polls started to appear in the 1990s, allowing the readers to rate the strips in the comic. These polls have been quite influential, as they indicate which strips the readers like best, and strips that have performed poorly in these polls were usually dropped.

The brand new Comic, Dennis and Gnasher, was launched separately from The Beano in September 2009. They got their own TV series on CBBC from 7^th September 2009. This was their second, having also had one in 1996, which ran for two series on CBBC, The Children's Channel, and Fox Kids. It also marked the debut of this Dennis in the US, as The Beano is not distributed in the US.

So, there you are I expect that reading this has made you feel really nostalgic.

Keep in touch

Yours

Peter

gsseditor@gmail.com

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News and Views:

On this day 6^th October 1960 -1965

On 06/10/1960 the number one single was Only the Lonely - Roy Orbison and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Britain launches first nuclear submarine.

On 06/10/1961 the number one single was Walkin' Back to Happiness - Helen Shapiro and the number one album was Black & White Minstrel Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. The top rated TV show was Sunday Night at the London Palladium (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions

On 06/10/1962 the number one single was Telstar - The Tornadoes and the number one album was Best of Ball Barber & Bilk. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 06/10/1963 the number one single was Do You Love Me? - Brian Poole & the Tremoloes and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division.

On 06/10/1964 the number one single was Oh Pretty Woman - Roy Orbison and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 06/10/1965 the number one single was Tears - Ken Dodd and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.