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The Beano

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The Beano logo
The Beano logo
This article is about the comic. For other uses, see Beano.

The Beano is a British children's comic published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd of Dundee, Scotland, which was first issued on 26 July 1938 (dated 30 July). Euan Kerr was editor from 1984 until he handed over to Alan Digby in early 2006. Alan had been Beano Chief Sub Editor when Euan first became editor, and later edited The Beezer. Currently the comic costs 85p.

There have been several long-running strips over the years. The longest-running strip in the comic as of 2006 is Dennis and Gnasher (overtaking Lord Snooty), which first appeared (under the name Dennis the Menace) in 1951. Other famous strips include The Bash Street Kids, Minnie the Minx, and Roger the Dodger. Lord Snooty appeared in the very first issue, but disappeared from the comic in 1990. the best of all was biffo the bear

There are frequent fictional crossovers between the strips, with most of the characters living in the fictional town of Beanotown. Also, because many strips in The Dandy are drawn by the same artists, crossovers between the two comics also occur occasionally. As well as this, the comics develop a friendly rivalry. (e.g. "I quit! The Dandy is much safer" "This would never happen in The Beano!")

A first issue of The Beano sold for £12,100 on 16 March 2004, which was at the time 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 on 7 September 2004.

The Beano is also the second longest running comic, the first being The Dandy which is also made by D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd.

List of Beano comic strips

Current strips

Extra-long comics featuring all of the current characters sometimes appear, usually based around some theme (i.e. the Queen's Birthday, Dennis' 65th year in the Beano).

Past strips

Trivia

  • The Beano comic takes its name from the English word beano which can be loosely interpreted as a fun time. For further discussion of the origin of this word, see The Meaning Of Beano.
  • Private Eye refers to The Spectator as "The Hasbeano", with the Spectator's editor Boris Johnson becoming "Boris the Menace".
  • The Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton album from the John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers band, is called "The Beano Album" by Eric Clapton fans, because on the album cover photo he is reading a Beano comic. That comic, No 1242 is extremely sought after by both collectors of the Beano Comic and Eric Clapton memorabilia with issues sometiems exceeding £100 on eBay.
  • Reece Shearsmith, known for being in The League of Gentlemen once wrote into The Beano, saying that he had lost his current copy. It ended up as the star prize.
  • A Beano Poster Comic series was printed in the early 1990s.
  • There are only 12 known copies of the first issue in existence, and only 5 known copies of the second issue.
  • Big Eggo was replaced by Biffo the Bear as the cover star in 1948 as research showed that children identified more with characters that like them, had 2 arms and 2 legs.
  • Since around about the mid-1980s, the comic, along with the The Dandy, has also ran "Comic Library" titles. Released monthly, these titles are a feature length (usually about 64 page) adventure, featuring a character from the comic itself. They are available in A5 size only. The comic also ran A4-sized "Beano Specials" in the early '90s, which later was renamed "Beano Superstars". These ran along the same lines as the Comic Library series.

See also

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