Beano: review of 2011

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swirlythingy
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Beano: review of 2011

Post by swirlythingy »

Last night I finally completed this 9,000-word yarn, in which I look back through the last twelve months and see how the Beano's changed, what it got right and (in no uncertain terms) what it got wrong. I'm linking to it from here in case it might be of mild interest to some, polite uninterest to others, and mortal offence to others. All opinions are my own and not anyone else's, although if you think any of them might be yours you're welcome to them. Written largely in the small hours, so accuracy and/or coherency not guaranteed. Warning: Contains George Osborne jokes.
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alanultron5
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Re: Beano: review of 2011

Post by alanultron5 »

As someone who has embroiled himself in a slightly similar work (The Sparky File) I very much admire this type of article. Great stuff Swirly! Well done!! :cheers:
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Jonny Whizz
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Re: Beano: review of 2011

Post by Jonny Whizz »

I just read your review of the year. I thought it was very interesting and you made some good points, and I can't recall ever taking so long to read a single post before!

Here's my review of the Beano in 2011, based on the same points but a bit shorter (merely 1,243 words):

'There is no Plan D' - I totally agree that the removal of the corny, gimmicky TV series catchphrases was a major improvement in Dennis during 2011. Also, Dennis shouldn’t have a plan anyway, that’s Roger the Dodger’s territory, after all Dennis thinks rules are overrated and simply wants to have fun, doesn’t he...wait, hang on a minute.

'Dennis's Budget Birthday' - I actually quite liked the reprints in the 60th birthday, and I didn't mind the other strips featuring. However, I think it would have been better if the Dennis strip had been extra-long in order to celebrate his birthday - not another Mike Pearse-style epic, but maybe four to six pages. I do agree that the comic material seemed a bit thin on the ground that issue, though.

'The Phantom Menace' - I'm with you here, the manner in which the words 'Dennis the Menace and Gnasher' were used in the strip suggested this was more than a throwaway punchline. Again, Dennis has been much better for it - incidentally when I e-mailed Mike Stirling recently I mentioned that I was very pleased that Dennis was becoming more of a menace again.

'All Change' – I agree that this year’s covers have been the best since 2007, as they are newly drawn and not surrounded by heaps of clutter, but then I’ve always preferred clean cover designs. I can't say I was especially happy with the increased number of filler pages introduced in issue 3583. I thought the Bash Street Kids pull-out was an odd idea, given that few Beano readers like taking the comic apart. The first reader art page, with Fatty’s jotter showed future promise as you said, but was swiftly replaced by the infamous dustbin. Playground Pleasers was pretty poor – only four jokes on a page was a bit of a waste of space. I think the current school noticeboard, however, has worked well. I don’t usually give Year Of The Menace anything more than a cursory glance. Fred’s Foul Facts is okay, not terrible but not especially interesting. I find Dodge Diary visually unappealing, but the actual dodges are often fairly amusing.

‘Heaven 17’ – The lack of variety among the comic strip pages since April is a bit of a shame, given the amount of artistic and creative talent working for the Beano. There have been times in the Beano’s recent history when I have felt there are too many comic strips – for instance, around 2003-2004, when Tim Traveller was notionally a current member of the cast but only appeared once every three months or so, and Calamity James was absent for the first half of 2006 – but I think right now the Beano would benefit from more all-new characters. This would not necessarily involve increasing the number of comic strip pages, but just rotating strips between issues or even every so often. Of course I’d love to see more new comic strip pages but I accept the budget may simply not allow for that. It was a shame that Dangerous Dan had such a short run, as it ended just when it was getting good. Like others I was sad that Ivy was dropped, but I can’t see her returning to the comic any time soon unfortunately. I hope Roger will come out of reprints soon, even if it comes at the cost of another strip being reprinted (as long as it isn’t Dennis, Minnie, BSK or Billy Whizz). Freddie Fear also disappeared but that was less of a shock as his appearances were becoming very infrequent. Also, hopefully we’ll see more from Super School in 2012, and 2011 will simply turn out to be a hiatus for the strip.

I’m glad that the Dennis the Menace artistic situation has been sorted out, having three artists drawing the headline strip didn’t seem right, and I think Barrie Appleby’s style is a great fit for the strip. Gnasher’s Bit(e) was a good addition, and better than Sixty Second Dennis. I have enjoyed both David Sutherland’s and Nigel Parkinson’s version of Fred’s Bed, but I hope we see more Beano artwork from Tom Paterson soon.

‘As Unseen on CBBC’ – I was pleased to see Foo-Foo, Rasher and Dasher return to the Dennis strip. I do agree that the return of Foo-Foo was particularly emphasised, particularly when consider many of the current readers wouldn’t have seen him before. I think there must be some Foo-Foo fans in the Beano office! In 2012 I’d like to see Gnipper’s situation cleared up, though there’s some evidence to show that he isn’t living with Granny now, a return of the old style Granny (maybe she could be Dennis’s other grandparent) and Walter becoming more of a softy, as well as Spotty Perkins and Bertie Blenkinsop.

Totally Gross Revamp – I was pleased by the increase in pagination, as it meant the additional adverts generally weren’t replacing comic strips. There are generally fewer adverts after Christmas (especially since ads for Turkey Twizzlers were banned) so I wouldn’t bet against some of these pages being taken up by Super School or Bananaman. Of the reprinted strips, I have enjoyed reading both despite the name changes, as I’ve not seen many of either. Number 13 is fine, in spite of it featuring in Retro Beano only weeks earlier, and I don’t find the new title too intrusive. The less said the better about ‘Totally Gross’ The Germs though – I find the new title cringeworthy, and the strips aren’t even that gross. It was bad before the Beano started using the strips with the banner title, which gives the strip a clumsy title. It would have been better keeping the name the same, or (if the Germs really must be ‘Totally Gross’) adding a totally new title panel, as they did a few years ago when they were reprinting Vic Neill’s Billy Whizz strips. Being pedantic, I would point out that Retro Beano wasn’t the first time the Beano owned up to reprints, when they were reprinting old Minnie the Minx strips during the postal strikes in late 2009 they said on the websites that they were using old or ‘classic’ strips, although Retro Beano is unusually in that it also often credits the artists (a good move especially when you remember they weren’t credited originally).

Bright On – I agree in saying that this year’s Christmas Beano was a major improvement on last year’s issue. Steve Bright’s cover was brilliant – beautiful artwork, and very little clutter to boot – as was Jim Petrie’s Fatty Fudge. I didn’t miss not having a long story, I might have if the previous year’s had been by Mike Pearse or Kev F but I honestly didn’t rate last year’s strip as the story was too rambling, and in some cases the attempt to shoehorn characters into the script seemed slightly desperate, especially with Calamity James. Another plus was that the comic was full of comic strips, something that not all Christmas issues have managed. Overall, in my opinion the Christmas issue was one of the highlights of the year.

And, what would know it, this is my 1,000th post on here! :D
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