Identifying two 1993 issues

[Jonny Whizz]

I remember reading two Beanos many years ago at my primary school. I think they were from 1993, however I can't recall which issues they were. Could anyone help me identify them?

I seem to vaguely remember the issues being dated around October 1993. It was definitely before the comic went full colour, as some of the strips were in black and white. Dennis's strip would have started on the cover, and ended on the back page.

Regarding the actually content, I seem to recall:
. A Dennis the Menace strip where statues of Beano characters were put up around Beanotown.
. One of the Billy Whizz stories had him catching mice. I don't remember any strips like that being reprinted. I couldn't tell who the artist would have been (three artists shared his strip at the time I think) but my guess would have been David Parkins.
. There was a Minnie the Minx story where her dad had a train set.
. A Calamity James where he was star gazing, but got hit by a meteor.
. One of the Bash Street Kids stories was part of the 'Lake Beautiful' story arc which was included on the Beano video.
. An Ivy the Terrible where she tried to eat spaghetti in front of the TV, which I think was reprinted in the comic in about 2008.
. I seem to remember that there was a Baby-Face Finlayson story in which he played tennis.
. One of the Roger stories had him using a plaster cast for dodges, I think in the other strip he went on a cross-country run.

I also remember strips such as Ball Boy, Les Pretend, Number 13, Go Granny Go, The Yeti with Betty and The Germs featuring. Thanks in advance for any help.

[Tin Can Tommy]

Billy whizz catching mice. i can recall Billy Whizz having a pet mouse called whizzmouse it was in the Beano club special. So im gonna assume he had a pet mouse for a while in the nineties. That probably has nothing to do with these issues though.

also comicsvine has pics of covers from a bit later than this time so its of no use really but it told me they went full colour dated oct 16 1993 issue 2674. So if it was a non full colour one from oct 1993 it would have had to been issue 2673, or 2672.

[Jonny Whizz]

I'm not exactly sure when these issues came out. The only helpful markers are that they cannot have been later than issue 2674, dated 16th October 1993 (the first full colour Beano), but won't have been earlier than issue 2599, dated 9th May 1992, as I'm sure Billy Whizz had his tracksuit.

You're right about Whizzmouse, and I think Billy did have him in the early 1990s David Parkins strips as a few of the Billy Whizz stories from that time which reprinted a few years ago featured him.

[Digifiend]

Baby-Face is the big clue here. He wasn't a regular any more by then. History of the Beano's entry for his third series:

No. 2455 (05.08.89) - No 3304 (12.11.05) Third series
Art: Ron Spencer/Emilio Hatjoulis
Notes: The strip appeared regularly until 1992, with only eight strips from 1993 to 2005.

Shame that wasn't more detailed (Emilio's run should've counted as series 4)

[Tin Can Tommy]

Its not counted as the fourth series because according to the history of the Beano the list is written by one person up to 1989 and the rest is by DC Thomson staff with a bit of input from the other guy. I think they have different criteria for when they constitute a different series of a strip.

also 8 baby face strips between 1993 and 2005. According to baby face article on wikipedia there were 5 strips of it between 2004 and 2005. So im gonna assume he only appeared thrice in 1993

[Jonny Whizz]

I think Baby-Face had a six week run in autumn 2004, but he only appeared in five issues as he missed one week due to the Mike Pearse long story, Pop Idiots. He then returned for a one-off the following November, as well as appearing in the 2005, 2006 and 2007 annuals.

The original Beano diaries were recorded by Ray Moore, who is on this forum as Kashgar (he left a while ago although another member said he was coming back soon, I hope he does as his contribution has been missed). Another similarity to the Baby Face situation is with the Three Bears, as the 1999-2007 strips are classed as one run, yet they didn't appear in the comic between 2003 and 2006.

Going slightly off-topic, the one thing that annoys me slightly in the otherwise superb History of the Beano is the section about the characters dropped in the 2000s, because the two strips it shows in full are Calamity James, a reprint, and Crazy for Daisy, which looked terrible by that time and in my view wasn't old enough to be considered 'classic'. I feel this is a shame because the book could have shown two from Laura's Les Pretend, Hunt's Plum, Tom Paterson's 3 Bears or Emilio's Baby Face strips instead, which were original strips (unlike James) and looked great (unlike Crazy for Daisy).

[Digifiend]

also 8 baby face strips between 1993 and 2005. According to baby face article on wikipedia there were 5 strips of it between 2004 and 2005. So im gonna assume he only appeared thrice in 1993

Which narrows it down greatly. Chances are if someone finds a 1993 issue with Baby-Face in it, it'll be one of the issues Jonny was looking for. Assuming he got the year right of course.

[Jonny Whizz]

Which narrows it down greatly. Chances are if someone finds a 1993 issue with Baby-Face in it, it'll be one of the issues Jonny was looking for. Assuming he got the year right of course.

That is a big if, of course...

I had a look for covers from the two October 1993 issues Tin Can mentioned (2672 and 2673), neither of them seemed to match the Dennis story I remembered.

[jakob1978]

Just looking through ebay, this issue (no.2649 April 24th 1993) features statues of characters in the Dennis story on the front cover, if anyone has it they could check.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Beano-no-2649 ... 1077wt_754

[Jonny Whizz]

Thanks for posting that cover, I think it was that issue. Seems as though I was right about the year, but got the wrong month (I'm not sure why I thought it was October).

[Digifiend]

That's the week after Roger's 40th birthday issue (2648), which had the following roster:
Dennis the Menace and Gnasher
Billy Whizz
The Yeti with Betty
Minnie the Minx
Les Pretend
Danny's Nanny
Smudge
Biffo
Calamity James
The Bash Street Kids
Ball Boy
Gnasher and Gnipper
Roger the Dodger (his own pages contained a reprint of his debut and extracts from later decades, he's in every other strip)
Softy Walter (this was a one-off)
Ivy the Terrible
The Germs

Number 13 and Go Granny Go were regulars at that point but simply missed that issue (due to an advert and the Softy Walter strip). The roster matches what you said, Jonny, well remembered. Baby-Face was probably a guest spot - issue 2646 included Son of Jonah.

You mentioned two Roger stories, so I guess another issue still needs to be identified. 2646, 2647 and 2648 can be ruled out.

[jakob1978]

That's the week after Roger's 40th birthday issue (2648), which had the following roster:
Dennis the Menace and Gnasher
Billy Whizz
The Yeti with Betty
Minnie the Minx
Les Pretend
Danny's Nanny
Smudge
Biffo
Calamity James
The Bash Street Kids
Ball Boy
Gnasher and Gnipper
Roger the Dodger (his own pages contained a reprint of his debut and extracts from later decades, he's in every other strip)
Softy Walter (this was a one-off)
Ivy the Terrible
The Germs

Number 13 and Go Granny Go were regulars at that point but simply missed that issue (due to an advert and the Softy Walter strip). The roster matches what you said, Jonny, well remembered. Baby-Face was probably a guest spot - issue 2646 included Son of Jonah.

You mentioned two Roger stories, so I guess another issue still needs to be identified. 2646, 2647 and 2648 can be ruled out.

It's a great issue that, with Roger in every strip...really good fun

[Jonny Whizz]

Does anyone have a copy of issue 2649? If you have one, could you please look through it to check whether any of the stories I listed in my original post match the ones I seem to remember?

Again, thanks in advance for any help you give me with this.