Now officially a majority-reprint comic

[swirlythingy]

My earlier point still stands - if any comic, reprint or not, will be accepted by the readers without question, then what on earth is the point of continuing to waste all that money on drawing new ones?

The answer, of course, is that it's a total fallacy to say that reprints - particularly a high volume of them (7.5 pages is still a lot) - don't negatively affect a comic. Leaving aside the complete idiocy of the "Totally Gross The Germs" retitling, comic art does have a lifespan, beyond which it can only be described as 'retro'. Imagine if one of Alan Morley's strips got reprinted! John Geering isn't that stale yet, but the 1980s is touching the lower boundary of what you can get away with.

There are also much more tangible problems to cope with, such as details in the artwork which need to be explained away (remember Fred's "ancient ol' mobile" and Roger's banana-phone?), pop culture references which need to be redacted (the recent Number 13 movie strip), and even then-contemporary crossover characters which need to be introduced (Pa Slobb). Sometimes changes are made simply for change's sake, like adding "Beano Street" to "Number 13", or changing "Adrian the Barbarian" to "Olaf the Madlander", which does nothing but cause more trouble. I point once again to the tribulations of the "Totally Gross" title banner, or the text in the first panel of Olaf's debut strip, which I instantly spotted had been shoehorned in and alerted me to the fact it was a reprint, even though I'd never heard of the source material.

Convincingly dressing up a reprint to look like new material is very difficult to do, and completely impossible if it's older than a certain age. I don't mind the Retro Beano section, because it's interesting, educational and - most importantly - upfront about the fact it contains reprints. I only wish the rest of the comic could man up and admit it.

I might even feel a little better if they did actually try. Number 13 appeared in Retro Beano a matter of weeks before it was served up again, this time rather desperately presented as new. The Germs have just featured as 'Retro', which would have blown their cover if that ill-advised title banner hadn't done it already. It feels like we're all being asked just to play along and pretend that we don't know, for the sake of the game. The readers know, and the Beano knows that they know, so why must both partners dance forever onward to the tune of this pointless charade?

Bananaman is there so they can sell the merchandise on the Beano Shop.

Surprisingly, it's a bit more noble than that - it's so they can sell the Dandy. There's an advert at the bottom of each strip, which has completely superseded the old single-page Dandy adverts - not one has appeared since Bananaman started. The Beano's reprints are also why the Dandy's suddenly started advertising "the all-new adventures of Bananaman!", and the merchandise was moved from the Dandy to the Beano shop for the very sensible reason that it had absolutely nothing to do with the Dandy, and was contemporary with the reprints in the Beano.

[Gilly]

It could be worse, The Dandy's recent Beryl the Peril reprint while good, stood out like a sore thumb compaired to the rest of the comic.

I do agree there can be problems translating reprints though, remember that desperate Ivy the Terrible attempt in the 2009 Christmas Issue.

[Rasher]

The readers know, and the Beano knows that they know, so why must both partners dance forever onward to the tune of this pointless charade?

What age are you, swirlythingy? I'm guessing that you're not in the Beano target age group of 7-11. So, how would you know this, and more importantly, as an adult reading children's comics, do you believe this sort of tripe?

Bananaman is there so they can sell the merchandise on the Beano Shop.

Surprisingly, it's a bit more noble than that - it's so they can sell the Dandy. There's an advert at the bottom of each strip, which has completely superseded the old single-page Dandy adverts - not one has appeared since Bananaman started. The Beano's reprints are also why the Dandy's suddenly started advertising "the all-new adventures of Bananaman!", and the merchandise was moved from the Dandy to the Beano shop for the very sensible reason that it had absolutely nothing to do with the Dandy, and was contemporary with the reprints in the Beano.

You're both wrong.

[Digifiend]

Rasher, unless you work for DC Thomson, you can't know that. Got a better explanation? The Beano had never previously used a reprint from the Dandy, they'd always been from Beezer, Topper, or the Beano itself.

[felneymike]

To give him his due, though, when I was reading the Beano from around 1991 - 1999 I never realised anything in it was reprinted (unless it was labelled, like during the Bash St Kids' 40th anniversary stories), though no doubt a lot of things were.

In fact, I never even realised that the Bast St Kids and Dennis annuals were reprints! I assumed that they looked different to the weekly simply because they had somebody else who spent the whole year drawing nothing but Dennis for the annual.

[Digifiend]

In the 90s, reprints in the Beano were virtually non-existent.

[Jonny Whizz]

Yes, up until about the 1980s strips were sometimes reprinted if the artist wasn't available - I seem to recall reading that in the 1970s Bash Street Kids stories were reprinted occasionally during the summer if David Sutherland was on holiday or too busy drawing Dennis. I'm not sure why this stopped, but during the 1990s I can't think of the Beano ever passing off any reprints as new (I know they did reprint strips for Roger's 40th birthday, and for the BSK's 40th as you said), and certainly when I started reading the comic in 2002 it was reprint-free.

The first time I noticed a reprint in the Beano was in 2005, when Roger the Dodger ran as Robert Nixon reprints for a few weeks - the fact that Barrie Appleby returned soon after though suggests it was simply as cover. The number of reprints did increase during 2006, but this was rarely more than one or two strips and some issues still contained reprints. I think the first issue where reprints became regular was in January 2007 - Les Pretend returned and Calamity James (who had been new strips up until that point) went into 1990s reprints, though both were replaced that April by Ivy, The Riot Squad and Fred's Bed, with Billy Whizz following a couple of months later.

Rasher, you claim that you know the facts but so far you've provided no reason in any of your posts why we should take your word for it. If you can explain why you know then we will listen - I think I speak for most of us in saying that we're not ignorant and can understand why something is the way, it is even if we don't particularly like it. Like the idea of reusing old comic strips, for instance - I'm sure the Beano staff would rather have all new strips, but they can't due to circumstances.

[Rasher]

I don't need to provide proof, as neither do some of your distinguished members. The difference being I'm speaking the truth and the others here are providing blatant lies. No more no less.

Finally, my username is rasher the pig. How does that even remotely link to a dog?

As you were people.

[WizzKid97]

I don't need to provide proof, as neither do some of your distinguished members. The difference being I'm speaking the truth and the others here are providing blatant lies. No more no less.

And the proof for this certainty? Because right now I'm seeing a bunch of lies...
How do you know anyway - could you give us a reason as to why we're wrong?

[AndyB]

The difference is that if you cannot tell us the reason why Bananaman is in the Beano due to commercial confidentiality, you should have kept quiet and let us guess away in our ignorance.

I would have thought that even to tell everyone they were wrong without telling them why they are wrong is a breach of commercial confidentiality. After all, if you don't work for the Beano, then you should not know in the first place, and if you do work for the Beano, you shouldn't be telling us even that much until such times as the real reasons become public.

Due to additional advertising features, there are only 5.5 pages of reprint in this week's Beano.

[WizzKid97]

Due to additional advertising features, there are only 5.5 pages of reprint in this week's Beano.

Which reprints don't feature?

[AndyB]

Pups and Retro Beano.

[WizzKid97]

Ah, that's a shame - I was hoping it would be Totally Gross Germs instead!
I really like Pup Parade... In that case, what features on the back of the BSK "pullout"?

[AndyB]

It doesn't - five pages of Nintendo features/advertisement/competition for Mario Party 9, plus both sides of the back cover (so no Gnasher's Bite either)

[WizzKid97]

That's a great shame - Gnasher's Bite is really missing out on issues lately - I hope it doesn't get dropped!

Why can't they just put Gnasher's Bite where Totally Gross Germs is or another reprint instead of kicking it out?