Comics UK

There's been a couple of continuity references recently (a rare thing for The Beano!). The current issue mentions Smiffy's brother Norman (from the 1980s Simply Smiffy strip) and yet again uses Danny's surname Morgan (from the 1950s Wizard text stories). Nice to see such things mentioned... though I bet the target audience don't realise that they're not new info. And a more recent reference in the current issue is Kevin the Pebble, who I thought had been phased out - he hadn't been mentioned for months.

I didn't even realise that Danny's surname was Morgan! For some reason, I always thought it was "Deathshead".

One relatively recent continuity reference I like is the official adoption of "Brown" as Walter's surname, as evidenced by Walter's Dad being known as "Mayor Brown". (Of course, this is a reference to when Dennis parodied Winter Wonderland in an 80's Christmas issue)

Deathshead is also derived from The Wizard's Bash Street School stories, and is a rarely used nickname for Danny.

This week's issue remembered that Mr Throbb is known as The Terminator, and Roger's strip uses his debut date in the final panel (revealing the context would be a spoiler if you haven't read it). Interestingly, Roger also had his surname revealed! It's Dawson.

Intruiging stuff, but they still haven't revealed how these characters never properly age in real time, like Judge Dredd does!

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote:they still haven't revealed how these characters never properly age in real time, like Judge Dredd does!

Well, Rab, that's because Oor Wullie would cut a rather forlorn and quite ridiculous figure sitting on his bucket in his mid-eighties, wondering why he's never yet got interested in girls.

Phoenix wrote:

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote:they still haven't revealed how these characters never properly age in real time, like Judge Dredd does!

Well, Rab, that's because Oor Wullie would cut a rather forlorn and quite ridiculous figure sitting on his bucket in his mid-eighties, wondering why he's never yet got interested in girls.

I don't know. I think I've seen quite a few like that in Fife!

colcool007 wrote:I think I've seen quite a few like that in Fife!

Well, Col, you and Karen can always use your return tickets to London if you suspect that you might be in danger of joining them. Just leave your buckets up there.

Nowt wrong with Oor Wullies original 30s spikey haircut....Johnny Rotten copied it much later in 1976.

Nowt wrong with Oor Wullies original 30s spikey haircut....Johnny Rotten copied it much later in 1976.

Haha, true that, I guess he was ahead of his time!

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote:Intruiging stuff, but they still haven't revealed how these characters never properly age in real time, like Judge Dredd does!

lol. Of course, Judge Dredd - and the Sun's Striker - are pretty much an exception in that respect - if superheroes aged in real time, Spider-Man would be a pensioner now, but he's still only in his 20s after 50 years, having debuted as a teenager. It's not surprising that the Beano cast doesn't age, though they've tried to modernise, explaining previous outdated stuff as being because the current characters aren't the same as previous generations (most notably Dennis with the explicitly shown flashbacks to his Dad's childhood). The only seriously outdated characters now are probably the Bash Street Kids (especially Erbert, whose outfit was outdated 40 years ago), who having had the same artist since 1962 are in a grandfather clause situation.