Beano : 80 Years of Fun

Discuss or comment on anything relating to D.C.Thomson's second longest running comic. The home of Dennis the Menace. Has been running since 1938.

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Kashgar
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Beano : 80 Years of Fun

Post by Kashgar »

With the Beano's 80th birthday fast approaching it was to be expected that there would be a special birthday issue of the record breaking comic title but happily, as well as that, we are being treated to a 100pg celebratory bookazine titled 'Beano : 80 Years of Fun'. It is already available in WHS etc for £6.99 or, if you are willing to wait a few weeks and expend £25, you can pre-order it from Thomsons as part of a boxed set which as well as the bookazine will include reproduction copies of 8 issues of the Beano produced across the years of the comics publication and which form the reference points by which the bookazine itself relates the Beanos history while also in included in the boxed set will be a number of posters and free gifts. (One caveat if you are thinking of buying the publication from a shop, get there early, as the thin card cover has a cut-away section to accomodate Dennis' smile and in my local WHS two of the five available copies already had torn and damaged covers due to the issues having been pulled in and out of the rack where they had been placed for sale).
Like all of Thomsons publications of this sort it is a fine piece of work and conveys, as always, the firms genuine sense of pride in their juvenile output over the years. Admittedly there are one or two sloppy errors in the retelling of the comic's history which I'm surprised weren't spotted but overall, with its absorbing tales to tell and its photos and biographies of artists and editors, all seven of them in the latter case, it is a must for any of us who ever took up the call 'Never be without a Beano!'.

Kashgar
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Re: Beano : 80 Years of Fun

Post by Kashgar »

On reading through the above I did spot the following factual errors -
Page 6 - Reg Carter did do work for 'Mickey Mouse Weekly' prior to working for the Beano but that comic title wasn't first published in 1930, as stated, but 1936. The first Mickey Mouse Annual had been published in 1930 by Dean & Sons but this had nothing to do with Reg Carter.
Page 11 - The impression is given that 'Morgyn the Mighty' and 'Wild Boy of the Woods' were prose stories in the Beanos early issues when, in fact, they were picture stories.
Page 12 - It states on this page that Lord Snooty appeared 'in every issue until 1991' when in fact Snooty had already missed over 150 issues by November 1959! His first series ran from No1 to 367(30/7/49) followed by a hiatus until his second series began in No440 (23/12/50) with this second series coming to an end in No811 (1/2/58).
This series was immediately followed by another short run series featuring Snooty titled 'A Funny Thing Happened the Other Day' in issues 812(8/2/58) to 818(23/3/58). There was then a further break in the Snooty story until his third series began in No904(14/11/59).

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stevezodiac
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Re: Beano : 80 Years of Fun

Post by stevezodiac »

I've looked in several Smiths but no sign of a copy. Thomson's poor distribution strikes again.

big bad bri
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Re: Beano : 80 Years of Fun

Post by big bad bri »

i have been to at least 4 different branches of whs and no sign of a copy either

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stevezodiac
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Re: Beano : 80 Years of Fun

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I have a friend/ex colleague who works for Smiths. She is making enquiries for me.

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Re: Beano : 80 Years of Fun

Post by stevezodiac »

After travelling around London (to Kings Cross today) I have finally found a copy in my local Tesco. They had quite a few. So everyone make a beeline for their local Tesco.

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Re: Beano : 80 Years of Fun

Post by stevezodiac »

The Beano no. 1 cover is missing from the gallery.

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Re: Beano : 80 Years of Fun

Post by AndyB »

I've seen it in Tesco, but I got the box set from DC Thomson shop! (not the Beano shop though)

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stevezodiac
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Re: Beano : 80 Years of Fun

Post by stevezodiac »

The Woolwich WH Smith had the bookazine as well as two copies of the box set. My local Tesco has four copies of the bookazine left, I think they started with ten or twelve.

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Digifiend
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Re: Beano : 80 Years of Fun

Post by Digifiend »

McColls and Supernews are both also selling the bookazine. Oddly, Supernews (at least the branch I saw it in) doesn't sell the weekly Beano. I'd already picked it up in WHSmith before I saw it in the other shops though.

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stevezodiac
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Re: Beano : 80 Years of Fun

Post by stevezodiac »

All of the 80 Years of Fun have now gone from my local Tesco which is good news saleswise.

big bad bri
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Re: Beano : 80 Years of Fun

Post by big bad bri »

stevezodiac wrote:The Woolwich WH Smith had the bookazine as well as two copies of the box set. My local Tesco has four copies of the bookazine left, I think they started with ten or twelve.
Thanks for the tip steve i went all the way to woolwich and bought the box set and the bookazine seperate.

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stevezodiac
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Re: Beano : 80 Years of Fun

Post by stevezodiac »

One of the Smiths at Waterloo now has it in a special display box.

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Digifiend
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Re: Beano : 80 Years of Fun

Post by Digifiend »

The poster in the boxset was also given away with this week's Beano. It's great (I'm really impressed at how hardly anyone is off model), except for two errors. One is that Mercurian flying boy Jack Flash is mistakenly called Jack Silver, who is a Dandy character. The other is that Scrapper appears twice, once with Lord Snooty's pals and the other on his own.

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stevezodiac
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Re: Beano : 80 Years of Fun

Post by stevezodiac »

WH Smith at Waterloo station has restocked it's display of 80 Years of Fun which is encouraging. My mate Steve's wife picked up a copy for him at their local Morrisons in Basingstoke. She said some were damaged because of that badly thought out cover design.

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