This week's issue Take 2

[Gilly]

It's as if they are saying pick you're noses kids and show your bogies to others to see if yours is the biggest.

I must say I totally agree with swirlythingy The Beano is much better than this so I don't know why it has to resort to it.

Anyway enough about that I bet I can pick the biggest bogies on here.

[Peter Gray]

The Dennis I knew in the 80's had no nostrils or teeth..

[swirlythingy]

To go back to artist milestones, I was interested to see David Sutherland's 1,500th Bash Street Kids strip in UBSS #3.

Considering the number of strips he missed (he didn't attain 2,000 until years after Jim Petrie, in spite of the fact that they started almost at the same time), when this originally published? Before or after 1998?

...And while we're on the topic: David's now been drawing the Bash Street Kids for exactly fifty years, as of this week!

[AndyB]

Good question. Dave had quite a few breaks with substitute strips by John Sherwood in the main, or sometimes reprints, especially over the summers in the early 1980s.

[Jonny Whizz]

Nigel Parkinson has also drawn a fair few Bash Street Kids strips, particularly in 1999-2001. He hasn't done so many since then - I think most of the strips he drew were when David Parkins was still able to draw Dennis most weeks. Of course, the vast majority of the BSK strips I've seen have been drawn by David Sutherland.

I think your estimate 1998 is unlikely to be that far off - Dave's 2000th strip came in late 2009, shortly after issue 3500, so my guess is that he'd have reached 1500 strips about 10-12 years earlier, allowing for ghosted strips. However, given that the period between 1998 and 2009 encompasses all of Mike Pearse's long BSK stories (correct me if I'm wrong), which often replaced the usual strip, Dave's 1500th strip might have been reached earlier.

[swirlythingy]

I think your estimate 1998 is unlikely to be that far off - Dave's 2000th strip came in late 2009, shortly after issue 3500

He can only draw an absolute maximum of 52 strips in one year, which is 520 strips in 10 years (give or take). So, assuming he drew the Kids every week (and discounting the Beano's decision halfway through the decade to stop publishing every week), he would have attained 1,500 round about the turn of the century.

(Or - as I literally only just realised - round about issue #3500-500=#3000, which also happened to be round about the turn of the century.)

Of course, that didn't happen - at the turn of the century in particular, he was hardly drawing it at all and most strips were ghosted, some by Nigel Parkinson, some by an assortment of others. (Who was that artist with the incredibly difficult-to-follow composition who did some BSKs around this time, and also ghosted Web Boy a lot?)

There must be some members who bought and still own the exact copy of the Beano. Unfortunately the best I can offer for narrowing it down is, "Sometime round about the late nineties, probably."

[Jonny Whizz]

If you mean the regular Web Boy artist, then I think you're referring to Jon Rushby - I can't recall any Web Boy strips being drawn by any other artist, and he drew both of Web Boy's Beano Annual strips (2002 and 2003, respectively). However, I do also remember him drawing a number of Bash Street Kids strips around 2001, so you're right there.

[swirlythingy]

To me, the strips in the 2002 and 2003 annuals look as if they've been drawn by two completely different artists, and I'm thinking of the 2003 one. If that was the same artist, he must have had a serious case of style evolution!

[LordSnooty2]

No offence or anything, but have the Beano staff ran out of ideas for covers? A very similar cover to this week's issue was published this time last summer- here's the proof:

I believe the editor of the Beano appears on here now and again, so I want to say two things:

that you might be better to have a full front cover strip instead of just a one-panel strip; reminiscent of the era of the Beano I grew up on. Sure, I know that the comic obviously can't stay the same: it needs to change (and yes, I did the new look in this weeks- just hoping it isn't like Dandy Xtreme all over again..), but surely it would be nice to go back to old traditions for the 75th next year?

And two, I know this is a bit tongue in cheek as well, but I'm a part-time scriptwriter/comic artist, having written for (and I know this isn't the best example because it WAS a adult comic) Poot! Would love to work on the beloved Beano one day.. please get in touch with me

[Jonny Whizz]

I noticed the similarity too - I suppose there's only so many things that can be done to mark the start of the summer holidays, but it's a shame the Beano staff didn't come up with something different to last year. By the way, welcome to the forum, LordSnooty2.

I do agree having a front cover strip is nice, although I also like the big cover picture style as well. Both definitely beat the piles of clutter that dominated the Beano's covers between 2007 and 2010, which never did anything for me. I hope the Beano has celebrates its 75th birthday next year in style, it's a major landmark. Judging by the amount of attention it received on its 65th and 70th birthdays, I'm confident it will.

I haven't checked the 2003 Beano Annual for some time, swirly - I'll have another look at it. From memory the artwork on the Web Boy strip in the 2003 annual was a lot 'messier' than that on the previous year's story.

[WizzKid97]

The problem is, the summer holidays have already started so The Beano are two weeks out!

At least this time the proportions of the characters looked better.

[swirlythingy]

Anyway, to go right back to why I originally mentioned the Bash Street Kids - this is the Beano of August 4th, 2012, so it must be exactly 50 years since David Sutherland drew his first strip in the Beano of August 4th, 1962.

They've gone with a Great Flood of London tribute, but as far as I can tell, Danny on a Dolphin actually came a few months earlier. (The strips even both have characters called Danny...)

Oh, and he's also drawn a new title panel... except he hasn't. The title panel of this week's strip is the old double-height one which ran up until the Beano changed to A4 paper in late 2010, but with the text shrunk and rearranged.

[Digifiend]

You're wrong. He took over Bash Street in 1962, but Danny on a Dolphin and Great Flood of London both ran in 1960, and you're right that Danny was his first Beano work.

And although I couldn't get this week's Beano yet (shop had nine Dandys and no Beanos, how very strange! ) the preview spread is on the website, and I see what LordSnooty2 meant about Dandy Xtreme. And that's definitely pre-2009 stock art on there!
http://www.beano.com/beano-comic/issue-3646

[swirlythingy]

You're wrong. He took over Bash Street in 1962, but Danny on a Dolphin and Great Flood of London both ran in 1960, and you're right that Danny was his first Beano work.

Pardon? Wrong about what? That's exactly what I just said.

It was probably less ambiguous before I edited it, but 'first strip' implies his first Bash Street strip. I know that Danny and the Flood were both in 1960 - I looked them up, which is how I know Danny was earlier.

[Digifiend]

since David Sutherland drew his first strip in the Beano of August 4th, 1962.

That. First BSK maybe, but not first strip outright.