Wikipedia - aargh!

[Digifiend]

You've actually done a pretty good job with that, Eopsid. All it really needs is minor grammar changes and some info added about his non-comics work. Maybe an infobox too. I thought I'd need to add him to the Beano category box, but you even did that already. Makes a nice change to see a credible Wikipedian working on the British comics pages, instead of the idiots Shaqui was taking about.

[Shaqui]

Makes a nice change to see a credible Wikipedian working on the British comics pages, instead of the idiots Shaqui was taking about.

Some probably mean well but just regurgitate incorrect information that has got posted around the internet ad infinitum.

The Wikipedia article on South African SF puppet series Interster is full of errors but frankly after researching a brand new article - probably the only one in recent years to actually have input from cast & crew - for Andersonic, I can't be arsed to correct it. Buy the issue and find out for yourself!

[Jonny Whizz]

haha i wrote those bits seeing as the original comic idol section read as

Quote:
In a couple of issues, there was a a part called "Comic Idol". In this section were three comics, "Meebo and Zuky", "Home Invasion", and "Oh, oh, Si Co!" Only one of the comics was to stay and you could vote for which one you liked in "www.beanotown.com". The winner was "Meebo and Zuky" with the runner-up, "Home Invasion". Meebo and Zuky still runs today.

I think i actually improved it.

I think the real problem with wikipedia articles about the Beano is that theres almost no sources for Beano related information apart from the Beano itself and other stuff published by DC Thomson. The book "The History of The Beano" (published by DC Thomson so cant be used as a third party source)is probably the best source. There are the occassional news articles but there often irrelevant and just to celebrate a fiftieth birthday of the strip or saying Political Correctness has gone too far with Dennis.

I'm sorry for criticising your work, I hope I haven't offended you too much! The content you added was fine as it added a bit more to that section, I simply felt the text needed to be revised for clarity.

I agree that finding decent sources is a real problem, as it's very hard to find external sources for anything other than the longest-running and most famous strips. Where on the net (outside this site) could you expect to find sources of information for an article on, say, The McTickles?

[Tin Can Tommy]

Where on the net (outside this site) could you expect to find sources of information for an article on, say, The McTickles?

You couldnt even find sources on the McTickles on this site or at least quote them as sources because according to wikipedia forums aren't reliable sources.

[Digifiend]

Same goes for blogs, which eliminates the only other useful place (Peter Gray's blog) on the first page of Google results for mctickles beano. The other Google results are the Wikipedia article itself, copies of that, and shopping links (eBay, Amazon).

[paddybrown]

I've added one on Brian Lewis.

[Tin Can Tommy]

For example, I was reading the main Beano page when I noticed that a bit about comic idol had been added. I've edited it now but the standard of the original version was in my opinion very poor. It stated that the first vote was in 1997 (wrong, it was 1995) and it mentioned that the first one wasn't called Comic Idol because Pop Idol hadn't started yet. I changed the latter so it stated that it was later that the competitions began to be called Comic Idol.

slightly but i thought it was 1997 and the only place i heard it was 1995 was on the wikipedia article for Vic Volcano, i dont have any of the comics from then so i wasnt sure if it was true. I see in the History of the Beano that in 1995 a number of new strips started around the same time and a couple ended at the same time apart from this I have no clue as to whether 1995 was the first comic idol.
Also three short lived strips appeared in 1992 all within an issue of each other and all were short running except Go Granny Go! so does anyone know whether this was the first comic idol (or similiar competition) rather than the 1995 being the first.

[Digifiend]

The 1995 vote wasn't called Comic Idol (neither was 1997's) - that name only came about after Pop Idol started. But it certainly counts as a Comic Idol retroactively. Only two of them started in the same issue in 1992 (Henry Burrows and Merboy, and they finished four weeks apart), so unless something was omitted from The Beano Index in The History of The Beano, that obviously wasn't a reader vote, just shortlived failures.

[Shaqui]

I've added one on Brian Lewis.

Brian Lewis also did some work for TV Comic in the early 1960s, and some colour work in the related annuals.

PM me if you want some details for your Wikipedia entry.

[Jonny Whizz]

I don't think Henry Burrows and Merboy were the only new strips that started in the same issue without being in a reader vote - more recently, in October 2007 Johnny Bean and London B412 were both introduced in the same issue. Johnny Bean was quite successful as it lasted three years, whereas London B412 was another short-lived strip that was quietly shelved a few months after its debut.

[Tin Can Tommy]

The 1995 vote wasn't called Comic Idol (neither was 1997's) - that name only came about after Pop Idol started. But it certainly counts as a Comic Idol retroactively. Only two of them started in the same issue in 1992 (Henry Burrows and Merboy, and they finished four weeks apart), so unless something was omitted from The Beano Index in The History of The Beano, that obviously wasn't a reader vote, just shortlived failures.

actually i was thinking of The Great Geraldoes, The Beano Birds and Go Granny Go. Acccording to the History of The Beano. The first one started in issue 2609, the next 2610 and Go Granny Go started in 2611. With Go Granny Go lasting much longer than the other two. Also the Beano votes in both 1995 and 1997 arent mentioned in The History of The Beano and all the comic strips in those votes started no where near each other eg for the 1997 one of the strips in the vote first appeared in issue 2856 and another in 2871 which is far apart.

[paddybrown]

Brian Lewis also did some work for TV Comic in the early 1960s, and some colour work in the related annuals.

PM me if you want some details for your Wikipedia entry.

If you have anything that Wikipedia is likely to accept as a reference, great, but anything else'll be "original research". I also think, rather than an undifferentiated list of strips he drew, some more biographical material and descriptions of his style would improve the article more.

[philcom55]

If anyone deserves an entry Brian Lewis surely does. Nice job Paddy (though I'm a bit surprised that neither you nor Steve mentioned his 1966 Thunderbirds spoof 'Blunderbirds').



- Phil R.

[Tin Can Tommy]

This guy's edits http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... vethebeano are although well meaning and at times constructive are ultimately of comically low quality. Such low quality that his well meaning edits have been construed as vandalism. He did make a number of pages for Dandy comic strips but they were all changed to redirects to the Dandy article, which is annoying becuase alot of people will just leave them as redirects not as the articles they deserve to be on their own right. also this article he created http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... =444100547 is unitentionally hilarious.

[Digifiend]

Just cleaned up the Harry Hill TV Land page, added the Dandy, DC Thomson, Harry Hill, and UK comics stub templates, and linked to the main Harry Hill article. Hopefully that'll be enough to prevent it's redirect being restored (article creator Ilovethebeano had reverted it).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Hill ... in_TV_Land

Most of the deleted ones should've been marked for speedy deletion instead of getting redirected. Those poor excuses for articles did deserve to go (even if the strips deserve articles, and not all of them do, those articles were just not good enough quality), they were too short to even call stubs. If all it says is who the artist is, might as well just put it on the artist's page.