Wikipedia - aargh!

[Digifiend]

Actually, I hate to say this, but he did you a favour. 86.179.28.177 had vandalised your page last month, and all he did was revert it.

[Tin Can Tommy]

I think those two IPs editing Johnny Whizz's userpage may be the same person.

The following two paragraphs are me fact checking information on Wikipedia.

On another note this article on the Go, Granny, Go! strip says the strip first appeared in a "guest" spot. Is this evidence that it was a similiar competition to Comic Idol.

Secondly on the Christmas Carole article it says the character featured in the late Beezer annuals. Is this true and is the Beano's Carole the same as the Beezer's or are the names just a coincidence?

[Old Freddy]

I'm not sure whether people voted for their favourite character during the 1992/93 Guest Spots, or if the editorial team chose what they'd think would be the most successful strip out of the ones that appeared.

[Digifiend]

Secondly on the Christmas Carole article it says the character featured in the late Beezer annuals. Is this true and is the Beano's Carole the same as the Beezer's or are the names just a coincidence?

Same concept, so it's basically the same character drawn by a different artist. Same goes for Blinky in the Dandy, who looked drastically different in the Beezer, and the Numskulls (Beezer version had an extra one, but otherwise the Beano version is based on the Beezer and Topper version).

[AndyB]

I've fixed the Zap Zodiac article. What he had written was more accurate than the previous edit, but in all honesty, the article does not meet the notability requirements. It would be far better to rewrite the Comic Idol article to discuss winners and losers, which I hope to get round to sometime.

[Jonny Whizz]

In my opinion, none of the strips which lost in Comic Idol are notable enough to merit Wikipedia articles, with the exceptions of Tricky Dicky, who I think is worthy of a page due to his earlier Topper appearances, as to a lesser extent is Gordon Bennett, who later reappeared in the comic after a five-year hiatus.

Of the winners, Freddie Fear, Tim Traveller and Crazy for Daisy all had long runs in the Beano and therefore definitely deserve their own articles. As do Meebo and Zuky, who are current characters, and The Three Bears for obvious reasons. The notability of the other Comic Idol winners (Vic Volcano, Joe Jitsu, Colin the Vet, Zap Zodiac and Nicky Nutjob) is far more debatable.

[AndyB]

I'm going to suggest that we should only have individual articles for characters in the comic for 25 years or more, and thus with plenty to tell - so Dennis (including spin-offs), Minnie, the Kids (including Smiffy and pups), Roger, Ivy, Billy, Ball Boy and Calamity James, plus Little Plum, Lord Snooty, Biffo and the Three Bears. In each case, there is a lot to tell about the approaches that different writers and artists have taken that could take up more than two paragraphs.

I'm not even sure that Calamity James has enough to write about (the History of the Beano provides the extra information), and I love that strip a LOT.

Simply, there isn't enough information available on ANY of them. The most you can add to any of them is who wrote them, and that's not something that we the public know (and if we do know, we can't usually give it away!) At the present, I don't think we can take anything with a shorter run beyond stub-class.

Everything else could be consolidated into articles detailing characters introduced in each decade (information from Kashgar via the History of the Beano). I think Comic Idol would still deserve its own article.

The same would apply to the Dandy.

[Jonny Whizz]

I can understand your suggestion, but I don't completely agree with it. I don't think we should limit it to strips that have run for a certain number of years, but instead its notability. For example, Jonah ran for only five years but is far better known and discussed more often than several strips which ran for longer. I personally find your idea a bit too radical for my taste, though I agree that there are a number of pages relating to the Beano which could be deleted without rancour.

Still, if we're going with your plan, I'd also strongly recommend giving the following strips separate pages as well as your suggestions:

. The Numskulls - They have run for half a century in the Beezer and Beano, and the changes made when they jumped ship are worthy of mention.
. Gnasher - In my opinion, there's enough to say about Gnasher's Tale, Gnasher and Gnipper and Gnasher's Bit(e) in order to justify separating it from the main Dennis article.
. Pansy Potter - A classic Beano character who had several runs in the comic. She also had a number of different artists, plus the Wonderland version in the 1950s.
. Billy the Cat - Has had several series as an adventure strip, including several in recent years. There have been a few different interpretations so in my opinion it's worth keeping.
- Baby-Face Finlayson - Again, a strip that appeared in several series, and the change of scene between the first series (Wild West) and the second (set in Britain) provides a talking point.
- Derek the Sheep - Notable not so much for his longevity, but for being the Beano's first creater-owned property. He also had his own book published in France, so I feel he shouldn't be considered a Beano character in quite the same sense as the others.
- Fred's Bed - His run in the Beano has been comparatively short but having appeared initially in the Beezer and Topper and later in the Beano, as well as several artist changes since the reprints stopped I think he has enough material for an article.

[AndyB]

Don't get me wrong - I think we should devote a few paragraphs to a character if there are a few paragraphs to be written.

Of the ones you mention, yes, we should include Billy the Cat, Baby Face, the Numskulls, Pansy, and also General Jumbo - Gnasher though can't really be justified as even though he's had his own strip for well over 30 years, so much of his life is entwined with Dennis that a separate article wouldn't add very much.

Fred has less than ten year's worth of original comic strips, and beyond remarking on the clock link, Hunt's change of design and the various artists, there's still only two or three paragraphs to write. That is still stub class, and frowned upon by Wikipedia.

Derek is best treated as a Beano character until Gary does more independently, but having looked at the article, I'd leave it alone.

... by the way, has anyone noticed that the Beano wiki page is awful? I've another bit of Wiki writing to do on a totally different subject, but I'll keep this in mind...

[Digifiend]

So bad that the opening section said Alan Digby was the current editor, even though Michael Stirling was mentioned later. Just fixed that.

[Tin Can Tommy]

Just created an article for the Phoenix. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phoenix_(comic) It could do with some work though.

[stevezodiac]

The founder of wikipedia was on radio five live just now to say that the site is going down for 24 hours on Wednesday as some sort of protest. It is the front page story of Tuesday's Metro newspaper.

[Digifiend]

It's about this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act
News about the blackout: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/enterta ... ed-to.html
But there's some good news: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/20 ... egislation

[Digifiend]

Wikipedia and TV Tropes both have dead links to Comics UK, specifically the back page of the last issue of Buster. This isn't in the new gallery for some reason, so does anyone have an alternative link so I can replace it?

[Tin Can Tommy]

Here it is I probably copy and pasted this image from archive.org's ComicsUK.