Beano and Dandy Annual 2016

[BeanoMaster1]

https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/our-bra ... -pack.html

You can see the covers on the link and pre-order them both for £10. No sign of the Beano and Dandy Classic Annual (though it has been confirmed).

[Digifiend]

Saw this advertised in the two summer specials.

[SID]

I see that Ken hasn't illustrated this year's Dandy Annual.

[booksandcomics]

Hi all, I've just had a reply from Beano twitter account about the commemorative book this year, it will be called "Pranks for all the Memories" and bound in green.

I can't upload pictures at the moment but you can see it on my twitter page - www.twitter.com/booksandcomics (booksandcomics)

[Digifiend]

You don't need to upload. Just put the image's url in IMG tags:


Quote me to see what I mean.

[judomole]

You don't need to upload. Just put the image's url in IMG tags:


Quote me to see what I mean.

the only slight worry is the Dennis strip at the top looks a bit modern to be in the classic Beano and Dandy series
I personally would like material only from 1938- 1995 keeping a 20 year gap for this series of books

[Digifiend]

The Bash Street one is even more recent (note that Teacher doesn't have his mortar board). I do agree that stuff from at least the last ten years can hardly be considered as Classic - however the last several books have used recent content.

[judomole]

The Bash Street one is even more recent (note that Teacher doesn't have his mortar board). I do agree that stuff from at least the last ten years can hardly be considered as Classic - however the last several books have used recent content.

yes good spot on the Bash Street Kids
you do wonder if DC Thomson know who they are aiming this series of books at ?
I would think the target audience is mainly the over 40's hence my 20 years rule
I may go to 15 years but no more recent than that

[Kashgar]

The title 'Pranks for all the Memories' is no doubt derived from Bob Hope's theme song,
'Thanks for the Memory' although I doubt many readers of the book will be aware of this. There is a tenuous connection with the Beano however in that the song was written and performed for the first time in Bob Hope's first feature film, 'The Big Broadcast of 1938' which, of course, was also the year of the Beano's debut.

[TwoHeadedBoy]

First time Cuddles & Dimples's mum's made it onto the cover of an annual then?

[Lew Stringer]

The Bash Street one is even more recent (note that Teacher doesn't have his mortar board). I do agree that stuff from at least the last ten years can hardly be considered as Classic - however the last several books have used recent content.

yes good spot on the Bash Street Kids
you do wonder if DC Thomson know who they are aiming this series of books at ?
I would think the target audience is mainly the over 40's hence my 20 years rule
I may go to 15 years but no more recent than that

I think nostalgia starts to kick in around the late twenties, from comments I've had about my strips from the 1980s and 1990s. I was definitely nostalgic for the 1960s comics of my childhood when I was in my early twenties.

Ten years ago? Not so much of a nostalgia factor, but if the book is an overview of the history of pranks in the comic then it has to bring us up to date I suppose.

[Old Freddy]

I think it may even be earlier than that! I've had my fair share of nostalgia over the years and I'm only in my early 20's. Sometimes when I'm really bored I'll just watch advert compilations from the late 1990s and early 2000s and relive those memories of watching TV as a kid.

On the other hand, however, the popularity of British comics had declined by the 1990s and as such the market for Beano/Dandy publications and merchandise themed around the 1990s isn't likely to be that big- most Beano merchandise tends to represent the comic's 1970s-1980s incarnation, and the only 1990s-themed merchandise (such as personalised posters) tend to be aimed at children. Similarly, I'm doubtful that we'll ever see a "Golden Years" book themed around the 1990s, despite every prior decade (bar the 1930s) getting its own book.

But with that said, I've always seen the Golden Years/Celebration/Gift books as more than just a nostalgia thing. I think they are, or should be, a means of looking back on the comics' entire 75+ year history. The first book in the series had a good selection of strips ranging from the late 1930s to what was then the present day. Whilst the 1990s and 2000s might not be everyone's idea of "the good ol' days", there's still plenty of interesting things from those decades that can be covered. In previous Golden Years books such as "Alphabet of Fun" and "Library of Laughter", readers were introduced to several obscure and unusual characters alongside the more familiar strips, such as Lazy Jones, Castor Oil Craddock and Willie's Whizzer Broom. The Dandy (and to a lesser extent, The Beano) of the 1990s and 2000s had a plethora of these sorts of characters, who don't really have a lot of nostalgia value but add variety to the strip roster of the books. Of course, the Golden Years books should have plenty of Dennis the Menace, Desperate Dan, The Bash Street Kids, etc. because they will be the strips that everyone wants to read, but weird and obscure characters shouldn't be forgotten.

If there's one thing I definitely dislike about certain Golden Years books, however, it's when they contain reprints from annuals dating from after the early 1970s or so. This was my primary qualm with "The Beano and the Dandy Celebrate Dennis the Menace", as towards the end of the book are full-size, unaltered reprints from annuals that weren't even 15 years old at the time. Annuals tend to sell better and have longer lives than the weeklies, and you just have to browse through the reader page of a recent Beano to show that many fans in the target audience have annual collections going back to the 1980s or before. I think that if DCT want to reprint strips from annuals, they ought to be from the 1960s and before, on the grounds that they're less common and fetch higher prices than subsequent editions.

[wilsia]

I see the the images of Oor Wullie and The Broons 2016 annuals are now up on Amazon

[Digifiend]

Most of the annual covers are now up on there, yeah.


Is this the first time that Broons and Oor Wullie annuals have appeared in the same year? Don't they normally alternate?

Looks like The Simpsons lost an annual - I see Simpsons Comics, but not Bart Simpson. I also don't see Toxic on there, so I guess last year's debut edition wasn't a success.

[Lew Stringer]

I also don't see Toxic on there, so I guess last year's debut edition wasn't a success.

I think it was only a one off. The mag's been running since 2002 and last year was the only time they did an annual. I saw a couple of copies in my local Smiths but that's all. Sadly I think retailers now expect annuals to be based on a toy, film, TV show, popstar etc. Dandy, Beano, Broons, Oor Wullie being the exceptions due to them being long established 'brands' in their own right.