Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Beano Beginnings - The Bash Street Kids!


The Bash Street Kids, originally called When the Bell Rings, was launched, just like many other very successful characters, in the mid-1950's. Created by Leo Baxendale, the series was an instant hit with children because they could easily realate to it - as every kid had to go to school!



Our crazy chums were launched in #604, dated 13th Feburary 1954, and got two weeks of previous advertising, as seen above.





Here is the second strip from Beano #605, dated 20th Februray 1954.


Not all the characters were in straight away. Plug (called so because he was "plug-ugly"), didn't appear named until #606. At this point however, he was called Pug.



He first appeared called Plug in issue #608:


In issue #607, the poor defenceless Janitor appears for the first time, attempting to outrun the kids who have escaped from school. Surely that man deserves a medal!!


Moving on from the Janitor, Wilfred appears for the first time in issue #615 and, although he is not named, he appears as a kid with a jumper pulled right up to his chin!


I hope you enjoyed a look at these early Bash Street Kids, as well as these early Beanos. I may return to some Beano Beginnings (or Dandy beginnings etc.) in the future...!

8 comments:

Peter Gray said...

Those early Bash Street's are smashing...Leo Baxendale the king of the poster page...

love to have more early Beano's if I could afford it..

George Shiers said...

His Bash Street Kids pages were brilliant - and (at least in my opinion) - his style is very different from his later strips too, but its still great!

I'd love some more early Beano comics! If only a cheap bundle would come along!

Andy Boal said...

On a point of order, Janitor appears in the very first frame of the first strip, carrying the keys!

Great to see those old strips - the likes of me only gets to read the first one in the Beano/Dandy books...

George Shiers said...

So he does! How did I not notice that! :O

As for the Beano/Dandy books, yes they're great - but they often cover up parts of the stories with useless images!

cephy said...

hi what ever happened to the five greats

George Shiers said...

Don't worry it WILL conclude soon! I'm currently away on holiday and I didn't have time to write it before I went away! (The current posts are automatic that I wrote in advance). It will come next week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lew Stringer said...

Fascinating to see the early Bash Street strips photographed from the actual comics. Reprints are all well and good but it's good to see the genuine article.

George Shiers said...

I agree - sometimes you can't beat a photo of it (unless you can actually have it of course)! A photo just looks so much better - which is why I like blog posts and articles with both photos and scans (such as your latest post on Thundercap and Tom Thug)!