This Week's Beano - 52 Page Special!

Arriving through my door today is the latest Beano, a very orange 52 page special, which makes up for the awful misprints in the previous issue. But just because it has 52 pages isn't the only reason you should buy it - for the Dennis the Menace strip is a very interesting one! I won't show all of it, but here's a small section from the second page.

Weird eh - that makes the current Dennis the son of the 80's Dennis, and Dennis' dad the son of the previous Dennis. But wait, it must be the same for Gnasher, Gnipper and Rasher too! And what about all the other characters in the Beano? Are they sons and daughters of their past selves as well? As I said, weird, eh?

Moving on, Nigel Parkinson's fantastic version of Minnie the Minx proved to be a good one this week, with Minnie sending her now younger looking dad (the grandson of the original 50's dad maybe) into orbit. Well, she tried to anyway. 

The sixteen extra pages (the Beano is usually 36 pages) are all taken up with The Bash Street Burp, a school magazine written and drawn by the Bash Street Kids themselves, which looks like something that would have been included in Oink! Included is a free Plug mask, and some fantastic paintings of the Head, Plug, Teacher and Cuthbert and Winston.

And finally, I have to mention Calamity James. Admittedly it is a reprint, but it features a brilliant crossover between Jonah and James! Here Tom Paterson has clearly tried to base Jonah on the early version from the late 50's (which was illustrated, of course, by Ken Reid).

So what are you waiting for - go out and grab this Beano now - it's only £2.00!