Thursday, May 23, 2013

A 1940 Beano Book Reprint, And Some Other Cool Stuff!

No. 1 of 2000!

Recently, inspired by the 1940 Beano book that appeared on ebay, I was interested in seeing some pages from that very first annual. After posting a request over on the comicsUK forum I was surprised to see Robert Frankland get in touch with me! Bob has created a variety of D.C Thomson products, most significantly the 1940 Beano book reprint above, which was limited to a run of just 2000 copies! Here are some pages from that scarce annual:






I asked Robert if he could give a few words on the making of the book, and here's what he had to say:

"The reprint of the annual was a licensing deal with DCT where we created a limited run of 2,000 units. Applications exceeded print run, but because it was a limited edition we could not reprint."

He went on to talk about some exciting plans for the Beano's 75th anniversary:

"I am however going to approach DCT with a view to creating a limited presentation featuring the first Beano comic and the first annual to celebrate the 75th anniversary. I need to establish a route to the market; this is not a mainstream retail product. I previously created 'collector editions' of both Beano and Dandy comics."

He also talked about some of the other products he has created:

"Attached are some examples of collectables I have created. The Beano phonecards (200 units) and The Dandy coins (250 units) sold out within days of release. The large sheet is a printers proof of the Beano phonecards, there are only two copies and I own both of them."




2 comments:

Kid said...

I hope he gets permission - I'd certainly buy the facsimile set of which he speaks.

George Shiers said...

It does sound great - I'd love to read the full 1940 Beano book!