I've been very busy later doing some writing and drawing. Although I shan't say what just yet, I will say it is comics related! Anyway, I've taken a very quick break from it to write a short post about The Beano and The Phoenix.
I'm still getting used to The Beano's dramatic changes. I was really enjoying the revamp it went through last year and these changes are all too sudden! Alexander Matthew's new look Ball Boy is a treat, and the latest issue also features Wallace and Gromit, who I believed moved over from the BeanoMAX.
In The Phoenix, things continue as normal. Zara from Zara's Crown continues in a new adventure serial called Zara's Masterpiece, and an excellent new Haggis and Quail story also features.
The Beano costs £2.50 and comes with another set of Turbo Battlerz. The Phoenix is still at the usual price of £2.99
Normal service will resume soon.
4 comments:
My visits between the page of the Beano have only been sporadic over recent years but I've always come away with at least some appreciation from the experience. Even in this relative isolation from things Beano, the -to do- over the recent changes has made its weight known to me, so it was with some curiosity that I thumbed the racks in town, fully intending to make the purchase. Once I'd found it amongst the competition, which is no mean task I can say, my inclination to purchase evaporated quicker than spit on a fireman's shovel. I can't say what reasoning lies behind the direction the publication has taken but it seems completely unfathomable. To be fare, I did make a rather visceral choice when I decided not to buy, some of it seemed OK, maybe I'll give it ago next week but I'm probably not going to repeat that option a third time. I dare say they wont miss my patronage.
Maybe it has too many celebrities in it? Whereas I love Ball Boy I don't like The Numskulls - each week they appear in a different celeb's head. I think they've gone a bit overboard with the celebrity content, which was absolutely fine in comics such as Kinema Comic, Film Fun, Radio Fun etc, but The Beano has always been filled with original characters. I wouldn't get rid of all the celebrities if I was in charge though, as I'm sure it appeals to some readers and it's always good fun, but there is a limit in such a comic. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
I think changing the name of the school in Bash Street kids was just a step to far.
Yes the celebrity thing is a turn off, not that I have an intrinsic objection to the celebrity content, for example the examples you cite. It's just that, to my eyes, the execution of this ploy in current iteration of The Beano smacks of desperation. Of course that's an easy criticism for me to level, I don't have to sell comics every week or balance a budget but I think they've made a dreadful mistake. A perfunctory examination of circulation figures, seems to indicate that content driven publications are rewarded with higher figures. To lapse into opinion once again, I think they've got a narrow window of opportunity to convince the market The Beano is worth the price.
Despite the current gloom in the periodical market, I do think there's a market out there, it's just there seems to be some logistical difficulty here, that're not reflected in more buoyant markets. That difficulty seems to have convinced publishers that printed matter has a limited future, a view I don't share and I think that dissent is borne out by those print markets that have not suffered such steep decline.
Anyway -- I hope they pull out of this trough, we need to hang on to our institutions like the Beano, the country is becoming more culturally deprived every day. The question the editorial staff dct need to ask is: does turning The Beano into an advertising platform for touring pop groups, enhance it's status in the market or instead, contribute to declining sales?
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