Beano Annual 2013

This years Beano book is on sale now, and it comes in at a low £7.99 for just over a hundred pages of fun! The excellent wrap-around cover is illustrated by Steve Bright, as are the inside cover spreads.

Inside, Dennis the Menace's parents look like their younger selves, even though this annual went on sale before they got the makeover in the comic. Personally, I think it would be better if they didn't look so young and 'trendy' because Dennis is a rebel and isn't supposed to get on with at all with his parents.

I wont reveal too much about whats inside as this annual is often given away as a Christmas present, but some of the stories inside include this excellent Bash Street Kids 5 page strip by David Sutherland...

... A great story about Fred's Bed and Shakespeare drawn by Nigel Parkinson...

... And a six page Bananaman strip about defeating the cold, illustrated by Steve Bright!

You can get this book on Amazon, through the D.C Thomson website and various stores throughout the country, all for just £7.99! Plus - if you order from the D.C Thomson website you can get both The Beano and The Dandy annual for just £10!

https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/Product-Beano_Annual_2013(20120101)-DCS(2)-BA13(2091).aspx

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beano-Annual-2013-Annuals/dp/1845354869/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347337843&sr=8-1

This Week In 2003... The Dandy! (Updated)

The early years of this century are rarely covered on this blog, or other comics blogs for that matter! A few years ago I managed to pick up an unbroken run of about 3 years of Dandy comics from 2002 -  2004. On the cover of this issue from 23rd August 2003, Desperate Dan beats the indians at hide 'n' seek, by shaking them out of a tree.

Inside, Tom Paterson does an incredible job with Bananaman, who accidentally defeats Doctor Gloom and General Blight whilst admiring himself in the mirror!

There's still some good old classic characters in there too, such as this Cuddles and Dimples strip, who originally began in Hoot in the 1980's.

Karl Dixon's Ollie Fliptrick was a very popular strip with readers, and this two page strip is a perfect example why!

Despite having a story on the front cover, Desperate Dan also had another full page strip inside, and this one is about the fun fair!

The best strip in the comic hass to be Dandy Days in Beanotown, where the Dandy characters are having an ongoing mission to defeat the Beano characters! If you look closely, you can see Corporal Clott in there too! 

Blinky is a strip I've always enjoyed, all about the worlds most short-sighted (and long-sighted) kid!

Korky the Cat is an intresting strip, our friendly feline seems to have made friends with a blue alien from outer-space! 

Another classic strip is Puss 'n' Boots, a classic cat vs dog strip, which debuted in Sparky.

Pinky's Crackpot Circus, drawn by Blinky (and now Billy Whizz) artist Nick Brennan. The title pretty much explains this strip - its a circus owned by Pinky who always face strange problems, and come up with wacky solutions!

As well as drawing Ollie Fliptrick, Karl Dixon also drew the classic Beryl the Peril, originally created by David 'Davy' Law for Topper.

I really like this Owen Goal strip by Nigel Parkinson. It has lots of hidden detail, such as the "Don't Lose Your Head" motto on the statue!

There are quite a lot of adverts in this comic (seven in total), but the most intresting one is this comic strip and puzzle for Kellogs Coco Pops!

The Strongest Man (or Woman) in Comics!

Desperate Dan needs no introduction, as he is probably Britain's most famous strong man! Originally from the first Dandy in 1937, the he-man has survived almost 75 years in the comic and remains, according to the latest survey, the most popular character in the comic today! But he isn't the only super human to have appeared in comics, and here's a few more!

The Dandy's sister comic The Beano has had a few through it's time, and currently stars Bananaman! - a little boy who turns into a super-strong nit whenever he eats a banana! In a recent post I wrote about Danger - Len at Work, but the comics most succesful has to go to Pansy Potter! Pansy began in issue #21 (The first christmas issue!) and instead a being a muscly man, like most other characters, she was a young girl! I'm not too sure, but I think this may have been drawn by Jimmy Clark.

Going even further back than The Beano and The Dandy (although this character did in fact feature in The Beano), we arrive at Adventure comic! Illustrated by Dudley Watkins, Strang the Terrible was rather similar to Morgyn the Mighty, who appeared in Beano #1. Desbite being known as 'Terrible', Strang was the hero, always helping others out of unfortunate adventures!

Even the annuals had special super-strong characters made up for them. Young Ben is a text story from the 1968 Sparky annual, and I'm fairly certain that this is just a one off story.

Thomson weren't the only ones to use the idea, Fleetway would use the theme, but in several different ways! First up is Scared Stiff Sam. He certainly is strong, you can tell just by looking at him, but unlike the others Sam is afraid of anything and everything!

Another take was Frankie Stein! Half human, half monster, Frankie would cause more damage than a tornado, which involved everything from destroying his house to bringing home Big Ben tower to set his watch! Here he is destroying a brick wall for the 1977 annual, illustrated by Robert Nixon!

Gal Capone was a short lived strip from Whoopee, but she is, like Pansy Potter, another example of a female strongman! It was a very good strip too, except that maybe her arms are a little too big!

The Big One was an experiment comic that lasted for only 19 issues (more info on it here), and inside was a strip entitled Tough Tex. Because this comic is all reprint (except for Big One himself), Tough Tex originally appeared in The Comet, a comic from the 1950's. (Thanks to Clive Huckstepp for confirming this.)

And of course some still live on today, with Jamie Smart doing an excellent job on Desperate Dan and Wayne Thompson on Bananaman (and John Geering's reprints in the Beano)!

ARRRRRR!!!!!!! Pirates of the Caribeano!

Surprisingly, I enjoyed this weeks Beano MORE than the Dandy (for the first time since the Dandy revamp)! Maybe it was Barrie Appleby's amazing Dennis the Menace artwork, or Ken H. Harrison's Minnie the Minx (with the striped background, or even the 50's "As the bell rings stories"! Another enjoyable bit is a whole page of Gnasher! A bit like Gnasher's Tale, Gnasher bit(e) shows a story from his point of view, and this week with quite a funny ending! An amazing way to finish off the comic. I enjoyed all of these, but of course, a brilliant comic always has a down-side.

First of all, I didn't quite understand the Ratz story, but never mind. The artwork was good. Also, with the Bash street Kids pullout, it isn't a pull-out. It just isnt. Just because you've got readers drawings on page 15 and jokes on page 18, does not make it a pull-out. It's been on the centre pages for years and so technically it's always been a pull-out. Freds foul facts (which I find is ok) and Roger's Dodge Diary (possibly a modern day version of Roger's Dodge Clinic) aren't going down well with the readers. Maybe Sterling will replace them with something else, maybe even a new character! Who knows? On the other hand this weeks Dandy was good, but some parts were boring and pointless. Ok, so Kid Cops, Justin Beaver and George vs Dragon were good, I found that the Supervision Song contest voting cards and Eurovision Wrong contest were boooooooring! Bananaman wasn't brilliant this week either.

I think I'll just leave it at that.

Ok, I'm going to start blogging normally again as from my next blog, which will be a review on The Beano 3D Annual.