Dennis the Menace Book 1956

Dennis the Menace must have been hugely popular right from the very beginning if he was to get his very own book less than five years after his first appearance in The Beano in 1951. Yet that's exactly what happened, with the 1956 Dennis the Menace book coming out in time for Christmas 1955. I love the front cover of this book, with the entire town, including no less than three policemen and even a cat, cowering in fear as Dennis strides along with a big bucket of bright red paint. Wonderfully illustrated by Dennis' creator and first artist Davey Law, I was fortunate enough to pick up a copy that still has the vibrant colours it was printed with back in the 1950s. Here's the accompanying back cover, which just captures the spirit of the character so well.

These were the days before Gnasher entered this scene (I posted his first appearance here), so it's up to Dennis to carry the fun on his own. There is no price tag inside the book, but I believe it cost 5/-, for which readers got 80 pages (counting the covers), all of which were printed with red and black ink. I can only assume this was to show off Dennis' infamous red and black jersey. For comparison, the 1956 Beano and Dandy annuals both cost 6/-. I'm not sure about The Dandy, but The Beano book had 128 pages.

The book contains a mixture of comic strips and text.

I'm a big fan of Davey Law's Dennis but of course 1950s Beano comics can fetch a premium and are hard to come by. Early Dennis books are certainly collectable, especially this 1956 edition, but for those wanting to see Law's work on a bit of a budget getting a hold of them is well worth doing. I picked this up just this week for $35 (New Zealand dollars, so about £17) and it's in pretty nice condition. However, I believe most of the Dennis strips in the early books were actually reprinted from strips published in The Weekly News, not The Beano. In addition to his Beano strips, Davey Law drew 184 Dennis comics for The Weekly News which were published from 7th November 1953 - 17th August 1957 (197 strips were published in total, 184 new ones by Law, one Beano reprint and 12 by another artist). It was probably a smart idea reprinting these in the book as I imagine most readers would be more familiar with his Beano appearances.

Dennis the Menace books were bi-annual affair up until 1978, when they were paused until 1983. A book was then published every year from 1987-2011, with 39 editions published all up. I understand that instead of producing an annual for 2012 D.C. Thomson published The Beano and The Dandy celebrate Dennis the Menace. Published as part of Dennis' 60th birthday celebrations, this book was marketed as a history book however text throughout is short, instead allowing the strips themselves to tell the story.

For whatever reason the books were not resumed again after this, but it goes without saying that Dennis' popularity continues to reign in The Beano every week. I doubt he'll ever be replaced.

Dennis the Menace Book 1960

Dennis the Menace is, of course, one of the most successful and popular British comic characters of all time. Created by Beano editor George Moonie and the wonderfully talented Davey Law, Dennis first appeared in a half page black and white strip in Beano #452 in 1951 and had his very first book released in 1956. In the early days the Dennis the Menace book was actually a bi-annual affair, meaning today's venture, the 1960 book, was actually the third issued. It cost 5/6 and was a good 80 pages, mostly consisting of a mixture of text stories and comic strips, with the occasional other feature here and there, illustrated almost entirely by Davey Law. Interestingly as well, every single page has red ink with no black and white pages, something I suppose was necessary to show Dennis' famous black and red striped jumper. Before we dive any further into the content though, take a look at the gag on the back cover, where Dennis's dad orders the delivery of a slipper by sail as punishment for Dennis' crimes on the front! Brilliant stuff. 

My copy of this book has, unfortunately for me, been well-loved in its time and a few of the pages have been scribbled over by a young Southampton lad who I shan't name and shame, so instead of showing the title page artwork I'll skip ahead into the strips. Here's a good one as it includes a panel of Dennis handing over what is clearly a 1950s Beano, distinctive enough by its red header. Poor Dennis never catches a break, it is remarkable that almost every strip in the books ends with a slipper in one form or another! Here though, he just gets the knee.

Here's an interesting page - The Early Adventures of Little Boy Dennis. If he's meant to be a baby here it's hard to tell as to me he looks pretty much the same as he always does, save for his sitting in a pram. I'm not sure who the artist is, but it isn't Law.

One more strip before we move on to some of the book's other features, and what better a page to look at than this wonderful fireworks story! This page also illustrates well an artist working in the style of Law with a four panel gag at the bottom, something known as "ghosting".

Here's a breakdown of what those aforementioned 80 pages consist of: the front and back covers, 48 pages of comic strips, 20 pages of text stories, 3 puzzle pages, 2 pages of jokes, 1 title page, 1 'this book belongs to page', 1 page with a letter from Dennis welcoming readers to the book, and 2 funny poem pages. Here's an example of one of those poems, entitled There's Fun To Be Found in Dustbins'.

Text stories were slowly disappearing from comics by the early 1960s but this book still features ten of them all at two pages long. I've chosen to share this one based solely on the illustrations alone, I particularly like the image of Dennis' parents AND cat jumping for joy as he runs away from home! 

Most, if not all, of these strips are reprints I believe, but regardless the annual is a nice way to get a glimpse into an era of The Beano that is very collectable and expensive these days. There's no era of The Beano I don't like, in fact I still buy the occasional new issue from my local comic shop, but there truly is something special about the quality of the content D C Thomson was putting out in the 50s and 60s. If you ever come across any of the comics or books from this time they are well worth a read.

Chrsistmas Beano - 1968

This is one of my favourite chrismas Beano comics, probably because it was one of my first. It sported a very nice cover by Dudley D.Watkins, but there had been better covers in the past, and there were better ones to come.

Inside Minnie the Minx celebrates christmas like anybody else her age would - waking up at 4:30AM and opens all her presents within ten minutes! A very funny story - I like the way the times are added in and it's only a minute between each box! Hilarious! On the second page shows a small advert for that year's Beril the Peril annual - which is strange as she didn't even appear in The Beano? Surely it would have been better if they'd advertised that years Beano annual so that kids could "hint" their parents for one? Art by Jim Petrie.

On the centre spread is a very nice, colouful Bash Street Kids story by David Sutherland - the most festive story in the comic!

Elsewhere in the comic Lord Snooty and his pals try to help Santa find them in the castle, but soon discover that he can't fit down the chimney! Art by Robert Nixon.

And finally, a very nice, funny christmas Dennis the Menace strip by Davy Law. My favourite part of the whole strip is in the last box where 'Sounds of festive whackings' is penetrating through the door!

You can read Dennis' first Christmas over on Kid Robson's blog:

http://www.kidr77.blogspot.com/2011/12/denniss-first-christmas.html

Have a Beano Birthday!

I have been getting some comments on why I always write about new Dandy comics, but not Beano's. The reason is, I never seem to get them on time! I haven't yet recieved issue 3576. #3577 is Dennis' 60th Birthday! (I read about it over on Lew Stringer's blog yesterday - here) and Dennis gets a special 10 page biography. But of course, the retro beano isn't in this issue! Dennis was created and drawn by David (or Davey) Law up until his sudden death in '71 - his death isn't mentioned in the comic however. The issue features the last Dennis drawn by Law. David Sutherland drew it until'95, then David (antoher David!) Parkins,and now Nigel Parkinson, Jim Hansen and Barrie Appleby.Make sure you pick up this weeks Beano: £1.35.

UPDATE: Many of the facts are wrong! There are also many spelling mistakes. (Info from here.)