Beano Annual 2014

It's taken a while to find its way into my hands but I've finally got myself the latest Beano book (or annual as it's now dubbed) and after the superb Dandy annual D.C Thomson are offering this year I certainly had high hopes for the Beano. The covers illustrated by Nigel Parkinson are superb and the spectacular back cover portraying of all the characters on the number 75 (for 75 years) bus links in with the two spreads inside the front and back covers.

Nigel certainly has his work cut out inside with him lending his hand to Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx and Pup Parade. In one of the Dennis the Menace stories Nigel provides an absolutely fantastic double page spread portraying Dennis' trip to school!

Following the Dandy annual I won't deny that I was a little disappointed by the Beano annual. It's not that this annual contains anything bad as there are plenty of high quality strips such as Lew Stringer's Biffo the Bear and Hunt Emerson's The Three Bears (for example), but it seems to lack the same excitement or fun as the Dandy annual. The Beano annual has hardly changed over the past ten or fifteen years whereas The Dandy has modernised and as a result the Beano annual feels sort of dated. It's still good though and I recommend picking it up if you haven't done so yet but if you have to choose between the Beano or the Dandy, I'd go for the Dandy.

It Snows In The Beano!

It's almost time for the Beano Christmas issue but the snow has returned to The Beano already in the latest fun-filled issue! This week's Dennis the Menace strip was a favourite of mine; it was funny, clever and just plain good! Congratulations to Nigel Auchterlounie and Nigel Parkinson are in order for creating this brilliant strip!

Minnie the Minx also has some fun in the snow, but sadly is the only character beside Dennis to do so (I'm sure it'll pick up next week). Once again a fantastic strip this one being about a snowball fight between Minnie and her dad!

There's all this and much more inside, including a surprise twist in the Billy Whizz strip, all in the latest Beano. It's out now in all good stores for just £2!

2014 Dandy Annual

I've just finished reading the latest Dandy annual and I must say - it's a cracker! It's over 100 pages for just £7.99, so I highly recommend buying a copy. If you're saving it as a treat until Christmas, stop reading now.

It's great to see a good number of classic characters in the lineup. There are a few that really stood out for me, the first being Winker Watson illustrated by Will Dawbarn. If the weekly comic was still around this would definitely a strip I'd like to see in it, in this format and two pages long!

Another character that really stood out was Big Bang Benny. I'm afraid that I can't identify the artist but whomever it is they've done a fantastic job on it. They didn't try to draw in the style of Ken Reid but in their own style that looks absolutely fantastic, hopefully we see more from him/her in the near future.

My favourite story in the whole annual was the eight-page Jack Silver adventure, illustrated by Will Dawbarn. Like his Winker Watson, this was coloured in the classic style.

And finally, I was pleased to see the return of Nigel Parkinson's Banana Bunch, even if it was only for one strip towards the back.

This book is a definite improvement on last year's already great Dandy annual. £7.99 is nothing for the fantastic content and if you weren't previously planning to, I recommend giving this year's annual a try.

Hopefully I'll be writing a review for The Beano annual soon, once I've bought and read it.

The Week's Beano - #3690

The latest Beano has arrived on my doorstep - this one with a superhero themed cover. Apart from the small mistake that Gnasher called Dennis SuperDen instead of SuperMenace on the cover it is a good issue throughout. I love Nigel Parkinson's Dennis the Menace and as always we're lucky enough to get three whole pages of it! As suggested by the cover illustration Dennis is a superhero who can fly, and Gnasher can talk. Walter has also, by pure coincidence, become the world's brainiest boy on exactly the same day! A great strip!

A corner of this week's Dennis -
without revealing too much.

Tricky Dicky has been back for several weeks now and as always is up to his old tricks. The headmaster, who the students refer to as "Terminator", is desperate to catch him and bring his pranks to a swift end. Tricky is now drawn by Laura Howell, and rather well too.

As always there's a good selection of mini-strips in there but my favourite this week is Lew Stringer's Rasher. I love the final panel with the side cut-out to show Rasher's tunnel - brilliant!

All this and much much more in this week's Beano - out now for just £2!

2014 Annuals Revealed

The covers for the 2014 annual covers have been revealed over on Amazon, beating Play.com who revealed them first exactlye one year ago today! So, here is the line-up. All the prices are according to Amazon, although the final prices will probably be different, and all the D.C Thomson books are due for release on the 5th July.

The Beano:

I'm not too sure about this one, looks a bit boring considering it's a huge achievement for the comic! Needs a bit more going on, but good artwork by Nigel Parkinson.

£7.19

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beano-Annual/dp/1845355083/

The Dandy:

This is a great cover by Ken H. Harrison; I really like the green for the background! Ken is fantastic at drawing Desperate Dan, so I'm glad they chose him to illustrate this cover.

£7.19

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dandy-Annual/dp/1845355121/

The Beano and The Dandy:

My favourite annual this year is the Beano and Dandy Silly Singg-Along, which has a fantastic cover, also by Ken H. Harrison - there is so much going on everywhere you look! A great festive theme, I might save this one for Christmas!

£11.69

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beano-and-Dandy-Giftbook-2014/dp/1845355105/

The Broons:

The Broons annual also had a festive cover, this time by Peter Davidson. I like this cover, and like The Beano and Dandy Silly Sing-Along book it has a very Christmassy theme about it, and it looks as though it could have been hand painted!

£6.29

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Broons-Annual-2014/dp/1845355067/

The Broons and Oor Wullie:

I'm not at all sure about this cover. It is an interesting idea, but it looks very messy and confusing. If I was just looking at it on the shelves I wouldn't know that it was about The Broons and Oor Wullie just by the cover.

£11.69

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1845355113/

UPDATE!!

Turns out that isn't the Broons and Oor Wullie cover, but is possibly an inside page. The correct cover is illustrated below, but for more information click on this link!

http://www.wackycomics.com/2013/05/update-broons-and-oor-wullie-2014-annual.html

That's not all of the annuals though, as always there are loads more. Here are a few of them.

Horrible Histories:

£5.91

Due for release: 1st August 2013

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Annual-Horrible-Histories-Terry-Deary/dp/1407136364/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367623985&sr=1-1&keywords=2014+annual

Doctor Who:

£7.19

Due for release: 17th September 2013

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Official-Annual-2014/dp/1405911794/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367623985&sr=1-2&keywords=2014+annual

Horrid Henry:

£6.07

Due for release: 15th August 2013

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Horrid-Henry-Annual-Francesca-Simon/dp/144400655X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367626795&sr=8-1&keywords=horrid+henry+2014

There is also a Rupert annual to be released on the 5th August 2013 for £7.19, but the cover has not been revealed yet.

This Week In... 2011 - The Beano

Time for a second 'This Week In' post for the week, this time we head back just one year to see how much The Beano has changed over the past 12 months! Although this issue is dated 26th November, people would have been getting their copies by now if they subscribed.

Inside, things are different. Dennis the Menace's parents still looked old (I'm not a huge fan of the new look parents) and was still drawn by Barrie Appleby, and the contents page looked very dull and boring compared to the bottom one which appeared in The Beano a few weeks ago.

By the way, if you are rummaging through your comics and want something to look at, compare the contents pages in Beano #3659 and #3660! Yep - they're exactly the same!

Further on in the comic and, even six months before, the comic was still building up to the Olympic Games, with an advertisement comic strip called Wenlock and Mandeville, illustrated by Nigel Parkinson. 

Fred's Bed was still in his original form, illustrated by David Sutherland. In this strip Fred travels to a military base and ends up in a comic crossover - going to school at Bash Street!

At the time The Beano was running a reprint series of two different classic strips. The first was Number 13 Beano Street, illustrated by John Geering...

...And the second was The Germs, illustrated by David Sutherland.

The Beano has changed rather a lot over the past year, who knows where it will head in 2013. If the recent revamp is anything to go by, it looks like the comic will only be improving!

Nigel Parkinson's Banana Bunch!

I just recieved my Dandy issue #3589, dated 14th July 2012 (a bit delayed in the post, but oh well), and was very impressed with the Banana Bunch strip by Nigel Parkinson! Not only is there a great half page picture crammed with drawings and funny detail, but I particulary like the part of the strip featuring Fatty, who sprints at the sound of free food!

Anyway, here's the strip - now I think The Dandy could do with one or two more strips like this, in a "classic" sort of style! Maybe another oldie like General Jumbo or  Winker Watson? 


Click the image, and then again for maximum size.

D.C Thomson Origins: Pup Parade

Pup Parade, or The Bash Street Pups as you may know them, arrived in The Beano issue #1326, dated 16th December 1967. Illustrated by Gordon Bell, the pups looked very different in the beginning to what we know them today! 

The original series ended in 1988, lasting over 20 years! The Pups then moved to The Topper the following year, still drawn by Bell. It remained there until the comic ended in 1990. They then even survived the merge with The Beezer, lasting for another good two years!

Since June of last year, The Beano started reproducing old strips by Bell from the 1980's, giving them a fresh lick of paint! The result was very nice, only ending in April of this year.

Nigel Parkinson took over from the reprints, and the Pup Parade strips that appear in the Beano today are all brand new!

The Bash Street Pups weren't the only dogs to begin in the late 60's! In August of 1968, Dennis the Menace got his world famous sidekick - Gnasher! At the end of his first appearence in issue #1363, Dad sent Gnasher to Pup Parade, where he appeared the following week.

Stolen artwork?

Several weeks ago I pointed out to Harry Rickard about Lew Stringer's Pete's Pimple artwork being used as a logo for an iPhone/iPod Touch app. (Lew wrote a short post on it - see here: http://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2011/10/bad-karma.html)

So, as I was walking around a few shops earlier today I saw this box of pranks, which has very similar artwork to Nigel Parkinson's Dennis the Menace. Ok, so I know it's not exactly "stolen" - but surely companies who make products such as this should respect these great characters and leave them alone.

Nigel Parkinson's comment:
"It's some lazy ad agency art director tracing Dennis poses instead of bothering to create something new. Happens from time to time, always looks bad and cheap. I still have a problem with Lichenstein passing off poor copies as 'art', so I think any (mis)appropriation of someone elses work is very bad form. But legally, Dennis's trademarks are the red and black sweater and the black spiky hair which as you see they've altered."

Fireworks in a 2011 comic!

Here is, as far as I'm aware, the first review posted online about the latest Dandy! Woop! So, before we get started, I'd just like to apologise to all those who were expecting me to write a post on the halloween Beano. Unfortunatly for me, my subscription has run out, so may not be recieving any issues for several weeks!

I'm going to start off with Nigel's Harry Hill. Both Jack (Captain Jack from Dr. Who and Torchwood) and Catherine Tate are sitting on top of lit fireworks! This is incredible! I'd never have thought this would have been allowed to be printed in a 21st Century Comic! So a big "Razzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!" to all the critics who will without a doubt moan and groan long and hard about this giving children bad ideas (a Daily Mail article parhaps?).

On the left (below) is the artwork and colouring from this weeks issue, on on the right the one from Nigel Parkinson's blog here: http://nigelparkinsoncartoons.blogspot.com/2011/10/halloween.html

zdoen't the one on the right just look so much better than the printed one? I reckon it should have been used, but then both of the Harry Hill pages would have to have this background - maybe it would be a bit distracting?

And there is even more fireworks related stuff! Postman Prat uses them in replacement of his engine, Si Fawke doesn't try to blow up parliment, your very own cut out fireworks display by Nigel Auchterlounie, Korky the Cat's ancestor captures a very cunning fox and, and, well actually, that's it! (But hey, 7 pages of fireworks fun isn't that bad is it?!)

Well, that pretty much sums up all of this week's firework action! So go on out to buy The Dandy for just £1.50 - or get a subscription and it gets delieverd straight to your front door!

EEEK! It's The Dandy!

Boo! It's that time of year again! The latest issue of The Dandy is out now and it's spooktacular! (Amazingly, it comes with no 'free gift', I'd have thought that last week's ones would have come with this issue?) So we kick-start this fightingly funny comic with a title page with Boo! Yes - that's right! He's back, but, unfortunatly, it's only for the one issue. BUT (yes, theres a but!) Andy Fanton does give him a two-page spread AND theres a small cameo of a certain squirrel in his strip... (And Grampire - can you spot him?)

So, what else are you likely to find lying within the petrifying pages? Well, you may spot Bob the skull's missing eyeball, 13 dragons, some evil marshmallows and discover just what is down at the centre of the Earth!

Postman Prat makes a special delivery to Doctor Dork at Crackpot Castle! Just what is it inside that blood-curdling box of his? In the the second box (shown below) I thought that Prat would be saying: "Gulp! On Halloween night? But there could be ghosts, goblins and... and Darth Voldemort!"

Nigel Parkinson delivers some of his best Harry Hill art to date, In this weeks adventure entitled Harry Chill's terrifyingly funny real life adventures in TV land! Just look at that brilliant title box! Beautiful! I was kind of hoping that the whole comic would have art and colours similar to that...

Best Dandy ever? Maybe...

All that and much, much more only in this spine-tingling special issue! Only a scary £1.50, in shops nationwide!

We now await the halloween Beano.