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| A genuine Beano #1 and its advertising flyer. |
I often get emailed asking about values (which you can never say for sure) for first issues of The Beano, only that it turns out they're replicas. So, here's how to spot a fake Beano No. 1.
1. The Staples.
When I get these emails people often say things along the lines of "the staples are nice and shiny". The pages, as with many early comics, were glued, not stapled (and would staples really be shiny after 75 years?).
2. The Centre Spread.
The centre spread in replicas is sometimes printed in black ink, wheras in the original comic it was printed in blue and red.
3. Page Count.
Pretty much all the reprints I have seen have had 24 pages, wheras the original had 28! A complete original can be seen in The History of The Beano, by Morris Heggie.
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| A recent replica. |
4. Border.
On the front cover of some reprints (such as the image above), the red goes right out to the edge of the comic, but in the original (as seen at the top of the post), there is a white border around the edge.
And there you have it - how to spot a fake first Beano!
18 comments:
Very interesting post. The Sunday Post gave away a free replica of the first issue a few years back and your post gives the impression that some folk may be trying to sell this off as an original. If that's so, that's downright mean!
I've seen that issue on ebay claimed as an original first issue several times! And even worse, I've seen peopl etry and make them look like originals - such as giving it the border!
Looks like there's one on eBay right now. A crinkled up one which has climbed to £254. The seller hasn't answered my questions.
Thanks , great info . Sadly had to break the news to my mother in law that her stapled 24 page 1st edition Beano was not worth ten grand :-/
@Crispynev - Looks like I missed that one! (I've had very limited internet at the time being anyway).
It's not there any more - Do you know if it ended or has ebay removed it?
@Kevin - Glad I've helped - even if it wasn't the result you were looking for :)
Glad I read this article because I came across this comic when my mother-in-law died at age 85yrs when clearing her house, thought I was sitting on a goldmine, looks like it is not the original, has 24pages, staples but the centre pages are right hand in red ink, left hand in black and red, anyway will it be of any value at all, anyone know, shame cause its perfect condition?
Are you sure the originals did not have stapples. Ithink you are wrong about the comics being glued together. Stapples have been around for a long time.
It definitely didn't have staples. The Beano was glued for years, it was probably far cheaper than using a million or so staples every week.
I realise that manuals would be glued because all the pages are individual, but comics have their pages folded over so i cannot see how they would be glued.
I have tried to google fake no 1 issue Beano's and found virtualy nothing.
Can you say how you know for sure that fake reprints only had 24 pages and the real thing had 28? Why would a fake only have 24 pages if the original had 28!
I think it was due to racism on some of the pages so they had to edit them out.
I think you are winding everyone up. Can you say why a folded over page would be glued and not stappled!
I can assure you I'm not winding anybody up.
It was probably easier and/or cheaper for D C Thomson to print them that way. The Beano only got staples very recently in the 1990's I think. Take a look at any Beano from the 1980's or before and you'll see that there are no staples.
I have an original No. 1 (in dreadful condition), but I was sure it had rusty staples. It's been in the family for at least 50 years, so doesn't sound like a replica... I'll try and remember to take a look when I get home.
So Banquo, was it stapled or glued?
Thought it was to good to be true, it is in mint condition, nut clearly a copy as the reproduction and paper quality are so good. Still a keepsake of bygone carefree times. Something for the grandchildren to wonder at. Many thanks for your guidance.
Please can you help me? I don't wanna looks stupid but i think i got one. Its got 28 pages and borders are not red they looks like yellow ( maybe by age ) please can you contact me on my email?toshiba1977@azet.sk thank you
Hi I have a copy here it has staples and a red border my dad said it was his dad's my granddads I've just said it could be a fake and my granddad is adamant it's not a fake.
We're to go now ?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/131878599907
Very good replica, has white borders on the front page and blue and red ink on centre page
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