Beano Comics; a retrospective.

Watch the video Here!

Down From The Attic EP. 15- Beano Comics

When we think of comics in modern times, it’s hard not to think of either Marvel or DC, after all both are at the height of their popularities right now due to in part to the cinematic universes both are building and establishing. With titles such as Iron Man, Captain America, Batman, Thor, The Flash to name but a few, you’d be forgiven for your mind immediately going to superheroes when you think the word comic. However, today I’m not going to be looking at either Marvel or DC, I’m looking at a different comic, one that’s older than Marvel and has been entertaining children and adults alike for nearly 80 years. It’s the anarchic, manic, wacky home of Dennis The Menace, Roger The Dodger, Minnie The Minx, The Bash Street Kids, Ivy The Terrible amongst dozens more. I’m talking of course about the iconic Beano comic. Lets start with a little history...

Writing this now, I find it difficult to imagine anyone in the UK who hasn’t at some point read a Beano comic as a child or at the very least knows of the comic. Unlike Marvel and DC where there is a constant narrative and continuity to the comics, where devotion and dedication to a series is all but demanded to follow and understand the story, The Beano focuses on short panel strips full of silly and riotous humour. There is no over arching story, no continuity, the comic regularly plays fast and loose with the rules. I’d argue that the only rule the Beano has is to make it’s readers laugh which it’s done successfully for the past 8 decades.

The Beano first was published on July 30th 1938 and came free with a Whoopee Mask to entice new readers, only one of these masks is known to still exist. The bright colourful cover was to draw the attention too as the inner pages were all black and white. Big Eggo the ostrich took centre stage with the front cover and Lord Snooty is on page 3, a character and comic strip who still endures to this day, we’ll come back to him later. The comic was wildly different than it’s modern iteration, sections of the comic are given over to illustrated adventure serials such as Morgan The Mighty and Cracker Jack. It’s handy to remember that at the time of publication, Disney Studios had only been operating for 15 years, along with Warner Bros establishing the cartoon industry within the cinemas and introducing scores of children to the idea of comic shorts. Similarly, adventure serials such as Tarzan and Zorro found all new popularity with advent of talking pictures in the 1920s. The Beano aped on the popularity of these with their own adventure serials too. As time passed and the comic evolved to more comedy focused, these adventure serials would be mostly dropped, however a few later inclusions remain such as General Jumbo and his robotic army and Billy The Cat, the closest Beano comes to having an actual super hero.

The Beano would carry on introducing new characters and continuing their serial story telling up until the advent of the second world war. The war affected the comic massively, within the first month of war due to paper rationing the comic was cut from 28 pages to 24 and free gifts to the readers dried up too. As the war progressed, pagination reduced the Beano to 22 pages, 20, by 1943 the Beano was a paltry 12 pages. Publications had too dropped from a weekly basis to every other week. This of course had a impact on which strips would make it into each issue. However, the comic endured through it’s tough times and it cannot be understated how much of a comfort and a distraction to the frightening and horrifying times that children across Britain were facing. The Beano openly ridiculed Adolf Hitler, Goering and Mussolini. The nazi regime is almost always portrayed as being utterly incompetent and it’s members being buffoons, I find it incredible to think how the Beano knew how influential it could be as propaganda tool to educate children on the political and social landscape of the time. Through these panels, children learnt the importance of blacking out all lights at night, air raid sirens, recycling everything who the REAL bad guys were in the world. 

When the war ended, the approach of the 1950s saw The Beano heading into it’s Golden Age, an era where a plethora of characters which still feature in the comic saw their first introductions. The 1950s really shaped the comic into the form we recognise it today. On 17th March 1951, The Beano’s most famous character joined the comic in a half page strip. The spiky haired, striped jumpered mischief maker, Dennis The Menace. In a staggering coincidence, a comic strip in U.S . also called Dennis The Menace launched on exactly the same day. 

Roger The Dodger in joined 1952, followed quickly by Minnie The Minx in 1953 and the Bash Street Kids in 1954. This gang of naughty kids provided the frame work for the comic, getting themselves into trouble and angering the adults of Beanotown for the delight of their readers. Characters would regularly get wolloped with slippers or caned by teachers, another sign of the times, and certain strips would have the characters destroying slippers and canes in an attempt to stop punishment. 

As time went on, more characters were introduced, The 1960s saw Billy Whizz, the world’s fastest boy join the ranks, Dennis also found Gnasher and the strip was renamed, Dennis The Menace and Gnasher. The 70s saw Dennis and Gnasher supplant Biffo The Bear as the cover star due to the duos massive popularity with readers. 

The editor took note and launched the Dennis the Menace Fan Club, where members would receive two badges and a wallet. These told the world that you were a true Beano Fan and the badges and wallet are highly collectable now. This club had membership in the millions including celebrities such as Linford Christie and Mark Hamill, that’s right, Luke Skywalker became a Phantom Menace… Readers would send in funny photos, jokes, even letters to certain characters with hopes they’d win the coveted Beano Fan tshirt. The Dennis The Menace Fan Club would eventually give way to the Beano Fan Club.

Moving into the 80s saw even more characters join the fold such as Smudge, a kid who loved being dirty, Ivy the Terrible and one of my all time favourites, Calamity James, the world’s unluckiest boy. The 80s also saw the introduction of the Beano Vs Dandy battle, a fun lighthearted war of sorts. Beano would regularly tease and insult Dandy readers and likewise the Dandy with the Beano. There’s even a strip where Beano characters go to Dandyland and vice versa. In truth, the battle was internal in the offices of Beano and Dandy, artists and writers were shared between the two comics and it became an internal completion of who had the better comic week to week, the prize being a Toby jug. Ultimately, The Beano ended up being the winner, with the Dandy sadly ceasing to be published in 2012 after 75 years. Thankfully a number of The Dandy’s more popular strips would find a new home in the pages of The Beano, such as Bananaman.

This brings us to my collection of comics, most of my comics are from the 90s and even in this period, I noticed gradual changes to the comics. The Beano has always continually changed and evolved to suit the readers interests and humour. As mentioned, new characters would be introduced and less popular characters would be retired, quite charmingly into Beanotown Retirement Castle. However, the introduction of new characters isn’t the only way that The Beano reinvents itself. The comic has always looked at the world and lampooned and joked about trends, celebrities and culture, ouch, take that Kylie! Rodger The Dodger play with Gameboys and Gamegears, Mini The Minx has a video game console and at one point Dennis had a tamagotchi.

Keeping a keen eye on trends and pop culture and lampooning it isn’t the only way that The Beano has strived to stay relevant to kids. Characters have have had massive overhauls to make them more appealing and relatable to modern audiences. Lord Snooty has lost his top hat, suit and dapper attire for a more contemporary look, more akin to Richie Rich. Whilst not agreeable to long devoted fans of the comic, Characters regularly get overhauled and if it keeps the characters funny and entertaining, who am I to judge? Because certain comic strips have been running for decades it’s inevitable that different artists would take the mantle of continuing them when the previous artists retires or passes on.

 I remember my first introduction to Dennis The Menace with him being a large, almost teenage looking boy, drawn by the talented David Sutherland. Then in the early 90s, Dennis shrank and became a much younger looking depiction. However, the trademark spiky hair and red and black jumper remained and his design has remained largely the same since. 

From 1952 to Present day

Dennis’ Dad (That’s his REAL name in the comic…no, seriously, it is) has had a massive redesign and one that I find one of the best. Old Dennis’ Dad used to wear a red pin strip suit, balding in appearance with a trim little mustache. Now, Dennis’ Dad wears a red polo shirt and has hair VERY similar to Dennis. The reasoning behind this? The Dennis I grew up with in the 80s and 90s has himself grown up and is now father to another Dennis, one that drives him just as wild as he did to his dad. I just love this, talk about Karmic retribution. 

Walter The Softy, Dennis’ main adversary has changed radically from being a wimpy, weedy, sissy boy to a more scheming, devious and villainous depticion. Gone are the days of Dennis simply bullying Walter and his group of Softies, now it’s more like a back and forth battle of getting back at each other for being mean and nasty to one another. This makes Dennis look less a bully and have more rationale for his actions, even if they are with water pistols, peashooters and catapults. 

Mentioning bullying, in 2009 controversy hit The Beano with a redesign of Dennis and Gnasher. This was to coincide with the new Dennis and Gnasher cartoon on the BBC but with political correctness on the agenda, Dennis was redesigned to have no weapons, Gnasher to never gnash posties and other people and the menacing to happen by accident and naivety rather than intentional. Fan reaction was generally negative to this, and the strip was tweaked so that Dennis would still use his weapons, but never against people. 

....urgh.

During the writing of this, news broke on the 8th October that Dennis was being redesigned again for a new BBC computer animated tv show. The catapult is gone, along with all his other weapons…replaced with…an iPad. Gnasher looks as those he’s had his teeth filed and Dennis forms a band with new friends. Walter the Softie… isn’t a softie any more. Inclusivity is the main focus of the show and admittedly, despite what I said early, I really don’t like this. Dennis is a Menace, not a rock band member, not a minor pest to his parents and neighbours, he’s a menace. I’m thankful I grew up on the era of him causing real trouble, getting grounded and punished for being an bad kid. I never went around smashing windows with a catapult or firing peas at people with a peashooter but it was funny to see and kids KNEW the consequences of doing this in real life, every strip he’d get in trouble. Modern day Dennis would be slapped with an ASBO, I know but a menace with an iPad? What’s he going to do? Send a bad tweet to Desperate Dan? Down vote a Dandy youtube video?

Aforementioned, my collection spans the 1990s and the earlier comics in my collection have a mix between black and white and full colour pages. On October 16th 1993 the comic went full colour, something that had only been reserved for the Summer Specials. I personally loved the old comics hand painted and hand drawn look, whereas modern issues are all digitally drawn and coloured.

Alongside the weekly comic, The Beano had summer specials, a staple of going on holiday was picking this up in the departure lounge, some of my issues here have stains from where sun tan lotion got on the comic whilst at the beach. 

Starting in 1983, The Beano Comic Library were small comic books that took a singular character or strip from the weekly comic and dedicated a full story to them. I absolutely loved these and they really allowed the writers to dive into the characters more and put them in scenarios and situations that wouldn’t be possible within the weekly comic. These were printed in a black and white and colour fashion, very similar to the printing methods of older Beano annuals. Full colour stories of a similar vein were found in the Beano Super Stars comic book series, again, allowing for wacky and fun stories for beloved characters all retaining the trademark humour.

Next year, The Beano celebrates it’s 80th anniversary, truly a landmark date for any comic. The Beano is special, it’s undeniably British in it’s humour and artwork, it’s themes and jokes. As much as it lampoons and apes popular culture in the comic the comic itself IS pop culture, even doctor who loves The Beano. 

Who loves The Beano?

It’s absurd look at British culture and life means it’ll always remain fresh, it’s legacy and long standing appeal means that it’ll continue on for many years to come. My Grandad read The Beano, as did my dad before me and to know that these characters are as much a part of their growing up as they were mine, it’s incredible to think about. There’s so much more I want to talk about regarding the Beano but this video is getting long enough as it is. Check back in the future where I’ll explore The Beano Annuals, Videos, games and collectables. 

Downfall

 Check out the video review here!

Here’s an old game that you may have had a turn at playing at some point, Downfall. This particular copy is from 1977 though the game was first produced in 1970. The game itself is a strategy game of sorts in which you need to navigate these tokens through the wheels and into the trough below, sounds simple enough right? Not quite…



The contents to the particular variant of the game, incidentally the longest running iteration of the game, are incredibly robust and sturdy. There’s twenty coloured tokens, in four different colours and these are numbered 1-5. The main bulk of the game is this vertical plastic structure, the underside has these clips that push into the base and it really is as easy as that to set up. The board, if you can call it that, reminds me of the monolith from 2001. 



Starting the game, you must ensure that the wheels have these arrows aligned to the ones seen on the stand, this means that no token gaps are aligned for either player giving no-one an unfair advantage. The tokens are inserted into the top, 1 first through to 5 but you can reconfigure these and this affects play. To decide who goes first, generally i flip a coin or rock paper scissors. The player can then choose to rotate any of the dials as far as they like and in any direction they please. Both players don’t see the opponents side and in this manner, it can be compared to Battleship or Guess Who?  The objective of the game is to navigate the tokens down the wheels and into the trough in numerical order. The tricky thing is that your opponent will be turning dials and affecting your tokens paths. If a token falls out of sequence, that player loses instantly.

The wheels on your side and your opponents are connected though not aligned, the slots for tokens are not in the same position on both sides. Most turns of the dials you’ll unintentionally help or hinder your opponent and this brings an element of strategy to the game. You’ll also need to plan carefully your moves so that slots align up for you. Players may not rotate the dial that the other player previously turned and this rule means more clever thinking, do you attempt to move your pieces through the dials or turn a dial and hope you’re blocking progress for your opponent? Because the slots don’t match up side to side it’s safe to assume that if they’re open on your side, they’re closed on the other. Because you don’t know where your opponents tokens are within the game, you can opt different tactics to try and win. Sure, you can try to get your tokens through the game first but there’s also the option of trying to get your opponents to drop out of sequence, meaning an instant win for yourself. Smart players will listen for the telltale drop sound of a token falling into a slot on the other players side, you can have a rough idea of where your opponents tokens are if you pay attention.

 

There’s a few different ways that Downfall can be played, you can reverse the tokens order so that 5 goes in first up but still maintain the 1-5 drop rule. This makes it far more strategic if you’re willing to play to drop however this is flawed due to the fact your opponent will just race to make them drop out of sequence. You’ll battle to try and get your tokens out in order to leave less tokens in play for that to happen but it’s a tough game. Another variant is to try and attempt it one colour at a time, the first colour dropped on your side indicates that colour set must fall first, if one of your other colour tokens fall, it’s game over. You could swap counters and fill your opponents in a random order and spin the board around. Simplifying this for younger children, you could simply play the game where they need to get their tokens to the bottom regardless of sequence.

This is predominately a two player game though it is possible to play four players, one colour for each player. I’ve never played this four player so I can’t comment on how well this actually translates but my assumption is not that well. Because one of your opponents can see your wheels and your tokens I'd imagine it’d make it far more difficult to out smart that player. You could team up and make it two on two I suppose. 

 

In summary, Downfall is a fun rainy day game that on the face of it seems like a simple concept but has some strategy and memory elements to it. I appreciate the different ways that the game can be played and the different tactics that players may utilize to win and it’s mechanics and simple design means it’s accessible to all ages. Downfall is still being produced with a new funky design rather than this plastic blue slab that looks like a freeze pack. Vintage copies such as this aren’t too difficult and expensive to acquire should you fancy a round or two of this. Thanks again for watching, I’ll talk to you soon.