Category Archives: Beano

Beano, Christmas, Comic Reviews

BEANO CHRiSTMAS SPECiAL 2025: TiME FOR FUN

4 Comments

Dare I say it but could this year’s Beano Christmas Special actually top last year’s? One glance at the supposed author name along the bottom of the cover almost had me convinced before I even opened it! Inside, the lack of more funny gift tags is disappointing but that’s really the only negative I have in all honesty.

Dennis is lumbered with reading a bedtime story to his little sister, Bea as Christmas Eve draws to a close and his mum hands him A Christmas Carol. But of course Dennis is never going to have the attention span to read a whole book so he leaves bits out, retells existing bits and adds completely new parts to liven it all up.

Just like last year, the special is one long story told over various strips starring a collection of the comic’s fan favourites. Dennis, for example, is not only Dennis Scratchit in his retelling but also the first of the ghosts. He’s the narrator and in charge, and it’s Dennis, so of course he’d do this and it’s hilariously brushed aside in the story. Although for me the real star of the piece isn’t Dennis or even Mayor Brown as Scrooge, it has to be Rubi.

Rubi’s Screwtop Science pops up several times across the issue thanks to her dad’s time machine invention. Oh, and her dad is H.G. Wells so you can guess what the machine looks like (and it comes complete with a certain Doctor Who sound effect). You see, the ghosts are all a bit useless and need Rubi’s help in order to carry out their plan to make Scrooge learn the error of his ways and the true meaning of Christmas. But this is the modern day Beano and it all goes completely nuts and utterly chaotic very quickly!

If you thought last year’s tale didn’t let up you haven’t seen anything yet. The team have really outdone themselves. What a team, too! The complete list of writers and artists for this special reads like this: Danny Pearson (who featured in a previous festive OiNK post), Andy Fanton, Nigel Auchterlounie, Laura Howell, Emily McGorman-Bruce, Nigel Parkinson, Barrie Appleby, Steve Beckett, Shannon Gallant, George Cant, Ned Hartley, Mel Prats, Hugh Raine, Alan Ryan, Leslie Stannage, The Sharp Bros. and Wayne Thompson. Phew! Talk about a who’s who of comics talent.

Don’t be expecting this to follow the classic tale that closely. There are moments when it pays its respects but then you’ll turn the page and find the Ghost of Christmas Present has brought Scrooge to the present day of the reader instead of Scrooge’s own timeline, or another has taken him to witness the Bash Street school of the far sci-fi future for no apparent reason, or Bananaman trying to infiltrate a prison before it’s built! Why? That would ruin the surprise. 

Every instance of time jumping sees us back in Rubi’s lab and every time this happens she gets more and more frustrated at the ineptitude of the ghosts. Her thunder is almost stolen by the wonderful Dangerous Dan strip and its completely random ending, there are also some lovely nods back to classic Beano years for the older readers, and a delightfully timey-wimey head-spinning Angel Face Investigates. But Rubi easily manages to hold the crown as her pages made me roar every time she appeared.

It should be clear how much I’ve enjoyed this and I’m not even the target audience. Alongside the whopping 48 pages given over to the story there are also a multitude of quality puzzles, games and activities for the kids, all festively wrapped up in a 76-page special (even bigger than last year’s) printed on exceedingly good quality paper with a card cover. There’s no need to balk at the £7.99 price tag either, by the time you’ve absorbed the amount of gags in here and your kids have laughed and drawn and pranked their way through it all you’ll see it for the bargain it is.

It should be readily available in your local shops and supermarkets. I ordered mine from DC Thomson directly through the Beano’s website shop. It’s available there as a single issue or as part of various bundles with the Beano Annual, Dandy Annual and the traditional special Dandy/Beano book. Also, if your child would like to join the Beano fan club they’ll receive this, the summer special and the annual as part of the club! I’ll say it again: bargain.

Grab a couple of slices of boozy fruit cake and a big glass of your favourite festive tipple but be ready to spurt them out several times while you read this. In other words, you should buy it. The only way it could be improved upon is if they’d included more of those tags! Yes, I’ll die on this hill. Hey Beano, maybe next year? Or put them up on your shop. I wouldn’t be alone in buying them, I’m sure. In the meantime folks, grab yourself a copy of the Beano Christmas Special 2025 and you’ll feel like a big kid even more than usual this holiday season. Guaranteed.

BACK TO THE 2024 SPECiAL

BEANO BOX SET MENU

RETROSPECTiVES MENU

CHRiSTMAS 2025

Beano, Christmas, Comic Reviews

BEANO CHRiSTMAS SPECiAL 2024: A DASHiNG GOOD READ

2 Comments

This review was originally written for and published on Down the Tubes. As I’m now going to cover these yearly specials on the OiNK Blog I decided to copy this post over too.

As I write this the Christmas issue of Beano (No.4266) is out, however every year publisher DC Thomson also releases a separate festive special in advance of the season. Printed on high quality paper and coming in at an impressive 68 pages, it’s almost like another Beano Annual. No one can accuse the team of not going large for the holidays!

All the usual characters are in place from a plethora of top talent, my personal favourites being Andy Fanton, Nigel Parkinson, Nigel Auchterlounie, Laura Howell and friend of the OiNK Blog, Danny Pearson. Initially looking like a bigger regular issue, as you read you soon realise all the strips are part of one story from different perspectives, without ever sacrificing the quality of the individual strips.

Upon opening you’re met with a page of gift labels. Aimed at kids rather than the present-buyers, that doesn’t mean older readers can’t enjoy them, as you can tell from my photos. The one featuring Harsha from Bash Street Kids was particularly well suited to that gift!

So, Santa has been kidnapped and for once the Beanotown kids aren’t to blame. (This is the first Christmas Special I’ve read but it’s clear there’s a history here). When Mrs. Claus asks why he still delivers there when they kidnap him every year, Santa explains, “It’s only most years, and twice it was more of a misunderstanding.”

However, the kids are blamed throughout in some very funny moments, including by Santa’s reindeer, who immediately pin it on Minnie! I just have to mention Dasher at this point. The personality given to him is just perfect for his name and I laughed aloud when I read this scene in the stables. It’s such an obvious gag now that I’m surprised I haven’t read something similar before.

The big bad behind it all is revealed early on as Mayor Brown, who bears a striking resemblance to Richard Osman and whose voice I read his lines in for the rest of the comic. This is a world away from the Beano I read as a kid and that’s a good thing; it has to move on and evolve for today’s kids after all. As a result, the humour moves at a much faster pace, with more quips and banter between characters and some enjoyable breaking of the fourth wall. It’s a lot more chaotic and anarchic. As an OiNK fan, I love it!

I don’t want to ruin what happens because the joy is in not knowing what’s next; something this definitely isn’t is predictable! Bond villain Brown takes Bash Street school as his lair with his robotic snowmen to ruin Christmas, a scenario perfectly set up by spy strip, Dangerous Dan. From here, everyone gets a crack at teaming up with other characters from different creators and it’s fun to see the various artists’ takes on each other’s creations.

I may have had several laugh-out-loud moments but I’m not the target audience, despite how young I felt reading this. However, my friend’s son is. Father and son subscribe to Beano and read it together, and they’ve a set of criteria upon which they judge each and every issue. I know you’re thinking this’ll be a list of favourite characters but it’s a bit more… comprehensive than that. Kids can have very particular tastes.

They want lots of Angel Face and Minnie the Minx for a start. They weren’t disappointed here, especially with the amount of Minnie content. (On a side note, as a fan of Andy Fanton’s work it’s great to see his Minnie is so treasured.) Next, Yeti and Cousin Agnes should feature beyond their own strip and for a special Christmas treat it’s actually Minnie they mingle with here. Dennis also breaks the fourth wall as wanted and, while Rubi’s latest invention isn’t as ‘Heath Robinson’ as they’d like (no, really) it plays a pivotal role and her mistakes bring plenty of smiles.

Always important to get the target audience’s view, right?

There are also several activity pages such as mazes, board games, pranks etc. They may sound clichéd but each is finished to such a high quality you could never call them fillers. I focussed solely on the comic strip (and the free stickers) but there’s plenty for younger readers to do to get more value out of your money.

Whether you’ve kids of your own or just want to read a new funny comic this holiday season, the Beano Christmas Special 2024 is exactly what you need. It even has snow on the logo, so you know it must be good.

GO TO CHRiSTMAS SPECiAL 2025

BEANO BOX SET MENU

RETROSPECTiVES MENU

CHRiSTMAS 2024

Beano, Christmas, Comic Reviews

BEANO #272: A BiRTHDAY BALL

2 Comments

Welcome back to our irregular real time read through of the eight celebratory editions of Beano from DC Thomson’s 80th anniversary box set. Next up is the first issue to have sold one million copies! That’s an incredible achievement on its own, never mind the fact it was back in 1945, not long after World War II and at a time when paper shortages were still in effect. As such, Reg Carter’s Big Eggo fronted a comic of only 12 pages, the smallest it would ever be.

The Beano was also fortnightly at the time, released on alternative weeks to The Dandy so kids still had the opportunity to read some desperately needed funnies every week. I’ve always found this period in the comic’s history fascinating ever since I found out about it in the 50th anniversary Dandy/Beano Fifty Golden Years book I received for Christmas 1987, which you’ll see an overview of this year on Boxing Day on the blog. For now though, let’s open up #272 of The Beano, which celebrates its own 80th anniversary today.

What a selection of names and taglines! Talk about being “of their time”. Researching Cocky Dick meant very careful internet searches but I did eventually find out it was originally drawn by Allan Morley and ran in the comic from 1939 to 1947. There’s an air of Dennis about the strip thanks to the cheeky nature of the main character and the colour scheme of his feathers. Nice of the local council to label their water wells too, otherwise how’d we know what it was.

After an absence of three years Good King Coke (surely a 90s movie drug lord name) had returned for another year-long run, drawn by Eric Roberts, and The Magic Lollipops (“Suck ‘em and see”?!) was also drawn by Allen and ran for ten years between 1941 and 1951, with a one year gap in the middle. I don’t think any other page in either #1 or this edition has been such a clear window into a completely different time.

A Christmas strip! Perfect. With The Beano being fortnightly we were only one issue away from the big festive celebrations and Lord Snooty was getting in on the action already. As the season has already kicked off on the OiNK Blog this year I couldn’t have been happier when I saw this, drawn by Dudley D. Watkins. Snooty’s strip ran from 1938 all the way through to 1991, with a few breaks in the middle.

Upon his return after his first break a lot of his original friends above would be replaced with characters from other, discontinued Beano strips and over the course of his lengthy run he was drawn by a handful of other artists, most notably Leo Baxendale and Robert Nixon. Lord Snooty was the only character from #1 I knew as a child in the 80s (through sneaking a peek at my friends’ issues), by that time he was the last surviving character of that first issue.

Along the top of a Jimmy and his Magic Patch story readers are told to turn to a certain page to find out all the details of the special Christmas issue, but it turns out it’s only this small promo in the middle of a Tick Tock Timothy prose story. The main selling point of the festive issue would be a game called ‘Jinko’, a basic dice board game printed on the back cover. Over the page from this promo we find Tom Thumb is still in the comic, albeit as a picture-panel story instead of the prose of #1.

Another character who was still here but whose format hadn’t changed is one of my favourites from the premiere issue, Charles Gordon’s Granny Green. This was actually a reprint from the original run in the first year-and-a-bit of the comic but obviously I’ve never read it. Again, I really enjoyed it. It includes a quick recap of the premise for any new readers and I originally thought Jimmy’s plan in this particular story sounded awfully cruel… until we find out the water is only a couple of feet deep. Hilariously, the names of the friends mentioned still sound like the kind of creations Bob Mortimer comes up with on Would I Lie To You!

On to the back page and two well known names, beginning with Tin-Can Tommy, the clockwork ‘son’ of Professor Lee and Mrs Lee. He first appeared on the back page of the first issue when he was created after the death of their son because they were struggling with the loss. Originally drawn by the Italian Dinelli brothers who disappeared in France during the war, he was subsequently drawn by Sam Fair, Charles Gordon and George Drysdale but my usual expert resources aren’t aware of who drew this episode.

Tommy would reappear in #3185 in 2003 for the comic’s 60th anniversary. Another character who may also be known by later readers of Beano is Pansy Potter. Pansy was a Beano star between 1938 and 1958 (with breaks), then she moved to Sparky in the 60s and 70s before returning to her original home between 1989 and 1993. That’s the time period in which I remember her from, which she followed up with small runs now-and-again (her last appearance was in #3954) and a couple of annual cameos in 2012 and 2018.

Created by Hugh McNeill and drawn by this stage by Tommy’s Sam, Pansy was the character chosen to be the first strip printed in full colour on the back page a few years later. This strip above reminds me of skating at a temporary rink at Belfast City Hall this time of year many moons ago and the amount of people tripping over chunks of broken ice and toppling into each other. The council not wishing to splash out on a Zamboni never stopped us going back though.

Next time, we’ll jump from 1945 to 1951. Our third issue saw the introduction of a certain boy with a black and red jumper so its inclusion in the box set is no surprise. When this series returns, join me as we travel in time again to the year of The King and I, the Stone of Scone returning to Scotland all on its own, a blue sun, the world’s first nuclear power plant and, in keeping with the theme of Dennis the Menace, the year when a young sailor was fined for the menacing behaviour of kissing his girlfriend in public in Sweden. The Beano #452 will be right here on the OiNK Blog on Saturday 14th March 2026.

BACK TO iSSUE ONE

BEANO BOX SET MENU

RETROSPECTiVES MENU

CHRiSTMAS 2025

Beano, Comic Reviews

BEANO #1: THE FiRST ONE

3 Comments

Off we go then with our gradual real time read through of the eight issues of Beano inside the special 80th anniversary box set, put together by DC Thomson in 2018 for their young readers. It’s important to emphasise the target audience here. The bookazine was a light-hearted look back at the comic’s history and its characters and that’s the whole point here too, for the modern audience of children to celebrate their comic’s birthday with an interesting and gigglesome look back at where it came from.

Hence why a certain mascot is missing from the title banner of this, the quality reproduction of the very first edition that was originally edited by Robert D. Low. This set wasn’t the place for a serious discussion about racist stereotypes and why they were deemed acceptable in 1938. Thankfully, DCT has since realised it should never have been on the cover of a children’s publication in the first place. I think it looks miles better without it and I welcome this change. Reg Carter’s Big Eggo can now shine in his well known first appearance.

The biggest surprise I had upon reading this was just how much of it is text heavy. Only 50% of the 24 pages is made up of comic strips, the rest are prose stories or picture-panel tales such as Morgyn the Mighty. Created by Dudley D. Watkins, it’s just one example of the comic describing regular animals as monsters for the sake of some excitement. Of course children can be better informed today about our world thanks to easier access to a myriad of sources across different media.

It’s all very quaint and we must remember it was released in 1938, 87 years before this review. While I always review comics from my own modern perspective, some latitude can be given to such a classic, one that really is from a different era. Morgyn would disappear from The Beano before the end of its first year, before going on to star in various other DCT comics.

There’s only one character I recognised in the whole issue. Lord Snooty made his debut right back at the very beginning and looks pretty much the same as I remember him from friends’ Beano annuals in the 80s. Overall, as you’d expect the humour strips feel dated but that’s not a criticism. I found it fascinating to see what the children of the day would’ve found funny and how much children’s humour comics have evolved, especially since this particular one is still going strong and I occasionally buy it.

Smiler the Sweeper by Steve Perkins would also disappear within the first year but it’s a good example of the few mini-strip pages. Back when I was a kid it was OiNK that introduced me to comics and the strips would all be of various lengths, but all the other humour comics on the shelves (including The Beano when I was growing up) were pretty much full-page or double-page strips throughout, each character appearing on the exact same page from week to week.

Brave Captain Kipper kills the harmless whale and is portrayed as the hero by a bunch of random strangers. What a git

Of course, today’s Beano is much more varied and it’s interesting to see it started out that way too. Originally #1 contained 28 pages of variety entertainment for kids, four more than this reproduction. There’s a small warning on the bottom of a page stating, “Some pages may contain references which are of their time, but would not be considered suitable today”, although one inclusion was too much, namely the mascot edited off the front cover. Called Peanut, he featured on a page inside and, given how any stapled publication is put together in sets of four pages, once one page is taken out DCT would’ve had to trim further for it to physically work. (Thanks to Lew Stinger for the information on what was on one of those pages.)

Some of the contents which could fall under that warning banner includes child character Wee Peem seen smoking a cigar, a genie in a bottle describing himself as a slave happy to serve, Tom Thumb being captured and treated as a slave for entertainment but we’re meant to think it’s okay because Tom plays pranks on his captors, and one strip is simply called Big Fat Joe! Then there’s Brave Captain Kipper, who’s stupid enough to think he’s on an island when it’s actually a giant, peaceful whale. When it harmlessly blows water over him he kills it and is portrayed as the hero by a bunch of random strangers. What a git.

The Wangles of Granny Green by Charles Gordon is the only humour prose story and startlingly tells the tale of a very young boy whose mother has died and whose father goes on long business trips, leaving him behind to fend for himself. Fed up of the local children thinking he’s weird and of adults trying to look after him, he pretends to be his own grandma (the rhyme along the top reminding me of a particularly funny Muppets song) so that people will just leave him alone.

It’s a fun story and reminds me of the kind of comic strips we’d get years later in the likes of Whizzer and Chips etc. I wish I had access to more of these. The story is imaginative and has the potential to have a lot of heart given the set up, and it has such a quaint bit of hype at the end for the next issue that it’s endearing. It’d run for just over a year, returning for a reprint run in the mid-40s before coming back briefly in 1951. Ironically, the same people who’d complain loudly about what’s not on the cover would most likely also complain if Granny Green appeared today in strip form.

Eric Roberts’ Rip Van Wink wears its influence on its sleeve. A little old man falls asleep in his cave only to wake up 700 years later, the humour coming from his reaction to the modern world and the things kids would’ve taken for granted. It’s a bit of a hybrid with regular comic strip-style speech balloons and captions written in a charming rhyming style, even if some of those rhymes are rather forced. Hey, it just adds to that classic comic feel.

I’m sure this must’ve plucked at the heartstrings of the children reading

Elsewhere, Whoopee Hank the Slap-Dash Sheriff doesn’t provide any clues as to the naming of the original free gift (see the cover), the Shipwrecked Kidds is another lost island tale similar to Morgyn with two spoilt brats and two of their staff, and in a far cry from the modern Beano the only character from any minority is a Tarzan-like child who, even though he has an actual name (Derek) is referred to solely as ‘The Wild Boy’.

My last highlight is My Dog Sandy by Jack Glass, another short-lived series that’s rather brutal at times in its description of what the poor pup goes through with his cruel owner. He may be starting a better life by the end of the page but I’m sure this must’ve plucked at the heartstrings of the children reading. It certain did with me. 

I thought this read through would be fascinating and it’s proved to be right from the off. I’d read about the first issue in the Dandy/Beano The First Fifty Years Book back in 1987 but to read the full issue has been fun and really insightful. To experience it in its almost complete state is something I’d recommend to any humour comics fan as a really entertaining retrospective, an origin story in this case. So what’s next?

Join me next time as we skip forward seven years to the end of World War II, the reduction in food rations, the launch of BBC Light Programme radio which would eventually become Radio 1 and Radio 2, the publication of Animal Farm, the movie Brief Encounter, the Nobel Prize for the discovery of penicillin, the birth of Helen Mirren and the first time we’d meet three steam engines by the names of Edward, Henry and Gordon! Join me on Wednesday 26th November 2025 for The Beano #272, the first issue to sell over one million copies!

GO TO iSSUE 272

BEANO BOX SET MENU

RETROSPECTiVES MENU

Beano, Comic Introductions

BEANO 80th ANNiVERSARY BOX SET: THE READ THROUGH

8 Comments

This isn’t going to be the usual introductory post for a comic (it hardly needs it), nor is this read through going to be usual. But then again, any modern day readers of Beano (and whose children also read it) will know this should suit the anarchic comic that’s on sale today, nearly 90 years after it first appeared. It’s been a long journey from breaking new ground, to being seen as a traditional comic, to being the crazy weekly it’s become today. This read through will take us all on that transformative journey together.

In 2018 Beano’s publishers DC Thomson released a lovely box set to mark its 80th anniversary. Aimed very much at the comic’s young readers it was a way of letting them have a peek at the long history of their favourite comic and its style of humour over the years. The main highlight of this set had to be the eight editions of Beano included, one from each decade of its life and gorgeously reproduced as a collective set.

Also in the box was a fascinating 100-page bookazine designed specifically for the current target audience. As an adult it’s a quicker read than I anticipated but that doesn’t make it any less fun. In fact, that’s the point. Instead of a dry history lesson it’s a fun ride through 80 years of the comic and includes a fascinating look into its creation, for example showing letters between its first editor Robert D. Low and the cartoonist responsible for Big Eggo, Reg Carter.

A selection of contributors are profiled so children can see those who have been making readers laugh for decades and those who have shaped the comic into what they’re familiar with today. There’s also a look at the free gifts, celebrity readers, the comic’s current location and even how it survived World War II. The extras that come with it are brilliant too, beginning with a huge poster of past and present characters which flips over to reveal a key to every single one of them.

There are postcards of some annual covers (strangely missing their years) and a reproduction of a famous, rather noisy free gift. Best of all is the fan club wallet containing the welcome letter and that furry googly-eyed Gnasher badge, which at the time of this box set’s release wasn’t available to readers. A lot of my friends were members of the club in the 80s and now I can finally say I am too, albeit 30 years too late.

But the main reason we’re here are those comics. Each issue marks not only the decade it was published but also a special occasion in the life of Beano, such as the first issue, the first that sold a million, the introduction of Dennis and when it officially received the Guinness World Record for longest-running weekly comic. The plan for the blog is to cover each of these on the dates of their original release.

No, it’ll not be in real time (I don’t have another 80 years in me) but I will be reviewing each issue on the anniversary of its original publication day. Yes, this will be a rather slow read through somewhat, kind of like how I review series of annuals once a year every Christmas. For example, this year #1 will be reviewed on Friday 25th July and the second issue, #272 on Wednesday 26th November.

These won’t be quick recaps, these will be full comic reviews just like every other comic series receives on the OiNK Blog and I can’t wait to get stuck in. If the bookazine is anything to go by this should be a fascinating trip through time. Knowing just how great the comic is today and how popular it is with children when digital distractions are so prevalent, this set looks like it could be the perfect gift for your young Beano reader if you can get a hold of it.

If you can’t, then that’s what I’m here for. So prepare to travel back 87 years to the time of George VI, the first televised test cricket, the first paid holiday leave, the birth of Diana Rigg, Agatha Christie’s Appointment with Death, the Mallard’s record breaking speed run and something happening in Austria that would have no repercussions whatsoever. Join me on Friday 25th July 2025 for The Beano #1!

BEANO BOX SET MENU

RETROSPECTiVES MENU