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Aliens, Comic Reviews

ALiENS #20: APPARENTLY SHE SAW AN ALiEN ONCE

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This month’s cover by Charlie Adlard (The Walking Dead, Nikolai Dante, Savage) may be more comic book-like than the usual painted images we’re used to, but you can’t deny it would’ve stood out on the newsagent shelves. The comic really does appear to being in rude health, not that this would matter in a couple of months. On the editorial page I’ve already had my doubts about Alien War and what’s mentioned here does little to assuage them.

You’d think they’d have had more than one person to play the alien! Anyway, there are your credits for the issue and it’s straight on to the strips and their recap pages have all been given a fresh new look. These are much better, more informative, look great and carry the credits so you don’t have to look back at the editorial to see whose work is terrorising you. Up first is part 13 of Colonial Marines written by Kelley Puckett and unfortunately it’s one of the weakest chapters thus far.

I simply can’t recognise anyone anymore. No one is distinctive so you can’t tell who’s talking or doing something unless their name is mentioned in response, negating any kind of character drama or suspense. Main character Lt. Joseph Henry’s plan is shockingly heartless and not like the character we met and enjoyed so much in the early chapters. To set the kelp beds on fire with a chemical that’ll never stop burning is extreme, and will leave the innocent people here hungry and penniless! To add insult to injury the fire is just forgotten about in the story, its consequences completely ignored.

At one point Vasquez is rescued by a new random character called Herk Mondo, some “legendary” alien killer. This was his first appearance and I instantly disliked his inclusion. Having a lone man capable of destroying hundreds of aliens reduces the xenomorphs to nothing more than pests. It feels like Kelley has backed himself into a corner; a cleansing fire and sudden appearance of a randomer to save the day at the last second is a hugely unsatisfying resolution to a months-long part of this story. Mondo would go on to star in his own comic but that doesn’t make this feel any less than a conclusion plucked out of thin air at the last moment.

Surely the biggest announcement on the cover is the interview with Sigourney Weaver. It’s only two pages but full of fascinating tidbits, even more so with the gift of hindsight. The question of returning to the franchise after Ripley’s death foreshadows what would eventually be the fourth film, although it certainly wouldn’t have the quality she speaks of here. There’s some information about the making of the first two films which should put to rest the silly myth surrounding the filming of the original chest burster scene. It’s telling how she doesn’t mention Alien³ director David Fincher, it appears her project with Dave writer Gary Ross never materialised according to their filmographies and the penultimate question is surely a sad indictment of the times.

I have to say I question the editing of this interview. Sigourney’s answers read like very stilted responses, certainly not like her from the countless interviews I’ve watched over the years. Maybe they’ve been badly edited to fit two pages, or taken from quickly scrawled notes at the Alien War grand opening. A shame, as the information in here is fascinating.

The second part of Dave Gibbon’s Salvation takes up a whopping 16 pages of the issue. Days after killing his captain, Selkirk is still eating his rotting flesh when he finally stumbles across the crashed ship, but he’s being driven mad by fear while he’s awake and by terrifying nightmares when asleep. First Officer Dean shows up to rescue him and of course Selkirk instantly believes this proves god is watching over him.

Dean knows how to get to the escape shuttle, so she takes charge and they slowly make their way through the jungle, coming across some of the primitive ape-like creatures who live there. Taking cover, they witness an alien jump out of the tree canopies and tear one of the creatures apart. Selkirk immediately panics and screams to his god, which of course is an idiotic thing to do. Dean chastises him and tells him to “Shut…”

Too late. Over the next few pages they run through the overgrowth firing in all directions as swarms of aliens descend. I have to say I’ve been loving this tension-filled strip up to this point but let out a bit of a sigh here. I generally prefer stories with one solitary alien, they’re just so much more suspenseful. Now, the movie Aliens is the exception to the rule of course (because it’s perfect) and is my favourite of the franchise. But it was expertly crafted. In everything from Alien: Romulus to these comic strips, when it was one alien it’s more suspenseful and was disappointed when loads turned up. Having our two characters so easily outrun them kind of ruins things here too.

Falling down a multi-tiered waterfall gives them ample distance from the xenomorphs and a chance to catch their breath. Quietly, mind you, as they shelter in a hideout and the aliens begin to stalk nearby. Selkirk starts thinking Dean likes him, that that’s why she came back for him and he starts imagining having sex with her, before coming to the conclusion that god didn’t send her to rescue him, but to test him. The guy is quackers. And a creep.

Dean sets a charge, attracts the aliens, then they make a run for it and detonate the bomb, taking out most of the creatures. Not all though, as Selkirk finds out when he doesn’t see a wire on the ground, trips over it and falls flat on his back in front of an alien for this month’s cliffhanger. There’s a lot to like here, and a lot to love above Mike Mignola’s shadowy, atmospheric art in particular.

I like the fact Selkirk isn’t likeable, in fact he’s a real piece of work. Its original. There’s also something about Dean which makes me believe there’s something we don’t know about her. Is she a figment of his imagination? By the end, after she sets explosives I realised she has to be real, but that initial feeling of ‘something’ is still there. Wonderfully bleak, only the unnecessary inclusion of so many aliens keeps this from being the best strip in the comic’s run so far.

Motion Tracker brings back more happy memories of those days when I began transitioning my VHS collection to widescreen, always excited to learn of a favourite movie being released in the format, and then enjoying seeing more on the screen. Around that time I was also discovering the vast catalogue of movies at my local rental store instead of repeatedly renting favourite films and shows over and over again.

I always knew I should’ve been trying new movies, but it was like wanting to try something different from your local takeaway; after perusing the menu (or the video store) for ages we always pick what we already know we like. But this was indeed a time of discovery and Solar Crisis was one such weekend rental, although I remember absolutely nothing about it. It’s exciting to see Stargate mentioned, I’d loved to have seen the news stories develop if the comic wasn’t coming to its end soon.

UK strip Crusade’s eighth part runs to eight pages and while the art can once again be confusing in places, for the first time every single character featured is well developed and the inter-personal drama is superb. So it appears the Archbishop has been trying to save the city, albeit with human sacrifices! The missing ship crashed through the church, spilling the alien eggs into the Thames from where he’d been able to contain the threat, tying up two of the mysteries including why London had apparently been spared (it hadn’t).

Just as with Selkirk in Salvation, here was another nut job who thought his prayers were being answered and he was doing god’s work when really he’s just twisted. Meanwhile, Channon’s plan is for her and Lesley to slip under the cathedral in their boat and plant enough explosives to take the whole building out. But there are aliens in their way. As always. Inside the church, Foster and Rani discover a crystal boinging to Martha.

Given to her by Rani years before, the Archbishop can’t say whether Martha still lives in the complex or not, he’s seen many pass through these walls… and sacrificed so many! This is getting really good; I’m really caring about the individual characters and the mismatch of settings have come together into one clearly defined whole. If only it hadn’t got off to such a shaky start, we could’ve had this level of quality storytelling for over half a year already.

The Technical Readout this month is intricately drawn but lacks the in-depth prose from early issues. At least the cutaways are back after a long absence. This reminds me of the cutaways from Thunderbirds The Comic in the 90s, even if it does read a little dry by comparison. The drop ship was a cool design in the film though and the model work was top class, so this is a fun look at how it was supposed to work.

Back in #7 of Jurassic Park there was a teaser advert for the upcoming gaming magazine/comic hybrid, Max Overload. I remember later adverts focussed on certain videogame characters alongside a random list of features and it always seemed like a rather cringey idea, even back when I was the target audience. We had our computer and video game magazines, we had our comics, but to join them together always seemed unnecessary. This launch advert from the back page doesn’t change my mind.

A good allrounder of an issue. The initial disappointment with Colonial Marines dissipated with both Salvation and Crusade. However, I can’t help having that nagging feeling over the first strip because it was just so good when it first began. If it had retained that quality this could’ve been a near-perfect issue. Only two more to go. The penultimate trip into the world of the Aliens will be here on Tuesday 17th February 2026.

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Aliens, Comic Reviews

ALiENS #19: DiD iQs JUST DROP SHARPLY WHiLE i WAS AWAY?

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It’s only a couple of days before Christmas Day, so where’s the special cover? Well, Aliens mightn’t have had the easiest of logos to cover in snow, but we did get a (somewhat) festive themed front page last month instead. In case you missed it, you can go and check out Chris Halls’ second yearly seasonal treat in #18’s review. For now, it’s back to the January edition.

Dave Gibbons (Watchmen, Ro-Busters, Doctor Who) joins the Aliens fold at Dark Horse International with the brilliant cover and as writer on a new strip inside. Of course, long-time blog readers will have seen Dave’s work before on the site in the read throughs for OiNK, Death’s Head and Dragon’s Claws, as well as a post about his autobiography Confabulation, so it’s great to see his work back on the site, especially in this comic. A comic which is very strip-heavy this month.

As you can see the Features side of the contents is rather bare looking and this is mentioned by editor Cefn Ridout. It certainly sounds like they’re going to make up for it next month though. Of course this issue has to kick off with Dave’s story as the headline event. Salvation was an American one-shot comic split over two issues this side of the Atlantic and the artist bringing Dave’s script to the page is just as exciting.

Mike Mignola, whose dramatic and original artwork I enjoyed so much in the comics adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula recently on the blog (also see Hellboy, Rocket Racoon) makes his Aliens debut and these 15 pages are dripping in atmosphere, his art taking an already interesting story and making it absolutely compelling. And this is even before we’ve seen him really handle the aliens themselves. We only see part of one dead xenomorph here but that’s enough to have me anticipating the next chapter.

Matt Hollingsworth provides the suitably subdued colours and Clem Robins the lettering to Dave’s story of the survivors of the Nova Maru, a ship whose company trawled backwater planets looking for people desperate for no-questions-asked work to deliver a cargo to a deserted planet. I think we can all guess what the cargo is. Our main character is Selkirk, a religious cook who is mocked both for his religion and the fact he can’t actually cook.

When an alarm sounds we know exactly what’s happened, we’ve seen and read enough Aliens by now. The captain picks Selkirk at random to pilot an escape craft to get him off the ship, so horrified and scared is he by what he saw in the cargo hold he abandons his crew to die. After the crash the captain starts going insane, thinking the aliens are behind every tree, even suspecting Selkirk of being an alien trick. This leads to Selkirk killing him in self-defence in a particularly tense moment, made all the more so by the pitch black shadows of Mike’s art.

All through this Selkirk’s been praying (more Aliens+religion, there’s definitely been a theme recently) and every time a tiny bit of good luck comes his way he thinks it’s a sign and has occurred only because of his prayers. After discovering a half-submerged dead xenomorph and witnessing a bright light in the sky he deduces the Nova Maru has landed or crashed and will be stocked with provisions. Before heading off though, he’s hungry and needs energy for the journey. Looking at the captain’s body he believes god has provided for him again… and he cooks him.

By the end of this first chapter he’s completely relying on prayers and sees everything as intervention from his god, believing he’s being tested. All of the death, all of the people wiped out, and all because god wants to test him? It’s obviously hard to empathise with this lunatic. I’d be quite happy for him to be impregnated but we’ll see what happens next time in this short two-part tale.

In the Motion Tracker news pages Dave Hughes tries his very best to provide yet more hype for the interactive Alien War experience by reporting on its grand opening night. However, it still doesn’t come across great, does it? I had my doubts when it was previously announced it’d been cut down by half to squeeze more people in each day, and I think I was right. I also think he’s imagining things with the Dave movie poster.

Part 12 of Colonial Marines has a new creative force at the helm. Kelley Puckett (Batgirl, The Comet, Kinetic) takes over as writer and in comes Allen Nunis (Classic Star Wars, Images of Omaha, The Frankenstein Dracula War) on pencils and inker Paul Guinan is now joined by John Dell (Speed Racer, Lobo, Femforce). I do prefer this team for the aliens and layouts but the humans seem to have lost their defining characteristics.

Lt. Henry’s plan is to defend Bracken’s World’s central harbour with its tall concrete walls and one entry point, but this is Aliens and we know us humans are spectacularly bad at trying to outthink them. It’s also not much of a plan, simply sending some of the team out to lure the aliens back into a trap. It isn’t the most exciting of plots. Of course, the aliens are actually already at the harbour entrance, predictably lying in wait under the surface and quickly overpower the marines while the rest are out at sea.

Then the drop ship pilot disobeys orders to protect the harbour and instead, in an attempt to save her teammates, she destroys a huge alien Queen right next to the harbour wall, its acid blood producing multiple holes and weak points, eventually leading to its collapse and leaving the harbour exposed. This is the main bulk of the story and it’s just too predictable to be exciting. However, goings on elsewhere intrigue me.

Again the huge bulking android refuses to fight because of how much he cost to make, so are Beliveau’s comments last month ringing true yet for Henry? They seem to be, because amongst the chaos he orders his tech to hack into the android. That’s a big gamble when there’s a battle afoot but Henry must be thinking it might be worth the risk. I’ll look forward to afinding out more about that at least.

Moving on to the concluding part of Chris Claremont’s Renegade, this aliens-less prequel to the new Predator crossover would’ve been better in Total Carnage and the crossover in this comic, surely! But nope, that other comic would get the main event instead. So it turns out Ash’s big secret is that she’s really an android. To be fair, I should’ve clocked that the moment her name was given last issue. However, throughout the galaxy she’s known as Renegade and here she shows us why.

The Ransome ship’s security spot a small 12-year-old girl on a hill with binoculars watching them and immediately classify her as a threat, despite clearly identifying her as a child. When they take aim, meaning to kill her, Ash takes them all out. I’ll admit, it’s a thrilling read and in places Vince Giarrano’s art is powerful! But it’s all tempered by my original point, that it’s being used to promote Total Carnage to Aliens readers, while we miss out.

Crusade may have been the UK exclusive strip at the time but with everything else included this month it’s been reduced to a measly five pages and it suffers as a result. Foston and Rani try to explain to the Archbishop they need to evacuate the cathedral because the aliens are loose in the city. When he can’t convince them to put their faith in god he finally admits he’s been sheltering the aliens in the tower.

He moves to lead them out the door but the aliens from the sewers are there, waiting to get inside, which they can now do easily and immediately start killing his innocent followers. I’m not saying it’s impossible to tell a good story in five comic pages, but writer Michael Cook usually had more space to work with. The story had also started to become more interesting and involving in recent months, so this quick in-and-out is a bit of a let-down; it feels like it’s getting started when it just… stops.

After all the strip action we can take a breather with the letters page and someone asks if a competition can be run for readers to come up with story ideas that could be turned into strips. The answer is interesting, explaining many readers have already sent in unsolicited material, but everything published in the comic has to be “rigorously approved by 20th Century Fox so that new comic strips and illustrated stories featuring their characters do not contravene the nature of those characters and remain faithful to the Alien films.”

The problem is that sometimes the strips remain too faithful. Last month’s issue was great, this month the strips with fewer (or no) aliens that concentrated on the human element were the most interesting, while those filled with aliens basically retread familiar ground from the film series. There are only a few issues left so here’s hoping the new year brings a bit more balance before the comic is placed in its own chryo-chamber.

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CHRiSTMAS 2025

Christmas, Comic Reviews, Transformers

TRANSFORMERS AT CHRiSTMAS: #41

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There may not be any snow on the logo but #41 of Marvel UK’s The Transformers is much more festive than last year’s (not difficult). Now with Ian Rimmer as editor Optimus Prime is in full festive mode thanks to Mike Collins (Axel Pressbutton, Doctor Who, Dragonlance) and Mark Farmer (Sláine, Excalibur, JLA) and the insides are full of cheer including the first seasonal strip, a really fun change to the letters page for the week, a huge competition and decorations all over the editorial page. It’s our first proper Christmas comic of the run and this issue celebrates its 40th birthday today!

Of course it should go without saying Lew Stringer got in on the Christmassy feels too with his always funny Robo Capers and on the right the piece about the office party and poor Soundwave is brilliant. I’ll show what that led to below but first up is Christmas Break-er and regular writer Simon Furman takes a (circuit) break as James Hill (Masters of the Universe, Forest, Misadventures of Adam West: Dark Night) writes, William Simpson (Judge Dredd, Hellblazer, Vamps) draws, Gina Hart (Rupert Bear, Rogue Trooper, 2000AD) provides her usual gorgeous colours and friend of the blog Richard Starkings (Elephantmen, Transformers: Generation 2, Nemesis of the Daleks) letters.

Josie Beller aka Circuit Breaker is back and we get a quick recap of how she was almost fatally injured by the Decepticons and left paralysed, only for the genius computer engineer to create circuitry that enabled her to move again (and fly and fire electric shocks of course, this is a comic after all). Some online reviewers have mocked this image of Soundwave, saying it’s riddled with errors but they’ve spectacularly missed the point. It’s clearly Josie’s hate-filled mind recollecting a traumatic, terrifying moment. The embellishments to his face and hands are telling of her mentality and I think it’s a clever way to get that across pictorially.

Josie has clearly become a bigot after her encounter with Shockwave and his troops. Throughout the comic’s run she’d constantly try to kill Autobots, screaming that all robots are murderers no matter how much evidence is shown to her that there are two diametrically opposing sides. This ended up being the first Transformers strip I ever read when it was reprinted a few years later in a winter special (which we’ll get to eventually but for now you can check it out on Instagram) so I’ve a personal fondness for stories featuring this character. We loved to hate her.

But what about Optimus Prime dressed up as Santa Claus? It’s not as ridiculous as it sounds. Buster Witwicky is teaching the Autobots about Christmas and they’re throwing him a festive shindig to thank him for all his help, while also acknowledging everything they’ve put him through! But Prime is subdued, worried about his abilities as leader and endangering this planet and its people. Having him dressed like this while he contemplates only raises the emotion in his scenes.

At this point in the comic’s run we were seeing him develop beyond the simplistic and stereotypical leader we were used to in the cartoon. But Prowl is worried about the party and doesn’t understand why they’re doing it while still at war. Jazz is also confused with humans. For example, Buster talks about how Christmas means charity to him but Jazz questions why Circuit Breaker chooses to destroy with all of her powers instead. Swap out “powers” for “money” and you get the point James Hill is getting across here.

The main plot involves Josie getting a taste of her own medicine when she witnesses a child falling through ice into a frozen lake. She whips off the clothes she’s been using as a disguise and melts the ice with her electrical energy to rescue the girl. Discovering she’s not breathing, Josie adjusts her output to generate a tiny enough electric shock to restart the girl’s heart and save her life.

But the family turn on Josie, yelling and calling her a freak, even accusing her of breaking the ice in the first place despite seeing her save the girl. To me, this shows how we as a race can react to even the best of intentions with hatred just because a person is different or we don’t understand them. No matter what we see, people can still be led to distrust and hate through mob mentality and assume completely the wrong thing. Sadly, this feels very contemporary.

A while later, Jazz almost crashes from driving too fast in the snow and his quick reactions lead to him ejecting Buster and transforming. While he stands over his unconscious friend this is of course when Josie sees them and assumes he’s attacked the boy, despite what she’s just gone through herself. This is also the second time Jazz has been on the receiving end of her shocks. It’s Buster who stops it all, although why he worded his protestations as he did instead of simply saying there are good and bad Transformers is anyone’s guess. It probably wouldn’t have made a difference anyway.

It’s a strip that’s harmless fun but it’s one with a strong message at its core, one that’s perfect for a Christmas read, especially for the younger readers. How people who grew up with these comics have basically turned out as real life Circuit Breakers is beyond me. Back to the issue at hand and the surprise change to the Shockwaves page was that it had become Rat-Chat for one week only!

There were some brilliantly inventive letters sent in by fans over the course of the run (I laughed at the reference to Fame here) and they were so devoted to their favourite characters and the stories being told. Our letter answerers were always funny. Soundwave had no tolerance for Autobot fans, Grimlock liked to tell readers he was their favourite and later Dreadwind was incredibly sarcastic. Here, Ratchet has a good laugh choosing the anti-Soundwave letters and even the Stock Exchange chosen fits with the theme.

Oh, and the “puttup” thing was the phrase Soundwave used when he had to talk about an Autobot. In case it wasn’t clear, a later strip would show him spitting and the lettering in the panel used the same phrase. Moving on and right beside this page are a bunch of potential presents for the readers in the big Christmas competition. It had several prizes up for grabs but the one that stands out for me is the Transformers Train and Battle Set!

It’s such a shame there’s only a teeny tiny, badly reproduced picture of it. During the real time read through of the comic I did a few years back I strained my eyes as much as I could on this but to no avail. Thankfully, I’ve now discovered Transformers Wiki and they’ve got loads of images and information on it. I’d have loved this as a kid! Lots of transforming train parts and the small little robots that came with it even appeared in the cartoon along with the locomotive! Any Transformers fan will want to go and check that out.

The Machine Man of 2020 may not have anything Christmassy about it but it’s still a very special episode because it contains a showdown between our hero and none other than Iron Man. But why are they fighting? Well, this isn’t Tony Stark. This is Arno Stark, The Iron Man of 2020. This was the first story he appeared in before returning in another back up strip of Spider-Man’s. Arno isn’t a hero. He inherited Stark Industries and uses the suit in his role as a mercenary for hire.

The character would reappear on and off in various Marvel titles and his own one-shot special. He’s actually appeared on the blog before in the final issue of Death’s Head when he went up against the Freelance Peace-Keeping Agent in an excellent finale to that series. Aaron Stack (Machine Man) takes a beating before he finally flips the script on Arno, and as you can see the storyline ties in neatly with this issue’s Transformers with its similar anti-bigotry theme.

Written by Tom DeFalco (Archie, Amazing Spider-Man, Thor) and Barry Windsor-Smith (Conan the Barbarian, Weapon X, Solar Man of the Atom) the art in these final fight scenes is just incredible. Barry also drew and coloured all of this, and there’s not a single example of that staple of 80s American comics of solidly colouring whole sections or characters in one colour. Instead, everything here is intricately detailed and looks gorgeous. It’s just a coincidence this is the chunk of the strip that ended up in this issue but it feels extra special as a result and adds to the overall feel of a very special issue.

To round off the review of this 40-year-old comic are a couple of adverts. The first is for the latest Marvel UK specials. I’ve covered the Transformers one as part of the Instagram read through and it’s a lovely thing with its card cover and spine, the last time the Collected Comics series would be presented in this way. Then, taking over the back page were the top-selling toys of Christmas 1985.

I’ve never seen an original Megatron toy in the real world (complete with his, um… trigger) but I do remember Optimus Prime. A friend owned him in his original metal form before he was made of plastic. After previous Transformers toys had been selling like hot cakes with brandy cream, the release of the two most popular characters in the UK caused a sensation, with Optimus becoming the number one gift that year.

We’ve reached the end of our second festive issue of the comic but there’s more to come this holiday season. In four days, on Christmas Day itself there’ll be a full review of the very first Transformers Annual! So, while the kids are playing with their new toys you can take a trip back to when Santa brought you everything you could’ve wished for too. I’ll see you then.

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CHRiSTMAS 2025

Beano, Christmas, Comic Reviews

BEANO CHRiSTMAS SPECiAL 2025: TiME FOR FUN

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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.

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Beano, Christmas, Comic Reviews

BEANO CHRiSTMAS SPECiAL 2024: A DASHiNG GOOD READ

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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.

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