h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: A Brief History Of The Beano - A13753028
Author: Aximili - Video Gamers of H2G2! A16334282! - U4646274

This was in the Writing Workshop and it was suggested that I move it here. Any suggestions and advice would be appreciated.

F4901536?thread=3390753 is the original Writing Workshop thread

Hi Ax,

I'll have a good look through this in a bit but it does need a little bit of fleshing out to describe such a childhood icon as the Beano.

<> DC Thomson

<> Try http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/2543339.stm . Another first edition went for £7,500 in 2002.

I know the entry is entitled a 'Brief History...' but perhaps a little section on some of the main characters would help to explain who they all are to anyone who doesn't know.

Perhaps a mention of the free gifts that were stuck to the front of some editions? (I worked for DC Thomson in Dundee for a brief summer in the early 90's as a student sellotaping free gifts onto the front of thousands of Beanos) They weren't on every weekly edition, but I reckon they must have averaged about one a month as a rough guess. Chewy sweet bars and plastic boomerang type things were the usual.

There is also a bronze statue of Minnie the Minx in Dundee City Centre along with the one of Desperate Dan

And there's no mention of Biffo the Bear! He was the front page star of the Beano for years until Dennis the Menace took over! And my personal favourite....

Great start on a home grown favourite though!

Deakie (a native Dundonian)

I noticed one teeny little first-person reference in there that should be changed.

While reading I kept asking myself 'But Dennis' dog's name was Ruff, wasn't it?' - and indeed it was... in *this* Dennis the Menace:
http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/dennis/about.htm
which is probably nearly the staple to the American public as yours is to the British public. Probably bears a mention that they aren't one and the same. Strangely enough, they were created at around the same time, though.

Hi
You mentioned the free gifts. Some times there was a thing called a clacker then another time a fortune telling gimmick and lots of weird and wonderful gee gaws. Also if my dodgy old memory serves me correctly Sherbert dips after the lifting of sweet rationing.
The Beano and Dandy were wonderful fill ins in our dimal lives during the war years.

Ah, there's nothing like nostalgia, is there? I've still got a drawer stuffed full of these at home.

Few points I'd like to raise:

It'd be nice to know what 2d is in new money (ie pounds sterling)

You might want to make it clearer it's an English comic.

How can you leave out the Bash Street Kids, for goodness sake! Calamity James would be nice too, if only for the sake of the little squelchy things (remember them?)

As a kid, I remember being asked to wear a Minnie the Minx reflective armband to keep me safe on the roads. I think Dennis the Menace was involved as well.

And on a personal note, does anyone remember a recent christmas issue that had a full length Bash Street Kids strip drawn by an exciting new artists where the kids performed a nativity play. Spotty as an angel, swinging on a rope and flattening the shepherds? It was a classic.

<>


Ahem, it's published in Dundee, it's a Scottish comic!!! (I'll let you off with British!)

Sorry, I am woefully ignorant

A couple of things, and a bit of nostalgic waffling:

Two popular culture references:

- It might be worth pointing out that the most famous public badge-wearing member of the Dennis the Menace fan club is probably Jeanette Krankie, roughly 50% of downright weird variety act the Krankies.

- Lord Snooty seems to have been a bit of a preoccupation of Viv Stanshall, who refers to him in two Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band classics:

'I shall baffle you with cabbages and rhinoceroses in the kitchen, incessant quotations from 'Now We Are Six' through the mouthpiece of Lord Snooty's giant poisoned electric head.' ('My Pink Half of the Drainpipe')

'Lord Snooty and his pals - tapdancing' ('The Intro and the Outro')

(opportunities for links to Entries on both Viv and the Bonzos there!)

I'm confused about why there is a reference to a Desperate Dan statue though. (That's for an Entry on the Dandy, surely?)

Oh the free gifts! I remember my first copy was inspired by the free gift of a lollipop. Around September 1978 I reckon. And the following week (I think) there was this think made out of paper that made a snapping sound when you waved it about...

It all got ruined for me with the introduction of Rasher the pig and, worse of all, Gnipper!

I haven't read it for years though. Did they have to get rid of the cane when it was banned in schools?

They always used to make a big deal out of the fact that the guy who played Luke Skywalker was a member, too.

Are you still working some of these comments in, Axi?

Here are a few more things I noticed on a second read-through:

by printed in lesser numbers >> be printed
The comic had given birth to a number of spin-offs >> but then the items listed are special editions and merchandise, which might be considered supplemental, but aren't spin-offs. Also, should it be 'has given'?
a yearly annual >> wouldn't an annual be automatically yearly?
eleven year olds >> eleven-year-olds
I am sure that the results would be the same >> first-person reference should be re-written, maybe, 'it is likely that the results...'
A copy of issue 1 >> issue one, or the first issue
Issue 1660 (11 May, 1974 was accidentally mis-numbered 1659) >> Issue 1660 (11 May, 1974) was accidentally mis-numbered 1659.
Link for Star Wars - A142228

If you let us know when you've made some updates we can all have another gander

Axi, still working on this?

Sort of... I'm thinking of taking it out of PR for a while... I've worked in a few new bits, though, and am planning a section on the most famous characters.

Thanks for the help, everyone!