Beano Comics

The Beano is a British children's comic, published by D.C. Thomson & Co and is arguably their most successful.

The comic first appeared on 30 July 1938,[1] and was published weekly. During the Second World War,The Beano and The Dandy were published on alternating weeks because of paper and ink rationing. D. C. Thomson's other publications also suffered, with the Oor Wullie and The Broons annuals falling victim to paper and ink shortages. Paper and ink supplies were fully restored shortly after the end of hostilities and weekly publication of The Beano and The Dandy resumed in 1949. In September 2009, the Beano's 3,500th issue was published.[2] The Beano is currently edited by Alan Digby, who replaced Euan Kerr in summer 2006. Euan Kerr subsequently edited the BeanoMAX, a version of the Beano for older readers. He has since left however, leaving Alan in charge of both comics.

Its iconic characters such as Dennis the Menace, Roger the Dodger, Minnie the Minx, The Bash Street Kids, Calamity James, Ball Boy, Ivy the Terrible and Billy Whizz have become known to generations of British children. Earlier generations will remember other notable characters which have been phased out, such as Biffo the Bear and Big Eggo. Some old characters, like Lord Snooty and Little Plum, have made a return.

The comics were also distributed in some of Britain's colonies or former colonies. As they were sent by sea mail, they would go on sale some weeks after the date shown on the cover.

A number of strips in the comic have run for a very long time. The top five longest running Beano comic strips are, in descending order, Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx, Bash Street Kids, Roger, the Dodger, then the last holder of the title before Dennis, Lord Snooty. Dennis the Menace's famous 'red and black' jersey had formed the colours of a few of the Beano characters' clothes (Minnie the Minx has the same, although the placement of the stripes is a bit different; Ball Boy's was a vertical red and black; Roger the Dodger has a chessboard design top, and Danny (from the Bash Street Kids) has a similar cap), but they have changed for Minnie and Ball Boy (Minnie at one point had a red and yellow top and Ball Boy's strip is now black and blue).