Beano Comics

Inspired by the success of The Dandy (4th December 1937), The Beano Comic, as it was originally known, appeared on July 30th 1938, a great day in the Beano Comics' history. The success of both The Beano Comic and The Dandy which both survive today is fortuitous due to the fact that they were released immediately prior to the outbreak of the Second World war in 1939. Big Eggo, drawn by Reg Carter, was on the very first Beano Comic cover.

With the advent of the Second World War in 1939, many of the Beano Comic characters were conscripted to help in the fight against the Nazi's. Characters such as Pansy Potter, The Strongman's Daughter and Lord Snooty & his pals helped encourage children to do their bit for the war by saving waste paper and metal.

During WW2 the Beano Comic did its bit to boost morale amongst its readers. Lord Snooty and Pansy Potter were often seen giving the enemy a kick up the backside. It also ensured that boys and girls helped the war effort by putting all their old comics into the salvage bin. Hence, the rather high prices now being paid for war time Beano Comics.

On 17th June 1950, the name of the comic changed from The Beano Comic to simply The Beano.
In 1951 came the entrance of “The World's Wildest Boy”, Dennis the Menace drawn by David Law. In Dennis the readership had a hero whose job in life was to make adults ' lives a misery.

April 1953 saw the arrival of Roger the Dodger penned by Ken Reid and later the same year the girls had their own anti-hero in the form of Minnie the Minx (Leo Baxendale). The pen of Leo Baxendale was seen in action again in February 1954 with the first appearance of the Bash street Kids in Beano Comics was in a strip called "When the Bell Rings" and in June 1959 with "The Three Bears".

The reason for the success of the Dandy Comics and Beano Comics were due to its radical new approach to comics. It's physical size was small and practical when compared to Illustrated Chips, Funny Wonder and Jester.

Although the Beano Comic of today is pure comic strip, back in 1938 it was very different indeed. The original 28 page issue had seven full text stories. These took up 10 of those 28 pages. There were also six stories in the traditional, narrative under picture format, with the remaining pages experiencing the radical speech balloons only format. In fact, even some of these stories had narrative under the picture.