A cover from 1980 shows Dennis the Menace on cheeky comic form. Picture courtesy of the Cartoon Museum
A new exhibition at the Cartoon Museum in London celebrates the 70th birthday of The Beano comic.
The Beano and The Dandy, which was launched eight months earlier in December 1937, were responsible for entertaining generations of British children who grew up with the antics of characters like Corky the Cat, Biffo the Bear, Dennis the Menace and Desperate Dan.
The exhibition presents original comic artwork spanning eight decades and shows how the comics and their characters have developed. The cast of characters includes Ball Boy, Bully Beef and Chips, Brassneck, The Three Bears, Les Pretend and Winker Watson as well as feisty girl characters such as Pansy Potter - The Strongman’s Daughter and more recently Ivy the Terrible.
Cheeky Dennis the Menace and his wicked pet dog are bound to revive memories of childhood for visitors to the exhibition. Picture courtesy of the Cartoon Museum
In the late 1930s, The Beano and The Dandy brought a new format to comics. They came in a handy size with a mixture of picture stories and comic strips and they were a big hit with their young readers.
Early favourites were Lord Snooty and the cow-pie-eating Desperate Dan, drawn by Dudley D Watkins. When the war came, the number of pages was cut due to paper shortages and the comics appeared on alternate weeks, but they never ceased production and did their bit to raise morale.
The 1950s saw the British comic enter one of its most dynamic periods. At DC Thomson, artists such as David Law, Leo Baxendale and Ken Reid were producing ingenious drawings, which inspired many future cartoonists and animators.
An early sketch of Dennis the Menace shows how he developed as a character over time. Picture courtesy of the Cartoon Museum
It was also the decade that saw the introduction of many classic characters, some of whom are still with us today, such as Dennis the Menace, the Bash Street Kids, Minnie the Minx and Roger the Dodger.
This period also coincided with record comic sales. In the week beginning April 22 1950 the Beano sold a staggering 1,974,072 copies and sales stayed well over one-and-a-half million copies weekly throughout the decade.
Some things have changed. For instance, the comics’ graphic style has evolved to suit modern tastes. Children of all ages however still love the mischief and mayhem created every week in The Beano and The Dandy.
