Advertisement
|
|
The Beano Comics History ScarceComics.co.uk
|
The History of The Beano Comic
There are quite a few web pages out there now, explaining the history of the Beano comic, here’s our one – we hope to educate you all a little!
D.C. Thomson & Co .Ltd launched the first Beano Comic on the 30th of July 1938. It was issued mainly to newsagents. The comic was issued with a free gift ‘The Whoopee Mask’. Only a few issues have been found to still exist today, because of this the value of the comic to collectors is extremely high. The price of the comic can vary tremendously due to the condition it is in. If the comic was for up for auction in poor condition, with large tears, pieces missing, marks on it, large creases etc, etc, I don’t expect it would reach £1000. Then again saying that, this comic does seem to dramatically go up in value year after year. On the other hand, if the comic was up for auction in Fine+ condition with the free gift I expect it could reach £20 000+!
D.C. Thompson & Co .Ltd had previously just launched the other well known comic entitled ‘The Dandy Comic’ (launched on the 4th of December 1937).
As I’m sure you will know the 2nd Word War started in 1939, so this makes the early Beano comics even harder to find, as children were advised all through the war, not to collect them and give them in as waste paper to help the war effort. Issues would have also been handed around from family to family, in many cases from families who had some money to poorer ones. You may notice the Nazi Swastika shaved into Big Eggo’s body! (see picture)
A lot of War Propaganda started popping up in issues from the late 1939 issues to issues from 1945. Some propaganda was subtle, some not so subtle!
The pre 1948 Beano comics are a lot harder to find than the issues after 1948. As a result of this the early war issues can cost hundreds of pounds to buy, if you’re lucky enough to find one. The issues that came out in the later war years were made with less paper, the whole comic was quite dramatically reduced in years after the war (1947/8).
In 1948 D.C. Thomson & Co .Ltd decided to take Big Eggo off the front cover of the Beano comic. Big Eggo appeared on the front cover of the first issue (1938), and did until the 24th of January 1948. Biffo the Bear took the front page from this date, and was a very popular character before the likes of Dennis the Menace.
If you find any ‘Landmark’ issues, or just generally special issues like Christmas ones, they are always worth keeping/ buying. The last issue with Big Eggo on the front cover would be of interest to collectors. As would the first issue with Biffo the Bear on the front cover.
Probably the most well known Beano comic character in Britain will be Dennis the Menace. Without his trademark red and black stripes, he appeared for the first time in issue No 452. This comic was out in the newsagents ready to buy on the 5th of May 1951. Don’t we all kick ourselves for not buying the whole bundle on the shelf! This comic is surprisingly very rare, probably because anyone who has it will not sell it, and know one knew at the time how big Dennis the Menace would turn out to be, so know one necessarily bought this issue to collect. This comic will easily reach the hundreds in anything above VG condition at auction.
Dennis didn’t have a dog for many years, but finally in 1968 Gnasher appeared with Dennis as his dog. This issue is definitely worth looking for, its hard to find as people once again keep it in their personal collections. Dated the 1st of August 1968 - issue No 1363.
Biffo out Dennis in. In 1974 Dennis the Menace became the front cover star, along side Gnasher – of course! Issue No. 1678, Dated September the 14th.
Getting a lot nearer to the present date, in 1993 the Beano comic saw its first full colour issue, Dated the 5th of October.
There is a lot more information about every single character, look, etc, etc of the Beano comic from 1938 to this present date, I’ve just highlighted the more significant aspects. If you have any information that you would like to add to this page on the Beano comic’s history please contact history@thebeanocomics.co.uk.
(All images used above, are comics owned by Scarce Comics)
Scarce Comics Co
|
|
|
|
|
|
