The Beano is a British anthology comic magazine created by Scottish publishing company DC Thomson. Its first issue was published on 30 July 1938, and it published its 4000th issue in August 2019. Popular and well-known comic strips and characters include Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx, The Bash Street Kids, Roger the Dodger, Billy Whizz, Lord Snooty and His Pals, Ivy the Terrible, General Jumbo, Jonah, and Biffo the Bear.
Roger the Dodger is a comic strip character from the comic magazine The Beano. He first appeared in his eponymous comic strip in 1953, and is one of the longest-running characters, known for his tactics of avoiding responsibility and his parents' rules, usually with the help of instructional "dodge" books.
The Bash Street Kids is a comic strip in the British comic magazine The Beano. It also appeared briefly in The Wizard as series of prose stories in 1955. The strip, created by Leo Baxendale as When the Bell Rings!, first appeared in issue 604. It became The Bash Street Kids in 1956 and has become a regular feature, appearing in every issue. From 1962, until his death in 2023, David Sutherland drew over 3000 strips in his time as illustrator.
Minnie the Minx, whose real name is Hermione Makepeace is a comic strip character published in the British comic magazine The Beano. Created and originally drawn by Leo Baxendale, she first appeared in issue 596, dated 19 December 1953, making her the third longest running Beano character behind Dennis the Menace and Roger the Dodger.
Beatrice "Bea" Menace is a fictional character from the British comic magazine The Beano. She was born in issue 2931 and is the baby sister of Dennis the Menace. She appears frequently in her brother's comic strip, but would receive comic strips of her own to star in, including a crossover comic strip with Ivy the Terrible.
Lord Snooty is a fictional character who stars in the British comic strip Lord Snooty and his Pals from the British comic anthology The Beano. The strip debuted in issue 1, illustrated by DC Thomson artist Dudley D. Watkins, who designed and wrote Snooty's stories until 1968, but the stories would continue featuring in Beano issues until 1991, with occasional revivals and character cameos.
Bananaman is a fictional character appearing in British comic books. Bananaman is a parody of traditional superheroes, being portrayed as a schoolboy who is transformed into a muscled, caped adult man when he eats a banana. The character originally appeared in Nutty as the back page strip in Issue 1, dated 16 February 1980 drawn by John Geering.
The Dandy was a Scottish children's comic magazine published by the Dundee based publisher DC Thomson. The first issue was printed in December 1937, making it the world's third-longest running comic, after Il Giornalino and Detective Comics. From August 2007 until October 2010, it was rebranded as Dandy Xtreme.
The Numskulls is a comic strip in The Beano, and previously in The Beezer and The Dandy – UK comics owned by D.C Thomson. The strip is about a team of tiny human-like technicians who live inside the heads of various people, running and maintaining their bodies and minds. It first appeared in The Beezer from 1962 until 1979, drawn by Malcolm Judge.
Big Eggo was a British comic strip series about an eponymous ostrich, published in the British comic magazine The Beano. He first appeared in issue 1, dated 30 July 1938, and was the first ever cover star. His first words in the strip were "Somebody's taken my egg again!". It was drawn throughout by Reg Carter.
Ping the Elastic Man was a British comic strip that appeared in The Beano. It was about a boy who could stretch his limbs as if they were made of elastic and was created by Hugh McNeill.
Dudley Dexter Watkins was an English cartoonist and illustrator. He is best known for his characters Oor Wullie and The Broons; comic strips featuring them have appeared in the Scottish newspaper The Sunday Post since 1936, along with annual compilations. Watkins also illustrated comics such as The Beano, The Dandy, The Beezer and Topper, and provided illustrations for Christian stories. Watkins was posthumously inducted into the British Comic Awards Hall of Fame in 2015.
Hairy Dan was a British comic strip character by Basil Blackaller originally published in the magazine The Beano Comic in the comic strip of the same name. It first appeared in issue 1 on 30 July 1938 and ran until issue 297.
Helpful Henry was the name of two comic strips—one from the United States, the other from the United Kingdom.
Wee Peem was a British comic strip character in The Beano, first written and designed by James Jewell. He starred in two comic strips between 1938 and 1957, and would get up to various forms of mischief in a similar way to later Beano strips such as Dennis the Menace and Minnie the Minx.
Dennis the Menace and Gnasher is a long-running comic strip in the British children's comic The Beano, published by DC Thomson, of Dundee, Scotland. The comic stars a boy named Dennis the Menace and his dog, an "Abyssinian wire-haired tripe hound" named Gnasher.
Jim Petrie was a British comic artist born in Kirriemuir, Scotland. He is most notable for drawing 2,000 episodes of Minnie the Minx, a comic strip featured in The Beano, after taking over from the strips original artist Leo Baxendale in 1961. Jim Petrie's first Minnie the Minx strip appeared in The Beano dated 6 June 1961 and featured Minnie destroying her mother's feather duster to make a red indian headdress and taking her friends captive. This strip ended with Minnie being caught by her father and subsequently slippered by him, a common end for a comic strip from this era.
Jack Flash is a British adventure story character published in the British comic magazine The Beano, first appearing in issue 355 with artwork by Dudley Watkins. He featured for almost a decade in five serials, following his time as a foreigner to Earth and living in a Cornish village.
Nero and Zero was a comic strip originally in the boys' story paper The Wizard, published by DC Thomson. This strip started on 1 November 1930 and was originally drawn by Allan Morley. The strip featured the subtitle the "Rollicking Romans" and featured two bumbling Roman guards called Nero and Zero who guarded Caesar. The strip lasted in the Wizard for ten years. The strip also appeared in The Beezer's first issue.
