CHRISTMAS IS A COMIN'

Early this week I received my copies of The Dandy and The Beano - Classic Christmas Comic Covers 1937-1969 book from Phil Shrimpton. This super-nice volume has already been covered, praised and promoted on many other blogs and sites, and I am sure many of my readers have already bought themselves a copy, but since I happen to have a little something to do with the book (as indicated in the Credits section), I would like to urge you to order another one or two as a Christmas gift to your friends and family. Please, remember that the success of this book will determine whether we’ll see more of the kind in the future... 

Copies are available directly from Phil_comics HERE, or eBay HERE. 

THE BASH STREET KIDS MAKE THEIR OWN MAG

As promised, here is another episode of the Bash Street Kids that deals with the subject of making comics. The class join the publishing industry by producing their own Bash Mag and nearly put the Beano out of business, so the Editor resorts to begging and bribery to persuade the Bash Street Kids to withdraw… The set is from THE BEANO No. 1160 (year 1964).

THE BASH STREET KIDS LEARN HOW COMICS ARE MADE. PART TWO

In his comment to my previous blogpost Peter Grey mentioned two more visits of the Bash Street Kids to THE BEANO offices. Both were reprints from old comics included in the DANDY/Beano Magic Moments book which unfortunately I haven’t got a copy of. Peter kindly sent me photos of the two sets and I checked my collection for the original comics where both stories first appeared but it turns out I haven’t got them either (Peter – the Sutherland set is definitely not from 1961, 1962, 1963 or 1964… It must have appeared later on, or maybe it was in an early Beano Holiday Special). Here is the cover of the book and photos of both reprints.

The search for the two episodes wasn’t in vain because I came across other two interesting sets about the making of comics. The first one comes from THE BEANO No. 1090 (year 1963). The Bash Street Kids visit THE BEANO printing works and cause a full-scale ecological disaster. It’s a lovely episode and even includes a colouring contest. Below is the image of the whole centrespread, followed by cropped panels for easier reading. I will include the other episode in my next blogpost. It is from a 1964 issue and shows how the class went into publishing business. Watch this space :)