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 :)

THE BASH STREET KIDS LEARN HOW COMICS ARE MADE

Browsing through the comics that I found waiting for me at the post office upon my return from holidays, I came across this interesting set of the Bash Street Kids in which the class learn how their favourite comic is made. 

It wasn’t uncommon to see comic characters reading their own paper in their strips but a story showing the mechanics of making a comic is a rare treat so I thought you might be interested to see it.

The episode is from THE BEANO No. 2155 cover-dated 5th November, 1983.

Here is the strip in one piece for those of you who prefer to read it that way: