Wednesday 22 August 2018

Beano #452; Enter an icon

Let's continue our trip through the decades of The Beano's life, which began with an overview here, continued with a review of the first issue from 1938 here and the first issue to sell a million copies here.

So now we venture into the 1950s and we can see how the comic is evolving and growing to appeal to a new generation.

It's issue #452 from 1951 and it was chosen for the excellent boxed set because of a significant new arrival.
To begin at the beginning: the cover has changed.

Boring old Big Eggo has been usurped as cover star by Biffo the Bear, being relegated to mascot. He now occupies the space previously reserved for Little Peanut, whom I am pleased to see the back of.

Biffo was another Dudley D Watkins creation who first appeared in January 1948 with a Mickey Mouse-inspired look (I assume) and remained cover star until 1974. He continued to appear inside the comic until 1999 has had several attempted revivals since.

The strips were largely rooted in silent comedy and could feature Biffo in any kind of role. Here he is, running a cafe, being vexed by a human fly from a nearby circus.
I do like that image with the laughing walrus.

Time to go inside.

As with previous issues, page 1 has three short comic strips. However this issue has no other page with more than one strip, another sign of the comic evolving, giving characters room to breathe and grow rather than just deliver a quick gag.

Maxy's Taxi is a quick gag strip about a chap called Maxy. Who has a taxi. (Our cabby's here - with fun and cheer)

Here he is delivering a vibrating package: 
No, it's not a box of caravan shakers, it's a jelly.

Have-a-Go Joe (Do or die - he'll have a try) is seen here living up to his motto by testing a batch of bullet-proof waistcoats! 
The last waistcoat is faulty and the final panel is Joe, slumped on the ground, gasping: "Tell my wife I love her..."

Not really, he gets pinged by a small boy with a pea shooter.

The Magic Lollipops (suck 'em and see!) survive from #272, but is starting to look old.

This is a weird one, as a bloke with a complex over his big nose (a kid is seen shouting "What a beak!" in the first panel) and is offered a magic lollipop to help. However the conjuring confectionery turns into garden shears! 
And the chap is insulted, blames the boy and forces him to do chores. The lesson: never offer to help a stranger.

The third page is still the home of Lord Snooty and His Pals, as he was in both our previous looks. However the strip had an 18 month hiatus starting in June 1949 and when it came back, he had all-new "pals".  
Scrapper and Rosie (who were there in #1) are still with us, as are troublesome twins Snitch and Snatch (who joined soon after). They are joined with Big Fat Joe and Mary the mule (formerly Contrary Mary) who had their own strip in #1. Added to that is Pongo the dog and three other refugees from cancelled strips: Doubting Thomas, Swanky Lanky Liz and Polly.

Ah, Polly. now here's another problematic one...

She was a little girl with a clumsy pet dog in a strip entitled Polly Wolly Doodle and Her Great Big Poodle. And she was a black-face caricature.

Like Little Peanut, this creates a dilemma for DC Thomson. Have a look at the image above. Polly is the character second from the right. In this reprint she has been white-washed.

Below is the image as it would have originally looked, published here purely for historical context:
Also note that the reprint removes the names of the pals, I assume to further eliminate the memory of Polly. She is also edited in the strip itself, which hardly seems worth it as she is only in three out of the thirteen panels and barely visible in them. And as a white girl is barely indistinguishable from Rosie.

I get it, though. I understand that this kind of imagery is unacceptable today especially in products aimed at children. However Polly was a rare non-white female character appearing regularly in one the most popular (if not the most popular) children's comics of the day. And she was just one of the gang, completely accepted, rarely the butt of jokes. And that seems special and a bit of a shame to ignore.

Granted, I'm white and not old enough to have read this strips at the time but I'd love to hear opinions of anyone other.

Anyway, this week's story involves the gang trying to ride bikes but as there aren't enough to go round they end up getting help putting the spare parts together to make one big superbike. 
And that's a terrific piece of Watkins art. Incidentally, that's Polly at the back. Now that I think of it, maybe she was always pushed to the back...

My favourite discovery on these reviews has been Granny Green, the boy who pretends he is his own grandmother to keep away busybodies. She/he debuted in #1, continued in #272 and here in #452 it gets rebooted!

They are no longer "Wangles" they are The Quick Tricks of Granny Green. 

"Join the fun with Granny Green - The trickiest Granny ever seen!"
It's still a prose story, but now a page and a half long. And it's a complete rewrite of the story from #1.

It clears up some problems and adds some details to make the premise make more sense (Jimmy's dad has gone on a business trip to Australia; The Aunt supposed to look after him is taken ill; the family solicitor supplies "granny" with money;) but it hits all the same story beats.

The best additional detail is that Jimmy's dad had apparently used to have a drag act! We are told that he had been an actor and "had often done turns dressed up as an old lady". He still has a trunk full of costumes, wigs and make up. I assume for sentimental reasons.

If you're wondering what was on the other half-page, it saw the arrival of a strip about some kid.

"Look! Here's a new pal you'll enjoy - He's the world's wildest boy!" 
It won't last.

Next we have our first picture strip luckless orphans The Hungry Little Goodwins ("Two brave runaways whose only friend is a hunted highwayman"). A weird hybrid adventure serial of Dickensian poverty and robbery. 

A brother and sister, Jeff and Nell are on the run (from what, I know not) but have a guardian angel in the shape of one "Dick Turnpin", a notorious highway robber. 

I'm not sure why the writer chose not to call him Dick Turpin, the name of the real-life highwayman, romanticised in William Harrison Ainsworth's 1834 novel Rookwood. 

It certainly wasn't copyright reasons. And why change by only one letter? He even has a horse with the same name (Black Bess). And the surtitle on page two calls him "Dick Turpin". 
Anyway, this week's thrilling story has our heroes duped out of money by a mean baker and grabbed by the beadle!

The two of them are forced into the workhouse and made to scrub the floors. Things get full-on Dickens when, after being served "thin, watery soup" for a meal, Jeff asks for more. 
Needless to say, Dick rescues them by threatening the beadle with a pistol.

Incidentally, the novel Oliver Twist was published 100 years after Turpin was hanged. But the story was started only 3 years after Ainsworth's novel was published. 

The second of only two prose stories is Tommy's Clockwork Town. And it is bonkers. 
Set in the old west, young Tommy Tucker is travelling across America with Professor Corker and a lorry full of clockwork people and a towns-worth of building to house them. 

This week they run across a small town with unruly children ("all sons of cow-punchers") so out-of control we discover them throwing their school-teacher in the river!

To teach them a lesson, town unleashes the mechanical marvel that builds an entire town next door, complete with clockwork people. Now, as with #272's Tick Tock Timothy, "clockwork people" essentially means androids. 

"The clockwork figures looked so natural that Pudge and his pals thought they were real people."

Take that Boston Dynamics!

Anyway, the town teacher rounds the boys up and thrashes some discipline into them. They are soon turned into model citizens. And I don't mean like clockwork models. It's uncomfortable.

I have, however, been surprised in just how little corporal punishment I've seen in these early issues. I guess it didn't become a comedy trope until later. Was it Leo Baxendale's fault? Come back next time...

Page two of this story is shared with another Wild West story, this time comedy strip Ding-Dong Belle, about a woman sheriff (a woman?). Here she is tackling the contemporary problem of knife crime. 
The second of this issue's two picture strips is the continuing adventures of Jimmy and His Magic Patch (Who is Jimmy's latest chum? None other than Robert the Bruce, by gum !).

We last saw Jimmy as a peasant slave in #272 but our adventure today begins with Jimmy on a school field trip to collect what would today be referred to as minibeasts. Fascinated by a spider he begins thinking about the story of Robert the Bruce. And soon... 
The downhearted King of Scotland is shown the famous spider by Jimmy and it gives him resolve to continue into battle. Jimmy, having recently studied the Battle of Bannockburn, gives Robert the strategy he needs to win!

It's the bootstrap paradox!

It's never mentioned in the story  but Robert's enemy here is the English army under Edward II. This means the English readers of The Beano (a significant majority) would cheering on an English defeat.

The story is resolved by Jimmy pouring his jar of minibeasts down some enemy (English) soldiers' jerkins.

Then, after winning the day, the patch sends Jimmy home.
"If only they knew, Tommy. If only they knew!"

The back cover still has Pansy Potter on it, but thankfully no Tin Can Tommy. Pansy gets the whole page to herself now and the strip has been re-titled Pansy Potter in Wonderland.

The original Hugh McNeill strip has been significantly retooled by Jimmy Clark and is far less cartoony than previous. As the title suggests, she now lives in a land full of fairy tale and nursery rhyme characters. 

This week feature that wacky prankster Old Father Time. He turns her Beano back into a 1949 issue (presumably the one where her new look first appeared).
Also note her Popeye-style limbs now.

After a couple more japes Pansy grabs the sands of time and turns the tables:
With that ends another enjoyable issue that great old institution: The Beano.

Another totally insignificant....

Oh, okay then. Yes this issue is in the box because it has the first appearance of Dennis the Menace, arguably the most iconic British comics character. And one of the most iconic British fictional characters of the 20th century. He is a character I have written about at length, most significantly here.

And, in spite of this being a widely reprinted strip, I will present that first Dennis strip in full for those of you who may not have seen it:
Next time: We head into the 1960s and visit some more famous mischief-makers.

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