Bids start at...drum roll please...£25,000
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They say...
The Beano comic turns the ripe young age of 80 next week, on Monday 30th July and so we are delighted to offer what is quite possibly the best example of the first issue known to exist. The comic is fresh to the market having not been offered on open sale before. Bright, fresh cover colours, light page tanning, a strong spine and just slight wear (to include slight hairline tear) makes this a very attractive item indeed. The 28 pages are largely crisp and one has several very small tears to the right hand edge. Two other pages have a very few tiny closed tears. The right hand cover edge has a 1/3 and a ½ inch tear. Being completely original with no restoration, we grade it as FN+ but some might nudge it to FN/VFN.
A total of 442,963 copies of the first Beano comic were sold back in 1938 and, to date, around 30 of them have known to have survived, held in private collections. Only one example of the free gift Whoopee Mask is known.
The price of £25,000 reflects it being the most iconic and valuable British comic, in superb condition and offered in its 80th birthday week, two years after a VG example fetched £17,330 at auction.
The Beano comic needs very little introduction, certainly not in the world of comic collecting but also not amongst the general population. Many of its characters have stood the test of time and are household names – Dennis the Menace and Gnasher, The Bash Street Kids, Roger the Dodger, Minnie the Minx, Billy Whizz - the list goes on. We read this week that some 27 million people alive today have been regular Beano readers – nearly half the UK population!
Generations of kids have devoured the fun factory that is the world’s longest running weekly comic, The Beano. You’ll find issue #3945 in the shops this week and the landmark #4000 will be reached sometime next year.
Apart from a few years in wartime 1940s, when it came out fortnightly, the comic has been published every week since it appeared on the news stands on 26th July, with a cover date of 30th July 1938. It survived the Second World War and indeed boosted morale, with war propaganda messages. The Beano made the decision shortly after the war to have all their characters as kids, plus it became a pure comic, with no text stories, from the 1950s. This seems like a recipe for success - the early 1950s saw print runs of around two million copies a week and the same decade saw the appearance of several iconic characters that have lasted until today. The comic was so popular that throughout the 1950s and 1960s only two free gifts were issued – kids needed no extra incentive and, put simply, it just sold itself.
In its 80 years The Beano has had just seven different editors; George Moonie (1938-1959), Harry Cramond (1960-1984), Euan Kerr (1984-2006), Alan Digby (2006-2011), Michael Stirling (2011-2012), Craig Graham (2012-2016) and the current and first non-Scottish Editor, John Anderson. Many legendary comic artists have worked on the comic throughout its time and helped create unforgettable characters – Dudley Watkins, David Law, Leo Baxendale, Ken Reid, David Sutherland and Nigel Parkinson to name a few, plus a multitude of editorial staff, staff artists and behind the scenes workers.
Since 1940 the annual Beano Book has become as much a part of the festive season as the turkey and the Christmas pud. A Summer Special has been published each and every year since 1963 and the Dennis the Menace Fan Club had 1.25 million members at its peak, the most famous being Luke Skywalker actor Mark Hamill. In 1988 the comic entered the Guinness Book of Records when a 235 x 170 foot cover of Beano #2396 was reproduced on Scarborough Beach to become the world’s largest comic strip. Licensed merchandise is available from T-shirts, art prints, Doc Martens boots and even a Raleigh Chopper bicycle. A street in Dundee was renamed ‘Bash Street’ a few years ago and a bronze statue of Minnie the Minx stands in the city centre. This year’s Summer Reading Challenge is called Mischief Makers and based around, you guessed it, The Beano – a perfect choice considering the comic has helped generations of kids to develop their reading.
The comic today is by no means at the dizzying heights of the 1950s print figures, but the climate is completely different and scores of British comic titles have come and, sadly, gone in those 80 years. The Beano has stood the test of time and, in 2017, 1.86 million copies of the comic were sold – no mean feat today where kids are immersed in a digital world.
Indeed, The Beano has embraced the digital climate. The website Beano.com was created over a decade ago, the @BeanoOfficial Twitter account has over 12,000 followers, there’s a Beano smartphone app and Dennis the Menace has his own CGI animation TV series through the recently created Beano Studios.
All this may seem a world away from the humble beginnings of 1938 when Big Eggo, Lord Snooty and his pals, Hairy Dan, Big Fat Joe, Morgyn the Mighty and Tin-Can Tommy adorned the 28 page, primarily black and white comic gifted with a fabric toy mask. However, it’s fantastic to know that 80 years on The Beano is still going strong, published from the same imposing Victorian building in Albert Square, Dundee, by a creative team of people who have the same objective and desire as George Moonie and co – to create fun for kids. Long may it continue!
You’ll no doubt read many articles in the press in the coming week about this landmark occasion for the famous comic and we hope that this auction can contribute to the celebration of a true British icon and national treasure on its 80th birthday.
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