Kirby Dissed

It's a tribute to Jack Kirby, which I like, but the cover.... Kirby would have HATED it. It's everything Kirby was NOT. It's static, it's generic, it's bombastic, it's stagey, it's melodramatic. It brings to mind a cover for a DC comics 100pager back in the 70s that the late Carmine Infantino, art director there, and life-long pal of Jacks, proudly showed Kirby one day. It had all the DC heroes standing as if on Glee, all looking alike, all shoulder to shoulder, like in a pagent. Kirby hated it, to Infantino's surprise. "You've got all those powerful heroes standing there, and they're not DOING anything!"
And here is John Morrow, who I greatly appreciate, he's kept the Kirby flame going with his marvellous magazines for many years. But this cover is so wrong in so many ways. I'm no Kirby, but I can't stand it either. Kirby was about power, action, drama, movement, story and character. This cover has none of that.

Terry Deary and Paul Gravett (and Eddie Mair)- Bad Show. (But at least Gary Northfield got a Nice Mention!)

I don't normally respond to uninformed opinion, but I think I will this time.

Listening to Paul Gravett  a 'comics expert' (sic) and Terry Deary ('author' of Horrible Histories, a childrens' book) pontificating about the 'Royal Visit' issue of The Beano on Radio 4 this evening, I was struck by how little they know about The Beano of today.
Mr Gravett, whose understanding of comics stopped in about 1988, proudly informed the listening public that 'Beano scripts are written inhouse by staff' while Mr Deary scoffed 'shouldn't be written by cartoonists'. Now, it would have been nice if someone, anyone, on the BBC's PM programme who knew anything about the subject had been on too. They were complaining that The Beano is stuck in the past and needs to do something new and modern. This is after them reading one issue, this week's, which is, I'm sure you'll appreciate, not a regular issue- it was done to coincide with a Royal Visit and needed to be a bit different, even a bit 'safe'- there is a protocol, etc, etc, come on, it's just one week. We routinely parodied, trashed and mocked famous people every week in The Dandy, but sometimes you've got to be nice to them.

So, to Mr Gravett, no, a lot of the scripts are not written inhouse anymore, many of them are now written by outside writers, such as Dennis The Menace and Gnasher which is more often than not written nowadays by Nigel Auchterlounie, and I bet if Mr Deary or Mr Gravett read one of his stories they'd most likely find it was 'something new and modern'.

Mr Deary seemed obsessed with corporal punishment, which was banished from the Beano about 30 years ago. Mr Gravett was keen to talk about the revolution in The Beano of 60 years ago. Yes, but have you tried seeing what a current issue is like (Royal issue aside)? of course not. Mr Gravett was pleased to promote the excellent Gary Northfield as an example of what The Beano could be doing (er- should you tell him or should I?) and suggest we all dash to our nearest Waitrose (I'll book the train ticket now, Paul) to pick up the comic HE proudly reads, The Phoenix. Nice plug. By the way if they DID sell it in any Waitrose I've ever been in, I would buy it. They don't. But do buy Gary's book, The Terrible tales of The Teenytinysaurs, though, it's brilliant, as usual.

Paul Gravett, a comics 'expert' (sic) remember, was on TV last year bemoaning The Dandy's demise and blaming it on the fact that it was 'stuck in the past'. If he'd picked up a 2010-12 copy, he wouldn't be smugly parading outdated nonsense like that. The Dandy of that era was nothing if not modern. Many criticized it for being TOO modern, for breaking too many links with the past.

Terry Deary, changing the subject to his own books, chortled snidely about books written by writers (er, I get it, I think) being better than anything by 'cartoonists'. Fine. I wonder how well your books would have sold originally without the allure of the 'cartoons' by Martin Brown, Mike Phillips and Phillip Reeve? Your publisher put them on the cover, after all. Don't be so shy next time, Terry, get them to ditch the 'cartoons' and just print your rather slender little volumes in all text. I just bet they'd be a real success.

Anyway, all publicity is good publicity, so thanks, guys, for the publicity!

You can enjoy the show here for the next 6 days (the bit I'm moaning about starts about 51 minutes in).

What a Menace

Here we see Dennis the Menace living up to his name yesterday when a certain Royal Visit went off without a hitch at the new Beano printing works. Craig, Beano editor, and Ellis, DCT bigwig, meet the Royals, and THEN, so does DENNIS... oo-er- what could possibly go wrong?!

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x10si5i_prince-charles-handshake-snub-with-dennis-the-menace_news#.UbgwoPJwbVI

(I like your attitude, Claire!)

 

This Week's BEANO

POW! Yes, that's correct, the next issue of what is very nearly the World's longest laughing comic, The Beano, features Dennis The Menace getting the old Mind Sock from a strangely big-brained Walter! But how does this state of affairs come to pass? There's only one way to find out! On Wednesday morning, head straight to your nearest stockist and grab the latest Beano- it's why Wednesday was invented!

A Right Royal Issue!

This week's Beano has a couple of Royal visitors- none other than Charles and Camilla, you know, the Prince of Wales, or, as he and his wife are known in Scotland, Their Royal highnesses, The Duke and Duchess of Rothesay. Anyhow, they kindly agreed to be drawn by me and to join in gamely with the chaos with Dennis The Menace, Roger the Dodger and The Bash Street Kids (as you can see above). You can see it all in tomorrow's Beano!

Time to Grab a copy!

Londoners who don't pick up their free copies of Time Out, the listings magazine, today, may want to go and buy one tomorrow, as there's a special, unique-to-Time Out 4 page Dennis The Menace in London, as drawn by me! Of course, it's all in support of the Beanotown exhibition on Southbank. So what are you waiting for- go get Time Out!

Nearly on the shelves

Any minute now, the Beano Book will be out- I know it's still June, and we're six months away from Christmas, but it really is out very soon- and I can heartily recommend buying it. I know I will be for one, so why not join the many thousands of us and get one too? I'm betting it's full of good stuff. Hey, why not grab The Dandy too why you're at it?

Remember to Vote!

Vote for The Beano right here
http://www.ppa.co.uk/ppa100/vote/

tell 'em I sent you!

Kountdown to Kazakhstan

Almaty is the old capital city of Kazakhstan, over in the east, between Russia and China. One of the biggest countries in the world, and did you know that every apple we eat is grown from a seed that first grew in this region? Almaty means "place of apples". True. So why are we concerning ourselves with this far-flung country? Aha! One of our team will be able to answer that question soon.

August 27th... it's getting nearer

A few weeks ago I told you to put this date in your diary, and I hope you have, because you won't want to miss it. "How about some clues?" I hear you ask, weeping with frazzled nerves of frustration. But after previous sneak previews where the guesses got a touch esoteric, I've decided to decline. Only ten weeks to go...