Happy Birthday The Beano!

Well we never! We could barely believe our little eyes when we saw that today marks the amazing 75th anniversary of one of our all time favourite and iconic comic books The Beano!

Yep on this very day back in 1938 when even real life was in black and white (probably), The Beano was first launched on its long and magical journey, keeping kids just like us entertained and wanting more.

This got us wondering though...how much has it changed since these prehistoric early days? Any old and forgotten characters? Let's take a little trip down comic strip memory lane and see for ourselves...

1938: This first edition of the Beano appears (see above), dated 30th July. Stories include Big Eggo (an ostrich), Pansy Potter: The Strongman’s Daughter and the more enduring Lord Snooty and his Pals which lasts into the 1990s. No real hint of the beloved characters we know now huh.

#DidYouKnow? There are only twelve copies of the first issue known to still be in existence, and only 5 known copies of the second issue! A copy of this first issue sold for £12,100 in 2004.

1948: Biffo the Bear appears and immediately knocks Big Eggo off the front page. Eggo disappears forever in 1949.

1951: Dennis the Menace appears, undoubtedly the comic’s most popular and famous story.  By strange coincidence, a US strip with the same name about a similarly mischievous but blonde brat started in the same week. The American one was usually just called “Dennis” in the UK to avoid confusion. Cartoons and films of it started to appear in the UK after the Eighties.

#DidYouKnow? The Beano comic takes its name from the English word beano which can be loosely interpreted as a good time.

1953: Three major stories Roger the Dodger, Minnie the Minx and Little Plum all begin. Little Plum (“your redskin chum”) ceases to appear regularly after 1998.

1954: The Bash Street Kids (initially called When The Bell Goes or When The Bell Rings) appears. There were initially a vague and often changing large group of pupils eventually settling down to a hardcore of eight.

1968: Gnasher appears in Dennis the Menace for the first time.

1974: Dennis replaces Biffo the Bear on the cover after a twenty seven year run. Biffo ceases to be in the comic regularly after 1986.

1988: The Beano's first major revamp was in the 50th birthday issue of 1988, when the page number was increased, the comic had a wider paper style, and more colour was used throughout.

1998: Birth of Dennis the Menace’s sister Bea.

DidYouKnow: The readers voted for her name. It was a close thing between "Bea" and "Princess Appellina Daintyfoot,".

2007: The Beano saw large changes to the logo used, including a website address and more modern publishing.

2009: The Beano's 3,500th issue was published! Wooop!

2013: The Beano reaches an amazing 75 years old which inspires a fantastic TruffleShuffle blog post for all our amazing fans to read :)

OKAY THAT'S IT! We're off to dig our way though our very own collection and sit crossed legged on the floor and re-live some classic childhood memories! :)

So what are your memories of this amazing comic?? Shout them out by leaving us a little comment below. Don't forget to check out our amazing range of official Beano T-Shirts as you've seen above. Classics!

Thanks!