THE 2012 CHRISTMAS BEANO REVIEW...

Images copyright D.C. THOMSON & Co.,  Ltd

Since The BEANO was 'relaunched' a few weeks ago, it's actually been quite funny at times, with a level of humour seemingly aimed at a wider age group, as opposed to the rather infantile kind purveyed to its readers over the last several years.  Maybe I'm imagining it of course, but the comic seems to have upped its game and, all in all, is a nice little package these days.  Saying that, I hadn't picked it up in ages before its 'new look', so perhaps it had already moved in that direction.

And so to the Christmas edition: £3.99, eight extra pages, and the usual pack of tat you could probably buy three-for-a-quid in a pound shop.  Why do they bother with this infuriating practice?  I'm sure even the most easily amused children would find it difficult to generate much enthusiasm for the rubbish contained within the bag the comic comes in.  If DCT are going to charge its readers twice the usual price, then give them twice the usual content.  A double-sized issue would have gone down a lot better than a pile of junk which will be lost, broken or discarded within a half-hour or so of opening.

Imagine a 72 page bumper Christmas Special, jam-packed with all your favourite strips to read at your leisure over the Yuletide period.  Sounds good to me, how about you?  Remember, you can currently buy the hard-backed BEANO Annual for 2013 for around £3 or less, so given the choice, what would you spend your money on?

Inside, the contents are fairly well-drawn for the most part, and even the normally under-whelming art of a former DESPERATE DAN cartoonist is less annoying than usual, although his interpretation of ROGER The DODGER is unconvincing and he still shouldn't be allowed to do his own lettering.  Let's just hope the appointment of former DANDY Ed to that of Beano editor doesn't presage the appearance of further strips by this particular artist and his ilk, otherwise I'm off.  Anyway, his puzzle pages are easy to ignore amongst actual comic strips by more accomplished artists, and don't prove to be too much of a distraction.

The FUNSIZE FUNNIES strips would benefit from being half- pages each, instead of single tiers, as it'd give the writers and artists more to work with.  These kind of strips are okay for newspapers, but they seem a bit of a wasted opportunity in a weekly comic.  Hopefully, those in charge will see the benefit of such an idea and institute some half-page strips in the future.

The comic actually looks more 'Christmassy' in its bagged state, as a few snowballs adorn the cover that way.  However, I miss the days when the look of freshly-fallen snow graced a comic's logo.  Christmas Editions somehow don't seem complete without such a long-established nod to the traditions of the Season.

The Verdict?  Overpriced at just short of four quid.  £2.99 would've been a more reasonable figure, but that apart, worth buying - even if only to support the last original U.K. humour comic on the market.

Agree?  Disagree?  Not sure?  Just want to see your name in print?  Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section.