Creator Notes

The Bash Street Kids by Graeme Neil Reid

From the pages of Carnopolis, Meanwhile…, Negative Burn, Turn and Violent Graeme Neil Reid's art will entertain and thrill your senses!

He's also provided illustrations for The Radio Times and draws some mean Doctor Who art, as you can see here.

"What does the Beano mean to me? My first thoughts are jealousy," says Graeme. "I have an older brother, only three years older but that age difference meant there was a pecking order to the weekly supply of comics. My brother was supplied the Beano every week from my Mother's purse and I was rewarded with the Dandy. Of course we read both of the comics but the Beano was read by my brother first. So what? I had the Dandy to read first plenty to enjoy in those pages, but you always want what you can't (initially) get. I like Dennis the Menace and (gnash gnash) Gnasher: okay, I enjoyed Desperate Dan but I wanted to read Dennis and he was right there on the cover of the Beano up to no good and all I got was Korky the Cat probably helping someone with a problem.

"Then we had the pleasure of the postal orders sent on our Birthdays to join our favourite clubs. The Desperate Dan club was not what I had hoped for. Putting cut out cardboard cow horns into a cow (scotch) pie did not make me any less jealous of my Brother's fuzzy edged, rolling eyes (gnash gnash) Gnasher badge. I wanted that badge, I liked Dennis the Menace and (gnash gnash) Gnasher. Again with the jealousy.

"Aside from the jealousy though reading the Beano is a lot like expecting to breathe especially if your born and raised in Scotland. It was always around, everybody read it just like everybody read Oor Wullie and The Broons and you knew the whole gang in Beanotown. Apart from Dennis and his canine sidekick I have to add The Three Bears, Roger the Dodger and the cheeky scamps from Bash Street as my particular favourites.

"I forget how much it cost my Mother to buy us the Beano and the Dandy each week, it was probably about 6p a comic. Today I buy the 99p Beano and read it to my three year old Son. When his Brother is older I'll buy the Dandy - but make them alternate who reads which one first. That's modern parenting for you.

"Happy Birthday Beano!"

Web Link
harddisk.fsnet.co.uk

Did You Know...

• The Bash Street Kids were created and originally drawn by Leo Baxendale, also creator of Little Plum and Minnie the Minx, whose own tribute to the Beano at 70 can be found here on the Forbidden Planet International blog.

• The strip first apeared in Issue 604, dated 13 February 1954 as When the Bell Rings. It became The Bash Street Kids in 1956, since then it has became a regular in the comic and featured in every issue.