BELATED BEANO 2018 CHRISTMAS ISSUE REVIEW...

Copyright D.C. THOMSON & Co., Ltd

I've only just received it from the publishers (missed it in the shops, had to order it direct from DCT), so here's a belated BEANO review of #3964, the Christmas issue for 2018.  Not a big fan of the tat that comes with it, but perhaps kids will love it, though I suspect the ones that do will be at the younger end of the spectrum.  However, didn't mind the poster and joke book as they're the sort of things I'd have liked as a kid.

I've been buying the Christmas Beano every year since 1978 and 40 years later I'm still doing so, but I'm undecided as to whether this'll be my last or not.  40 years is a long time, but then again, 50 years has a nice ring to it and it's only a further 10 issues, so maybe I'll keep going until 2028.  I'll wait until the next one before I make up my mind.

So, what's the verdict?  Got quite a few chuckles out of it so it gets a thumbs up, though I'm not sure I like the idea of Beanotown where all the characters live and attend the same school.  I think I preferred things when, the occasional guest spot or symbolic cover aside, each character seemed to operate in their own self-contained environment.

Also don't like the feminist agenda of having MINNIE The MINX getting the better of DENNIS The MENACE (he is supposed to be the star of the comic after all), nor the tag-line of 'She's tougher than all the boys...'  Dennis is diminished by this sort of thing and this sort of PC indoctrination on behalf of the 'sisterhood' doesn't really belong in a comic.  By all means make her the equal (as she always was) of Dennis (and ROGER and the like), but not his superior.

Still dislike the 'new look' Dennis's Dad and would prefer to see the original DAVEY LAW version.  It's been sort of suggested in a previous strip or two that Dad might be the original Dennis that my age group read when we were kids, and the current one is his son, but that wouldn't explain GNASHER & GNIPPER, nor him being contemporaneous with the original BASH STREET KIDS and other characters.  However, this sort of thing will only bother some long-time readers like myself, not the current crop of younger readers unaware of the characters' histories.

So, my usual nitpicking aside, it was good to continue a 40 year tradition and add this issue to my collection, and, overall, I enjoyed it.  I still prefer the 'classic' look of Dennis, but the art is of a professional standard and the absence of the inferior art style that dominated the doomed DANDY in it's final couple of years was reassuring.  I still wish it was a standard weekly issue instead of a boxed 'special', but perhaps that's just my personal nostalgia for the past speaking.

Did you buy this issue, readers?  (And if so, are you brave enough to admit to it if you're an adult?)  Share your opinion of it in our comments section.