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A Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate it! The below images are of Beano and Dandy Easter packaging that appeared in British shops and supermarkets in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Above: Bassett's Dennis the Menace and Gnasher Easter Egg packaging from 1988. The box contained a foil-wrapped milk chocolate egg with fruit gums in the shape of Beano characters inside. The art features Dennis the Menace, Gnasher and Walter the Softy, who is depicted on one side of the box taking a house brick to the back of the head!  Barratt The Beano and The Dandy Booty Bus Above: The Beano and The Dandy Booty Bus, produced by Barratt in 1991. Driven by Desperate Dan, the bus passengers are Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx, Roger the Dodger and Fatty, Plug, Toots and Wilfred from The Bash Street Kids. Erbert from The Bash Street Kids is seen running alongside the bus, being chased by Gnasher. Instead of a chocolate egg, the Booty Bus contained an assortment of sugar confectionery consisting of two boxes of candy sticks, two Lick 'n' Dip bags, and 95g of fruit gums in the shape of Beano and Dandy characters and a booty bag containing a 120g mix of Trebor Frosties, Trebor Refreshers, Black Jacks and Fruit Salad sweets.  The Beano Booty Train by Barratt Above: Produced by Barratt in 1992, The Beano Booty Train is similar to The Booty Bus. Aboard the train are Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx, Roger the Dodger and almost all of The Bash Street Kids - Danny, Erbert, Fatty, Plug, Sidney, Spotty and Wilfred - accompanied by Teacher. Gnasher is also on the box, running alongside the train on one side.
The Booty Train contained an assortment of sugar confectionery consisting of two Refreshers, two Frosties, two Dew Drops, two lollies, eight Black Jacks, eight Fruit Salad and eight Cherry Drops. There's more images in the site's Beano and Dandy gallery.
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 Front cover of A Quarterly Dandy Special No.10: Bananaman in Double Trouble Notable for not only being Bananaman's final appearance in the series but also for being the last in the entire run of comic specials, 1991's A Quarterly Dandy Special No.10 sees Bananaman in Double Trouble! The story begins with Eric Wimp getting a severe bout of hiccups, which won't go away, even after assistance from his mum (who looks considerably different to her appearance in The Secret of Willie Boggins). During this time, Eric's dad also makes an extremely rare appearance.
Receiving an emergency phone call from Police Chief O'Reilly, Eric eats a banana to change into his secret superhero identity but his hiccups result in two versions of Bananaman.  Blistering Bananaskins! Bananaman vs. Bananaman! With both considering themselves the superior version, the two squabble and fight. It soon becomes clear one's good and the other is bad. Fortunately at this point, readers are able to distinguish who's who thanks to bad Bananaman having longer head horns and thick, dark rings around his eyes. When good Bananaman gets knocked unconscious, bad Bananaman wastes no time in causing trouble all over Dandytown, beginning with being mean to an old lady and her pet dog who are trying to cross a road, before moving on to inflict pain on Chief O'Reilly by pulling on his nostril hairs and tying them in knots! When good Bananaman regains consciousness he goes looking for his dastardly doppelgänger, but due to an unfortunate case of mistaken identity, he gets set upon by bad Bananaman's victims. The nice old lady is especially vengeful, launching her pet dog right into his nose!  Bananaman takes a dog to the schnozz! Before long, good Bananaman tracks down bad Bananaman and the two scrap again. During fisticuffs their superpowers fade, resulting in good Eric versus bad Eric. Conveniently, their fight spills over into a nearby greengrocer’s shop where, thanks to bananas being in stock, they're able to transform once more.  Final showdown! Bananaman vs. Badanaman! Good Bananaman dubs bad Bananaman "Badanaman" and their feud continues for several pages more, eventually coming full circle in an unexpected way. With Badanaman seemingly gone for good, the story concludes with Eric Wimp directly addressing the reader in a disconcerting way, creating a dubious open ending!  Eric Wimp's never seemed so sinister! A Quarterly Dandy Special No.8 features Bananaman's fourth story in the series - and what an adventure it is! Based on the 1886 gothic horror novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, Bananaman in Dr Jackal and Mr Hide sees the Man of Peel face a fiendish foe! Note: At this point, the series changed from being a monthly publication to a quarterly one, hence "quarterly" now added to the title.  Front cover of Bananaman in Dr Jackal and Mr Hide The story begins with Police Chief O'Reilly believing his office is haunted. Calling upon Bananaman for help, it's soon revealed the ghostly goings-on are actually down to supervillain Mr Hide, who is capable of becoming invisible and passing through solid matter at will.  Mr Hide demonstrates his superpowers A flashback sequence reveals ever-so-nice inventor Dr Jackal was testing a new formula for a vindaloo curry powder when disaster struck! The formula changed him into the hideous Mr Hide, who aspires to be the world's greatest criminal!  Supervillain Mr Hide in his hideout Mr Hide leaves Bananaman and Chief O'Reilly to begin his bank robbing crime spree but it's not long before Bananaman's on his tail. However, thanks to his slippery superpowers, Mr Hide evades capture once again so Bananaman tries several ways of working out where he could be, including receiving tips from the computer in his secret hideout, wearing heat-spotting specs, donning his thinking cap, laying elaborate traps and even taking advice from the reader.  Bananaman dons his thinking cap None of these work so he decides to simply look up the address for Mr Hide's hideout in the "Villain's Directory", which is not unlike a phone book (you might want to ask an adult to explain what a phone book is, young 'uns - Ad). Catching Mr Hide red-handed, Bananaman is set upon by the repurposed robot inventions of Dr Jackal. I won't reveal how but after a good pummelling Bananaman eventually figures out a way to beat the contraptions and change Mr Hide back into his innocent alter-ego.  Bad robots beat down on Bananaman A very grateful Dr Jackal takes advice from Bananaman on how to make amends, do some good and make money in the process. However, as one might expect, such well-intentioned advice ultimately makes things a whole lot worse... Published by DC Thomson & Co. in 1991, Bananaman in Dr Jackal and Mr Hide is once again a first-rate comic adventure suitable for all ages. The story by Steve Bright flows nicely with no dull dips and the late John Geering's art is always a delight to look at, packed with energy and excitement and littered with lots of little visual gags. It's a recommended read if you can get your hands on a copy.  Nutty editor David Donaldson gets a subtle namecheck Next time I'll be summarising Bananaman's final adventure in the A Quarterly Dandy Special series. Bananaman in Double Trouble coming soon!
Seeing as it's April Fool's Day, I've decided to take a brief break from blogging about Bananaman. Instead, I'm going back to the 1st April 1972 to look at issue 1550 of The Beano.  Biffo the Bear treats The Bash Street Kids to Easter eggs As you can see, Biffo the Bear is star of the front cover. Dennis the Menace and Gnasher wouldn't have this honour until issue 1678, dated 14 September 1974. For the time being, readers would find them on the back cover. Biffo the Bear's story is a nice, short Easter tale featuring The Bash Street Kids. Biffo and Professor Screwtop (known to current day readers of the Beano as Rubidium "Rubi" von Screwtop's father) decide to surprise Class 2B by gifting them some chocolate Easter eggs, dropping them into the playground from a Biffo-themed flying egg invention. Even teacher is seen enjoying one! It's a different story on the centre pages though...  Cuthbert Cringeworthy's first appearance in The Beano Issue 1550 is notable for the first appearance of Cuthbert Cringeworthy, who from the very beginning establishes himself as a teacher's pet and openly informs Teacher of his classmates wrongdoings, much to their despise.  Cuthbert Cringeworthy reports Fatty for eating in class Interestingly, Teacher turns a deaf ear to Cuthbert openly being rude and disparaging towards his classmates. Meeting them for the first time, he says "Greetings, ugly pupils!". Then, Cuthbert refers to Frederick "Fatty" Brown (who is these days nicknamed Freddy) as "that fat boy" and Plug as a "far-from-lovely youth". Thanks to Cuthbert's eagerness to squeal, Plug and Smiffy end up receiving corporal punishment, with Teacher giving each of them "six of the best" with his cane! The story concludes with Cuthbert leaving alongside Teacher at the end of the school day in order to avoid being set upon by Class 2B. The final panel shows Cuthbert turning to give his classmate a smug, taunting look as he walks out of the school gates. They vow to get him, setting the precedent for many years to come.  Gnasher dresses as a pterodactyl to scare Walter the Softy Like Biffo the Bear, Dennis the Menace's story on the back cover is also Easter-themed, with Gnasher dressing up as a pterodactyl to scare Walter and The Softies into abandoning their Easter Egg Roll.
I love Gnasher's costume and the lively sequential art which shows him springing out of a giant Easter egg to scare Dennis's rivals before walking back on his hind legs and relaxing in a very human-like way. That said, I'm not so keen on seeing Gnasher eating chocolate, which is toxic to dogs! An oversight by the writer, no doubt! Tut-Tut! None of the characters within the comic have Easter-themed stories, these being The Three Bears, Grandpa, Minnie the Minx, Lord Snooty, Billy the Cat and Katie, Pup Parade, Roger the DodgerThe Belles of St. Lemons, The McTickles, The Nibblers and Little Plum. Still, it's a bargain read for the cover price of 2p! |
