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The history of 'The Beano' must first start with its elder stable
mate, 'The Dandy', because without the success of 'The Dandy',
there would have been no Beano. Albert Barnes was the first editor
of 'The Dandy Comic' which made its debut on 4th December 1937. 'The
Dandy Comic', was different to its contemporaries and rejected the
broadsheet format that was common at the time. 'The Dandy' adopted a
tabloid style for its mixture of text only stories and comic strips
with text but differed with the introduction of speech bubbles in
some of the stories. A style that would later gain such prevalence
that it would become ubiquitous in British comics. 'The Beano
Comic' made its appearance on the newspaper rack next to its sister
paper on July 30th 1938. The arrival of the Beano was timely as laws
were brought into force after its arrival which restricted the
introduction of new publications for the purpose of paper rationing
just before the outbreak of World War Two in 1939.
'The Beano' first issue included seven full text stories
and six picture stories with the text appearing under the
strip. The rest of the comic continued with the Dandy's novel use of
using speech bubbles within the comic strips.
The original editor was George Moonie, from 1938-1959,
followed by Harold Cramond, 1959-84. Euan Kerr was editor from 1984
until he handed over to Alan Digby in early 2006. Alan had been
Beano Chief Sub Editor when Euan first became editor, and later
edited
The
Beezer. Euan has returned to edit BeanoMAX as of
issue 2 (see below). Following the retirement of Euan Kerr, Alan
Digby is now Editor-in-Chief of both titles.
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