The beauty of ‘The Beano’ is undeniable, the continued success of the comic, and the way the characters have formed part of our cultural history is evident on many different levels. In their 23rd August 2015 edition ‘The Observer’ called the Greek former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis ‘Yanis the Menace’ – the all pervading influence of ‘The Beano’ is evident when such a reference is used to sum up the unconventional politician. It sums up his performance as finance minister, it also demonstrates just how influential the comic strip of ‘The Beano’ has on the lives of generations of Britons, and how a simple reference can speak volumes about how the anarchic behaviour of Dennis has influenced so many people since its publication on 30 July 1938. Even today, each weekly issue is eagerly awaited by another generation of youngsters.
Changes?
In essence these characters have stayed the same, but there have been changes over the years. The graphics have changed dramatically and are more fitting for a 21st Century readership, but the all pervading tradition of anarchic humour has remained. The many spin off have also managed to maintain a certain interest. The Dennis the Menace TV cartoon brings the character to life. His popularity and power to encourage reading was also utilised by The World Book Day initiative. Consequently, even after all of these years, there is no better way to get children reading than by encouraging them to take some time to devour the exploits of Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx, The Bash Street Kids, The Numskulls, Roger the Dodger, Billy Whizz and Ball Boy. The continued apparent glorification of immoral behaviour is something that children still love to read about, and ‘The Beano’ still maintains his magical hold of boys, and many girls of a certain age.
Learning to Read
Using comic strips is a brilliant way to encourage reading. They are short, they are engaging because the action is crammed into a strip, they look great, and most importantly they can keep even the shortest of attention spans on task and enthralled. Perfect reading material – especially for boys of a certain age! I have a friend who is convinced her son learnt to read by reading ‘The Beano’. In the initial stages he used the pictures to work out what was happening, but he quickly realised that to appreciate the full impact of the story and the humour an understanding of the words was also necessary. He relished his weekly instalment, and his love of reading developed and evolved into the reading of full and complex novels by the age of 11. What he has learnt is the pleasure and enjoyment that can be achieved from reading such comics. Children love the humour, and they can still relate to the stories, without feeling they have to behave like the characters.
What the children think:
‘The thing I like about the Beano comic is that it is full of hilarious short stories about really naughty kids ruining their parents’ lives by making them embarrassed and destroying their houses. Also, I like the characters that are regularly included in the stories, especially Dennis the Menace, I look forward to reading about the trouble he gets in every week.’
Anna Jones
Dennis the Menace
Dennis the Menace – his name gives away his status as the anti hero, we both love and hate. Dennis spends his life getting into trouble, and trying to explain his way out of it. Dennis’s behaviour is often a nod back to an era where pea shooters and playing tricks and getting revenge for minor misdemeanours rule. Bodily odours are the modern addition to his form of mischief. Nevertheless, every problem still leads to some suitable punishment and ensures the reader is aware of the consequences of such behaviour. In my day, nearly every story ended with Dennis being administered the slipper by his angry father – in the modern era this has been replaced with PC Slipper, a way of keeping the reference, but acknowledging the changing times in relation to how to discipline children. To be honest, even 30 years ago getting the slipper was recognised as a punishment more in tune with the previous generation, although smacking was allowed, no implements were used! But this is where The Beano can act as a social document, as well as comic strip entertainment.
I have a personal life long affinity with ‘The Beano’ because of my younger brother and his personal love of the comic. He is now in his forties, but our mam still buys him ‘The Beano’ annual every Christmas. This is an extension of the weekly comic he bought throughout his childhood. Where I loved reading and devoured endless books, he was a reluctant reader and took a financial professional route, he is still adverse to reading, and embodies the difficulty in engaging boys in the pleasure and purpose of reading. What he didn’t even consider was the fact that he received ‘The Beano’ and ‘The Beezer’ every week and he didn’t equate his love of ‘The Beano’ with his determination not to read!
Is this the trick?
For many of the boys, ‘The Beano’ works its magic. The use of images and texts together to support understanding of plot and language. They follow a strong and engaging narrative form that has enough familiarity to encourage the completion of the story, and gives the readers an understanding of how to create a plot that maintains the interest of the reader. The characterisation is so strong that readers can indulge in the events and the comic situations and the use of language without having to worry about the interaction of the characters. They also have a moral element that readers can engage with on an emotional level.
If you have children who are reluctant to read, the use of ‘The Beano’ to engage is a perfect example of where they can learn a great deal, understand and learn a great deal about language and humour and life and emotions, but they can do this without feeling it is ‘work’. Your aim is to make them feel like they are Dennis the Menace to keep some credibility, but really like Cuthbert Cringeworthy, working away to ensure they reach and maximise their academic potential.
Written in alliance with www.uniquemagazines.co.uk
by Christine Thomas