The Beano timeline

This is a timeline of events concerning the long-running D. C. Thomson & Co. comic The Beano.

Timeline

Year	Date	Event	References
1938	30 July	The first ever issue of The Beano goes into print with Big Eggo as the cover star.
1939	1 September	The Beano Annual is first published.
1951	17 March	Issue 452, Dennis the Menace makes his first appearance.
1953	18 April	Issue 561, Roger the Dodger makes his first appearance.
1953	8 August	Issue 577, Dennis the Menace's arch-enemy Walter the Softy is introduced when he moved in.
1953	19 December	Issue 596, Minnie the Minx makes her first appearance.
1954	13 February	Issue 604, The Bash Street Kids are introduced under the title When the Bell Rings.
1959		George Moonie is succeeded as Beano editor by Harold Cramond
1961	September	Beano strikes 1000.The front cover contains a range of Beano characters.
1962	August	David Sutherland begins drawing The Bash Street Kids, something he still does to this very day.
1964	16 May	Billy Whizz is introduced.
1968	31 August	Issue 1363, Gnasher makes his first appearance.
1974	14 September	Dennis the Menace becomes the incumbent cover star of the Beano taking over from Biffo the Bear.
1975	18 October	Issue 1735, Ball Boy is introduced.
1976	5 June	Issue 1768, The Dennis the Menace fan club( is introduced. For 30p, which went to the Beano office, you could get cool badges, secured in the Fan Club Wallet.
1980	15 November	Beano strikes 2000.On the back cover you would see the first ever beano cover.
1984	October	Harold Cramond retires as Beano editor and is succeeded by Euan Kerr.
1986	April	Gnasher goes missing, which leaves Dennis distraught, prompting a nationwide search for the beloved cartoon canine.
1986	May	Gnasher returns home with a litter of puppies.
1990		The Beano's Dennis the Menace and Gnasher Show is first aired on CITV and then TCC.
1993		The Beano Video (aka Beano All-Stars) is launched on VHS, which animates the Beano characters for the first time.
1994		The Beano Videostars is released as a follow up to the Beano Video.
1998	17 October	Issue 2931, Dennis the Menace's sister Bea is born.
1998		The Dennis the Menace fan club finishes, and The Beano Club begins. However, it would return 20 years later.
2000	1 January	Issue 2998, The Beano's New Millennium special is released.
2000	15 January	The Beano celebrates its 3000th issue.
2001	13 January	Issue 3052, Minnie the Minx's artist Jim Petrie retires after almost 40 years, with his 2000th and last Minnie strip featured in the issue.	[1]
2001	19 July	Bronze statues of Minnie the Minx and Desperate Dan, measured at approximately 8ft, are unveiled in Dundee city centre.	[2]
2002	5 January	Issue 3105, Freddie Fear: Son of a Witch is introduced.
2003		A Beano-Dandy crossover strip, Dandy Days in Beanotown is published in The Dandy due to the rivalry between the two comics.
2003	2 August	The Beano turns 65 , and a special birthday issue is released, where Dennis puts on some shorts belonging to Jimmy from the comic strip Jimmy and his magic patch.
2007	14 March	Wayne's in Pain is announced as the newest Bash Street Kid. However, he only lasts a year.
2007	27 October	Issue 3404, Laura Howell becomes The Beano's very first female artist after her strip Johnny Bean from Happy Bunny Green makes its debut.
2007		In the comic's biggest revamp the paper style finally changed from newsprint to a glossy paper, much in the style of the inside pages of the then companion papers Dandy Xtreme and BeanoMAX.
2008	2 August	The Beano turns 70 and celebrates with A event called Gnashional Menace day, where every body has to be naughty like Dennis.
2009	29 August	Dennis the Menace and Gnasher are revamped to coincide with the new animated series.
2012	4 December	The Beano becomes the last weekly humour anthology comic after The Dandy prints its final edition having recently celebrated 75 years.
2013	8 July	The Dennis and Gnasher animated series is relaunched, with the new name of Dennis the Menace and Gnasher, effectively reversing the "softy" changes made to the Menace in the last series, but retains some of the characters. CBBC Presenter, Chris Johnson has taken over the voice role of Dennis the Menace.
2013	24 July	Issue 3695, The Beano's 75th anniversary issues is released, featuring a handful of celebrities including Sir Alex Ferguson, David Beckham, will.i.am, Bruce Forsyth, and the Dandy's very own Harry Hill.
2013	4 December	Long-serving artist Charles Grigg dies aged 97.
2014	26 February	A real-life Bash Street is unveiled in Dundee to celebrate the 60th anniversary of The Bash Street Kids.	[3]
2014	26 August	Artist Jim Petrie dies aged 82.
2014	1 December	The Dennis the Menace Minecraft mod is launched.
2015	1 April	The Blast in Beanotown app for the iPad is launched.
2016	28 September	The Beano gets a brand new logo, the biggest change to the masthead since 1971.
2016	28 September	Dennis is made "politically correct" as the comic strip is rebranded Dennis and Gnasher.
2017	23 April	Artist Leo Baxendale dies age 87.
2017	16 September	Issue 3902, Since Curly moved, JJ and Rubi are introduced since they both moved in. Pie-Face has been redesigned.
2018	7 March	Big Eggo returns to the Beano after 69 years away.
2018	25 July	The Beano Comic reaches 80 and had a birthday issue guest edited by David Walliams, and the Dennis Fan Club returned.
2018	29 August & 5 September	Gnasher goes missing (again!)but is found round the back of the Beanotown Battersea dogs and cats home a week later.
2018	19 December	Minnie the minx celebrates her 65th anniversary, having first appeared in 1953.

References

1. "Minnie the Minx artist retires". BBC News. 8 January 2001. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
2. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/1446045.stm
3. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-26359708

External links

• Beano official website