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DC Thomson has just launched its revamp of The Beano, across all aspects of the title including the comic – still sold in all good newsagents- and digital world.

Here’s the details in full from Beano Studios… however, there’s no information as yet on the new strip line up for this week’s Beano, or its creators… still top secret, it appears.

Perhaps more will be revealed at today’s special Beano Experience event in London (Sunday), Bringing the new Beano brand to life at a secret London location on Sunday 25th September, where celebrities, consumers and media will have the opportunity to step into an amazing experience like no other. Gunge tanks, giant catapults and a top secret gunge-filled mission; children aged 7-10 years will get their own back on the ‘rents as they cause mischief and mayhem in this truly interactive, highly confidential, Beano event. In a world where the kids are in charge, adults enter at their own peril.

Menaces and Minxes of the world, all hail the brand new Beano! Today, Sunday 25th September, the iconic British brand unleashes a boredom-busting assault on the world with a Beano-inspired digital feed for kids.

Not only this, the Beano is unveiling an awesome new look across the comic, annual and tie-in products, and promising a shed load of rib-tickling fun stuff to follow.

Building on its much-loved comic roots, Beano’s new digital “Ultimate Feed of Awesome” is jam-packed with original videos, along with the best bits of YouTube, games, pics, quizzes and interactive fun to help imaginations run riot and keep kids (and even some grown-up ones…) giggling for hours. It will be updated daily so the fun never ends…

Everything on the feed has the rebellious, irreverent Beano spirit, and comes fresh from the mischievous brainiacs at Beano Studios.

It launches with lots of original videos, Beano Originals, including brand new cartoons like The Invention of Football (by dinosaurs…), brand new “how to” vids for making cool stuff, and silly jokes delivered by the “Little Squelchies”, all sitting along with great entertainment from Dennis, Gnasher, Minnie and the whole gang.

And the great news for parents is that the free to use Beano.com is designed to protect kids – there’s no messaging functionality, no collection of personal information without parental say so, and no sharing of marketing data with third parties.

The Beano’s New Look

And what about this new look you ask? It’s a mischievous mix of Beano’s proud comic roots with its big new ambitions, and it looks mega. The awesome new logo won’t just be on the Beano feed, there’ll be epic new T-shirts, hoodies and school accessories. And of course, there’ll be a refreshed version of the world’s longest running Comic and the Annual – still the UK’s bestseller.

“We’ve spent the last three months blue sky thinking in a thought shower,” says Boss of Beano Studios Emma Scott, “touching base, singing from the same hymn sheet and pushing the envelope… until we realised that was boring nonsense, and we just needed really funny stuff.”

The coming new look to The Beano comic and the new Beano.com is just the beginning, say Beano Studios. They’ll be cranking up the mayhem generator with a top secret announcement this autumn… lips are tightly sealed, but whispers abound around the new look TV series…

“80 per cent of kids in our target audience of seven-to-10-year-olds have access to iPads,” Emma Scott, told the Daily Telegraph‘s James Brown, explaining further the the expansion of the comic’s digital footprint, “There’s nothing for kids in one place, it’s all scattered. This is about extending the character and spirit of Beano. Importantly it’s free and we have interesting, educational stuff in there too.”

“We’ve talked to teachers about this,” added The Beano‘s Mike Stirling.

“If you give the Beano to kids now,” says Scott, “they’re as passionate about it as we ever were, but their social habits have changed. They don’t go to the corner shops in the same way we did, they don’t get pocket money in the same way we did. “We thought that might be a London, Ocado thing – groceries getting delivered – but we found out that it was nationwide. Kids today live quite solitary indoor lives, they don’t play in the streets so much or go to the corner shop on a Saturday for a comic like we did.”

Which sounds a bit sad, frankly, but The Beano is above all else a commercial project and it has to remain commercially viable to survive. Let’s hope this new take has learnt from past mistakes (don’t mention the Dandy‘s move into digital at the expense of its print incarnation, for example) and this ambitious revamp is the success it should be.

• You can get involved by checking out Beano.com, coming soon on Apple and Android apps, and across Youtube and PopJam. To subscribe to the Comic and Annual and cover yourself head-to-toe in Beano new threads visit shop.beano.com

• Beano.com is all free with no sneaky charges and no in-app purchases



• Twitter: @Beano Hashtags: #Beano #SoBeano

• Facebook: www.facebook.com/BeanoOfficial

Related News Stories

• The Daily Telegraph 25th September 2016: Menacing afresh: Reinventing The Beano for the iPad generation

• The Sun 25th September 2016: Watch Kate Garraway get covered in gunge at Beano website launch party

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John Freeman The founder of downthetubes, John works as a comics editor, writer, as Creative Consultant on the Dan Dare audio adventures for B7 Media, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. Working in British comics publishing for over 30 years, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Star Trek Magazine and Babylon 5 Magazine. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War and “Dan Dare”. He’s the writer of “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz, published on Tapastic; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood for digital comic 100% Biodegradable.

Categories: British Comics, British Comics - Current British Publishers, Creating Comics, Digital Comics News, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Humour Comics