Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
It's the Funny Comics Fan Club! Merry Christmas to one and all. Welcome to the Funny Comics Fan Club. Funny Comics Fan Club, that's the title. That's the title with me, Dr Mark Hibbert. And me, non-Dr John Dredge, still working on it, still working on it. And still full of festive cheer. Wahey!
So what are we looking at then, this special Christmas, John? It's the Beano Book 1979. Because last year we looked at the Beano Book 2025.
yeah my brain can't cope with these changes of time so what did you think then but so did you have this it was good right goodbye that was easy and merry christmas oh we've been in this wrong all this time i mean did you have this one was this one you owned no i don't know i don't remember this i remember the general tone of it and the general characters and things like that but i mean the first thing to say about it right you've got dennis and nasha on the front
pushing an enormous snowball down the hill, and all the characters are, like, running away from it. Yeah. So you've got Lord Snooty, you've got Little Plum, you've got Biff Oda Bear, you've got the Bass Street Kids all running away from it, and then on the back, Dennis has crashed into a tree, Nash is flying all over the place, and everyone is laughing at Dennis and Nash.
Did you spot the deliberate mistake?
I'm not sure. What do you think the mistake is? Biffo the Bear is not in this. Ah, yes. That's why I was confused, because that doesn't seem to be a mistake to me. That seems to be a positive benefit. Yes, there is no Biffo the Bear. The terrible stain of Biffo-ness is not present within it. Funny, isn't it? Because there he is. What's he doing on the front if he's not inside?
I don't know. What's going on there? I mean, if you see him on the front, you're going to think, oh, yes, lots of wacky and hilarious adventures later on with our good friend Biffo. How are you going to think that? And, P.S., I can't wait till the spin-off comic. Biffo. Never happened. Never happened. It's funny there was never a Biffo weekly, wasn't there?
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Chapter 2: What is the Beano Book 1979 about?
No, there was not. I mean, it's never too late.
You're quite right. The terrible Biffo the Flipping Bear is only present on the cover, not within.
So we're pleased with that. We're very pleased with that. But, I mean, one of the overriding things about it for me is that, to me, the blooming stars of it are the Bash Street kids. Yeah, they are, aren't they? It's funny.
There was around this time, it was a Bash Street Kids annual, wasn't there? Was there? Yeah, because there was usually a Dennis the Menace annual as well. Oh, was there really? Yeah, there was nearly always, you'd have a Dennis the Menace annual and a Beano annual. And then I think around this time there was a Bash Street Kids book. Oh, God, they were doing it.
They were getting a lot of money out of it back then. They probably were, yeah. They were riding around having as many jam sandwiches as they can eat.
And no before the bear annuals. It's just perplexing, isn't it? I can't believe it. So perplexing. So they had these main characters also in another annual. I mean, they must have been raking it in, I guess.
I think at one point it was alternating. You'd have Dennis one year and the Bash Street Kids another year, I think.
But yeah, yeah. Another thing, an overall thing, thinking about it now that my brain has woken up, which is rare, this is definitely a Christmas thing. Oh, it's very Christmassy, yeah. It's got lots of things happening at Christmas. And then we looked at 2025 Bino Annual, nothing about Christmas. No Christmas.
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Chapter 3: What characters are featured on the cover of the Beano Book 1979?
Half of it's to do with summer. But I think that's because now they've got this little spin-off thing called Bino Christmas Special or something. That's right. But I find that odd. I find that odd. You found it odd last year, I recall. But this is what I think an annual is. Something to do with Christmas, because that's when it comes out. Why is it not reflected in the pages, otherwise?
Well, the thing is, it comes out in August.
It doesn't come out in Christmas, and it never did. And it was made a year in advance. Did the Beano Book 1979 come out in August?
Yeah, yeah, it's just we all got it for Christmas. Oh. Huh. Why did it come out in August? So that people could buy it for Christmas. So there was a reason that it was Christmas themed. Yeah, it's just because it was whatever you got for Christmas. But that still doesn't explain why they're not featuring Christmas in the 2025.
Because I guess now you don't. It's not something that you would necessarily. I suppose if you don't make it specifically about Christmas, it's got a longer shelf life.
Yeah. Yeah. I don't know.
I mean, I'm not a comics publisher.
You're not a comics expert.
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Chapter 4: What is the significance of Biffo the Bear's absence in the Beano Book 1979?
Yeah.
Neither of us are. We know that. We've come to realise that over the years. Let's have a look through and see what happens.
He starts off with a picture of Minnie the Minx reading the Beano book. What's that there, John? What's that she's got there? Half a jam sandwich. Half a jam sandwich.
The jam sandwiches continue. Half a jam, half a jam, half a jam sandwich. I loved that joke of Minnie the Minx sitting there reading the Beano book. And what I also loved is that you've got the editor's voice coming in. So this is what I think a comic should be like. You shouldn't ever see the editor. Like, you know, the editor of Wham, you saw who he was, some old bloke.
Well, you do in the Beano sometimes, don't you? Sometimes you meet the, but you do actually meet the editor fairly often in the Beano. So you know what he looks like there? Well, he looks like he's like drawn like teacher in the Beano. But yeah, you do. I didn't know that because he's not in here. He's not in here. Just the voice here. There's a lot, but there is a lot of this stuff, isn't there?
There's a lot of reader's voice and editor's voice.
The characters are forever talking to us throughout this. There's always arrows and things pointing to things and explaining things that otherwise, you know, maybe... Would be quite obvious.
Yeah. That's what you'll see.
I mean, yeah, so you've got Roger the Dodger there. I mean, what I liked about the first strip here was that he's got all these hundreds of books saying Dodgers Volumes 1 to 28. Yeah. I like that, you know, I wouldn't mind reading one of those. And he's got a slipper cupboard full of slippers. Yeah. And then Billy whizzed. You see, like Billy, we're whizzing through this. Whizzing through.
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Chapter 5: How do the Bash Street Kids stand out in this annual?
But the rest of it was very mediocre. Right, so here we go. The first big Dennis the Menagerie.
i think this is really can you see that it starts off with a half page panel doesn't it another overall another overall feeling i had about this was that they're all coming out now was that so many feelings i loved the use of the bigger space yes it's amazing isn't it what do you think there's so much of it there's splash pages there's i mean see like here with this is david southern drawing the beanie who's not particularly experimental normally but
The way the way the pages are put together changes. There's all sorts of fabulous.
Yeah. Good. Unlike film fun last time where I could barely see what was going on here. You can always see what's going on. And I really like that. Yeah, I mean, you can even understand everything that's going on, which is another plus.
The main thing I thought about this, though, is it's got the softies. They're going off to a carnival, aren't they? And Dennis is just horrible to them. Dennis is horrible to them. But the way the softies are dressed, it's like going, like, they could have been on the cover of the NME in about 2008, couldn't they?
Funny you should say that. There's a bit where they're throwing flowers into the crowd, and I was thinking, did Morrissey read this? But yeah, it's not Morrissey's era.
It's just after Liberty, so look around that time. But no, when he was a kid, he might have been really... Oh, no, no, he might have been, yes, yes. This was 79. This is 79, so he would have... It's possible. It's not impossible.
What I liked about this, and what I found a bit odd, was that the Softies, they're putting this little boat into the carnival, but they're quite happy to have a big flag with the Softies written on it.
Yeah. They're owning it, aren't they? They're owning that. I think that's rather wonderful. I think that's really nice. So basically what happens is Dennis obviously is horrible to them, ruins everything, obviously later on.
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Chapter 6: What Christmas themes are present in the Beano Book 1979?
And they start hitting them with things. They do start hitting them. Yeah, with various things. But they are dressed up quite fancy.
Yeah.
Again, it's a full-page spread, which is then beating their children.
Yeah, yeah.
Dressed as cavaliers, cowboys, and a painter.
Make of that what you will. Make a deed. What I thought was good about it, another really good thing about it, was that the inventive things that they did with the title panels.
Yeah.
mean this one for many of the minx huge title panel and she's she's polishing the letters mini the minx and uh that's because she's the polish is to do with the story that's just coming up but what is this bit there's there's three thistles coming out of a paving i think it's a bag i think it's a bag pipe yeah there's lots there's it looks like somebody's playing bagpipes from underneath the sewer grill
god knows what that's another bit there's a there's another weird bit there's a gorilla looking around the corner somewhere there's a gorilla looking around the corner of the supermarket and also for no reason whatsoever there's a dog on a moped yeah lovely is there i mean this this is jim peachy it looks so good it looks brilliant yeah and uh but you know it's not like crowding the picture at all there's only three main elements to that one panel there you've got mini
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Chapter 7: What unique storytelling techniques are used in the Beano Book 1979?
That's my word. He simply says, na-ning. Na-ning. Na-ning. N-N-I-N-G. Na-ning. So always remember to say na-ning if you get hit by a turnip. As long as you're in the armed forces, of course. And as you were saying, they're very inventive in their use of the page here. Indeed. I mean, the nibblers have a bit where it just says, what have Porky and Whisker seen? Turn over the page and see.
We turn over the page. And it's blank. It's something of vague interest to mice.
Yes. I like this. I thought it was really good. I did think it was a little bit much. You sort of think, well, I am like, you know, nearly halfway through this annual now. I am aware that if I want to find out what happens next, I should turn the page. If I need instructions on that at this point, how do you think I got to this point in the annual?
Do you think kids are standing there going, what do we do now? I've got some cardboard and paper here. Oh, this doesn't make sense, but I am going backwards. So that was unusual. But I just thought it was quite sweet, this Nibbles one, because it's not really one of the great classics of Beano. I do remember them.
There's a lovely part there where the mice are all doing some sort of stuff, and the human person who lives there and the cat... They're just having a quiet afternoon. He's eating a massive hamburger. And the cat is reading a book called Wickerwork for Cats.
Yeah, yeah. And he's having a go at making a wickerwork basket for himself. That's what life was in the 70s. So much simpler then. Yeah. Alan Wickerwork and various things of that sort.
But again, and they're also just talking to the audience all the way through. All the way through this, it's just talk, talk, talk. Hot Parade had some nice bits and pieces about it. It looks gorgeous, doesn't it? Except, of course, very irresponsible. Yeah? Very irresponsible. Smithy's in it. He puts his head round the corner and hits himself on the head with a hammer.
Yes, that's what you're saying, yeah. And...
we must stress again do not hit yourself on the head with a hammer exactly exactly children i mean what i loved about this was they have a fight with the pup street dogs or the blob street dogs i'm sorry blob street dogs i must get that right and after the fight straight away as soon as the cloud has dissipated they've all got plasters all over yeah they've all got elastoplast stuck on their face
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