The Beano - Issue 3581

The Beano - Issue 3581

Ooh hello again! It's that time again, it's another comic blog post! :D

Anyway this week's comic was a 40 pager! Fantastic yes? Well, no actually, 1) The comic cost £2.50, with this and the Dandy at £2.50, BeanoMAX at £3.50 and Toxic at £3.99, comics are becoming too expensive. 2) The 8 extra pages were given to the 16 page LEGO mini-mag, what a waste. So there we all are looking forward to a 40 pager and this is what we get. Anyway on with the review:

PG 1: Front Cover (Dennis and Gnasher) - Barrie Appleby
PG 2: Contents
PG 3: Dennis and Gnasher - Barrie Appleby
PG 6: Meebo and Zuky - Laura Howell
PG 7: Win a Menace Mobile!
PG 8: The Numskulls - Barry Glennard
PG 10: Billy Whizz - Nick Brennan
PG 11: Advertisement
PG 12: Minnie the Minx - Ken Harrison
PG 14: The Bash Street Kids - David Sutherland
PG 16: Ratz - Hunt Emerson (Or should I say 'Antz'?)
PG 17: THE DREADED LEGO MINI-MAG
PG 25: Freddie Fear - Dave Eastbury
PG 26: Beano V.I.Pweet
PG 28: Willy Wonka Competition (WTF?! What's a Willy Wonka Two Page comp doing here?!)
PG 30: Fred's Bed - Tom Paterson
PG 32: BFG (Britain's Funniest Gag)
PG 33: Beano Subscription Page
PG 34: Retro Beano: Dennis the Menace (Surprise, surprise) - Davey Law
PG 36: Roger the Dodger - Barrie Appleby (REPRINT!!)
PG 38: Advertisement - The Dandy (Farm-ula One - Wayne Thompson)
PG 39: Next Time
PG 40: Back Page: Gnasher's Bit(e)! NEW! - Barrie Appleby

RATINGS:

Dennis and Gnasher - 10/10
A great storyline plusan extra page of Appleby's artwork! The story was planned out well plus a nice appearance from the catapult again!
Meebo and Zuky - 9/10
A funny story, liked the bit with the pig! Still not very violent and the storyline wasn't the greatest.
The Numskulls - 10/10
This is the sort of Numskulls we all like, the team harming Edd even though they're trying to do something right! One of the greatest Numskulls stories in a LONG time!
Minnie the Minx - 8/10
It was sweet, I'll give it that but seriously, this is not Minnie! Minnie is meant to be a menace, this tory lacked that big time.
The Bash Street Kids - 8.5/10
A good idea, no menacing though but still not bad...
Ratz - 8/10
A nice build-up until the end when the story was ruined.
Freddie Fear - 9/10
Good idea, quite sweet but lacked the horror of the old stories... But still, some beautiful artwork by Dave Eastbury.
Fred's Bed - 10/10
What a great story! Fred meeting Vlad was one I never imagine appearing! Ah well, I was wrong, he still has yet to meet these though! (Hitler and Jack the Ripper)
Roger the Dodger - 10/10
One of my favourite Roger stories by Barrie but really, why did they reprint it? Surely Barrie can do Dennis AND Roger without having reprints, anyway there's three ways to tell a Roger reprint:
1) Is Dave with him? It's rare now that Roger isn't with Dave so if he's not there, it's a reprint possibly.
2) The title's bubble writing, Roger now has a fixed title annoyingly so if it looks different it's probably a reprint.
3) Does Roger have a red tongue? If so it's likely to be a reprint since new ones have Roger with a pink-ish tongue. I'm observant (and sad) ;)
Gnasher's Bit(e) - 10/10
Right, ignore the fact that the title name sucks and should be called Gnasher's Tale, this comic strip is basically the highlight of the comic, I reckon it's replaced 60 Second Dennis which is a relief. Anyway the artwork is among some of Barrie's greatest artwork on Dennis and Gnasher, there's a great load of comedy in this strip, there's hardly any dialogue meaning the reader can go through the comic quickly and easily plus it's on the back which is a great thing as I love comic strips on the back! :)

So there we are, should you get it, yeah I guess, it's a bit of a rip-off at being £2.50 and having 40 pages but not really... Next week's is the Easter Special! The free gifts are terrible being Moshi Monster stickers (WHY???), a crossbow and Haribos (Bad news for Pinkinfrench), at least the teaser blurb has got me interested:
"Don't miss seeing how Dennis uses the cool crossbow to strike back against super sneaky Walter as the Year of the Menace reaches new heights of mega mischief!"
Looks promising enough. I guess.

Anyway The Beano - Issue 3581 on sale now for £2.50.