The Beano Summer Annual 2011

Finally got it today after a long struggle, thank goodness!

Okay, first quick scan through and I can sadly confirm that about 90% of it is reprints annoyingly, luckily I have never read any of them!

Contents:

PG 1: Front Cover
PG 2: Whiteness...
PG 3: Beano Stickers
PG 4: More whiteness...
PG 5: Dennis telling you about 'Magic 3D'
PG 6: Introduction...
FINALLY! ONTO THE...
PG 8: Puzzle: Search and Colour - Barrie Appleby? REPRINT
PG 10: Puzzle: Great Dino Search - David Parkins REPRINT
PG 12: Puzzle: The Lost Beano World - Nigel Parkinson REPRINT
PG 14: Puzzle: Bite-Size Puzzles - Mixture
AND NOW FINALLY THE COMIC STRIPS!
PG 16: Minnie the Minx - Nigel Parkinson REPRINT
PG 18: The 3 Bears - Unknown REPRINT
PG 20: Board Game: Rumble in the Jungle - Jimmy Glen REPRINT
PG 22: Puzzle: The Beano Spooky Castle - Mixture
PG 24: The Bash Street Kids - Barrie Appleby REPRINT
PG 29: Puzzle: Wordsquare REPRINT
PG 30: Puzzle: Summer Sizzlers - Robert Nixon REPRINT
PG 32: Puzzle: Sea Search - Mixture REPRINT
PG 33: Puzzle: Summer Fun - Mixture REPRINT
PG 34: 'Bizarre' (In other words, boring page-waster)
PG 35: Dennis the Menace and Gnasher ('Apparently' Retro Beano, more like...) REPRINT!
PG 41: Roger the Dodger and Tricky Dicky - Barrie Appleby REPRINT
PG 42: Board Game: Meet Nessie - Jimmy Glen REPRINT
PG 44: Poem: Summer Time Rhymes - Gordon Bell REPRINT
PG 46: The Numskulls - Nigel Parkinson REPRINT
PG 48: Billy Whizz - Wayne Thompson/Stripz - Duncan Scott REPRINTS
PG 50: Crazy for Daisy - Nick Brennan REPRINT
PG 52: Ivy the Terrible - Tony O'Donnell REPRINT
PG 53: How to Draw Ivy - Bob Dewar
PG 54: Dennis the Menace and Gnasher (Not Dennis and Gnasher, silly title...) - Nigel Parkinson REPRINT
PG 56: Puzzle: What a Pair!
PG 57: Les Pretend - John Sherwood REPRINT
PG 58: Freddie Fear - Dave Eastbury REPRINT
PG 59: Robbie Rebel - Ken Harrison REPRINT
PG 60: Billy Whizz - Nick Brennan (possibly a reprint, looks like his older style...)
PG 61: Joke Page: Mad Jokes - Duncan Scott REPRINT
PG 62: Jack Flash - Nigel Parkinson REPRINT
PG 63: Puzzle: Funfair Wordsearch - Mixture REPRINT
PG 64: Puzzle: Spot the Difference
PG 65: The Bash Street Kids - David Sutherland NEW!
PG 73: Puzzle: Awkwardly placed Spot the Difference
PG 74: The Bash Street Kids - David Sutherland NEW!
PG 77: Puzzle: Spot the Difference
PG 78: Minnie the Minx - Tom Paterson REPRINT
PG 80: The Numskulls - Unknown/Stripz - Duncan Scott REPRINT
PG 82: Roger the Dodger - Barrie Appleby REPRINT
PG 84: Casino Beano - Nigel Parkinson REPRINT
PG 85: Ivy the Terrible - Diego Jourdan NEW!
PG 89: Board Game: Bubble Game - Jimmy Glen REPRINT
PG 90: Joke Page: Jokes with the Beano Gang in space for some reason. - Unknown REPRINT
PG 92: Photo Laffs: Fun and Highland Games - Trevor Metcalfe REPRINT
PG 94: Little Plum - Hunt Emerson REPRINT
PG 96: The Numskulls - Barry Glennard NEW!
PG 100: Bicycle Repair Kids - David Sutherland REPRINT?
PG 102: Puzzle: Tricky History REPRINT?
PG 104: The Bash Street Kids - David Sutherland NEW!
PG 108: Bea - Nigel Parkinson REPRINT
PG 109: Picture: Rascals' Regatta - Unknown REPRINT
PG 111: Tongue Twisters - Mixture
PG 112: Minnie the Minx - Steve Bright REPRINT
PG 114: Roger the Dodger - Barrie Appleby REPRINT
PG 116: Minnie the Minx goes under Fred's Bed - Tom Paterson NEW!
PG 120: Puzzle: The Ancient Egypt Quest
PG 122: The Bash Street Kids - David Sutherland REPRINT
PG 124: Roger the Dodger - Barrie Appleby NEW!
PG 128: Ball Boy - Dave Eastbury REPRINT
PG 130: Puzzle: Batty Maze
PG 131: Whiteness...
PG 132: More whiteness...
PG 133: Guess what? That's right, more whiteness...
PG 134: Back Page: Synopsis

Okay, I hate reprints but there are a few good things about this, e.g. I haven't read ANY of them! And there are quite a lot of new stories...
- The Bash Street Kids x2 (11 pages/4 pages)
- Ivy the Terrible (4 pages)
- The Numskulls (4 pages)
- Minnie the Minx goes under Fred's Bed (4 pages)
- Roger the Dodger (4 pages)

My only problems with this annual are...
1) The white pages, in total there are 5 pages of it, they could easily of added at least two more comic strips then!
2) The quality of the reprints, some are terrible. The colours look awful.
3) The 'magical 3D effect' A.K.A. A load of rubbish. You don't even need the 3D as 1) It doesn't work and 2) It hurts my eyes.
4) The front cover. It's terrible. Really bad. Couldn't they at least make a decent front cover like the Broons/Oor Wullie Summer Annual front cover? No, obviously not.
5) It's paperback, not hardback. It feels more like an activity book than an annual.
6) The fact it claims: 'and all your favourite Beano pals' when it doesn't, where's Super School, Ratz, Lord Snooty the Third, Biffo and Calamity James? The awkward thing is the stickers have pictures of all the 'current' characters yet only half of these actually feature in a comic strip!
7) The choices of comic strips. Why? Why did they think this was a good idea, no Calamity James, Biffo or Ratz to name a few, yet they used Jack Flash, I ask once again, WHY?!

Anyway, is it worth buying? Yes, it is, the comic strips are mostly decent, Diego's 4 pager Ivy is fantastic as is Minnie the Minx goes under Fred's Bed. However others like Jack Flash and Robbie Rebel are just terrible. All in all it's a good buy, has it's few faults but overall is a brilliant book which any comic collector should have on their shelf.

The Dandy - Issue 3537

What a brilliant week for comics this week, we had the 44 page Beano and Dandy and the Beano Summer Comic No.1, yippee!

Anyway, on with the review and this week was yet another brilliant week for the Dandy, let's see why...

PG 1: Front Cover: Harry Hill's Real Life Adventures in  TV Land - Nigel Parkinson
(Groan! Just when I thought would escaped celeb front covers)
PG 2: Jokes (Harry Hill's Real Life Adventures in  TV Land - Nigel Parkinson)
PG 3: What's Inside? (Harry Hill's Real Life Adventures in  TV Land - Nigel Parkinson)
PG 4: Pre-Skool Prime Minister - Jamie Smart
PG 6: Harry and his Hippo - Andy Fanton
PG 7: Madvertisement: Zzz $aver$! - Nigel Auchterlounie
PG 8: Little Little Richard Hammond - Nigel Parkinson
(What, Jeremy Clarkson is Richard's DAD?! My mind is blown...)
PG 9: Shorts: Rubbish Superheroes (The Flush) - Garry Davies NEW!, Simples! 101 Ways to use a Meerkat (No. 91) - Wayne Thompson, Freddy the Fearless Fly - Phil Corbett, Old MacDonald's Facebook Farm - Karl Dixon
PG 10: Hysterical History: William Wallace - Karl Dixon NEW!
PG 11: Where's Harry? - Nigel Parkinson
PG 12: Justin Beaver - Stu Munro
PG 13: Yore - The Etherington Brothers
PG 14: Bone-O - Mike Donaldson
PG 15: Sea Dogs - Steve Beckett
PG 16: Bananaman - Wayne Thompson
PG 18: Puzzle: Gaz of the Titans - Nik Holmes
PG 19: Shorts: Rubbish Superheroes (Captain Wonder) - Garry Davies, Terror Byte - David Banks (So glad it's back!), Knock! Knock! - Garry Davies, The Grown-up Way VS The Right Way: Organisation - Karl Dixon
PG 20: Desperate Dan's Cowboy Talk! - Jamie Smart (sort of)
PG 22: The Arena of Awesome - Jamie Smart
(Pullout: The Bogies Stickers)
PG 24: Prank: Dandy Fake Report Cards
PG 25: Harry Hill's Real Life Adventures in TV Land - Nigel Parkinson
PG 29: Shorts: Saint Evils - Stephen Walker, The Grown-up Way VS The Right Way: Fear of Spiders - Karl Dixon, Fat Cat - Paul Palmer NEW!, Rubbish Superheroes (Bogey Man) - Garry Davies
PG 30: Dandy Subscription Page
PG 31: The Gleeks - Nigel Auchterlounie
PG 32: The Bogies - Nigel Auchterlounie
PG 33: Smashed Hits: All the Dinner Ladies (All the Single Ladies - Beyonce Knowles) - Paul Palmer
PG 34: Mailbag
PG 36: Advert: Dandy YouTube Channel/Dandy Website
PG 37: Korky the Cat (or should I say 'Xorky the Cat'?) - Phil Corbett
PG 38: Clown Wars - Nik Holmes
PG 39: Shorts: Rubbish Superheroes (B.O. Boy) - Garry Davies, Simples! 101 Ways to use a Meerkat (No. 92) - Wayne Thompson, Twit-ter - Nigel Auchterlounie, Jibber & Steve - Nigel Parkinson
PG 40: Puzzle: Korky's Wool Wars - Phil Corbett
PG 41: George VS Dragon - Andy Fanton
PG 42: Desperate Dan - Jamie Smart
PG 43: Next Week: (Harry Hill's Real Life Adventures in TV Land, Rubbish Superheroes (The Incredible Guff), Justin Beaver, Pre-Skool Prime Minister and Little Ant and Dec)
PG 44: Back Page: Inside!(Pre-Skool Prime Minister, Desperate Dan, Clown Wars, The Arena of Awesome)

Review very soon