Summer Specials edition

This week as we're a little more able in England to get about and we're into the Summer that staple of childhoods not least when you were away on vacation comes around, the comic Summer Special.

For of us who have been around a bit, the Summer Special had a bigger print size, was printed on luxurious glossy and was often in full colour so it was the thing you bought first after arriving into the town you were spending that time as a child.

For me it was the Beano although I did get the Dandy too because that was the main weekly comic I had so you knew the characters and the sorts of things that might happen within them.

As has been the case with most recent editions, the Beano one is set in Beanotown, where all the characters from the individual comic strips live and this one takes one plot that involves all the main cartoon strips.

The plot this year revolves around the Ban by the Mayor of Beanotown, who is Walter the softies Dad on Pranking following an incident at the launch of Beano Bucks, the towns new currency and the attempt to overturn it by Beanotown's children.

This has been well put together so the plot runs seamlessly across each separate cartoon strip and a few joint panels.

The Summer Special is rooted in the current comic so while featuring such staples as Dennis The Menace, Minnie The Minx and Rodger The Dodger that many of us recall it also includes Bananaman and Rubi, JJ and Pie face which is about as PC as it gets with a female wheelchair user, and Afro-carribean character included.

The older series are as I think I have said before are more toned down and the Demon Whacker absent and the Bash Street Schools teacher doesn't even carry a cane never mind threaten to use it reflect the regular comic as it is in 2020!    

All in all I would say as much as I am a Beano traditionalist, this years Summer Special is really well put together with quizzes, games and stickers to keep the young and the young at heart happy this summer which is what matters.

By way of contrast this years Dandy Summer Special is aimed more at those who grew up on the regular comic that was discontinued in December 2012 with choice high quality reprints but with a few brand new strips of the old favourites to keep us amused.

 Continuing the fast forward to the past theme, I recent acquired this 2006 cd of the 1972 T. Rex The Slider album which was one those things together with the summer specials I remember quite well having the lp which featured the hit singles Metal Guru and Telegram Sam.