A cold start to the day...

Cold start to the day as I type this out as plans got altered yet again due to the weather as yesterday we had minor snow that cleared  and now this morning it went below minus 2 degrees and we have ice which means post and amazon deliveries are all being delayed.

Given the last amazon delay saw me gain a delayed delivery vouch, near enough a "rain check" that we used to have I do wonder if this latest delay will earn me another?

I did read this weeks Beano - they've been going with a modified version of the more rounded duo colour sixties logo minus the definitive article on the front masthead - enjoying long stories involving the Bash Street Kids and Rodger the Dodger.

I loved the animated tv Josie and the Pussycats cartoons in the 1970's although tracking down the comics was hard going being American but that scene is believable knowing people who'd insist on having the very sleeping attire they prefer even if it just isn't practical to get it so most of us would either borrow Pj's or sleep in underwear.

There's nothing like folk,eh?

I'll also watch the 1984 End of year review of Blue Peter before that resumes this Friday on CBBC.

It's Summer - Beano Summer Special 2025

We're into June which means we are officially into summer  that for most of us means mentally at least the whole off school summer holiday period and the memories of going away with your family year on year with all the rituals that involved such as getting new summer cloths for playing on the beach or camp to take with you.

 Back then comics as distinct from magazines often of a commercially exploitative nature ruled the roost so when we landed we made a beeline to the newsagent for some reading matter in case of rain and back then most comics also had summer specials in colour with more stories.

Today that's different so really it's the Beano summer special most go for in in 2025 we run very much the notion of everybody going on their holiday in Beanotown in much the same way that industrial areas the town shut down for a fixed period.

Thus the adventures feature all our comic heroes and heroines often working together to get out of situations in one big adventure and we love adventure don't we?

This year's is up to the usual high standard.

The Beano Summer Special 2024

 It's May and something starts every year around this time as we move through Whit Bank Holiday not so far away and then we build up to the school holidays which takes us your time away whither or not it's a caravan park, seaside guest house or foreign resort.

Something needs to help fill that time that doesn't have batteries that go flat, internet connections that cut out, is in your language and you can easily return to.

For many of it was the Summer Special of our favourite comics, Tammy, Dandy or for a good many of us The Beano that we got and took with us to deal things like wet afternoons.

In the past they were just special editions of your regular comic with new exclusive stories but with the Beano in recent years there has been more of an attempt to program a theme across the whole edition involving many of the other characters and more fun activities.

This years is et more around the notion of a set of Pranks in Beanotown often at the expense of the adult  authority figures like Teacher from the Bash Street Kids, the Mayor of Beanotown, Walter's Dad or attraction bosses.

Here Dennis is working on something (he's ceased to be "The Menace") and like society today is more multicultural but it's still recognizably a child's world we enter and today's child would recognize where many things are but just a smartphone away.

And that's really the point, we enter that world again, the signs may be different, the Public Telephone isn't on the street corner but it's the basically the same so we enjoy our time.

I'm enjoying it.

New old -annuals

Things are a bit better this week although the oldish Windows machine's being a little erratic in its operations so I'm doing a bit a pre-planning like posting any images when it feels like co-operating and finishing things off on the reliable Chromebook.

This week I found an old school photograph which would of been when I was thirteen and a bit taken with just a hint of the then popular diffusion with a soft wide apertured background that's noticeable for the short bob girlish style hair and baby pink v neck sweater with tie which clearly showed how I saw thinks back then, uniform style but not rigidly stereotypical.

Back then the gender divide was of almost Berlin Wall proportions not least in school so you might make your own arrangements for getting "in" with things the other sex alone officially were supposed to do be them sports, games you play or comics you'd rather read although because most of my sports were disability sports at least they were co-ed unlike most.

Even if you were lucky to acquire the comics or figure you wanted, chances are many may of gone by now so I was pleased to get this compilation of classic girls  annuals of the 1970's - the sort of thing some of us read - with stories we remember presented as annual.

Although this came out in 2014, I'd been looking for a copy for ages when I found a store with a copy in and got it.

Given the heavy rain of late, it's just the thing to cheer me up.

New -old things and that

 Hello there.

It was apparently as I hadn't been born then 65 years last Friday that that iconic BBC tv children's show Blue Peter first began and so on friday's show they looked at past shows and presenters most of whom were known to me ever since I first watched it.

Henry the dog was as good as gold throughout the show as makes and challenges were performed before the cake was cut.

Monster Fun in all its ghoulish fun is being enjoyed here as is the Beano which is actually the oldest  British in production comic even though the life of a child has changed in many ways since the late 1930's and today apparently they don't "do" phone calls.

A few more records were cleaned across the week as some were not cleaned at the time and a clean groove is a prerequisite for clear crackle free sound from them as I played a few this weekend for the first time in ages. 

We don't normally mention the cd only Extra editions of the Now yearbook series only normally looking at the regular three lp version instead as for me handling and playing records is linked to the period but this is worth picking up as it has a great collection of glam rock, soul and pop which shows what a great year for music 1973 was.

Summer Fun with The Beano 2022

While I take a bit of breather outdoors this weekend as I post stuff slightly in advance and with anyone looking at their calendars and diaries bought just before Christmas and fingers being crossed I do get to get away this year will sense Summer is almost upon us. 

Summer in times gone past meant we bought or were given things to help us as kids pass that time away and in the heyday of The Comic that tended to mean a deluxe full colour expanded edition with all new stories.

Well, it's that time of the year again and so the sole survivor on the street of the comics some of us were brought up with returns with its special edition.

It bills itself as a Summer Activity Special which gives us a clue as all modern comics have a social side not just a collection of new individual comic strips but incorporating fun things to do being given stickers to stick anywhere you wish, joke pages, quizzes and competitions as part of the mix.

The Clock struck at the top of the hour signalling the end end of Summer School Term as Ms Mistry the (new) teacher at Bash Street School questions why all of Class 3C are looking at it wanting to set Homework while back in Class 2B the Bash Street Kids are getting rebellious.

Little does anyone realize they set to involved in historical time travelling high jinks thanks to Professor Screwtop, Rubi's father's inventions that affect everyone in Beanotown with it facing the prospect of  being lost in time forever.

Somehow all the regulars from Beanotown must find a way saving it from such a fate.

Unlike some years they haven't dispensed with the individual page strips for Rubi's Screwtop Science, Minnie the Minx, Dennis the Menace and naturally enough the Bash Street Kids although sometimes characters do guest in each others cartoon strips as the story develops.

Nobody has got any older over the years although we are clearly in 2022 and not 1972 and the world the modern girl or boy inhabits for whom this is really aimed and perhaps some of us remain even if things such as Smartphones were things we never could of foreseen.

It is available NOW.

Christmas day edition 2021

On the ball or not this has been hastily put together as we are able to do a bit more than last and so we will have a few visitors today.

Christmas here is very much a repeat of how things were cos I haven't changed, I remain pretty much like a child any so a staple is annuals connected to comics so we have this years Beano Annual which may of caught up with the Spotty as Scotty renaming in the Bash Street Kids following Fatty becoming Freddie or possibly not but will have the two new classmates in.

We don't have a Dandy no more outside of the Summer Special but we do have an all new annual to look forward to.

Recently there has been themed compilations of classic cartoon strips from the Dandy and Beano from the past and this years looks at stories featuring characters doing art and drawing within the comic.

 Although I am familiar with the aria's from it I hadn't a copy of the full Madama Butterfly opera by the Italian composer Puccini and in the christmas stocking is a new acclaimed recording.

 Spinning at 33 1/3rd, I had the limited edition Dusty Springfield Atlantic singles set from 1968 thru 1971 on ruby red vinyl that uses the original mono singles mixes.

I also had some money I can take with me once we are clearer how the start of next year is likely to be.

Why don't you...?

It's awful wet and windy this weekend so I won't be going anywhere until Monday at the earliest unfortunately so I'm having to entertain myself indoors this weekend.

The idea of a picnic with animals under the tree is something of an idea I had when I was younger, just thinking how it work out, the food we'd have and how to communicate with a duck as one would climb a tree.

There may of been something in the idea that represented a place we could all at peace with each other when things were not so good.

I'd lost a bunch of cds a good many years ago during a tidy up prior to decoration and while everything else was found, a group had not so I managed to buy replacement copies cheaply  and have been playing them this weekend.

I missed those performances.

I read some old annuals and comics too from more simpler times which I really much prefer when you made things and used your imagination to make up activities on the fly rather than using someone else's.

 An imagination is a wonderful thing.

Making the most of Winter

 

Things as far as the weather is concerned are taking a turn for the better with much of the ice melted as of yesterday which made getting about rather difficult although having "dragon's blood" as my BFF remarks the cold is not of itself an issue with me so much as the wobbly lower paws to tend to go flying.

Thus it's been a more enforced doing thing indoors kind of a week here, cuddling up to my tatty teddie, making things, watching CBBC, reading comics and that not a million miles removed from how it was in school when it was like this.

I did sit out in the garden a bit on my swing - I just no longer care what anyone else might think about that - just cos I find it very relaxing gently swaying back and forth watching the world go by which certainly beats reading the news websites 24/7.

Hopefully I'll be able to go for longer walks this week as the curbs and roads clear.

Who knows I could go to the shop?

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.

Children's Magazines

Although the weather has been lousy for most of the week I do get out rather than living life behind a screen, interacting with people and that means at the very least I get to go to the general store and newsagent quite a bit.
I had been looking for a while at comics and magazines aimed for children are both displayed and also the kinds of content because in the time I've been on this planet things have changed, something prompted a little by last weeks post.

 This kind of display should be familiar to most Britishers, usually a few levels high with the children's magazines toward the bottom in a dedicated sub section, titles battle it out for supremacy especially as when here one or more is stack just above the other, limiting exposure of the cover.
One of the first things you'll notice is the cover mounted usually plastic gifts and because of the whole comic or magazine is then covered in plastic.
The first thing to say is those mounts make the display harder fit in the racks and this makes it harder to be seen by children who contrary to popular opinion aren't super tall.
The other is the return rates for most as they're sold on "sale or return" is quite high no less than 35% and often higher then them means the plastic gifts need to be recycled or otherwise disposed of as ultimately at children's homes they also do so it isn't really helping the environment.

 Often publishers have a different idea of the age range they are catering for and for example when I scanned through Nat Geographic Kids this Saturday, there wasn't anything that would really appeal to a child of nine or older - the last years of Junior School to thirteen plus as while animals featured it was more quiz and simple fact centred as if they expected that age group to pay for and read the 'adult' National Geographic magazine.
As with some other magazines around say Soccer there wasn't a lot that might stretch a child's reading ability and vocabulary in the that in the past adventure comics would promoting understanding of ideas and rules.
It just seems to me there doesn't appear to anything that filled the void left by the celebratory and Tv centred Look In of the nineteen-seventies and eighties where intelligent well written pieces around topics can be found mixed in with fun for those over eight but not wanting an adult publication.

Summer Special edition

After all that groan up election stuff on Thursday and the counting bit yesterday let's get back to more agreeable matters shall we?
As we head toward the end of May, we move from Spring into Summer which usually in this country tends to bring warmer weather and lots of Sun, indeed you might remember from last year we kind of over did it with temperatures in the high 20 degrees C range for a long period.
Summer in the UK is marked by the start of school holidays that usually start around the third week of July and run for typically 8 weeks which makes it a highlight of your childhood years and depending on age and in some cases districts marks such milestones as graduating to Juniors or moving on to Secondary schools at 11+ and college/uni at 16 and 18 respectively.
Something else generations of britishers also looked forward to was the publication of unique Summer Specials of their comics that came in full colour on better magazine quality paper with a binding.

They were and are almost like miniature annuals, which are a staple of childhood Christmas's  over here with special cartoon strips, games and things to do in them that you'd pick up before you went off on your summer holidays.
The company D C Thomson are a well known Scottish print media magnet printing magazines, comics and newspapers and two comic titles they are known for is The Beano and The Dandy.
Recently I got my copies of these two Summer Specials.
The Beano is a current comic, read by today's children as well as sizable number of adults who are continuing a enjoyable interest from childhood aimed at both girls and boys  whose cartoon strips have changed by the times with some old ones discontinued for new ones and some changes within the older ones to reflect more the society around today's children.
Thus it features such long established series as Dennis the Menace with his dog, Gnasher, Minnie the Minx, my heroine and the Bash Street Kids set in a working class junior school together with newer ones such as Rubi JJ and Pie Face that feature disabled children and people of colour in an attempt to be more 'inclusive' and all are drawn especially for this years summer special.
It has stickers, games and quizzes too clearly aimed at today's children.
The Dandy's is different because it is no longer published weekly and like the Annual is aimed more at those who remember reading the Dandy as I did as a kid and so has decided to make it a compilation with illustrations of some front covers, of some vintage comic strips featured in past summer annuals.
Reading that does bring back past memories and really childhood nostalgia is where this one is aimed.
Two annuals aimed at different markets all a great summer read.

Christmas report

Christmas here was a bit different for a few reasons one being we didn't go out for lunch between some inter family stuff that tested patience to the limits and Mommy and I being very unwell just before and still recovering  so even if we had, it really would of been a waste as we'd not of eaten much.
With that we ate at home between ourselves,with the Turkey being put in over night to cook right through, vegetables done across the morning and the Christmas Pudding zapped in two minutes flat before eating!
As it was 2015 I had to help out getting stuff out, setting the table, clearing the table and with washing up.
I did have a number of presents this year although somethings are in transit as as I wasn't well enough to organize them to just before Christmas which does give me something to look forward toward I guess.

A perennial with me is comic annuals which are a direct run on from the Christmas presents I has as a child featuring special and sometimes Christmas themed cartoon strips from my all time favourite characters such as the no longer running apart from specials, Dandy which had Korky the cat, Desperate Dan of Cow Pie fame and others in it. 

The BIG comic with me as a Child was Britain's Beano a veritable parallel world for those of us who were of official school age  during the 70's thru 90's it's peak period with it's own school and characters in the form of the Bash Street Kids, my heroine Minnie the Minx and Dennis the Menance who like us also got smacked if they were naughty (and they were!).
As time went by some strips like Lord Snooty got retired and others like Bananaman who did have a tv series too joined the old favourites and the questionable practise of featuring in the news real people like pop stars and the like in story-lines crept in.

To say I like Jacqueline Wilson's stories is an understatement outside of the likes of Enid Blyton and co which I was raised on (and as you may know do have a good number of complete series by), she treads the line well between old school story telling but set in the world of todays children (and sadly some of society's issues) producing funny, very readable and thought provoking work.
This is set of short stories, some Christmas related featuring some of her best loved characters like Tracy Beaker and Hetty Feather with quizzes too which is just the sort of thing I like, a more middles take on an annual in a paperback book format.

Mommy bought me  this, Maddie who is a 14 inch soft rag doll who I think is adorable in her pink candy stripped outfit and some grey long school socks which is a very sensible choice for an adult middle like me.

My Auntie brought me a selection box which was a super inspired choice on her part as she not formally known about my Middle side but can tell straight I'm very child-like.

To be honest I'd sooner people either asked ideally or just bought me things more like this because I just so not relate to *adult* likes and that at all so buying for a middle child really is more sensible.

Style chart

(Click on to expand)
This great drawing by Guinevieve is a great attempt to defining by example the various styles of Gothic & Lolita fashion many follow that deserved sharing.
Also I cut and made some classic 'Bunty' paper dolls from the 60's with their dresses having been shown a website that had scans of them so I could print them off which was rather fun as my Nan used to buy me it. 

75 years of the Beano

More warm this week as I sit typing up this weeks entry in bits and pieces no doubt.
For a good number of us, our sense of being young is in part at least connected with our actual childhoods and the routines we had back then and for me at least it was the arrival of comics which in the case of this British one came out on a Thursday.

That's right, the Beano which first came out in 1938 apparently although during World War II, it was reduced to fortnightly to save paper which was in short supply.
This is  special kind of a magazine with a softbook binding issued July 24th featuring a background capsule on all the main cartoon strips the comic run and the first strips of each that for me included such favourites as Minnie The Minx, Lord Snooty, Biffo the Bear, Dennis with Gnasher and the school series the Bash Street Kids that was close in some ways to my first school with its' Victorian building. Dennis has only been regularly on the front page from September 1974 taking over from Biffo.
Included in it is four glassy art prints which just adds to the enjoyment of this special issue although I often get the new regular copies and there is a celebratory featured  special issue of the regular comic that I hate to say really doesn't work as part of the appeal is the constant old style art and traditional storylines carefully made just slightly in tune with our times for younger audiences. 

Comics

When I was younger I grew up reading comics which are usually combinations of short stories written for children in a series of frames with the drawing, speech bubbles for the characters and a little bit of plain text to set the scene of the frame.
The stories are usually centred on universal aspects of childhood, such as parents, authority figures, school, war or adventure stories with heroes and having fun with other kids.
Some comics are written to appeal mostly to one gender but most I read were for both such as the Dandy and the Beano pictured.
In many ways the Beano had it all as far as I was concerned with the adventures of Dennis the Menace,  the lovable roguish boy fighting dad, every authority figure there was, Walter (the goody-goody boy) with every trick in the book. That said in earlier editions he'd get his comeuppance once in a while when Granny would arrive on the scene and spank him with the 'Demon whacker', a notoriously hard leather slipper!
My favourite though was Minnie The Minx. She was a bit like Dennis but with a Tan and obviously a skirt on compared to Dennis flannel shorts but more cunning with a tomboy aspect to her personality always scheming to get her own way . She'd have me in stitches every week!!!
My other favourite as The Bash Street Kids set in a old run down inner city primary school with loads of wacky characters engaged in a constant battle with 'Teach' who carried a cane with him who himself was under pressure from the Headmaster. In older episodes he's cane the kids from time to time for their misdemeanours in class or on trips.
I still love reading them and buy the annuals.

School Uniformed Life

This kind of uniform with blazer over blouse tie and skirt was very much a part of my own experience as a child because this was what girls generally wore to school. You cannot help but notice it just doesn't compliment their appearances but it looks very smart as well as defining you a school girl.
If you were in the 5th form (14 1/2  thru 15) or above you could wear tights usually a plain colour such as tan, blue, black or grey instead of knee socks

Of course any part of being a school child included shared interests of which a big one is comics and for me it was the British Comic, the Beano with it's adventures that we shared especially in my boarding school.
Recently it has been celebrating its 70th anniversary with a special soft back magazine edition that I bought back in July and this exhibition.

The Girl (Comic)

A special offshoot of The Eagle but for Girls:

The Eagle was a iconic British boys comic from the 1950's when boy were boys full of beans, heros and daring-do but girls then were regarded more as dainty, fragile things best kept for marriage and being of use to boys and men.

It was interesting that this comic taking some inspiration from what Women contributed during World war Two when the menfolk were on the frontline helping the War, effort showed a woman at the helm of an important role.

Girls can be aviators too!

Oh boy!

There were many things we read at high school, some by ourselves and some we shared and discussed at length.

These magazines were shared every week between us, having features on pop stars, usually hunky boys and well as stars of tv and the movie theatre.

The members of Duran Duran were something we sure discussed back then, I can assure you!

We also liked Sting

They also had features on fashion, making out and boys! In the pre-internet age apart from siblings it was the best place to find out stuff from.

Photo romance stories also featured and we talked about the issues they raised between each other.

Comics of my youth

We read these comics whenever it rained in our junior school and we were unable to play as they were kept in a big cardboard box and shared at recess.

Here's another long gone we read:

That one's more of a boys comic but it didn't matter that much when you couldn't play out back then.