Wednesday 24 July 2013

Rasher Refreshed!


With today being the 75th anniversary of The Beano, what better time to reveal the changes coming to the Rasher strip I've been drawing for the past several months. 

First off, Rasher as a mini-strip title is gone, for now at least. In its place this week (for the birthday issue) is a full pager called Celebrity Oinkless written by Iain McLaughlin and drawn by me. I think there may be more of these in the future hopefully.

Next week, a new mini-strip begins. Watch-Hog stars Rasher as a consumer protection pig. The concept was created in the Beano office but I'm writing and drawing the six-part series myself. If you enjoyed Rasher you should like this. Same sty-le of humour under a new title. 




Lots of changes at The Beano this week! Some quite drastic. I had my reservations but having read the comic now I think they work! Jamie Smart on Roger the Dodger! Alexander Matthews on Ball Boy! The demolition of Bash Street School! Nigel Auchterlounie on The Numskulls! It's a brand new era for Britain's longest-running comic. And great stand-up plastic figures of Beano characters in the free Turbo Battlerz pack too! Only £2.50. 

Also out today, No.1 of Dennis the Menace and Gnasher Mega-Zine! A new comic which replaces BeanoMax. Features a new 10 page Dennis story by Nigel Auchterlounie and Nigel Parkinson, and a 32 page pull out comic collecting the Nuke Noodle strips by Alexander Matthews that were serialized in The Dandy

It's Beano week! You can't escape it. More news and previews: http://www.beano.com

10 comments:

George Shiers said...

It's at times like these I wish I still lived in England! I should get my copy in a week or two though...

Manic Man said...

I must say, I got the latest Beano out of interest.. can't say I was that impressed but, as I have said before, it's not aimed at people like me so that's no problem ^_^ I like the Minnie the Minx artwork.. Who does that these days anyway?

Lew Stringer said...

Minnie is drawn by Nigel Parkinson, who also does Dennis.

Anonymous said...

The figure in the middle box looks like Matt Smith, the outgoing Dr. Who.

Lew Stringer said...

Whew! That's a relief because that's who it's supposed to be.

Manic Man said...

Ah.. should have noticed.. Must say, it does seam to be in a much.. well.. I don't know the right word but.. I perfect the style and colouring style for that one ^_^

Oh any one know if the Bananaman has 2 artists in this issue? on the last panel, the 'mayor's head is.. it's not in the same style, the line thickness is completely different etc.. seams like someone has pasted a new head on his body for some reason.. kinda jumps out of the page due to how.. different it is.

I guess I might enjoy this issue a bit more if I knew who even half the 'guest stars' were and why there is some guy either saying everything is stupid or talking about drugs... is there some new meaning to the word.. I know it as a narcotic, as in given to horses, idiots give it to themselves etc.., or English slang to mean 'stupid'.. of course, there is that lubricant stuff.. again.. I take it kids understand these terms so it's okay ^_^ doesn't matter what people like me think as long as the target audience enjoy it. and looking around, they seam to, so that's perfect.

Lew Stringer said...

As the name says on his fancy jacket that's Will.I.Am. He's pretty famous in the music industry. Yes, he's changed the meaning of the word 'dope' so it means 'cool'. In a similar way that 'wicked' and 'bad' mean good.

It's ok him using the word 'dope' in The Beano as Will.I.Am says it all the time on The Voice (a popular BBC singing contest) which loads of kids watch.

These days most kids' first exposure to the word 'dope' will be in that context, so that's, y'know, dope. :)

Manic Man said...

ah..

I wasn't sure about the name on the jacket.. My mothers says 'David Essex' on it, not much of a description of the name ^_^

Not too surprised about the word meaning something new these days.. but I do get a bit fed up with the so-called rules of which words can be 'changed'.. I know tons of words that were 100% okay to use but in the last 20 years or so, they have become no-no words.. very annoying.. I wonder if I'm allowed to call computer users the 'insulting' term of 'wetware' again.. okay, the term didn't catch on much but I like it and use it.. mostly for the idiots I have to deal with (If you get an e-mail that says you have won the Mexican state lottery, and it has a downloadable file, stop being so stupid as to download and run it!)

anyway.. I wonder if we are truly returning to the 'innocence' of the Victorian age? in the 90s, kids by the age of 5 seamed to know what a whore was and what they did in.. quite graphic detail..

Lew Stringer said...

I'm not sure that's true for most kids.

James Spiring said...

Manic Man, it looks like they pasted in a stock picture of Mayor Scrimp from Dennis and Gnasher to replace a generic mayor that Wayne Thompson had drawn.