I'm very pleased to be drawing Dennis' porcine pal again. Rasher originally appeared in The Beano in 1979, gaining his own strip in 1984, drawn by David Sutherland. Over the years the series has been illustrated by top artists such as Steve Bright, Barrie Appleby, and Nigel Parkinson. So when the character returned as a mini-strip in 2012 I considered it an honour to be asked to be the new artist.
I did 33 Rasher strips in my first run, then it underwent a title change to Watch-Hog for six further episodes. (I've also drawn four Rasher mini-strips for The Beano Annual 2015, on sale later this year.) The new series of Rasher should run until April or so.
Another mini-strip I have in this issue is episode 4 (of 6) of Doctor Flu.
The Beano is published every Wednesday, priced £2 for 36 full colour pages.
I saw some Beano coasters in Tesco last week, each coaster had a panel from what looked like the '60s or '70s Beano and they all featured Dennis the Menace so more him really than the Beano. There were about 15 altogether, handily one of the boxes was open so I could look.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen those items but I know there's a fair bit of Beano merchandise about. Not the sort of thing I'd buy personally but I'm sure they appeal to a lot of collectors.
DeleteI've got those coasters, bought them last week. They're actually 70s and 80s Dennis and Gnasher panels, a lot of which I recognised from 1990s Dennis annuals. They won't be in Tesco much longer though - mine was picked up on clearance. Had a £2.50 price sticker on but turned out to be half that when we got to the checkout.
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