Dundee's plan for real Bash Street to go ahead

The BBC reports that Dundee's plans for a real Bash Street are to go ahead

The city council has approved the plans proposed by The Beano publisher DC Thomson to honour The Bash Street Kids which were being considered for a location the city's west end, which Jeremy Briggs reported here early last month.

First appearing in The Beano under its original title of When The Bell Rings in the issue dated 13 February 1954, editor George Moonie was inspired by the antics of the children of the High School Of Dundee, the playground of which could be seen from the windows of the Beano office, and he passed the idea to artist Leo Baxendale whose imagination did the rest.

Major redevelopment work in the city prompted a proposal to name a new street Bash Street and a soft play area for children that will utilise Beano characters under license from DC Thomson, in part to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the comic in 2013.

The Bash Street Kids will feature heavily in the new centre alongside Dennis the Menace, Gnasher, Minnie the Minx, Roger the Dodger and The Beano logo. Dundee City Council has now approved a request from DCThomson to allocate the name Bash Street to the street adjacent to 142/144 WestMarketgait which currently has no name.

The street is beside a Travelodge hotel off West Marketgait and between the West Port Roundabout and Guthrie Street where DC Thomson used to have their printing works - and only a short walk from DC Thomson's Courier Building and the High School Of Dundee itself.

• There are more details of the High School Of Dundee's connection with The Bash Street Kids over on Bear Alley.

• The BBC report is at: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-20672645

Will Dundee Get A Real Bash Street?

(Updated 11/12/12): Class 2B of Bash Street School, otherwise known as The Bash Street Kids, have been entertaining us in The Beano since the strip first appeared under its original title of When The Bell Rings in the issue dated 13 February 1954. Beano editor George Moonie was inspired by the antics of the children of the High School Of Dundee, the playground of which could be seen from the windows of the Beano office, and he passed the idea to artist Leo Baxendale whose imagination did the rest.

The street and school as seen in the comic do not exist in reality in Dundee but with the major redevelopment work that is going on in the city at the moment the opportunity has arisen to name a new street and the proposal that will be going in front of Dundee City Council is that it should be called Bash Street.

The consultation letter from Dundee City Council's Street Naming and Numbering Team states: "There is a proposal for a children's soft play area withinthe former works buildings off West Marketgait. As part of this development DC Thomson is in discussions with a local developer re licensing the Beano IP within thebranded children’s soft play centre. Planning consent has been granted for thesoft play centre.

"The Bash Street Kids will feature heavily in the new centrealongside Dennis the Menace, Gnasher, Minnie the Minx, Roger the Dodgerand The Beano logo. Dundee City Council has received a request from DCThomson to allocate the name Bash Street to the street adjacent to 142/144 WestMarketgait which currently has no name. This is to tie-in with the proposed newbuild and to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of The Beano in 2013 in the comic’s hometown."

The as yet unnamed new street is beside a Travelodge hotel off West Marketgait and between the West Port Roundabout and Guthrie Street where DC Thomson used to have their printing works. Indeed the area is only a short walk from DC Thomson's Courier Building and the High School Of Dundee itself.

At the moment the name is at the proposal stage however Councillor Fraser MacPherson, who represents the area in the city council, has stated on his blog, "I think this is a superb proposal." He goes on to say, "Dundee having its very own Bash Street seems very appropriate and I'm very pleased that Bash Street will be in the West End Ward!"

There are more details of the High School Of Dundee's connection with The Bash Street Kids over on Bear Alley.


Update, 11th December 2012: The BBC reports Dundee Council has now approved these plans. See: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-20672645

Free Beanos for Scottish school kids

Bet English school kids will be gnashing their teeth... over on the Wacky Comics blog, George Shiers reports DC Thomson is working with Scottish Business in the Community and will be giving away 370,000 free Beano comics to every single primary school pupil in Scotland.

The Daily Record reports it's intended as a new way to engage with youngsters, with popular characters Dennis the Menace and Gnasher teaching pupils the benefits of time management and motivation to help improve their school work. Minnie the Minx will give advice on money and savings, while the Bash Street Kids will promote healthy eating and better lifestyle choices.

While it's perhaps not something you'd not normally associate with the Bash Street gang, children will be encouraged to eat five portions of fruit every day by Danny, Smiffy, Spotty, Plug and Fatty.

“Making learning fun as well as engaging and relevant, and setting it in a format that makes our young people want to learn, is not an easy thing to do," noted Scottish Learning Minister Alasdair Allan, who welcomed the initiative.

"Experience shows that enterprising approaches help young people develop essential skills."

The free comic will be given away at the end of August,and hopefully it will also increase sales of The Beano.

Merry Christmas: 5 Days To Go

Our run of Christmas covers continue as we countdown to Christmas Day.

DC Thomson's humour comics can always be relied on to do Christmas issues. Christmas 1984 brought these offerings from the digest sized Beano Comic Library.

Pup Parade are the Bash Street Kids' dogs, each with the appropriate attributes of their owners, and in issue 66, Snow Joke, they were out to perform their own winter Olympics with sledging, skiing and ice skating. Indeed the story shows its age by including a reference to Torvil and Dean's Bolero ice skating routine.

Meanwhile issue 65 had the Bash Street Kids themselves staring in Panto Time. After much initial to-do in which it only takes seven panels before Teacher's cane is produced, they choose to put on Cinderella, not that you can really tell from the front cover, and the expected chaos ensues.

More Christmas covers tomorrow.

Tube Surfing, 30 June 2008: Baxendale, Bernice Summerfield and Graveyards

Above: The Bash Street Kids, drawn by Leo Baxendale, start a circus in a story from Beano Issue 1063, published in 1963. Bash Street Kids © DC Thomson

• (via FPI): Leo Baxendale features in The Times today, recalling the early 1950s and his first approaches to DC Thomson, them taking on Little Plum, Minnie the Minx then the immortal Bash Street Kids. More details and links over on Forbidden Planet International's blog, or jump straight over to The Times. Talking of Leo, his next volume of memoirs, Hobgoblin Wars, is due fairly soon.

• Big Finish have announced that Simon Guerrier's book, Bernice Summerfield - The Inside Story, will be out in August. The book is a warts-and-all guide to the character first created for Virgin's Doctor Who New Adventures by Paul Cornell, but who quickly grew to feature in the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip and get brought to life by Big Finish in several audio adventures, voiced by actress Lisa Bowerman. More info here on the Big Finish web site.

• (via Bear Alley): The latest Eagle Times (Volume 22 Issue 2, Summer 2009) continues a run of excellent issues with more of the same. The cover story is a look at the nature artwork of Tom Adams, nowadays best known for his covers for Agatha Christie novels but who has had quite a diverse career over the past sixty years. Other features include looks at the Dan Dare stories Operation Saturn and The Man from Nowhere, Eagle Autographs, Rex Keene (the first in a new series of 'Rivals of Jeff Arnold'), the third part of a look at Heros the Spartan, a P.C. 49 text story, pop music in 1965 and a look at Eagle Holidays.
Subscriptions are £22 (overseas £34 in UK pounds) for four issues a year from Keith Howard, 25A Station Road, Harrow, Middlesex HA1 2UA. More info at: eagle-times.blogspot.com

• Congratulations to Neil Gaiman, who has picked up yet another award for his novel, The Graveyard Book, this time the 2009 Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book.

• A new web portal, Talenthouse launches today, aggregating the works of artists from multiple disciplines including music, fashion, fine art, graphic design, film and photography.
Based in California, the site is the brainchild of British recording artists Amos Pizzey and run by CEO Roman Scharf. It allows artists to build their own profiles for free to display their work in full screen mode, gather followers and alert friends when new work is posted.
Cynopsis Digital reports the site's business model includes selling subscriptions to its database to TV and film studios and talent agencies (like the Amazon-owned IMDBPro), as well as launching brand-triggered creative competitions to source the community for new designs (sort of a multidisciplinary Filmaka)

• Bloggers and other writers may be interested to know Google-owned YouTube has launched its own portal to help instruct citizen journalists about how to practice better reporting. YouTube's Reporter's Center features house-made videos, clips from seasoned Pros from Dover including Katie Couric and Bob Woodward and practical shooting tips from sources such as Howcast. Check it out at www.youtube.com/reporterscenter