Beanotown comes to life on the South Bank, London

The Beano is celebrating 75 wonderful years of rebellious fun, farts and laughter at Southbank Centre’s Festival of Neighbourhood in London – and you can join in the party at Beanotown, a recreation of the fictional home of the comic’s superstars.

The project is  part of a collaborative project from Dundee-based publisher DC Thomson, iconic design agency HemingwayDesign and Southbank Centre’s creative team.

“It’s a dream come true to see Beanotown coming to life at Southbank Centre," says The Beano Editor-in-Chief Mike Stirling. "For me, the coolest thing is that, along with the depths of the oceans and some parts of the rainforest, Beanotown was the last great uncharted territory on earth – I feel like Christopher Columbus!  If you think you know The Beano then think again… this exhibition provides all the anarchic fun of The Beano but with lots of added extras.”



Previously unseen artwork will be unveiled at the exhibition that features pieces by The Beano illustrator David Sutherland; a legendary artist who has the unique claim of having worked with all six editors since the comic’s birth in 1938. Further laughs and jokes-a-plenty will be provided by clips from the hugely successful TV show Dennis and Gnasher and The Beano’s hilarious iPrank App that will be available to download free in Beanotown – perfect for mega-menacing in the home of prank!

Other highlights include The Beano Social Club, where you can play Table Dennis (of course), The Beano Breville Bar, where you can munch on comic-themed food and drink (anyone for a Splat-a-Pult?), and The Beano Studio where you can have a go at creating your own comic masterpieces (if you dare).

Mike added, “Boris Johnson must be overjoyed that we’ve brought a bit of the old Beanotown magic to his ‘hood!  What will really bring things to life is the laughter and mischief of the hundreds of thousands of children who’ll visit, so I’m really happy that entry is free for everyone.  The reason The Beano is so fondly thought of is because we always put kids first and I’m so glad we’ve maintained that aim with this special celebration.”

In July 2013, elements of Beanotown will appear at the Vintage Festival, part of the Merchant City Festival, in Glasgow.

“The Beano is a true British institution," enthuses HemingwayDesign’s Wayne Hemingway MBE, who has also recently designed a new style guide for Beano licensors, "and the whole team at HemingwayDesign have had a blast looking through the archive and helping to put Beanotown together.  The artwork and stories are wonderful and show how British humour and irreverence can help us get through the toughest of times.

"There are always wonderful things to see and do at Southbank Centre and Beanotown brings a true multi-generational visitor attraction that has history, politics, subversion, art, design, laughter and sheer devilment running through it.”

The attraction has already gained acclaim from fans. ”Within an hour of opening, it was overrun with children reading the comics," The Guardian reported, "looking with bewildered concern at the man dressed as Dennis, or trying to work out where the fart noise comes from when you walk through the main door.”

• Visit Beanotown at Southbank Centre and celebrate 75 years of the country's favourite comic. Beanotown is free and is located in the Festival Village, underneath the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and runs until 8th September 2013, open from 11.00am – 7.00pm

• Hemmingway Design Beano Project Notes: www.hemingwaydesign.co.uk/projects/exhibitions/beanotown

• Click here to download The Beano Breville Bar menu from the Hemmingway Design site (PDF Link)

• Design Week: Wayne Hemingway creates Beano brand guidelines
The Beano, Beanotown, Dennis the Menace © 2013 DC Thomson Ltd

Gromit gets "Beano-fied" in a good cause!

The Beano is letting loose Dennis the Menace’s trusty sidekick Gnasher, to raise funds for the Bristol Children’s Hospital this summer, as the famous cartoon dog joins forces with Aardman’s triple Oscar-winning character Gromit, for charity initiative Gromit Unleashed.

Extracts of original Beano artwork featuring Dennis and Gnasher have transformed a giant five foot high Gromit sculpture that will feature as part of a high profile public arts trail, hitting the streets of Bristol and beyond for ten weeks from Monday 1st July.

The Beano’s ‘Gnashional Gromit’ is one of 80 giant Gromit sculptures to be featured in the ground-breaking Gromit Unleashed event, organised by Aardman and the children’s hospital charity, Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Appeal. The cartoon design has been created by the team behind The Beano, led by Editor-in-Chief Mike Stirling and legendary artist David Sutherland.

David was the Dennis the Menace artist from 1969-1998 and it was he who gave Gnasher his trademark look. In his career, he has also drawn other legendary Beano characters, including Biffo the Bear and The Bash Street Kids, for whom he has now drawn a whopping 2180 weekly comic strips – a unique achievement in the cartoon world. He has also worked with all six editors of The Beano.

The Beano editor Craig Graham said: “The whole Beano team has had an absolute blast working with David on this project. David is truly one of The Beano greats and ‘Gnashional Gromit’ is testament to this. We hope the public enjoy our Gromit.”

Gromit’s creator Nick Park grew up an avid reader of The Beano and is a massive fan of David’s work, attributing him as a major influence at Aardman and an early inspiration for himself. At 10 years old, smitten by the characters in the comic, Nick Park started drawing his own cartoon strip, which led to the creation of Wallace & Gromit.



Nick Park said: “As a life-long fan of The Beano, I am thrilled that Gromit and Gnasher, two of the world’s most iconic canine characters, are getting together. To have Gromit receive a Gnasher makeover from the comic which inspired Gromit’s creation is pretty amazing!

“I am sure that Gnasher will get his teeth into the project in the nicest possible way and help raise lots of money for this fantastic cause!”

Nick Park guest-edited the 70th anniversary issue of The Beano, which this year celebrates 75 years in production.

The Beano joins a prestigious line-up of famous names including Nick Park, Sir Quentin Blake, Raymond Briggs, Cath Kidston, Sir Paul Smith and Harry Hill, each transforming the five foot statues with their individual designs, alongside local artists from the Bristol area.

Organisers will be revealing further famous names and unveiling more finished designs in the lead up to the public arts trail.

After the public arts trail, the Gromit Unleashed sculptures, which have been individually sponsored by businesses, will be auctioned to raise funds towards Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Appeal’s campaign to support the expansion of Bristol Children’s Hospital, one of the leading multi-disciplinary children’s hospitals in the UK. The Grand Appeal has pledged to raise an initial £3.5 million for state-of-the-art equipment, including an intraoperative MRI scanner, family facilities and child-friendly artwork to enhance the £30 million investment by the NHS.

The Grand Appeal is working with Wild in Art, a leading arts and education company that produces mass participation events in cities, to deliver Gromit Unleashed.

Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Appeal has already raised over £22 million for Bristol Children's Hospital, one of only a few specialist children's hospitals in the UK providing life-saving surgery, care and treatment to children on a local, national and international scale.

With the support of tourism agencies VisitEngland and Destination Bristol, Gromit Unleashed will help raise the profile of the city to tourists across the UK and beyond.

• For more information and the latest news on the project, visit www.gromitunleashed.org.uk. To register your interest in bidding, please email auction@gromitunleashed.org.uk.

• For information on events and activities taking place in Bristol during Gromit Unleashed, plus details on accommodation options in the city, visit www.visitbristol.co.uk.

Photo Review: Dandy Day At Dundee University

Announced at very short notice, the University Of Dundee held an official opening event for their new exhibition of original artwork 75 Years Of The Dandy on Saturday 8 December with the added bonus of getting five of the men working on the new Digital Dandy along to the University's Baxter Suite to talk about the new e-comic version of the venerable title.

From left to right (above) they were - artist David Sutherland, Digital Dandy editor Craig Ferguson, writer Dan McGachey, former Dandy editor Morris Heggie, and artist Stephen White.

Taking questions from the audience, the group talked about both the old and new versions of the title. David Sutherland is best known for his work on The Beano, including 50 years of illustrating The Bash Street Kids, and while semi-retired he admitted that he had been tempted to help out on the new version of The Dandy by editor Craig's offer of a fish and chip supper at the end of the day. Craig Ferguson had previously worked on both The Dandy and The Beano and both he and writer Dan McGachey spoke fondly of the good-natured rivalry between the staff of the two comics who worked in neighbouring offices.

Morris Heggie talked at some length about the two original editors of The Dandy and The Beano, Albert Barnes and George Moonie, as well as the differences between the two publications with The Beano's move to child characters in the 1950s and The Dandy's more aggressive comic violence.

Stephen White, also known as Stref', talked about the differences for an artist working on the older version of The Dandy as he had, compared to the new version of the title with its motion strips and the additional work that illustrating for such a format involves. The talk was good natured, yet informative as a remembrance by one of the group would often set in motion a completely new topic of discussion.

After a break for refreshments, the event moved to the University's Lamb gallery and the large display of original Dandy artwork, comics, annuals and various spin-offs. Morris Heggie gave an exhibition talk as he and the audience moved around the gallery looking at specific artwork. Stephen (above) pays attention to Morris' comments on Korky The Cat artwork by Charlie Grigg, while (below) Morris points out some rare initial sketches by Dudley D Watkins below the main image of his WWII era header for a Wild Young Dirky text story.

 

A colour mock up for the front and back covers of The Dandy Book for 1957 drew a lot of attention despite being colourist's art rather than the original artwork...

...however the two pages of Desperate Dan (below) were very much original Dudley D Watkins artwork and showed how his style of drawing the character had changed over the years between 1942 on the left and 1959 on the right.

With so much artwork on display in the gallery, it covered the more modern Dandy characters as well as the older ones including this one (below) of Cuddles, of the terrible toddlers Cuddles and Dimples, with a slight problem with the cold courtesy of artist Nigel Parkinson.

There were a selection of images from the new Digital Dandy around the walls in the Baxter Suite including a large poster image from the superhero strip Retroactive which we already know features the original Dandy superhero The Amazing Mr X. As no DC Thomson character with superhero-like powers will be off-limits to the new strip, whether they featured in the humour titles, the boy's adventure titles or the girl's adventure titles, this close-up image of the poster gives a little taster of just which characters may turn up in future issues.

Congratulations to Chris Murray and Phil Vaughan for organising such an interesting event at such short notice and I would hope to see similar events at the University continue in 2013.

The Digital Dandy is available via The Dandy website, www.dandy.com or by clicking on the image below.

The University of Dundee 75 Years Of The Dandy exhibition is free and runs in the Lamb Gallery of the University's Tower Building until 12 January 2013. There are more details, including seasonal opening times and images of some of the original artwork on display, at the University Of Dundee Museum Services website.

Dandy Exhibition and Talks at Dundee University

This Saturday coming, 8th December 2012, the University of Dundee University will be holding an opening event for their latest comics exhibition which will celebrate the 75th birthday of DC Thomson's Dandy. 

The exhibition will look back over the Dandy’s past, but also towards its future as it moves on-line with the launch of the Digital Dandy. It will feature original artwork from DC Thomson’s collections dating back to the earliest years of the comic, much of which has never been shown in public before. The University previously had a similar launch event for their display of artwork  from The Beano for its 70th anniversary in 2008, a review of which is on downthetubes here.

The launch event for the Dandy exhibition will also give an exclusive behind-the-scenes glimpse at the creation of the new Digital Dandy, with a discussion led by Dr Chris Murray, plus contributions from former Dandy editor Morris Heggie, new Digital Dandy editor Craig Ferguson, Digital Production manager Mark Hunter, writer Dan McGachey, long-time DC Thomson artist David Sutherland, and one of the artists who is very closely involved in the direction of the Digital Dandy, Stephen White (Brassneck and Keyhole Kate).

The exhibition and launch have been created as part of an on-going partnership between DC Thomson & Co Ltd, the University of Dundee Museum Services and the newly established Scottish Centre for Comics Studies based at the University. Dr Chris Murray, director of the Centre, said: “We are proud to be able to help The Dandy celebrate its 75th anniversary, which is a remarkable achievement. Of course, the comic is also in a process of transition, as the final print version goes to press and is replaced by a new digital Dandy. This promises to be an exciting and innovative step forward for the comic and its beloved characters.”

The Dandy exhibition launch will begin at 2pm in the Tower Building of the University of Dundee on Saturday 8 December 2012 and admission is free.

The Dandy exhibition will open Monday-Saturday from 10 December 2012 until 7th January 2013 (except when the University is closed for Christmas from 23 December to 2 January) and admission is also free.

• More info: www.dundee.ac.uk/museum/exhibitions/comics/dandy

In Review: David Sutherland - Comics Genius Exhibition and Talk

The University Of Dundee has presented some unique comics events and exhibitions over the last five or six years under the auspices of Dr Chris Murray of the School of Humanities and Mathew Jarron of the University's Museum Services. At the request of the local community festival, West Fest 2012, this year they took on an exhibition of the work of, and a talk and Q&A session with, an artist who, despite working for decades on some of the best known British humour comic characters, is not that well known himself.

David Sutherland took on art duties for The Bash Street Kids in 1962 when their artistic creator, Leo Baxendale, left DC Thomson's Beano to work on Odham's Wham!, and fifty years later he is still drawing the same characters week in, week out for The Beano. In addition to Danny and his gang from Class IIb, he has also illustrated Beano cover stars Dennis The Menace and Biffo The Bear.

Located in Dundee University's Tower Building, the Baxter Suite has recently become a dedicated exhibition space for the Scottish Centre for Comics Studies (SCCS) based at the University. The exhibition consisted of around 20 pieces of original artwork, both colour and black and white, sourced from the DC Thomson archive mainly covering The Bash Street Kids and Dennis The Menace. The university has previously used the Lamb Gallery for these sort of exhibitions which is a much smaller space and, while the number of pages on display was similar to the number on display for, say, the Beano 70th Birthday exhibition in 2008, the large Baxter Suite did feel a little empty in comparison. However as people started to gather for the talk on the evening of 13 June 2012, the room began to fill-up.

Chris Murray introduced David Sutherland to the stage along with Beano editors Euan Kerr, Alan Digby and Iain McLoughlin and, as David took his pencils to the flip chart, Euan (above left) began to describe David's life and career with David initially adding a few comments as he drew various "Bashers" and then longer recollections as he relaxed into the format of the evening.

David Sutherland was born in Invergordon, Ross-shire in 1933, and attended Glasgow School of Art. After National Service in Egypt, and working for an advertising agency in Glasgow, he began working for DC Thomson in 1959 illustrating adventure strips for The Beano including The Great Flood of London, Danny on a Dolphin and Billy the Cat. Since 1962 he has illustrated over 2000 Bash Street Kids strips in the weekly comic as well as in annuals and summer specials.

In 1969, after the death of Dudley D Watkins, he was asked by then Beano editor, Harry Cramond, to finish the page of Biffo The Bear page that Watkins had started. Initially reticent to complete the work begun by the man that he considered to be the best all round comic artist ever, David would go on to illustrate the Biffo strip for the next 25 years while, in 1970, he also took over the art chores on Dennis The Menace from Dennis' artistic creator David Law when he took ill. Biffo was displaced from The Beano's cover by Dennis in 1974 and David was the artist on the strip as Dennis became the comic's most popular character with his run on the strip lasting 28 years until 1998.

With various DC Thomson editors, writers and artists in the audience, as well as the Beano editors on stage, there was no shortage of comments and other reminiscences from them as David paused to recall something from decades before beforehand or to finish off a particular character sketch. The university even had a video message from Aardman animator Nick Park expressing his love of and appreciation for David's work. Indeed with his colleagues as well as his wife and one of his daughters in the audience, the friendly atmosphere seemed to help the reminiscences flow and we heard not just about his work for DC Thomson but also how his daughters had developed an eye for good artwork in The Beano, how his wife had to wash shirts with Indian ink on the sleeves, and how he had almost killed Beano editor Harry Cramond by throwing a flaming chip pan at him - not deliberately of course, as he was at pains to point out.

The evening ended with a selection of questions from the audience followed by a choice of wine and soft drinks as the attendees got the chance to examine the selection of artwork on display, chat to the participants and, for a lucky few, get quick sketches from David himself.

For someone who has probably never spoken about his career in front of an audience before, David Sutherland was a delight to listen to, sometimes thoughtful, often funny, always animated and it was a real treat to get the opportunity to watch him draw his familiar and beloved characters.

This was the second comic art exhibition in the University's Baxter Suite, the first being the launch exhibition for UniVerse's Anthology One publication, and it was the first comics event there open to the public. While there were a few minor technical hitches to amuse the audience, the evening worked well and its success can hopefully be used as a blueprint to entice other DC Thomson creators to talk about their careers in front of an audience there in the future.

The exhibition of David Sutherland's artwork remains open in the Baxter Suite, room 1.36 of the Tower Building, until 15 August 2012 and is free. The corridor outside the Suite also has a selection of original comic artwork by other artists on display including pages from Dudley D Watkins, Roland Davies, Ken Reid, Elizabeth Stott, Gary Erskine, Henry Flint and Colin MacNeil.

There are more details of the David Sutherland: Comics Genius exhibition on the University of Dundee Museum Services website which includes the exhibitions reduced summer opening hours.

There are more details of the Scottish Centre for Comics Studies and comics studies in general at the University Of Dundee at the university's website.

There are more details of West Fest on the West Fest 2012 website.

Beano Artist David Sutherland Exhibition and Talk

DC Thomson artist David Sutherland, who often signs his work simply as "DS", has been drawing The Bash Street Kids in The Beano since 1962, a remarkable 50 years. In addition to Bash Street, he was also the regular artist for Biffo the Bear for 17 years, from 1969 to 1986, and Dennis the Menace for 28 years from 1970 to 1998.

To celebrate his golden jubilee of working on The Bash Street Kids, the University of Dundee, in association with D C Thomson and the Scottish Centre for Comics Studies, are putting on an exhibition of his work at the University's Tower Building, home of the Dundee Comics Day, from 11 June to 15 August 2012. The exhibition will feature a selection of his original artwork from the DC Thomson archive.

In addition to the exhibition, on Wednesday 13 June 2012 at 7pm the University will host David Sutherland in conversation with former Beano editor Euan Kerr followed by a question and answer session for the audience. Admission to this talk is free with no need to book, simply turn up on the night.

The exhibition is taking place in the Baxter Suite, Room 1.36 of the University of Dundee's Tower Building and the opening times vary: 11 - 22 June, Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm (except Wednesday 20 June, 10am - Noon) while during the summer recess, 27 June to 15 August, the exhibition will only be open on Wednesdays from 1pm to 3 pm.

There are more details of the exhibition and talk at the University Of Dundee's Museum Services website.

Images (c) DC Thomson and Co Ltd