Comic The Beano is celebrating its 80th birthday today with guest editor David Walliams telling fans of all ages "as long as there are children who like to laugh there will always be a place for The Beano".
The iconic home to characters such as Dennis the Menace and Gnasher, The Bash Street Kids and Minnie the Minx, The Beano was first published by Dundee firm DC Thomson on July 30, 1938 as a companion comic to The Dandy, which had debuted eight months earlier.
"Properly funny" - waking up on our birthday to people saying lovely things about us everywhere. Thanks to @BBCBreakfast’s @stephbreakfast, @louiseminchin, @mrdanwalker and @sallynugent for the love. 😊 pic.twitter.com/tbTEt2Kf97
— Beano (@BeanoOfficial) July 30, 2018
To mark the comic's 80th birthday, Dundee's McManus museum has been renamed the McMenace for an exhibition celebrating The Beano down the decades with visitors encouraged to dress as their favourite character.
Britain's Got Talent judge and children's author Walliams has guest-edited the anniversary issue in exchange for a donation to UK mental health charity YoungMinds.
The Little Britain star said The Beano had inspired him as a writer.
"What I always loved about The Beano was that it felt naughty," Walliams wrote in his editor's letter.
"It was a comic that you should read under the duvet with a torchlight. I don't think I'd have got into writing my books without Beano.
I was thrilled to be invited to guest-edit Beano’s 80th anniversary issue for charity. It’s out on July 25th and features my own comic strips as well as much loved characters new and old. Happy Birthday Beano! #Beano80 pic.twitter.com/vTa5fQnkhj
— David Walliams (@davidwalliams) July 19, 2018
"When coming up with characters for my TV shows and books, I'd imagine them all as larger than life characters, much like the ones in Beano."
Mike Stirling, Editorial Director of Beano Studios, said: "Everything about Beano has always evolved naturally, inspired by the kids we speak and listen to, every single day.
"They've ensured the situations our characters find themselves in are always relatable to every generation. It's all underpinned by our philosophy of laughing at the world via a kid's-eye view."
