BEANO TURNS 80!

· Beano relaunch the infamous Fan Club for fans in celebration of the brand’s 80th birthday

· Fasting growing kids website in the UK: 90,000 British children are viewing Beano content online every week (over 300,000 every month)

· A copy of the comic is sold every 17 seconds in the UK

· Ten facts you didn’t know about Beano

Long-standing comic Beano turns 80 today remains the forefront of children’s entertainment, with latest figures revealing 90,000 British children are viewing Beano content online every week and a copy of the comic is sold every 17 seconds in the UK*.

Since the launch of Beano.com in 2016, 2.5 million children have visited the website and unique monthly users have grown 44% since December last year.

1.86 million copies of Beano were sold in 2017 with latest figures showing a 7.9% year-on-year increase in sales, recording weekly sales figures of 37,542 copies. This increase in sales shows consistent long term growth for the title with three successive yearly increases posted.

On its 80th birthday Beano has revived the infamous ‘Dennis & Gnasher Fan Club’; membership is now free offering printable club badges and membership certificates. Fans now have access to an exclusive prank portal on the Beano app which can be accessed with a secret pin-code. The secret world of pranks, available through the ‘Gnasher’ icon, includes tutorials to D-I-Y pranks, prank video call hotline and Beanocam; which gives fans the chance to Beano-fy their snaps.

Initially launched in 1976, readers who joined the Fan Club would receive a Fan Club pack with special Dennis and Gnasher’s goodies.

The Fan Club ran for 22 years as the ‘Dennis the Menace Fan Club’ before becoming ‘The Beano Club’, which had members ranging from seven to 70 years-old.

At its height of fame, the fan club reached over 1.5 million followers and even had celebrities amongst its number including; Olympic Gold medallist Linford Christie, BBC Radio 2 host Chris Evans and Royals HRH Prince William and Harry.

Ten facts you didn’t know about Beano:

1. The word ‘Beano’ is a shortened version of ‘Bean feast’, meaning ‘a rowdy jollification.’

2. During the second world war paper shortages meant the comic was reduced to 12 pages every two weeks.

3. Dennis’ canine companion Gnasher is drawn using Dennis’ hair and adding legs

4. After the second world war, the Beano Editor’s name was discovered upon a Nazi assassination list for ‘gross disrespect’!

5. For the first few episodes of his story, Dennis DIDN’T wear his famous red and black hooped jumper. His mum was still knitting it.

6. For six weeks in 1986, Dennis’s famous Abyssinian Wire-Haired Tripe Hound, Gnasher went missing from the comic. He returned with six puppies.

7. Dennis was originally sketched on the back of a fag packet, in a pub!

8. There are only 20 surviving known copies of the first edition of Beano in the world

9. It takes about 25 people to make a Beano comic including: artists, writers, colourists and graphic designers

10. Lord Levison’s enquiry heard that ‘every newspaper apart from The Dandy and Beano’ was named in the investigation!

Emma Scott, CEO at Beano Studios, said: “We’re all super proud that Beano is 80 years old today; it has entertained legions of fans since the first comic was published in 1938. Beano has always encouraged kids (and many grown-ups!) to let their imagination and mischievousness run riot, and to celebrate we’ve relaunched the iconic Fan Club to reward a whole new generation of rebels. Here’s to another 80 years of LOLZ on our award-winning Beano.com, our TV shows and of course, in our amazing world-breaking comic, the Beano.”

To celebrate the birthday, members can also snap up Fan Club packs for £9.99 from the Beano shop. These include the infamous fluffy Gnasher badge and an Official Fan Club Membership Card, all embossed in silver foil with the Dennis and Gnasher Fan Club badge.

To find out more information and to sign up to the Beano Fan Club visit: https://www.beano.com/fanclub

ENDS

For more information please contact Georgina Vincent on gv@taylorherring.com/ 0208 206 5151

NOTES TO EDITORS

* To buy the Dennis and Gnasher Fan Club Pack, please visit the Beano shop at www.shop.beano.com

About Beano Studios:

Beano Studios creates rebellious entertainment worldwide. The Studio produces diverse entertainment across multiple destinations; including TV, digital content, theatrical projects, consumer products, creative collaboration, and the legendary comic and annual.

‘Dennis & Gnasher Unleashed’ launched as the number 1 show on kids’ TV and continues to air on CBBC. The show is rolling out across many major European broadcasters - Beano has also teamed up with Lime Pictures to reimagine Minnie the Minx for a new audience in live action form.

Multi-award winning Beano.com is the fastest growing kid’s website in the UK and is growing rapidly worldwide. It is driven by a unique combination of kid’s insight and highly responsive content creation and keeps kids giggling several times a day with a constantly refreshing feed of funny stuff.

About the Beano:

The children’s comic was first published by DC Thomson in July 1938 and is still put together in its original Dundee headquarters. The Beano comic continues to print in the UK, producing 75,000 comics every week. The brand reaches over 5m fans a month on its digital network, centred around multi-award winning Beano.com, featuring the hottest trends and most-loved content in a kid safe environment – from mad dance crazes and LOL-some comedy sketches to epic celebrity challenges and fresh new ‘toons.