The Beano Annual

"The Beano Annual" is the current name of the book that has been published every year since 1939, to tie in with the children's comic "The Beano". As of 2008 there have been 69 editions. As they are traditionally published in the autumn, in time for Christmas, since 1965 (with the release of "The Beano Book 1966") they have had the date of the following year on the cover. Before then no date was given.

From 1942 to 1949 the annuals were called "The Magic-Beano Book", referring to the short-lived comic, The Magic Comic that ceased publication due to World War II's paper rationing. The name reverted to the original title "The Beano Book" from the following year. This name continued, the year changing for each different annual, until the release of the 2003 book in 2002, when its current name was adopted, though the following year still appears at the end.

Because of his popularity, Dennis the Menace has featured on the front cover of every annual since the 1979 book.

The Beano annuals were not dated. This piece gives information on their date, with them being published the Autumn before (ie: A 1950 Beano annual would be published in 1949). Prices are in shillings and (old) pence with one shilling equal to 5p.

The Beano Book
* 1940. Big Eggo and other Beano characters on see-saw supported by Pansy Potter. Price 2/6.
* 1941. Characters emerging from large eggs on cover, with Big Eggo's head peering through it. Price 3/-
* 1942. Characters dancing round Big Eggo, Lord Snooty playing bagpipes. Price 3/6.

The Magic Beano Book
* 1943. Big Eggo and Koko the Pup in two legged race with other characters running behind. Price 5/- (Advertised as 5/6).
* 1944. Big Eggo and Koko the Pup in pillow fight. Price 6/-.
* 1945. Big Eggo and other characters playing leap frog. Price 6/-
* 1946. Big Eggo pulling Beano characters along in cart. Price 6/-
* 1947. Beano characters gathered around Big Eggo, who has something stuck in his throat Price 6/-
* 1948. Big Eggo and other characters playing musical instruments. 6/-
* 1949. Biffo the Bear and Big Eggo fighting in front of a taxi, other characters trying to stop them. 6/-
* 1950. Biffo painting a portrait of Big Eggo and other characters on a large canvas. Price 6/-

The Beano Book
* 1951. Biffo riding on mechanical horse. Price 6/-
* 1952. Biffo nailing pictures of Beano characters to the cover. Price 6/-
* 1953. Jack Flash carrying Beano characters on trip to the Moon. Price 6/-
* 1954. Biffo hanging from branch of tree. Dennis holds a lobster near his foot and monkey sawing branch Biffo is hanging from. Price 6/-
* 1955. Policeman tries stopping Biffo and Dennis from fishing. Price 6/-
* 1956. Biffo acting as General Jumbo with other Beano charecters as the remote control army. Price 6/-
* 1957. Sequences of Dennis kicking ball which is rebounding off various characters. Price 6/6
* 1958. Biffo doing a juggling act with bees flying towards him, released by Dennis from a hive. Price 6/6
* 1959. Dennis playing leap frog with Little Plum, a goat is about to butt him. Price 6/6
* 1960. Biffo completing jig-saw puzzle of the Bash Street kids. Price 7/-
* 1961. The word "Beano" in large letters and Beano characters at top and bottom of cover. Price 7/6
* 1962. Jonah dancing on mast of sinking ship with flag with S.O.S. on it. Price 7/6.
* 1963. Bash Street kids on large swing which is tied to the "Beano" name. Price 7/6
* 1964. Biffo is holding up bar bells and friend Buster is tickling him with a feather. Price 7/6
* 1965. Little Plum and Minnie the Minx blowing up a large balloon which is shaped like Biffo's head. Price 7/6

(Now dated)
* 1966. Biffo spinning a drum with his feet
* 1967. General Jumbo controling the other characters with his remote control
* 1968. Biffo with a crash-helmet, Minnie, Dennis & Roger throwing snowballs at him
* 1969. The Bash Street Kids riding an electric narwhal on the sea.
* 1970. Biffo carrying a giant ice lolly with the year on.
* 1971. Biffo is holding a picture frame up as if he was a portrait.
* 1972. Biffo is a lollipop man holding a sign which says The Beano Book 1972.
* 1973. Biffo with a Dennis Puppet holding a club which has hitten Biffo on the head.
* 1974. Biffo frying pancakes with a Chef's hat. Two pancakes have landed on Dennis the Menace and Gnasher. The Bash Street Kids are peeping round the door.
* 1975. Dennis, Gnasher and other characters sledging.
* 1976. Dennis, Gnasher, The Bash Street Kids, Minnie the Minx and Lord Snooty on a horse with cowboy outfits. The horse runs off, causing the characters to fall into the river.
* 1977. Dennis and Gnasher jumping on trampoline trying to get apples. Dennis's Dad is looking at them firmly.
* 1978. The Bash Street Kids on space hopper.
* 1979. Dennis and Gnasher rolling big snowball at other Beano characters.
* 1980. Dennis in goal post scoaring goal. Gnasher is gnashing at The Bash Street Kids, who are on top of the goal post.
* 1981. Dennis jumping on to see-saw. This causes Gnasher to fly into the cats home.
* 1982. Dennis playing dodgems at a theme park. He drives his dodgem car out of the fair and into a pond.
* 1983. Dennis and the main Beano characters having their photo taken by the "Beano Editor" in the Beano Office. Price £1.80.
* 1984. Dennis and Gnasher chasing cats in the snow, a snow-Dennis is also shown.
* 1985. The Beano Marathon. Price £2.25
* 1986. Dennis riding his bike over a river into an apple tree.
* 1987. Dennis, The Bash Street Kids, Minnie the Minx, Billy Whizz and Ivy the Terrible in a hot air balloon.
* 1988. Dennis and Minnie having a paintball fight.
* 1989. Dennis is painting a picture of what appears to be Gnasher dressed as a cavalier. On the other side Gnasher jumps out of the picture and bites the paintbrush Dennis is holding.
* 1990. Various Beano characters dancing in a disco room with Dennis and Gnasher controlling the records.
* 1991. Various Beano characters having a party with Dennis blowing a noisemaker in Gnasher's face. On the back, the party goes awry when Gnasher steals Dennis The Menace's Ice Cream Cone.
* 1992. Various Beano characters on a merry go round sitting on their pets - vice versa on back cover.
* 1993. Characters racing in wheelie bins.
* 1994. Dennis the Menace is walking through a town and switches a torch on to find lots of "Beano bugs"
* 1995. Various characters racing on rafts down a river.
* 1996. Dennis, Roger, Minnie and Danny pushing down on Gnasher so he can spring up to the softies tree house. price £4.75.
* 1997. Various Beano characters using a Dennis the Menace Chinese Dragon. Gnasher sees this and jumps.
* 1998. Dennis the Menace is sticking lots of pictures of Beano characters on a wall. Dennis' Dad is hanging upside down and knocking on the window. Ivy the terrible has been pasted on the wall
* 1999. Dennis and Gnasher giving each other "five" and various computer generated pictures of Beano characters appear on the background.
* 2000. Dennis, Gnasher and several other characters are riding through space using special vehicles.
* 2001. Dennis and Gnasher are in a computerised world and are driving the menace car, escaping from weird Beano robots
* 2002. Another computerised picture. There are lots of pictures of Beano characters, and there is a big gaping hole in the middle where Dennis and Gnasher have run through the picture using the menace car.
* 2003. Lots of Beano characters are playing on a big 3D mechanical Gnasher. On the back the mechanical Gnasher goes after a mechanichal cat and all the Beano characters are falling.
* 2004. The first completely hand drawn front cover picture since the Beano book 2000, with a big Loch Ness monster with a similar face to Plug interfering with the Beano characters' relaxing swim at "loch mess".
* 2005. Various Beano characters with space hoppers. Dennis' "space hopper" is Rasher.
* 2006. Dennis and other characters in a jungle that ends up being Dennis' garden.
* 2007. Lots of Beano characters crammed into just one page. Dennis scares everyone off by using his sock. Price £7.25.
* 2008. Dennis the Menace standing on podium holding "Menace of the Year" award, Minnie has won second place and Danny is the third-winner. Everyone is cheering for them, except for Walter and the Softies. On the back, he soaks the Softies with a bottle of pop, everyone else is laughing. Price £7.50
* 2009. Dennis' Dad driving a float through Beanotown, with a giant model of Dennis and Gnasher on the back. Price £7.99. [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beano-Annual-2009-D-Thomson/sim/1845353498/2?ie=UTF8&pf=3]

ee also

[http://www.tonystrading.co.uk/galleries/annuals/beano.htm Beano Annual Gallery]