Free Beanos for Scottish school kids

By John Freeman on August 20, 2012

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.

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.