Morris Heggie to celebrate The Beano at Lakes Festival

By John Freeman on June 20, 2013

Morris Heggie. Photo courtesy Morris Heggie/ DC Thomson

The Lakes International Comic Art Festival has just announced that former Dandy editor Morris Heggie will be one of their special guests in October, as part of a free event.

He will be hosting a free event to celebrate The Beano and its 75 year history together with Beano artist Stephen White.

Morris Heggie started his long comic career with DC Thomson in 1969 the same year that man first landed on the moon.

He worked on The Beano, Sparky and Nutty comic before going on to edit The Dandy for two decades. He is a major force in the Digital Dandy, writing Desperate Dan and helping shape the look of the digital comic, as well as being involved in DC Thomson’s long term project to scan every comic they have ever published, with the aim of making them available as Print on Demand editions.

He also writes Oor Wullie and The Broons for The Sunday Post and is author of both The History of The Beano and the History of The Dandy books.

• Everyone We Know Loves The Beano will … take place at Kendal Library at 10.30am on Sunday 20th October. Places can be booked in advance by emailing comic.kendal.library@cumbria.gov.uk or calling 01539 713523. Limited places so book soon.

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.