The BeONEo Show!

By John Freeman on 1 August 2008

Thanks to iplayer, there’s still time to catch an appearance by Beano writer and artist Kev F. Sutherland on the BBC’s The One Show, which featured an item on the 70th birthday of the comic on Wednesday.

With a mix of archive footage and interviews, Giles Brandreth charted the history of the comic and its companion paper, The Dandy, and spoke with Kev during one of his many comics masterclasses that he gives all over the country in schools. Later in the episode the very first issue of The Beano – one of about twelve know still to exist — was shown, with Giles offering a few of the (now politically incorrect) jokes from its pages.

The children in the item had a clear idea of what would sell comics – violence and goo, mainly! – but there was still huge enthusiasm for comics, and a positive take on the medium’s future from both kids, Giles and Kev.

• Watch The One Show (item is about ten minutes in)
• Kev’s art in the feature is part of our Beano Birthday Section
• Visit Kev’s web site

About the Author
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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as 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.