The BeONEo Show!

By John Freeman on August 1, 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

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.