Happy 70th Birthday, Beano!

By John Freeman on July 26, 2008

As Britain’s top weekly humour comic The Beano celebrates its 70th birthday, downthetubes asked comic creators to offer their birthday wishes, and the first received have now been published in a special tribute section on the main downthetubes site, including this great Minnie the Minx drawing by Garen Ewing.

Special thanks to everyone who has responded so far!

More are very welcome: you can share your memories or thoughts about the comic on the downthtubes Facebook page where you can also post art as well as comment.

• Read the Birthday Wishes Tribute

• Find out more about the Official 70th Birthday Exhibition in Dundee

• Visit the Official Beano web site

• Find out more about the Cartoon Museum’s Beano exhbition

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.