Beano publisher DC Thomson has produced a special 28-page comic exclusively for the new V&A Dundee, bringing together some of their most loved classic characters.
Designed especially to accompany the opening of the museum’sScottish Design Galleries . exclusive comic, inspired by the company archives, brings together the Beano, The Dandy, “The Broons” and “Oor Willie” from The Sunday Post and more. It was created exclusively for V&A Dundee by DC Thomson, combining both full colour and black and white newsprint.
It’s hoped the comic will help tell the stories behind some of the wonderful collaborations in the V&A shop, created in collaboration with leading Scottish design studio Make Works.
Originating in Scotland and extending throughout the UK, Make Works now have an international reach, including regions in the UAE and Sweden. They source local manufacturers, workshops and materials, capturing the people behind them and making them available through their open access platform.
Since 2013, Make Works have visited and documented almost 200 factories and manufacturers, encouraging those in the creative industries to have work made locally or independently.
DC Thomson is one of the UK’s leading publishers and in addition to the comic, the Museum has released a video interview with David Powell, the Archiuve Manager at the company, which provides a fascinating insight into the records of its many achievements.

Image courtesy V&A Dundee

Image courtesy V&A Dundee
With a nod to another of Dundee’s creative industries – gaming – the V&A Dundee will celebrate the design and culture of contemporary video games with the its spectacular show Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt, which will run from 20th April to 8th September 2019.
• V&A Dundee, 1 Riverside Esplanade Dundee DD1 4EZ Web: www.vam.ac.uk/dundee
• Find out more about the DC Thomson Archive in Dundee in this interview with Archive Manager David Powell
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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.
Categories: British Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Events
They should do this as a monthly title. I see it even has the Classic Comics: Topper logo added to that Beryl strip, like how Classics from the Comics used to label it’s strips. Bring back CFTC!