The Beano will be celebrating Red Nose Day this week with a red and gold pop art inspired cover, which features Dennis the Menace’s many faces (and noses) to encourage readers to support Red Nose Day’s ‘make your face funny for money’ campaign.
The special issue of The Beano goes on sale Wednesday 11th March 2015.
The cover – which features a rarely-used gold metallic ink, only used once before, to celebrate Jessica Ennis-Hill winning Gold at the 2012 Olympics – is the creation of Dennis the Menace illustrator Nigel Parkinson, and is inspired by an illustration from a 1969 The Beano Annual.
In the Red Nose Day Special, Red Nose Day comes to Bash Street School and competition hots up between Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx and the Bash Street Kids as they all enter the funny face contest. Determined to win at all costs, mischievous troublemaker Dennis the Menace enlists the help of his dog, Gnasher, to scare Teacher off letting anyone else win.
The funny face competition takes a number of turns, including Bananaman aka Little Eric’s secret identity almost being revealed, Lord Snooty being disqualified for cheating (shock horror) and Plug finally winning the ‘Funniest Face of Bash Street School’ award – despite thinking it was a beauty contest!
The Beano Editor Craig Graham said, “This week’s special issue sees The Beano celebrating all things Red Nose Day. We want to encourage our readers to get involved with the ‘make your face funny for money’ campaign, and Dennis and the gang show them how to do just that, albeit in the most mischievous way possible.
“We also hope that fans of the comic will like the cover we’ve created. It’s based on some beautiful classic artwork from a vintage Beano Annual and we thought it perfect for this occasion; the number of frames fits the number of Red Nose Day noses perfectly – it was clearly meant to be!”
The special Red Nose Day issue of The Beano goes on sale Wednesday 11th March 2015. Red Nose Day returns on Friday 13th March, and this year the public have been asked to ‘make your face funny for money’.
• For more information on Red Nose Day, go to www.rednoseday.com
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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.
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