My nephew has begun taking the Beano, a publication I thought long gone. Happily it is just as much fun as I remember, with the likes of Minnie the Minx and the Bash Street kids making fools of authority figures like the local mayor with joyful abandon.
As a boy, I preferred to take the Dandy (which is also still on sale), finding Desperate Dan's adventures more exotic than Dennis the Menace. I wonder though whether children still thrill to the sight of a large cowboy eating giant pies?
The only thing I would say that has changed is the quality of drawings, the Numbskulls, for example, are a shadow of their former selves, although Dennis seems to have greater care taken on it than times past.
Dennis has an added poignancy these days, one storyline involved the boy discovering password-protected computer files which proved his softy father was once, like he, a source of menace and anarchy.
As a bowl of pudding few through the air, there seemed a woebegone edge to Dennis' countenance, betraying the realisation that he, too, will grow out of his menacing ways and settle down to a sentient, middle-class existence.
If I was Dennis, though, I would not consider reproducing. The priesthood would be the safest bet.
No comments:
Post a Comment