The Beano

The Beano

What is the Beano?

The Beano is the longest-running British children’s comic magazine, published by DC Thomson, whose publishing house is based in Dundee, Scotland. The comic first appeared on 30 July 1938, has been published weekly since then and is currently edited by John Anderson.

The original editor was George Moonie, from 1938 to 1959, followed by Harold Cramond from 1959 to 1984. And from 1984 to 2006, Euan Kerr was the third editor.

Since the Dandy's cancellation, The Beano is now the last of the “traditional British juvenile humour comics[NN1] ”¹.

      There are five main characters : the first one is Dennis the Menace. He appeared in 1209 issues. His most features are his spiky black hair, his red and black striped jersey and his grey boots. He likes to cause trouble wherever he goes. Gnasher is an Abyssinian Wire-Haired Tripe Hound. He is never seen without Dennis (except when Dennis is at school). He appeared in 888 issues and has a son and 5 daughters. They got their own TV series on CBBC from 7 September 2009 and their own comic strip.

There is also Minnie The Minx who appeared in 534 issues. She is a tomboy and she has shoulder-lenght red hair tied in braids, a black beret, a top with red and black stripes like Dennis, a black scruffy shirt, black socks and grey trainers. The fourth one is Roger The Dodger, appeared in 688 issues. He always tries to avoid doing chores with the help of his dodge books, but his dodges usually go wrong. Roger wears a red and black chequered jumper with a white tie. The last one is Biffo The Bear. He appeared in 607 issues and he is a bear with a human-level intelligence.

The Beano has recently reached its 80 year-old anniversary, but it still has a lot of success and will strike 4000 issues in the summer of 2019. They sold almost 2 million copies weekly in the 1950s which is the number of kids who use the Beano’s website nowadays. That’s why they sold only 2 million copies in 2017.

 Very few first issues of the Beano remain in existence today, with one selling for more than £17,000 at auction in 2015.[NN2] 

      We can see the humour of the comic evolve throughout these eight decades. In fact, at the beginning, The Beano used an anarchic humour, meant to glorify some immoral behaviours, dishonesty and robbery. More recently, the humour of The Beano rather centres on gross bodily functions, especially flatulence. That kind of humour was really taboo in children’s comics before the 1990s.

      The Beano’s last set of ABC²  figures [NN3] recorded an almost 8 per cent rise in the last 5 years. In a falling market, these figures are somewhere in the region of miraculous, yet simple testimony to publishers DC Thomson’s knowledge of their market.³

      During the Second World War, The Beano and The Dandy (also an iconic comic strip) were published on alternative weeks instead of every week, because of paper and ink rationing. Therefore, they experienced a crisis. In 1949 success and weekly presentations resumed.

Where can I get one?

You can subscribe online at Beano.com. The website features characters, the all-new adventures, games, quizzes and more. You can also buy a comic on the Fnac or Amazone website.

*1 : https://britishcomics.fandom.com/wiki/Beano        

*2 : Audit Bureau of Circulations

*3 : https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/the-beano-anniversary-characters-dc-dennis-menace-minnie-minx-bash-street-kids-dandy-a8466581.html

Agissandre Leclercq, Viktoria Majda, and Hugo Michel

SOURCES List the websites and (if applicable) any other sources (books, magazines, tv series,…) you have consulted: - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/the-beano-anniversary-characters-dc-dennis-menace-minnie-minx-bash-street-kids-dandy-a8466581.html - https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6894246/how-old-beano-where-buy-still-running/ - https://www.beano.com/ - https://theculturetrip.com/europe/united-kingdom/scotland/articles/a-brief-history-of-the-beano-scotlands-beloved-comic/ - https://britishcomics.fandom.com/wiki/Beano - - - -

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The New Yorker cartoons

The New Yorker Cartoons 
First let’s say a few words about The New Yorker : It’s a magazine edited by David Remnick and created on 21 February 1925 by Harold Ross,who worked for The New York Times, and his wife,Jane Grant. Ross wanted to create this magazine because he wanted to create something humourous. He edited his magazine until his death in 1951. The magazine talks about politics and focuses on the cultural life of New-York and other subjects,always with a lot of irony. It is published by Condé Nast. The magazine started as a weekly and is now published forty-seven times annually.

The cartoons have been included in the magazine since the beginning adopting various styles and discussing varied subjects such as everyday life topics,politics,movies or series. The magazine is avalaible online or in print. There is also an encyclopedia written by David Remnick that you can buy.

Now let’s talk about some editors of the cartoons

The first cartoon editor was Lee Lorenz,a cartoonist who began his job in 1956 and became a New Yorker contract contributor in 1958. After his service as the magazaine’s arts editor from 1973 to 1993, when he was replaced by Francoise Mouly, he continued as cartoon editor until 1998. He has written a book called “The Art of The New Yorker” and received The national Cartoonist Society’s Gag cartoon award in 1995. The magazine has published more than 1600 of his drawings.

In 1993, Robert Mankoff became the new editor. He edited 14 collections and also contributed a short article to each book,describing some aspects of the cartooning process or the methods used to select cartoons for the magazine. He edited “The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker”, a book with more than six hundred pages ( 665 exactly ) representing two thousand and four of the best cartoons of the magazine. Robert Mankoff left the magazine in 2017 for another one called Esquire. 

The New Yorker has employed many other important talents such as Charles Adams, Peter Arno, Sam Cobean and more. Some artists choose to hire their own writers.

There is also a website, called “ The cartoon bank”, on which there is more than eighty thousand cartoons from The New Yorker. This includes some of the most popular cartoons, such as the most printed one by Peter Steiner in 1933 ; It is a drawing of two dogs at a computer speaking to each other with one of the two dogs saying: “ On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog”. Mankoff and Steiner said that the magazine had split more than one thousand dollars in fees paid for the licensing and reprinting of this single cartoon, with more than half going to Steiner. 

Finally, in April 2005, the magazine started to use its last page for “The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest” The regular cartoonists are printed each week, their work is submitted to readers and three finalists are chosen. Each contest winner receives a print of the cartoon signed by the artist who drew the cartoon. 

Séverine Penné 



"SOURCES

List the websites and (if applicable) any other sources (books, magazines, tv series,…) you have consulted:

 

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Yorker#Cartoons

- https://www.newyorker.com/cartoons/bob-mankoff/the-story-of-how-about-never

- https://cartoonbank.com/about

- https://www.newyorker.com/cartoons

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Mankoff

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Remnick

- https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/lee-lorenz

- Google image  

The Magic Roundabout

Even though the term “The Magic Roundabout” could be understood as referring to a traffic circle located in Swindon, it’s also a TV series derived from a French one named Le Manège Enchanté. More specifically, it is a stop motion animation show created by Serge Danot, with the invaluable help of his friend Ivor Wood. In France, the series was broadcast on the ORTF channel (Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Français) from 1964 to 1974 and in England, on the BBC, from 18 October 1965 until 25 January 1977 at first in black and white, then in a coloured version. As it was a stop motion animation, the method of filming took a lot of time as every episode needed about 7500 pictures, which represents more or less two weeks of work. This TV programme was aimed at children but the parents were also tempted to watch, as the show was shown just before the news. Some of them even complained when it was rescheduled to earlier in the day! 

       Eric Thompson is the one who adapted the show into English. He did not simply translate the work of Serge Danot but created his own version in 441 episodes of only five minutes, doing also the narration and the voice of some characters. The reason why Eric Thompson did not simply translate from French into English is quite simple: he thought it was too complicated to dub, and he did not even like the French version that much, as he found it too noisy. After the success of the series, two full-length films were created: Pollux and the Blue Cat, released in 1972 and The Magic Roundabout in 2005. 

The Magic Roundabout show is a very funny programme which talks about the adventures of Dougal and his friends. As the title suggests, the story takes place around a colourful carousel. 

       The characters of this show are really charming. First of all, there is Mr Rusty, an old man, owner of the Magic Roundabout. He and Florence, the sensitive little girl, are the only human beings in the series. The most famous character is of course the yellow dog, named Pollux in French, Dougal in English, whose voice was Eric Thompson’s in the first series. Dougal is Florence’s best friend. He often complains and hates it when the little girl does not pay attention to him. He is also sarcastic but still, he is the most appreciated character on this show. The funny thing is, Dougal was not supposed to be so important, but after some letters of the audience asking why he didn’t talk often, the directors decided to give him a bigger role.  Dougal is surrounded by a lot of friends, such as Brian the snail, who follows the dog no matter what weird idea he has; Ermintrude the cow; Dylan the rabbit, who seems asleep most of the time; and Zebedee, a Jack-in-the-box that appears in the very first episode to help Mr Rusty to be happier.

       The Magic Roundabout became famous in England with its eight million spectators on average. It is not a surprise if everyone still knows it nowadays because both parents and children could watch it. Moreover, The Magic Roundabout is the first series which gave its name to a famous traffic circle.

 

Catherine Carpentier, Valentine Delvaux, and Axel Zlotowski  

SOURCES

- http://www.jedisparadise.com/2/Magic_Roundabout.htm 

- https://www.revolvy.com/topic/The%20Magic%20Roundabout 

- https://www.theguardian.com/film/2004/oct/08/france.television

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_Roundabout  

-https://www.kidzworld.com/article/6580-the-magic-roundabout-tv-show-facts?fbclid=IwAR1cVQKXKQPQOaNiFsUu_pSy5E7T5dwUkQUSD1Dp0ZWG0-CWWimADhbd6ME

 

The silver fern

The silver fern, or ‘Ponga’ in the Māori language, is a medium-sized plant endemic to New Zealand which owes its name to the occasional silvery undersides of the fronds. The fronds of the silver fern are dark green on the upper side and the undersides are usually white; only in some northern populations are the fronds silver. The undersides reflect moonlight and they are used as tracking markers in the country’s forests. The perfect habitat for this type of fern is lowland forests as they thrive in moist, mild climates, but they can be found throughout the country.  

The silver fern has deep historical roots. It first appeared as a national symbol in the 1880s when Pakeha (New Zealanders of European descent) identified as New Zealanders and no longer as Europeans living abroad, whereas previously the term New Zealanders was only used to refer to the Māori people. Quickly, Native Associations started to form, solidifying this new sense of nationalism and attachment to a newfound home. These associations chose the silver fern as their emblem, which not only grew popular among the citizens, but also came to be seen by foreigners as a symbol of the nation. 

Māori people, the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand, used the fern in several ways: the foliage to make bedding and the sap for medical purposes, for example. To this community, the fern represents strength, resistance and power. In relation to the silver fern there is the koru a “spiral shape based on the appearance of a new unfurling silver fern frond”.This symbol is also quite important to the Māori culture and is frequently incorporated into many forms of artistic expression, such as carvings and tattoos.  

To this day, the silver fern has continued to be used as a symbol by the national rugby teams and in other sports, as well as in the military and in the immigration department of the government.  recently, New Zealanders used the silver fern as a symbol of resilience after the Christchurch terror attack in March 2019, with one artist modifying each frond of a fern to represent one casualty. 

The silver fern is such an important symbol for the nation that on multiple occasions it has been suggested to incorporate it into the New Zealand flag. There have been a number of attempts to change the flag, but it was in 2015-2016 that the country held a referendum on whether to change the flag or keep the old one, featuring the Union Jack. Even the Prime Minister at the time, John Key, gave his support to the silver fern. But overall, this referendum split opinion and there was not much engagement among the general public. Criticisms of it included the huge costs of changing all the flags and logos, the relative importance of this matter compared to others such as immigration or Māori representation, and the different options for the flags supposedly being to be too logo-like. In the end, they decided to keep the original flag.

To sum up, we can see that this is a symbol that is deeply rooted in the New Zealand culture, that it has transcended the country and that it is representative of the nation abroad.  

Lucía Domínguez Villar

Sources:

-WIXON, Karl ; The history of our national symbol 

https://www.nzstory.govt.nz/blog/the-history-of-our-national-symbol/  [29/03/19]

- KEENAN, Danny ; Why is the Silver Fern New Zealand’s Symbol ? [29/03/19]

https://www.silverfernflag.org/press/why-is-the-silver-fern-new-zealands-symbol [30/03/19]

-  The silver fern 

https://kiwianatown.co.nz/kiwiana-displays/the-silver-fern/ [1/04/19]

- The significance of the silver fern

https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/discover-collections/read-watch-play/maori/significance-silver-fern[2/04/19]

- Cyathea dealbata

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyathea_dealbata  [2/04/19]

- An illustration has become a symbol of resilience after the Christchurch terror attack [2/04/19]

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/20/asia/christchurch-shooting-cartoon-tribute-victims-trnd/index.html

- Maori people [2/04/19]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Māori_people

- Koru

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koru[2/04/19]

Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver was an American poet who was born on September 10, 1935 in Ohio and who died recently, on January 17, 2019. Mary started writing poetry at the age of fourteen. She studied at Ohio State University and Vassar College without completing a degree. Nature had always been her inspiration, that is what she stated in the Christian Science Monitor in 1992:

I don't know why I felt such an affinity with the natural world except that it was available to me, that's the first thing. It was right there. And for whatever reasons, I felt those first important connections, those first experiences being made with the natural world rather than with the social world.¹

Walking in the woods was her absolute favourite thing. Her notebook and her pen were always taken with her and when a thought came to her mind, she wrote it down. Then she progressively entered more personal realms as her memories of Ohio and New England. Her poetry was a new kind of Romanticism.

Her first collection of poems is called No Voyage and Other Poems was published when she was twenty-eight. Between 1963 and 2017 Mary published 33 collections of poems, A Poetry Handbook which is a guide to understand and to write poetry, Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse and two essays. Even if Mary Oliver was a very famous writer in the Anglophone culture, only one of her pieces of work was translated in Catalan in 2018 which is called Ocell Roig.

In 1970 she won her first award, which is the Shelley Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of America. Only American poets considered as genius and essential receive this award. Then between 1970 and 2012 she won twelve awards and honours; one of those was the National Book Award for Poetry for New and Selected Poems, awarded to American writers whose work was widely deemed brilliant. She was also reward with her fifth collection, American Primitive, with the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1984. In her career Mary Oliver taught at several universities. 

The New-York Times described Mary Oliver as the best-selling poet in the United-States of America in 2007. In an article released on January 2017 by The New-Yorker, she was considered to be the most appreciated poet in America as well as a distinguished and important poet. In the beginning of her career, critics did not believe in her because of her main poetry themes, considered as old-fashioned. David Orr, a working poetry columnist for the New-York Times, laughed at her because of her belief that poetry could work as self-help. Diane Bond, who is a feminist writer, declared that:

 
   
    Few feminists have wholeheartedly appreciated Oliver's work, and though some critics have read her poems as revolutionary reconstructions of the female subject, others remain sceptical that identification with nature can empower women.²

However, numerous critics do appreciate her work, Alicia Ostriker is one of them. This American poet affirmed that Oliver “can describe and transmit ecstasy, while retaining a practical awareness of the world as one of predators and prey.”

              Thanks to her poems Mary Oliver is considered to be a brilliant writer who left her mark on the Anglophone poetry world.

Lola Jensens, Elise Schafer and Emilie Vilain.

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¹Source :  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Oliver

²Source : https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/11/27/what-mary-olivers-critics-dont-understand?fbclid=IwAR1S3cAMzN-NnbsLLW7_zraUn1x788YVJoX5ei_71UgKtM-sMv8TriMf77Q