Brandwatch: Menace To The Max

Next week, DC Thomson are launching Beano MAX, not a low-sugar version of the popular kids’ comic but instead a giant size, kind-of-monthly publication with longer stories “designed to give these well-known characters more depth”.

These words might well strike fear into any self-respecting menace. I cannot imagine that too many fans of Dennis, Gnasher, Teacher, Little Plum et al. have ‘depth’ very high on their narrative shopping list when it comes to the Beano.

Longer stories, however, are to be encouraged. When small the Beano launched Beano Comic Library, pocketbook-size comics at one or two panels per page, which would send their protagonists on epically rambling, loosely plotted adventures. Depth wasn’t on the cards.

And to be honest the early omens for Beano MAX aren’t bad. The first issue, after all, includes the (UNEQUIVOCALLY CANONICAL) “Bash Street Meets The Daleks”.