Today we are unleashing the FESTIVE FINALE of The Funny Comics Fan Club into the world and it is - IF YOU WILL PARDON THE PUN - a bit of a "cracker".
(because it's Christmas, see, when you have Christmas crackers)
For those who are blissfully unaware, The Funny Comics Fan Club is a podcast where Mr John Dredge and I talk about British kids' comics, reading through a single issue of a specific comic in every issue and offering THORTS and also REMARKS. For the first nine issues we talked about old comics from our respective childhoods in days long ago, but for this SEASON FINALE* (*we're having an extra week gap over Christmas but will be back in January for more) we thought it might be fun to talk about a comic or comic-associated item that is out RIGHT NOW, and so we alighted on this year's Beano Annual. You can find out what we thought by listening to the BELOW (or by streaming it from wherever you get your podcasts):
One is of course LOATH to give spoilers, but I think it's fair to say that we LIKED it. Personally i liked it a LOT as I am a big fan of the modern Beano, which I think manages to be very much a) MODERN and also b) THE ACTUAL BEANO. DC Thomson do a GRATE job of creating a comic that is recognisably the one that most of us grew up with, but which has also kept up with the world as it is lived now (which The Beano that I read in the 1970s and 1980s usually completely failed to do). Also it is ACTUALLY FUNNY, which I NEVER remember The Beano being in my day, and that especially is something I salute it for!
That's not to say we liked EVERYTHING about it, and there was one strip in particular where John and I had a heated disagreement, but you'll have to listen to it yourself to find out which!
