The Beano feels the digital heat

Sam Peña-Taylor

The Beano, a beloved children's comic with an 80-year heritage is changing with the digital age, uncovering insights from the youngest generation.

Some people were disappointed at the Beano's step into the 21st century. Changing the children's comic, a seminal element of British childhood since its launch in July 1938, was not going to please everybody. The Daily Mail, ever the defender of the British institution, frothed: "Politically correct Dennis loses his Menace." Admittedly, Gnasher's new teeth are strangely human for a dog, but otherwise, it appears that the comic's movement has been progressive: in the updated version, Dennis the Menace has apparently stopped bullying his former target Walter the Softy, for example.

Image: DC Thomson

Though the Beano's position has always...

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