Posted in: Comics, Current News | Tagged: beano, Megacon Live

Nigel Parkinson, The Modern Day Face Of The Beano Weekly Comic

Nigel Parkinson, the modern day face of The Beano weekly comic, on upcoming Beano plans, at this weekend's MegaCon Live

Published Mon, 27 Jan 2025 01:57:08 -0600

Article Summary

Nigel Parkinson is the modern face of The Beano, attending events worldwide as its ambassador.
The Beano is the best-selling comic outside Japan, with over two billion copies sold globally.
Nigel Parkinson is crafting two epic 20-page stories for The Beano, to debut this summer and in the Annual.
The Beano reissues stories in bookstore formats, aiming to capture a new audience, mirroring rivals' success.

The Beano is the second longest-running comic book in the world, only Action Comics in the USA beats it. It is also the best-selling comic in the world, outside of Japan, with over two billion copies of the comic sold to its name. A kid's weekly anthology comic published by Scottish publishers DC Thomson and sold in newsagents and supermarkets, it featured characters such as Dennis The Menace, Minnie The Minx, the Bash Street Kids and Little Plum. The Beano tells short, sharp 1-3 page stories, with their characters getting up to all manner of hijinx. However, the identities of the creators aren't highlighted in the Beano as they are in other comics. But Nigel Parkinson has done his best to make up for that. He appears at many comic cons, media shows, book fairs, toy fairs, schools, libraries, and anywhere that the Beano might have a presence and might find an audience. He draws people in the manner of the Beano comic strips and has become a true ambassador for the brand; outside of the cartoon pen, he has become the de facto face of the Beano.

Nigel Parkinson, The Modern Day Face Of The Beano Weekly Comic — Nigel Parkinson at MegaCon Live, photo by Rich Johnston

I met him again at MegaCon Live today at London's ExCel Centre. The show didn't have a large comic book contingent, but Nigel Parkinson was there anyway, a guest of the show, and plying his trade.

When I chatted with Nigel Parkinson today, he told me that he was working on two long stories for the Beano, featuring many of the Beano characters, all of which appeared in the same story. By long, he means about twenty pages, but that is a Homerian epic for the Beano, the equivalent of Secret Wars or Crisis On Infinite Earths. One of them will appear this summer, the other in the upcoming Beano Annual, still a stable Christmas present for kids… of all ages.

Of late, some bright sparks at the Beano have discovered that their rivals at the DFC, publishers of the lesser-selling Phoenix Weekly Comic, have found enormous success repacking their comics for middle-grade bookstore audiences. Jamie Smart's work has topped the bookseller lists in the UK and challenged the American Dog Man series. To the extent that they, too, have begun repacking stories in a format similar to Beano Presents. Might Nigel Parkinson be about to find a whole new audience? For now here's the recently published Minnie The Minx: Batmin: The Dark Minx Returns…

Beano Presents Minnie The Minx – Batmin: The Dark Minx Returns
by Nigel Auchterlounie, Andy Fanton, Nigel Parkinson, Laura Howell
Minnie is unstoppable. Minnie is fearless. Minnie is enthusiastic. And as far as she's concerned, she's also tougher, smarter and better looking than anyone else too! Minnie's mum and dad, best friend Francis, not so best friend Soppy Susan, and the whole of Beanotown, feature in Minnie's antics. Enjoy 68 pages of hilarious mischief from writers Nigel Auchterlounie and Andy Fanton, and illustrators Laura Howell and Nigel Parkinson.

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