User:MonkeyStolen234/hoops

The Beano (formerly The Beano Comic, also known as Beano) is British anthology comic magazine created by Scottish publishing company DC Thomson. Its first issue published 30 July 1938, and became the world's longest-running comic issued weekly in 2018, publishing its 4000th issue in August 2019. Popular and well-known comic strips and characters include Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx, General Jumbo, The Bash Street Kids, Jack Flash, Ivy the Terrible, Lord Snooty and His Pals, and Roger the Dodger.

Intended to be a member for the cancelled "New Big Five", The Beano was planned as a pioneer of a children's magazine that only contained comic strips in the style of American newspaper gag-a-days. In the present, its legacy is its misbehaving characters, escapist tales and anarchic humour with an audience of all ages. Starting in the 1940s, Beano became a multimedia franchise with spin-off books and Christmas annuals, websites, theme park rides, games, cartoon adaptations, and a production company.

Creation (1920s–1939)
Throughout the 1920s, DC Thomson dominated the British comics industry. Dubbed "the big five", the publisher's most successful comics were Adventure (1921), The Rover and The Wizard (1922), The Skipper (1930) and The Hotspur (1933). These were weekly issued boys' magazines for preteen males, containing anthologies by DC Thomson's creator staff designed in various formats and genres. They became popular throughout the United Kingdom, notably in English industrial cities, helped through the company's ability to view sales and promotions in the areas much easier than the rival publishers in London. Although many were about "super men" the young readers could idolise, the rest of the stories would be comic strips inspired by the gag-a-day strips in American newspapers full of stylised characters, slapstick and puns.

Overseeing the magazines was the Managing Editor of Children's Publications, R. D. Low, who first joined the company in 1913. Almost a decade into the big five's success, the stories shifted to comedic and included more comic strips, which gave Low an idea of creating a new "big five" which focused on the funnies more than drama. The suggestion was approved; editors Bill Blain and (sub-editor) Albert Barnes of The Wizard and The Hotspur, respectively, joined Low's project. The new team placed a newspaper advertisement into The Daily Telegraph asking for artists and/or comic ideas. With the help of the advertisement responses and employed artists at DC Thomson, The Dandy was published in 1937, the New Big Five's first member. For The Beano (initially called "The Beano Comic" until 1950), Low received comic strip suggestions by Reg Carter, an English illustrator in Sussex who had created funnies for several British comics and designed humourous postcards. After an in-person interview, Low and Carter planned the front cover for The Beano first issue, eventually creating the character Big Eggo (originally named Oswald the Ostrich). It would be in colour whilst the inside of the magazine would be black and white, a tactic used for The Dandy first issue (black and white stories inside, colourful Korky the Cat strip on the front). Joining the Big Eggo strip would be many funnies, such as Hugh McNeill's Ping the Elastic Man, James Jewell's Wee Peem, Allan Morley's Big Fat Joe, Eric Roberts' Rip Van Wink, Dudley D. Watkins' Lord Snooty and His Pals, and Roland Davies' Contrary Mary. Despite the aim to make a new comic series full of American-inspired comic strips, The Beano also contained short stories, serial fiction and adventure stories similar to the Big Five's magazines; Morgyn the Mighty was previously in The Rover. Tin-Can Tommy and Brave Captain Kipper were reprints, co-produced by the Italian art agency Torelli Bros.

Worth 2d with a free prize of a "whoopee mask", issue 1 of The Beano was released on 26 July 1938 for the 30th, selling roughly 443,000 copies. Like The Dandy, its name is from a Low-led DC Thomson office party called The DB Club (The Dandy Beano Club). DC Thomson had several office party clubs that hosted different types of staff gatherings to choose from (e.g. The Prancers would hike hills), but Low's DB Club preferred playing golf and dining throughout Dundee. The two magazines also followed the one-word titles of other comics by rival companies, such as Amalgamated Press' Crackers, Sparkler, Puck and some books from its Union Jack series (Marvel, Magnet and Gem); and Target Publications' Chuckler, Rattler and Dazzler. Beano editor-in-chief was George Moonie, former sub-editor of The Wizard, who would be editor until the summer of 1959. He later explained DC Thomson was a competitive company that wanted to make the best children's literature in the United Kingdom, but there was also competition within itself as Beano offices was determined to beat The Dandy popularity.

World War Two, reaching million sales (1940–1959)
Drastic changes occurred behind the scenes of The Beano during the Second World War: George Moonie and editing partner Ron Fraser left to join the Royal Marines and Air Force, respectively, both not returning until c. 1946. Stuart Gilchrist became sole editor-in-chief after Moonie's other sub-editor Freddie Simpson became ill and resigned. Contact was also lost with Torelli Bros. so in-house creations of Tin-Can Tommy began from issue 69 by Sam Fair. Paper rationing caused the rest of Low's New Big Five to be cancelled (it stopped at three published, the third member being The Magic Comic (1939), which ended with 80 issues in 1941), and The Beano to fluctuate its page count instead of its usual 28. Eventually, The Beano became a fortnightly magazine until 23 July 1949.

Comic strips would encourage readers to help their parents and other adults with the war effort, and to be optimistic about the war's outcome. New comic strips mocked Mussolini and propagandist William Joyce, Lord Snooty and His Pals stories would be about the protagonists outsmarting the Axis leaders, and other stories would be about characters recycling paper. Big Eggo front covers were often about Eggo pranking servicemen during the Blitz, and Pansy Potter received a medal for single-handily capturing a Nazi U-boat. Issue 192 would debut a 16-part prose story about a boy and his mother being evacuated to the United States and becoming the enemy of a Chicago gangster's widow.

December 1945 marked a milestone: issue 272 became the first Beano issue to sell over a million copies. The end of the war also ushered in a new era for the comic, debuting superhero Jack Flash and a new generation of trouble-making kids: Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx, The Bash Street Kids, and Roger the Dodger. DC Thomson also introduced new comic magazines like The Beezer and The Topper that a few Beano artists also created characters and stories for.

Post-war changes (1960-present)
George Moonie resigned as editor-in-chief in 1959 to develop comics for girls. Sub-editor of The Beezer Harry Cramond succeeded Moonie until retiring in 1984, described as the most influential editor in The Beano history. He oversaw new merchandising, high sales, and the thousandth and two thousandth issues. Behind the scenes of the magazine became humanised throughout the years as DC Thomson's Beano offices featured on documentary television and Cramond's successor Euan Kerr guest-starred on television for the magazine's 50th anniversary.

Magazine revamps also ensued. The Beano began to advertise outside of DC Thomson's products in 1988 in order to keep both it and The Dandy "pocket money" cheap, beginning with issue 2407. 1975 was the last year to feature an adventure comic as General Jumbo eighth series drew to a close in issue 1734. Issue 2674 was the first issue to feature every page in colour.

Scheduling
Issues published weekly every Tuesday in 1938, and when the magazine changed distribution to every two weeks, the day remained unchanged. From issue 366, the day changed to Friday until issue 375 which began the Thursday publication day schedule. In the 2010s (and as of 2020), the day changed to Wednesday.

Artists assigned to a strip(s) will design all its stories into a "series" that the chief editor will arrange into an order to publish for each issue. Strips are sometimes ghostwritten by other artists who imitate the original designer's style, which is helpful if artists retire or die unexpectedly, otherwise the strip is discontinued. "When I started I was drawing two pages a week and thinking 'Phew, that’s quite a lot'. Now I do 10 or 12 pages a week. You have to do more all the time to stay where you are," explained Nigel Parkinson.

Crossovers
The Beano allows its characters from different strips to interact with each other. Reprinting old stories or redistributing characters into other magazines is common throughout DC Thomson's history, as if the stories are set in the same universe. The Lord Snooty series discontinued old characters and replaced them with Beano strip characters of the past; Dennis the Menace featured in DC Thomson's Champ magazine in the mid-1980s and The Weekly News tabloid-magazine for four years in the 1950s. Morgyn the Mighty, Tricky Dicky, Bananaman and Corporal Clott were stories previously from The Rover, The Topper, Nutty and The Dandy, respectively, whereas one of Gnasher's puppies had her own strip in The Beezer and Topper and Jackie magazine. Anniversary issues are frequently contained with crossovers: the 2000th issue had the "Hall of Fame" strip which showed framed portraits of characters from the past, and issue 3443's Fred's Bed featured Fred crawling under his bed and time travelling through the magazine's comic strips.

Chief Editor history
As of 2020, there have been seven official chief editors.
 * George Moonie (1938–1939, c. 1946–1959)
 * Harold Cramond (1959–1984)
 * Euan Kerr (1984–2006)
 * Alan Digby (2006–2011)
 * Michael Stirling (2011–2012)
 * Craig Graham (2012–2016)
 * John Anderson (2016–present)

Temporary chief editors:
 * Stuart Gilchrist (1939–c. 1946) stood in as editor when George Moonie joined the Navy for World War Two.
 * Dick and Dom (2006) edited issue 3311 and chose their favourite strips from the available 2005 waiting list.
 * Nick Park (2008) edited issue 3443 to celebrate Beano 70th anniversary.
 * Harry Hill (published 6 March 2013) edited the 2013 Red Nose Day special.
 * David Walliams (2018) edited issue 3945 to celebrate the 80th anniversary.
 * Joe Sugg (2021) edited issue 4077 for Dennis the Menace 70th anniversary.

Merchandise
From the first issue, readers have received free gifts from The Beano: toy masks, sweets,  posters, and toys. Originally, free gifts would be attached inside the cover or strategically on the front so that it could distract the buyer from other comics next to The Beano on the shelves, hopefully excited for the next issue after reading it and eating/playing with the toys. Gifts were intentionally sporadic, especially during the Christmas period when families' money would be saved for food and presents. Issue 90 would be the last issue with a gift (licorice "black eye") due to rationing, the next free gift being the Flying Snorter Balloon in issue 953. The most popular free gift was issue 2201's Gnasher Snapper, a prank toy that would make a bang sound when unfolded, and was re-gifted occasionally in later issues, as well as the 60th anniversary.

During the 25th anniversary of Dennis the Menace, The Dennis the Menace Fan Club was formed. The fan club was instantly popular, recalls Euan Kerr in 1984; "The club enrolled over 2000 new members every week, well into the 90s[.]" Membership was 30p, and new members received a membership card full of classified communication tactics and two badges: a red one with Dennis' face on the front and a furry one of a googly-eyed Gnasher face—the latter was the most sought-after badge in the club's history. For two years, there was a tie-in agony aunt page called Dear Dennis (issue 1679-1767) where fan club members sent Dennis their problems that Dennis would reply to in the following issue; thousands of letters would arrive at DC Thomson per week and the authors of the messages would receive prizes. The club would be renamed The Beano Club, which ended in 2010, but had over 1.5 million members. A spin-off was introduced called Gnasher's Fang Club, and Gnasher would ask readers to send him stories about their pets' adventures which could be printed into the next issue. "The mailbag of little drawings of pets was several thousand per week," remembers sub-editor Morris Heggie. "And the popularity lasted and lasted."

The 21st century celebrated anniversaries with more memorabilia. For The Beano 70th birthday, The History of The Beano (2008) was published by Waverly Books, documenting the magazine's history. Readers could buy a box for the 80th containing posters, reprints of selected older issues, and two books updating the previous documentation of the magazine's history, as well as Minnie the Minx origins. Both anniversaries had tie-in museum exhibitions that also told their audiences the magazine's history. Limited-edition figurines from Robert Harrop were available to buy from their official website in late 2008. The 21st century also began Beano branching into different mediums: their first website, Beanotown.com, formed in 2000, and Chessington World of Adventures opened Beanoland in the same year. Both would later discontinue but Beanotown.com would be revamped as beano.com, a website full of games, Beano secrets and other activities for children. Gulliver's Travels opened the Beano 6 Super Ride in May 2021.

Beano Studios
In June 2016, DC Thomson launched Beano Studios, a spin-off media studio (based in both London and Dundee) with the intention of creating media appropriate for children and expanding The Beano franchise. Its introduction to the readers came in The Beano issue 3854 with a revamp of of the cover's layout and the logo, removing "The" to make it coincide with the studio, and unveiling the website beano.com. Former chief-editor Michael Stirling (who stepped down in 2012) became head of the Dundee studio and the franchise's spokesman. Jodie Morris became Head of Digital Content, James Neal stood as Director of Content, Nigel Pickard joined as non-executive director and Emma Scott stood as CEO until 2020, succeeded by David Guppy.

As well as expanding Beano franchise through games and merchandise, Beano.com also contains other activities and interests for children to enjoy, such as news about popular celebrities, and miscellaneous videos and articles. Neal described it as "a fun but trusted babysitter who lets the kids stay up a bit late". For parents who formerly read The Beano during childhood, Beano Studios invites them to also participate on their nostalgia, once sending a cease and desist letter to politician Jacob Rees-Mogg for copyright infringement against Walter the Softy. The website became a continuing success worldwide with over two million visitors per year, and is credited for increasing comic sales by 10% in 2018. A similar approach had been planned for years through the first website Beanotown.com, which DC Thomson hoped would attract an international audience to The Beano, especially the United States. The Guardian noted The Beano success in North America was plausible because of Chicken Run, Monty Python, and Benny Hill's American popularity.

Soon after the launch announcement, Beano Studios revealed it had a new Dennis the Menace adaptation in production: a 52-episode 3D-animated cartoon for CBBC co-produced by Jellyfish Pictures and distributed by Jetpack. The new programme, Dennis & Gnasher: Unleashed!, aired on the CBBC Channel in November 2017 and became one of the most popular children's series on the channel. Jetpack sold the cartoon to over 90 territories worldwide in 2018 through television deals and streaming services, and it received an Emmy nomination for Best International Animated Program at the 2019 International Emmy Kids Awards. Chief Creative Officer Mark Talbot explained his plans to look to Hollywood for Beano branching, noting: "what’s been interesting with the Americans, they don’t have The Beano but what they see is the archive with over 2,000 characters and storylines sat in a warehouse in Dundee waiting to be reimagined by new writers and established writers[.]" In November 2020, Deadline reported Talbot was in the midst of pitching another adaptation of Dennis the Menace, rumoured to be about a reckless teenaged Dennis with a pilot script written by former Chilling Adventures of Sabrina writer Matthew Barry. Beano Studios and Lime Pictures announced a live-action Minnie the Minx children's programme in 2018 called The Magnificent Misadventures of Minnie, and Fox Entertainment announced a Bananaman cartoon, the second cartoon adapting the comic strip after the BBC adaptation from 1983.

Reception and legacy
[Beano Royal Mail stamp] The Beano was an instant success upon release, and became longest-running, weekly-issued comic of all time in 2018. Although interest in comic magazines dwindled, it survived surrounding setbacks. In the 1950s, it (and The Dandy) were unaffected by DC Thomson's magazine cancellations (selling over 100 million per year) that were caused by both paper rationing and public lack of interest. Alan Digby's attempt to boost sales with the 8-week "Missing Gnasher" plot in Dennis the Menace failed, but the story featured in newspapers and on radio broadcasts, causing people of all ages to contact Beano offices to voice their concerns. Roughly 31,000-41,000 copies are sold per week in the present day, but an estimated 2 billion Beano comic magazines have been sold in its lifetime. A 1997 television poll by the National Comics Awards selected it for the Best British Comic Ever award. Dennis the Menace would represent the comic when Royal Mail launched a special stamp collection in 2012, celebrating Britain's rich comic book history. The Dandy, Eagle, The Topper, Roy of the Rovers, Bunty, Buster, Valiant, Twinkle and 2000 AD were also featured.

Like The Dandy, The Beano is a definitive part of British pop culture. "It's refreshing to see how the [zany] principles that made it such a hit all those years ago have remained to this day." writes Coventry Evening Telegraph. Beano annuals are the most popular Christmas annual sold, and old issues sell for thousands at auctions. Lord Snooty is often used as a pejorative in British politics. DC Thomson considers the 1950s Beano golden age possibly because of many commemorations based on the strips that first appeared from that decade: Dennis became a literal and metaphorical mascot of the magazine, his increasing popularity making him the last consistent cover star and his strips spawning three BBC animated adaptations; Minnie and the Bash Street Kids have a statue and a street named after the strip, respectively. The "anarchic" humour is credited as the key to the magazine's longevity, as well as its refusal to be condescending to its readers: "The Beano may have changed since the '30s but has always maintained its anti-authoritarian stance and steadfast refusal to treat children like idiots," theorised Morris Heggie.

The magazine is cited as an inspiration to many readers. Beano artists Emily McGorman-Bruce, Zoom Rockman, Jess Bradley, and Barrie Appleby were avid readers of the magazine and/or its annuals before they became creators of its new strips. Meanwhile, The Beano inspired comic artists Jay Stephens, Carolyn Edwards (Titan Comics) and webcomic creator Sarah Millman (NPC Tea, The Heart of Time) to either work in the creative industry or create their own stories. Guest chief-editors Nick Park, David Walliams, Joe Sugg, and Harry Hill are also fans of The Beano, with Park admitting "My dream job was always to work on The Beano and it's such an honour for me to be Guest Editor[.]"

Notable famous members of the old Dennis the Menace/Beano Club include Auberon Waugh, Mike Read, and Mark Hamill, as well as honorary members Paul Gascoigne, and Princes William and Harry. Chris Tarrant cited Dennis as his role model when he was a child, and Paul Rudd revealed Roger the Dodger was his favourite strip. Stella McCartney created tribute fashion to both The Beano and The Dandy, explaining they were "a huge part of my childhood" and wanted to celebrate "the next generation of Beano fans with a sustainable and practical range for kids who still share that ‘Beano’ spirit of these iconic characters". In music pop culture, the album Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton is nicknamed "The Beano Album" because Eric Clapton is holding issue 1242 on its cover.

Audience participation
Interaction with the audience is a historic practice in The Beano history. Excluding fan clubs and merchandise, Comic Idol is a sporadic election in which readers vote for their favourite strips to keep in the magazine. Cancelled strips with the least votes include Little Plum, Baby Face Finlayson, Les Pretend, Calamity James, Crazy for Daisy, and Lord Snooty. Super School and Meebo and Zuky were nominees who won polls and became official strips in the following issues. Readers would find a voting slip covered with the candidates printed in an issue that they would fill out and mail to DC Thomson, but the creation of Beano websites would allow real-time opinions from readers. Pets' Picture Gallery invited readers to send drawings of their pets to feature in the following issue.

Readers participated in the magazine's record-breaking stunts. In 1988, 100 children helped Euan Kerr and Beano scriptwriter Al Bernard recreate the front cover of issue 2396 on Scarborough Beach with Hann-Made Productions. It was awarded the Largest Comic Strip at 39950 square feet. Beano 2018 comic competition to celebrate the opening of V&A Dundee was awarded the biggest competition to finish a comic strip with 650 participants.

Along with Nick Park's guest editor issue, the 70th anniversary coincided with Gnashional Menace Day, a CLIC Sargent-partnered event where readers could be sponsored "behaving like Dennis" for charity.

Beano Club ended in 2010 - oldest member was 91

Controversy
The Beano has had a few controversies throughout its lifetime, but aspects have either been discontinued or changed to not cause offence. Its infamous changes are the removal of corporal punishment (e.g. Dennis the Menace often depicted receiving bottom spanks with a slipper by his furious father) and misbehaving characters abandoning slingshots—the latter irritating former readers for being a "politically correct" notion, usually highlighted with claim "Dennis has lost his menace".

Racist depictions and terminology have been removed through the years as well. Little Plum sub-title "Your redskin chum" was not included in its 2002 revival. The first masthead character was a caricatured design of an Afro-Caribbean boy named Peanut, mascot of the Little Peanut's Page of Fun joke page (appeared from issues 1 to 112), usually eating watermelon. His last masthead feature was in December 1947, but subsequent reprints of the first issues have removed him. Hard-Nut the Nigger and Mussolini the Wop have not had reprints since their last appearances.

Some changes were to not convince readers bullying was acceptable. Dennis and Gnasher's constant targeting of passive, diligent Walter "the Softy" (who was also a knitting and flower-picking hobbyist) was accused of encouraging playground homophobia, so it was toned down and Walter became more antagonistic and stood up to Dennis, eventually having his first girlfriend. Fatty from the Bash Street Kids was renamed Freddy (his real name) in 2021, causing backlash from former readers, including Jacob Rees-Mogg who accused the change of being "publicity-seeking". Former chief-editor Mike Stirling explained it was due to fan letters from young readers asking why he was nicknamed so: "although it's always been used affectionately, and never pejoratively, we agreed it's time it changed." A News of the World report contained accusations of Uh Oh, Si Co! encouraging readers to mock children with anger issues or mental illness, which caused the strip to be cancelled.

Founding, expansion
In 1921, D. C. Thomson had first entered the field of boys' story papers with Adventure. The success of this paper led to five further publications, The Rover and The Wizard in 1922, The Vanguard in 1924, The Skipper in 1930 and The Hotspur in 1933. Although The Vanguard folded in 1926, the others were a great triumph and became known as "The Big Five"; they ended Amalgamated Press's near-monopoly of the British comic industry.

Another success was the Fun Section of D. C. Thomson's Scottish weekly newspaper The Sunday Post, which included the two strips Oor Wullie and The Broons by lead artist Dudley Watkins, as well as other funnies and various puzzles and adventure stories. This gave R. D. Low, the head of children's publications at D. C. Thomson at the time, the idea to create another Big Five, this time of comics intended for both boys and girls and consisting mainly of 'funnies' and more lighthearted adventure and text stories. With the creation of The Dandy in 1937, he placed an advertisement in The Daily Telegraph to find new artists to create weekly comic strips for his second book, and Reg Carter (who had originally published Mickey Mouse comics throughout the 1930s) responded in January 1938 with a few ideas and sketches. Carter and Low's eventual idea would be an ostrich that misplaced his eggs, which would later become Big Eggo, the first cover star of the eventually-named The Beano on 26 July 1938; the comic takes its name from the English word beano, a short form of bean-feast, a term for a festive meal, or loosely "a good time". The third paper, The Magic Comic, aimed at a slightly younger audience, followed in July 1939, but ceased publication in early 1941, due to paper rationing. Wartime shortages also prevented the New Big Five project from being completed.

The first edition of The Beano was dated 30 July 1938, and sold at two pence. It was full of comic strips (such as Lord Snooty, Wee Peem, Dead-Eyed Dick, Tin-Can Tommy) and prose stories (Ping the Elastic Man, My Dog Sandy, The Wishing Tree, etc.) and was an instant success, selling 443,000 copies that week. A facsimile of the first issue's cover was printed on the back of issue No. 2,000. Before Law's "new big five" plan, comic strips were printed in newspapers and/or a tabloid format, but the styles The Beano and The Dandy compacted their stories as well as extended them to fit 28 pages, despite selling at the same price as the traditionally-styled Amalgamated Press comics (Comic Cuts and Illustrated Chips), and also began the boys' adventure newspaper books genre decline. Issue 272 (December 1945) was the first issue to sell over a million copies.

During the Second World War, The Beano and The Dandy were published on alternating weeks because of paper and ink rationing. D. C. Thomson's other publications also suffered, with the Oor Wullie and The Broons annuals falling victim to paper and ink shortages. Paper and ink supplies were fully restored shortly after the end of hostilities and weekly publication of The Beano and The Dandy resumed in 1949.

The 3,000th issue of The Beano was published in January 2000. The Beano is now the longest-running weekly comic, since The Dandy became a fortnightly comic in 2007, and later stopped publishing in 2013.

The Beano weekly circulation in April 1950 was 1,974,072; it currently sells slightly over 31,000 copies per week.

Reader polls
During the 1980s, The Beano ran a "Readers' Request" feature where readers could request for a particular comic strip to feature in the Beano. This led to the return of dropped characters, including Little Plum, Baby Face Finlayson and The McTickles, but also led to the introduction of new strips such as Little Monkey.

Reader polls started to appear in the 1990s, allowing the readers to rate the strips in the comic. These polls have been quite influential, as they indicate which strips the readers like best, and strips that have performed poorly in these polls were usually dropped.

On a number of occasions, The Beano has allowed its readers to vote for which new strips they want to appear in the comic. This usually consists of three new comic strips being run for a number of weeks and the readers can vote on which strips they prefer and the one that receives the most votes stays in The Beano. Readers have been able to cast their votes via telephone, or more recently viaThe Beano website.

The first such vote occurred in 1995 with Vic Volcano emerging as the winner. In the 1997 competition, two new strips were added permanently, with Tim Traveller winning and Crazy for Daisy the runner-up. By the early 2000s, these competitions were named Comic Idol (in reference to Pop Idol). In the 2004 competition, the margin between winner Joe Jitsu and runner-up Colin the Vet was 1%, so both strips were added to the comic.

The most recent incarnation in 2010 featured three new strips, Meebo and Zuky, Home Invasion, and Uh oh Si Co!. Meebo and Zuky won, with Home Invasion finishing as runner-up, though only Meebo and Zuky were added to the comic. In 2011, the Dandy did a similar competition where readers voted for their favourite out of four strips, entitled Strictly Come Laughing (a reference to Strictly Come Dancing).