The Beano Annual

The Beano Annual is the current name of the book that has been published every year since 1939, to tie in with the children's comic The Beano. there have been 73 editions. The annuals are traditionally published in July or August, in time for Christmas, and since 1965 they have had the date of the following year on the cover. Before then no date was given.

From 1942 to 1949 the annual was called "The Magic-Beano Book", which referred to the short-lived Magic Comic that had ceased publication in 1941 due to the Second World War's paper rationing. The name reverted to the original title of "The Beano Book" in 1950 and continued, the year changing for each subsequent annual, until the release of the 2003 book in 2002 when it was renamed "The Beano Annual". The 2011 Beano Annual is taller and wider than previous annuals.

After paper rationing had ended, The Magic Comic was never revived, but some of the characters who had originally appeared in the pre-war Magic Comic remained as regular strips in the post-1950 Beano Comic (such as Koko the Pup).

Because of his popularity, Dennis the Menace has appeared on the front cover of every annual since the release of the 1979 book in 1978.

List of annuals
This information is necessary to identify older annuals which are not dated. If an annual is dated 1940, it would have been published in August 1939. Prices are in shillings and pence with one shilling equal to 5p.

The Beano Book


 * 1940. Big Eggo and all the other characters are sitting on a seesaw that is supported by Pansy Potter. Price 2/6
 * 1941. All the characters are emerging from giant eggs, with Big Eggo's head peering through the cover. Price 3/-
 * 1942. All the characters are dancing around Big Eggo, with Lord Snooty playing the bagpipes. Price 3/6

The Magic-Beano Book


 * 1943. Big Eggo and Koko the Pup are having a three-legged race with all the other characters running behind them. Price 5/- (advertised as 5/6)
 * 1944. Big Eggo and Koko the Pup are having a pillow fight. Price 6/-
 * 1945. Big Eggo and all the other characters are playing leapfrog. Price 6/-
 * 1946. Big Eggo is pulling all the other characters along in a cart. Price 6/-
 * 1947. All the characters are gathered around Big Eggo, who has something stuck in his throat. Price 6/-
 * 1948. Big Eggo and all the other characters are playing musical instruments. 6/-
 * 1949. Biffo the Bear and Big Eggo are fighting in front of a taxi, and all the other characters are trying to stop them. 6/-
 * 1950. Biffo is painting a portrait of Big Eggo and all the other characters on a large canvas. Price 6/-

The Beano Book
 * 1951. Biffo is riding on Tick-Tock Tony the Clock-Work Horse. Price 6/-
 * 1952. Biffo is nailing pictures of all the other characters to the cover. Price 6/-
 * 1953. Jack Flash is taking all the other characters on a trip to the Moon. Price 6/-
 * 1954. Biffo is hanging from a tree. Dennis is holding a lobster near his foot and a monkey is sawing the branch Biffo is hanging from. Price 6/-
 * 1955. A policeman is trying to stop Biffo and Dennis from fishing. Price 6/-
 * 1956. Biffo is acting as General Jumbo, with all the other characters as the radio-controlled army. Price 6/-
 * 1957. Dennis kicks a football which bounces off all the other characters and into a goal. Price 6/6
 * 1958. Biffo is doing a juggling act, and a swarm of bees (which have been released from their hive by Dennis) are flying towards him. Price 6/6
 * 1959. Dennis is playing leapfrog with Little Plum, and a goat is about to butt him. Price 6/6
 * 1960. Biffo is completing a jigsaw puzzle of the Bash Street Kids. Price 7/-
 * 1961. The comic's name is displayed in large letters, with pictures of Dennis, Danny, Wilfrid, Little Plum, Toots, Roger, Plug and Smiffy (who is upside down) on the top, and Jonah, Minnie, Biffo, Sidney, Fatty, Kat and the Bash Street Teacher (with Kanary on his nose) on the bottom. Price 7/6
 * 1962. Jonah (with a seagull perched on his head) is dancing on the mast of a sinking ship with an "SOS" flag on it, and his hat is on the word "BOOK", while two fish are looking at him with shocked faces. On the back cover, Jonah is wearing a vest and shorts while sitting on a giant turtle and playing a harmonica, and his clothes are on the mast like a flag as the turtle looks surprised. Price 7/6
 * 1963. The Bash Street Kids are sitting on a giant swing which is tied to the comic's name. Price 7/6
 * 1964. Biffo is holding up a barbell and Buster is tickling him with a feather, while Dennis, the Three Bears, Jonah, Minnie, Roger and the Bash Street Kids are watching them. On the back cover, Biffo drops the barbell on Buster's head. Price 7/6
 * 1965. Little Plum and Minnie the Minx are blowing up a giant balloon which is shaped like Biffo's head. On the back cover, a hedgehog passes them, and its spikes burst the balloon. Price 7/6

From 1966 all annuals were dated.


 * 1966. Biffo is spinning a drum with his feet. On the back cover, Biffo walks away while rolling the drum and says "Bye, Bye". Price 7/6
 * 1967. General Jumbo is controlling the other characters (Dennis, Biffo, Minnie, Roger, The Bash Street Kids, Lord Snooty and The Three Bears) with his radio control, and Danny from the Bash Street Kids is holding a balloon which has "1967" on it. Price 7/6
 * 1968. Biffo is wearing a crash helmet (which has "1968" on it), and Dennis, Minnie and Roger are throwing snowballs at him. Price 7/6
 * 1969. The Bash Street Kids are riding on the Iron Fish as it flies over their Teacher and Headmaster in their fishing boat. Price 7/6
 * 1970. Biffo is carrying a giant ice lolly which has the name of the book on it. Price 8/6
 * 1971. Biffo is holding a picture frame up as if he was a portrait. Price 9/6
 * 1972. Biffo is dressed as a lollipop man and holding a sign which has the name of the book on it, while Dennis, Minnie, Roger, the Bash Street Kids, Three Bears, Billy Whizz, Lord Snooty, Bash Street Pups, The Nibblers (chased by Winston) and Little Plum all rush past him. Price 50p
 * 1973. Biffo is holding a Dennis puppet with a club that has hit him on the head. Some (preproduction?) undated copies exist for this annual. Price 55p
 * 1974. Biffo is tossing pancakes while wearing a chef's hat. Two pancakes have landed on Dennis and Gnasher, and the Bash Street Kids are peering around the door. Price 55p
 * 1975. Dennis, Gnasher and the Bash Street Kids are playing in the snow. Price 60p
 * 1976. The Bash Street Kids are riding on a horse wearing cowboy hats. On the back cover, the horse runs away, which causes them to fall into a river. Price 70p
 * 1977. Dennis and Gnasher are jumping on a trampoline trying to get apples from a tree. Dennis's Dad is watching them angrily. Price 90p
 * 1978. The Bash Street Kids are bouncing across a farm on a spacehopper, which has Dennis's face. On the back cover, a cow's horns burst the spacehopper, which throws the kids off. Price £1
 * 1979. Dennis and Gnasher are rolling a giant snowball down a hill towards Lord Snooty, Biffo, Buster, Little Plum, Minnie, Wilfrid, Danny and Walter. On the back cover, the snowball gets sliced in half by a tree, which Dennis runs into. Price £1.15
 * 1980. Dennis is about to score a goal. Gnasher is growling at the Bash Street Kids, who are all on top of the goalpost. On the back cover, the Bash Street Kids' combined weight breaks the goalpost and they all fall onto Dennis. Price £1.25
 * 1981. Dennis is jumping onto a see-saw, which causes Gnasher to fly into the Cats' Home. On the back cover, one of the cats smacks him back over the fence with a fish. Price £1.40
 * 1982. Dennis is playing on the dodgems at a theme park. On the back cover, he drives his dodgem out of the fair and into a pond. Price £1.60
 * 1983. Dennis, Lord Snooty, Biffo, Buster, Little Plum, the Bash Street Pups, Grandpa, Billy Whizz, Ball Boy, and Tom, Dick & Sally are having their photo taken by the Beano Editor in the Beano Office. On the back cover, everybody (except Dennis) clears the room in terror when Gnasher jumps in through the window and lands on the Editor's desk. Price £1.80
 * 1984. Dennis and Gnasher are chasing some cats through the snow. On the back cover, one of the cats pushes a Dennis-like snowman's head onto Gnasher. Price £2
 * 1985. Dennis, Biffo, Walter and the Bash Street Kids are taking part in the Beano Marathon. On the back cover, Walter (who is being chased by Gnasher) surprisingly wins. Price £2.25
 * 1986. Dennis rides his bike over a river into an apple tree, while all the other characters cheer him on. Price £2.45
 * 1987. Dennis, Gnasher, Minnie, Danny, Plug, Billy Whizz and Ivy the Terrible are flying in a hot air balloon which has the name of the book on it. On the back cover, Dennis uses the anchor to snatch up a stall that is selling slippers (for "whacking"). Price £2.70
 * 1988. Dennis and Minnie are having a paintball fight in the snow. On the back cover, they use the paint to write "Dennis and Minnie were here". Price £2.85
 * 1989. Dennis is painting a picture of what appears to be Gnasher dressed as a Cavalier. On the back cover, Gnasher jumps out of the picture and bites the paintbrush Dennis is holding. Price £3.10
 * 1990. All the characters are dancing in a disco room with Dennis and Gnasher controlling the records. On the back cover, Gnasher flies spinning off the turntable. Price £3.25
 * 1991. All the characters are having a party with Dennis blowing a noisemaker in Gnasher's face. On the back cover, the party goes awry when Gnasher steals Dennis's ice cream cone. Price £3.55
 * 1992. All the characters are on a merry-go-round sitting on replicas of their pets - vice versa on the back cover. Price £3.80
 * 1993. All the characters are racing through the countryside in wheelie bins. On the back cover, Danny cuts the rope connecting Dennis's bin to the others, which causes him and Gnasher to crash-land in a ditch. Price £4.10
 * 1994. Dennis the Menace is walking through Beanotown and switches on his torch to find lots of "Beano Bugs" around him. Price £4.35
 * 1995. All the characters are racing on rafts down a river. On the back cover, Dennis and Gnasher's winning raft is revealed to have been pushed by a dolphin in a Menace jumper. Price £4.50
 * 1996. Dennis, Roger, Minnie and Danny are pushing down on Gnasher so he can spring up to the Softies' treehouse. Price £4.75
 * 1997. All the characters are inside a Dennis the Menace Chinese Dragon. On the back cover, Gnasher sees its face and jumps. Price £4.99
 * 1998. Dennis the Menace is sticking lots of pictures of the other characters on a wall. Dennis's Dad is hanging upside down and knocking on the window, and Ivy the Terrible has been pasted on the wall. Price £5.25
 * 1999. Dennis and Gnasher are giving each other "five" while various computer-generated pictures of all the other characters are present in the background. Price £5.45
 * 2000. Dennis, Gnasher and all the other characters are flying through space using special vehicles. Price £5.99
 * 2001. Dennis and Gnasher are driving their Menace Car through a computer-generated world, trying to escape from the weird Beano robots. Price £6.20
 * 2002. Lots of computer-generated pictures of the characters adorn the cover, with a massive hole in the centre where Dennis and Gnasher have driven through it with their old Menace Car. Price £6.25

The Beano Annual


 * 2003. All the characters are playing on a giant three-dimensional mechanical Gnasher. On the back cover, the mechanical Gnasher goes after a mechanical cat and all the characters fall off. Price £6.45
 * 2004. The first completely hand-drawn front cover picture since 1999, with a giant Loch Ness monster (whose face is very similar to Plug's) interfering with all the characters' relaxing swim up at "Loch Mess". Price £6.70
 * 2005. All the characters are bouncing on spacehoppers. Dennis's "spacehopper" is his pet pig, Rasher. On the back cover, Dennis and Rasher bang their heads on a tree's branch. Price £6.99
 * 2006. All the characters appear to be in a jungle. On the back cover, the "jungle" turns out to be Dennis's back garden. Price £7.10
 * 2007. All the characters are crammed on to the front cover. On the back cover, Dennis scares everybody else away by using his smelly socks. Price £7.25
 * 2008. Dennis is standing on top of a podium holding the "Menace of the Year" award, while Minnie has won second place and Danny has won third place. Everybody is cheering for them, except for the Softies. On the back cover, Dennis soaks the Softies with a bottle of pop and everybody else laughs. Price £7.50
 * 2009. Dennis's Dad is driving a float through Beanotown, which has a giant model of Dennis and Gnasher on the back. Price £7.99
 * 2010. Dennis, Gnasher and Minnie are practicing karate. On the back cover, the Softies are practicing "Soft Fu". Price £7.99
 * 2011. Dennis and Gnasher are bouncing on a trampoline (much like they were on the front of the 1977 annual), while Minnie, Gnipper, Roger, Walter, Danny and Billy Whizz watch them from below. Price £7.99
 * 2012. Dennis is riding on a Gnasher-themed snowboard, while Gnasher himself is laughing in the foreground. Price £7.99
 * 2013. All the characters are at the Beano's 75th birthday street party. On the back cover, the end of the table is visible. Price £7.99
 * 2014. All the characters are standing on top of an open-top double-decker bus which, again, has the number 75 on it. Price £7.99