Euan Kerr

The Beano
The current logo
Publication information
Publisher	D. C. Thomson & Co.
Schedule	Weekly* (*some issues are out longer than a week)
Format	Comics anthology
Genre	Children's humour
Publication date	30 July 1938 to present
No. of issues	3,828 (as of 26 March 2016)
Main character(s)	Dennis the Menace and Gnasher Minnie the Minx The Bash Street Kids Roger the Dodger Billy Whizz Ball Boy The Numskulls
Creative team
Artist(s)	Nigel Parkinson

The Beano is the longest running British children's comic, published by DC Thomson. The comic first appeared on 30 July 1938, and was published weekly. In September 2009, The Beano's 3,500th issue was published. One of the best selling comics in British popular culture, along with The Dandy, the weekly circulation of The Beano in April 1950 was 1,974,072.The Beano is currently edited by Craig Graham. Each issue is published on a Wednesday, with the issue date being that of the following Saturday.

Its characters include Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx, The Bash Street Kids, The Numskulls, Roger the Dodger, Billy Whizz and Ball Boy. Earlier characters who have been phased out include Ivy the Terrible, Calamity James, The Three Bears and Pansy Potter. Some old characters, like Biffo the Bear, Lord Snooty, Baby Face Finlayson and Little Plum, have more recently made a return as "funsize" quarter-page strips.

The style of Beano humour has shifted noticeably over the years, though the longstanding tradition of anarchic humour has remained. For decades strips have appeared to glorify immoral behaviour, e.g. bullying (Dennis the Menace), dishonesty (Roger the Dodger) and even robbery (Baby Face Finlayson and The Three Bears). Although the readers' sympathies are assumed to be with the miscreants, the latter are very often shown punished for their actions. Recent years have seen a rise in humour involving gross bodily functions, especially flatulence (which would have been taboo in children's comics prior to the 1990s), while depictions of corporal punishment have declined. For example, the literal slipper (Dennis the Menace's father's instrument of chastisement) has become the name of the local chief of police (Sergeant Slipper).