Leo Baxendale drops me a line to say that the weekend’s Telegraph carried an article by him to mark the occassion of the Beano’s 70th birthday. Leo recalls an excited classmate at school showing him the first ever Beano, although he himself was not overly excited by it, which is, of course, somewhat ironic given that he would go on to become one of the most famous British cartoonists and create a number of characters for the Beano which are still going, still being enjoyed by kids to this day, all of which differ from one another but all of which share Leo’s delight in the comedic possibilities of the Absurd.
(the brilliant Bash Street Kids, created by Leo Baxendale and still amusing kids – both young and ‘big kids’ alike – today)
“The worlds of Little Plum, Minnie the Minx and the Bash Street Kids all differed from each other, but they were all built on a bedrock that offered rich pickings for producing comedy. Disasters could happen for no apparent reason, but more often, the crises and “marmalizings” had been set in train unwittingly by the ambitions, desires and actions of the characters themselves.
Yet these were not worlds of conformity, of certainty, but of complexity, change and sudden gusts of wind. Perhaps that was the secret of their success. I knew that the drawings would be printed by the million, but was also aware that for each child their Beano was particular to them: to read, to pore over, to absorb, to return to again and again. Holding our work in their hands, they knew that we were intent on making something that mattered, something that came to life.”
(Leo’s Little Plum)
Leo goes on to note that even as his Beano creations were becoming huge successes changes in the media – then mostly more television, now wall-to-wall multimedia – were already changing things (or does the media reflect changes already happening in society? Or is it a bit of both…) and notes sadly modern headlines of increasing violence, kids carrying knives or shootings in schools (as he notes he had the Bash Street kids running around with stolen army equipment shooting up the school, but no-one was injured, it was comedy, it was innocent, in a way that it couldn’t be today after a slew of disturbing news stories). And yet Leo doesn’t seem to despair, still seeing humour, that most wonderful gift, as a saving grace: “Yet I can take comfort from the generations that read the Beano, and learnt from its pages that while we live in a world of uncertainty and ugliness, we can still, like Plug, be radiant beings – and find, as he did, the wit and the spirit to survive. ” Humour – it has to be one of the best armours we have against the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Thank goodness we’ve had people like Leo to put a smile on our collective faces.
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