Handmade screen print on cotton paper.
Signed and numbered out of 200 in pencil by the printer, John Patrick Reynolds.
Standard size: 26cm x 19cm
Medium size: 48cm x 38cm
Large size: 76cm x 56cm
This four-colour screenprint of the very first Beano comic was printed to celebrate The Beano’s 70th anniversary. It is the first time the front page of The first Beano has been produced as a screenprint.
It was created from one of the very few – and extremely valuable – original copies of the first edition still in existence – and my thanks go to the owner for lending it.
The print has a 70th anniversary stamp on the back, to mark the fact that it was produced for the comic’s birthday.
I’m very pleased with the recreation of the colours which seem to be faithful to the original. These including the shade of green produced by laying a think layer of blue ink over an earlier layer of yellow and the dot patterns which represent the lake and the sand.
The Beano is of course also home to those other icons of British children's comic humour Dennis the Menace and Gnasher.
Incidentally, the word beano is apparently short for "bean-feast" and means a feast, a celebration and a good time.
This screenprint has been officially approved by DC Thomson. I am the first and only screenprinter with permission to use the images of Dennis The Menace and Gnasher in my work.
These are all original screenprints. An original print is a work of art printed by hand, from a plate, block, stone, or stencil (which is the case here - screenprints are made using screen stencils) that has been created by the artist for the purpose of producing the image.
© D.C. Thomson & Co., Ltd.