Fatty is no more

Today's entry doesn't exactly follow last weeks although it is pretty much related to it and the subject broke when it was published.

This character from the Beano is called Fatty which is his nickname and a good number of his mates in the Bash Street Kids cartoon strip set in school are also known by them such as Spotty and Plug.

We all knew a child who ate lots of crisps, cake and 'tuck' who was to be polite, well built with a big tummy. Some of us just about remember Billy Bunter!

This is a frame from the past where the children attempt to put on a Circus.

As you can see for yourself, Fatty is not called that in an insulting or offensive way.

Late Friday it was announced that following letters from children asking why Fatty is called that it was said he would no longer be know as Fatty but Freddy or Frederick if in trouble as they felt it would help avoid children calling fat boys Fatty.

It was also said he'd be drawn slimmer.

Thing is the entire Bash Street Kids strip is all based on stereotypes such as Plug who has facial disfigurements that mean he looks 'ugly' , Spotty has spots and we all know kids with spots do get call names such as Zit Face, Toot's is a tomboy and so on.

Everybody has a thing that marks them out in a group but they see past it even if they use nicknames in an affectionate way based around that between them working together to defeat the Teachers and teachers pet Cuthbert Cringworthy.

Every child has a value and is valued in the strip even Cuthbert, the posh swot.

Like it or not from time immemorial boys and girls have called each other names, not that it's right and no doubt still will even if the terms change. 

Calling Fatty, Freddie won't change it, people will be called a Freddy instead rather like other words were used to replace "spastic" as a insult for some of us back in the day.

While it's right for teachers, parents and others to call out name calling, you have to learn to be resilient to that that because at some point a person will call you names because you need to stand up for yourself as much as those that do need a strong talking to.

Drawing him slimmer doesn't do anything to address the fact that big even clinically obese boys and girls do exist and probably will be called names or not invited to things such as parties and sleep overs.

It's just pretending big children do not exist in your class and that can lead to these things and why shouldn't they be shown in  cartoon?

To me this is just unnecessary meddling in the actual premise of the cartoon strip which was positive about difference without any in your face agendas just to please people into remaking the world to fit their ideals rather than kids just having fun reading cartoons that relate to world as it is, warts and all.

The Dandy and Beano Summer Specials 2021

This week is an important week in that it is the one which D C Thomson publish what was the one of the highlights of the year for many of us.

As regulars know we no longer have the Dandy as a regular 52 week comic since the end of the print run in 2012 and the demise of the digital edition in 2013 so we have an annual in time for Christmas and interestingly enough, a Summer Special.

That means unlike it's stablemate, the Beano it inhabits the same world we remember, more or less as any comic does with those characters we grew up with and a few newer ones added for newcomers and to a larger extent, it keeps the same feel and theme.

Like last years edition this carefully treads a path of reprints from summer specials of the past and new carefully drawn and conceived new stories featuring our favourites, that gives an idea of how a regular dandy might of been drawn by the top comic artists of our time.

They were the things we looked forward to reading across our summer hols, from cover to cover which helped keep us entertained during what seems like a long time playing with our mates.

For the age dysphoric ten your old me this is just great because it's not some much a step back in time as stepping in your time with the new stories being a little more in tune with today but still the same world which the Beano Summer Special this year isn't because it's very of today's world for children who've only know that world.

This is this years Beano Summer Special looking very much like a regular edition but themed as a " Summer Activity Special" so it will have quizzes, find the missing words and things to colour alongside the totally themed storyline that features all the current inhabitants of Beanotown in one great summer adventure that runs seamlessly rather than separate comic strips per page.

It will have the ever popular stickers and jokes too which usually have me in stitches whenever I read them as a regular reader of the normal weekly edition.

If you can't find both in the shops which it should be from May 19th, you can order online via D C Thomson's shop 

Sons and Mothers

 

This week in the United States and several other countries the weekend saw Mothers Day marked whereas over here we mix that in to Mothering Sunday which is part of the Anglican calendar and mark it in March.

This said that poem did seem to me to summarize rather well how many of us as boys reflect upon our mothers time with us and what it means. 

This delightful family picture of John Lennon from the deluxe 2 lp edition of his Plastic Ono Band  album to me is also apt as he famously lost his mother at an early age and was brought up by his Aunt Mimi.

While he's clearly enjoying playing with his dog, looking at his face one can almost sense of loss and how that shaped him.

To read some of his lyrics is to gain not just a sense of his loss, something that sadly a fair few boys and girls go through but standing back to reflect on what it is you yourself gained because that relationship is a extremely important one.

That's why it's important to mark the contribution of Mothers.

Back in time to Boys Comics

 

It's been a strange week when I went to vote yesterday looking every inch the eternal boy I am while reading comics and annuals as for most of the week it hasn't been good to be out with gale force winds as if we were back in the era I could of any of these boys having fun, getting to grips with the Kodak Disc System camera, taking a memory.

I've sometimes posted around them on here but comics were massive then, front and centre with many of us when it came to indoor things to do apart from watching children's tv and playing a record or tape so there lots of attempts to grab a bit of that big market.

This was a 'also run' comic in the promotional ad from February 7th 1976 where rather than scrolling your smartphone for something to do you'd of picked up a comic and this one was really aimed at older boys who wanted something a bit more cooler, sophisticated with a bit more edge but still just for children.

This was very much for my age range 10-14  with sports stories mixed in with adventure, crime and some free gifts, hardly the sort of thing Walter and the softies would of bought (tossing in comic reference).

Hookjaw was something you could get your teeth into, but tie-in's showed with the link to Magnum P.I. and soccer cards to collect cos we did that which showed the way towards the modern trend of bundling things just as other kinds of cards such as Top Trumps were coming out that we played in the dorm and on school hols.

This isn't a comic but was pretty big too a #1 single in Feb 1976 by the Scottish band Slik that featured a teen Midge Ure who adopted a more preppy sports baseball jacket look.

The trouble was Action couldn't battle it out with the big names in comics targeted more towards us like Valliant, Warlord which I read religiously devouring wars stories and facts back then, Tiger and Roy of the Rovers.

By 19 November 1977 it was 'folded' to use the expression the comic publishers use into Battle which was their answer to Warlord which ought to ticked most bases being right up the alley of more "Boys will be boys" sorts like I was then other than we were committed to the likes of Warlord which from 1974 had grabbed us tying in with our war based play, interest in aircraft, tanks, ships and weapons and  and love of Action Man .

Given we often had at least two offerings, The Beano that was shared with my younger brother, The Dandy Nan bought for me every week and Roy of the Rovers I bought with my allowance that provided different focuses (not for nothing did the storylines in Roy of the Rovers get much support going on to be loved in the game too) we were not likely to switch to it in an instant.

Getting in early and hooking the readers was the way to build up a committed readership and Battle-Action was too late even if had it of come out in 74/75 many of us would of taken to it.

This wasn't the only should of been a winner that missed it'd target though.

It's the early 1980's, things are a bit more sophisticated with animated action cartoons on tv, more electronic games, videos to watch and buy your very own were now a thing and someone decided we needed a new comic.

The focus of this comic was school and yes any of us around in that era know the fun we had in school, the brushes with authority we had and the extent to which we shared jokes and stories about just what happened that afternoon.

It did run long enough to garner a few Summer Specials as comics remained in basic newsprint unlike magazines such as Look-In which used glossy paper the specials being the delux edition to get us through the summer hols also had full colour glossy treatment.

One idea they had was to ask well know people we followed to write about their school days so Keith Chegwin was romantically linked to Tomorrow's World presenter Maggie Philbin otherwise known as "Cheggers" as we all called him who presented many shows on the BBC wrote one such piece what wasn't far removed what many experiences were like.

One feature it had was you could actually nominate people in it for a whacking which would then be illustrated in single comic frame which is fair reflection of the world we lived in then when we'd feel a  sense of  Schadenfreude when another got their comeuppance and needless to say others felt that of ourselves too as we had to wait to be punished in those pre 1987 days at school.

It was a different time with different expectations and norms back them

Around the seventies and eighties, I did by from jumble sales older books aimed at boys which in its own way is something you wouldn't get today either as people see them as collectables with BIG prices but we paid often less than a pound for then as they were seen as old and outmoded for children of the era rather than grown up collectables.

It was around the point I was going through my first and very strong experiences of Age Dysphoria, the sense of still being an younger age than your birth date and the tension between how you felt and how people saw and treated you.

Looking back on it, I was looking for the type stories and adventures I loved as that young boy finding nothing much in young adult fiction and teen life that really connected with me.