It comes ahead of The Southbank Centre Festival of Neighbourhood,in association with MasterCard, which will feature ‘Beanotown’ — the home of Dennis the Menace and Co — amongst its many attractions.
The exclusive pull-out comic by Creator of The Beano, DC Thomson, features Dennis the Menace, Gnasher, and the rest of the gang arriving in London in search of something exciting to do, with predictably menacing results. Through their exploits, the comic humorously informs Londoners about The Southbank Centre Festival of Neighbourhood, where people can experience multi-art form celebrations of local, national and international neighbourhoods.
As part of the festival, ‘Beanotown’ — the home of Dennis the Menace and Gnasher, The Bash Street Kids, Minnie the Minx, Roger the Dodger, plus all the other comic strip superstars from The Beano — is, for the first time ever being bought to colourful life, to delight adults and children alike.
From 4 May to 8 September, the festival will take over the whole of Southbank Centre’s 21-acre site. It will feature specially created indoor and outdoor artworks such as ‘The Appearing Rooms Fountain’ by Danish artist Jeppe Hein, a newly created beach and exciting activities such as parkour.
Tim Arthur, Editor, Time Out comments: “Time Out is excited to be the partner of choice for the exclusive The Beano comic pull-out as it celebrates 75 years. As well as the iconic comic, this one-off Time Out magazine will include exciting editorial, including a blog of how the comic is made. I have even allowed Dennis to take over my editor’s letter slot!”
The Beano’s Editor Craig Graham said: “We are delighted to have brought Beanotown to London’s South Bank. We’ve had a hoot working with Wayne Hemingway and Southbank Centre on this celebratory 75 year anniversary project and hope that visitors enjoy all that Beanotown has to offer. The Beano team have had a great time working with MasterCard on this special edition and we hope the readers of Time Out enjoy it and, of course, go and visit Beanotown at Southbank Centre!”
Jude Kelly, Artistic Director at Southbank Centre says: “We are delighted to continue our relationship with The Beano, and this year we threw a gauntlet to Dennis, a character of eternal youth, and dared him and his community to take part in our Festival of Neighbourhood. We’re particularly grateful to Time Out for embracing the festival so enthusiastically, and I would also like to thank MasterCard for their generous support.”
Paul Trueman, Head of Marketing, MasterCard UK & Ireland comments: “Our partnership with Time Out magazine goes from strength to strength this week with a unique way of rediscovering and celebrating a comic of old. The pull-out will be a prized possession for those people who are familiar with the long standing The Beano comic book and the fun does not stop there, with the chance for Londoners to enjoy Southbank Centre Festival of Neighbourhood which includes an exclusive Beanotown Priceless night.”
The pull-out is available in the 11th June Time Out edition and Londoners can register and enter the ballot to the exclusive Beanotown Priceless night on 2nd July at www.pricelesslondon.co.uk. Londoners have until 17th June to enter the ballot.
