Biffo the Bear

Biffo the Bear
Beano strip
No image available
Current/last artist	Paul Palmer
First appearance	Issue 327 (24 January 1948)
Last appearance	2954
Regular characters	Biffo, Buster, Brian, Mary

Biffo the Bear is a fictional character who had his own comic strip in the British comic The Beano. Biffo is an anthropomorphic bear resembling Mickey Mouse who gained the front cover of the comic starting from issue 327, dated 24 January 1948, replacing Big Eggo. This page is reprinted in "The Dandy and The Beano: More From the First Fifty Years", the second of the Golden Years (later 60 Years) series. His human friend Buster appeared with him later in the 1950s. A story reprinted in Classics from the Comics in August 2008 was titled Biffo and Buster. This was a full page, from 1957. As Biffo was the cover star at the time, and Buster's name was never in the title, this must be from The Beano Book 1957, not an issue of the comic.

Dudley D. Watkins drew Biffo from the character's debut in 1948 to his sudden death on 20 August 1969, after which David Sutherland replaced him. He remained on the front cover until issue 1677, dated 7 September 1974. Dennis the Menace took over as from the following week, and Biffo was relegated to the inside pages. In the late 1970s, Sutherland stopped drawing Biffo, and the strip was taken over by Jimmy Glen.

Between 1976 and 1979 a spin-off of Biffo the Bear appeared in the newly revived Magic Comic. This spinoff starred Biffo's two nephews Cuddly and Dudley and often had guest appearances by Biffo himself.^[1] Biffo's nephew also often featured in Biffo's Beano comic stips as well.

His strip was retired in the 1980s (with his final appearance coming in issue no 2310, dated 25 October 1986), by which time it had been reduced to a single line of four pictures. However, the strip came back in 1989 with the title shortened to just 'Biffo'. The format had been revamped to three or four frames over a page with no speech, often depicting Biffo in fantastical, surreal situations. These strips were mostly drawn by Sid Burgon, though Trevor Metcalfe contributed a few stories as well, including in the Beano Book 1994. In the Beano Book 1999 Milly O'Naire(from Milly O'Naire and Penny Less, from the IPC Jackpot comic) made a guest appearance as well as her dad. This was probably because Sid Burgon had previously drawn that strip as well.

More recently Biffo was seen in a four-part special leading a group of retired characters, Pansy Potter, Keyhole Kate and Desert Island Dick, to return The Beano to an earlier form (specifically, the 1960s, the logo from that era was used in the story).

Since 2007, Biffo has been seen in few short strips in the Fun Size Beanos, but these are mainly reprints.

Biffo returned in The Beano 2007 Christmas special; he featured in 'The Riot Squad'. His next guest appearance was in the 70 Years Anniversary Beano, drawn by David Sutherland. As the issue was edited by Nick Park (creator of Wallace and Gromit), animals in the zoo could be seen that bore a close resemblance to that of his 1989 short film, Creature Comforts. Biffo also made an appearance in the 2010 Beano Annual, again drawn by Sutherland.

Biffo returned again in 2013 in the Funsize Funnies pages of the Beano. Initially drawn by Wayne Thompson, he returned the following year, now drawn by Paul Palmer.

References

↑ "Biffo the Bear". The Beano. Archived from the original on 21 March 2012. Retrieved 16 February 2012.

DC Thomson comics

Currently Running Comics	The Beano BeanoMAX Commando Fun Section in The Sunday Post

Adventure Comics	Adventure Bullet Buddy Champ Commando The Crunch The Hornet The Hotspur The Rover The Skipper Spike Starblazer The Vanguard The Victor Warlord The Wizard

Girls Comics	Bunty Judy Mandy Nikki

Humour Comics	The Beano BeanoMAX The Beezer Buzz Classics from the Comics Cracker The Dandy Fun Size Comics Hoot The Magic Comic Nutty Plug Sparky The Topper

Pre-School Comics	Bimbo The Magic Comic Twinkle

Notable Strips	Alf Tupper Baby Crockett Bananaman The Bash Street Kids Beryl the Peril Black Bob Biffo the Bear Big Eggo The Broons Calamity James Cuddles and Dimples Dennis the Menace Desperate Dan Ginger Gnasher Ivy the Terrible Jonah Keyhole Kate Korky the Cat Little Plum Lord Snooty Matt Braddock Mickey the Monkey Minnie the Minx Nero and Zero The Numskulls Pansy Potter Roger the Dodger Tricky Dicky Oor Wullie Willy Nilly Winker Watson Wilson the Wonder Athlete Wolf of Kabul

Comic annuals	The Beano Annual The Beezer Book The Bimbo Book The Dandy Annual The Hotspur Book for Boys The Sparky Book The Topper Book The Victor Book for Boys Warlord Book for Boys

Character annuals	Bananaman Annual The Bash Street Kids Annual Beryl the Peril Annual Black Bob Book The Broons Annual Dennis the Menace Annual The Desperate Dan Book Oor Wullie Annual

Notable Artists	Barrie Appleby Nigel Auchterlounie Leo Baxendale Gordon Bell Nick Brennan Paddy Brennan Sid Burgon Reg Carter Wilbur Dawbarn Karl Dixon The Etherington Brothers Hunt Emerson Andy Fanton John Geering Barry Glennard Charles Grigg Ken H. Harrison Laura Howell Diego Jourdan Malcolm Judge David Law Alexander Matthews Trevor Metcalfe Allan Morley David Mostyn Vic Neill Robert Nixon Gary Northfield Nigel Parkinson Tom Paterson Jim Petrie Ken Reid Bill Ritchie David Parkins Jon Rushby Jamie Smart Lew Stringer David Sutherland Kev F. Sutherland Dudley D. Watkins Stevie White

Notable Writers	Mike Chinn Gilbert Lawford Dalton Alan Grant Ian Gray R. D. Low Grant Morrison Tom Morton John Radford Cavan Scott John Smith

See Also	Beanotown Racing List of D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd publications List of Fleetway and IPC Comics publications List of Beano comic strips List of Dandy comic strips List of Beezer comic strips List of Beezer and Topper comic strips

The Beano

Current strips	Ball Boy Bananaman The Bash Street Kids Beaginnings Biffo the Bear Billy Whizz Calamity James Dennis the Menace Gnipper Les Pretend Little Plum Lord Snooty Minnie the Minx Number 13 Beano Street The Numskulls Pansy Potter Pup Parade Rasher Roger the Dodger Tom, Dick and Sally Tricky Dicky

Notable former strips	Baby Face Finlayson The Bash Street Kids - Singled Out Beaginnings The Belles of St. Lemons Big Eggo Billy the Cat Colin the Vet Colonel Crackpot's Circus Crazy for Daisy Danny's Nanny Derek the Sheep Fatty Fudge Freddie Fear Fred's Bed General Jumbo Gnasher's Bit(e) Gnasher's Tale Gnash Gnews Gordon Bennett Grandpa Hairy Dan Helpful Henry The Germs Ivy the Terrible Jack Flash Jimmy and his Magic Patch Joe Jitsu Joe King Johnny Bean from Happy Bunny Green Jonah Lord Snooty the Third The Magic Lollipops Maxy's Taxi The McTickles Meebo and Zuky Morgyn the Mighty The Nibblers Nicky Nutjob Olaff the Madlander Ping the Elastic Man Pirates of the Caribeano Ratz Robbie Rebel Richard the Lion Simply Smiffy Smudge Splodge Super School The Three Bears Tim Traveller Tin-Can Tommy Wee Ben Nevis Wee Peem Winnie the Witch Winston The Yeti with Betty Zap Zodiac

Supporting characters	Bea Gnasher Gnipper Soppy Susan Walter the Softy Foo Foo

See also	The Beano timeline Bash Street School Beanotown The Beano Annual Beano comic libraries BeanoMAX The Beano Summer Special List of Beano comic strips List of Beano comic strips by annual Beanotown Racing Dennis the Menace Annual The Magic Comic Fun Size Beano

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/14/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.