- Biffo the Bear
Biffo the Bear was a
fictional character who had his owncomic strip in the UK comic "The Beano ". Biffo was an anthropomorphic bear who gained the front cover of the comic starting from issue 327, datedJanuary 24 1948 , replacingBig 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 a few years 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.He remained on the front cover until issue 1677, dated
September 7 1974 , by which timeDavid Sutherland had taken over fromDudley D. Watkins . Dennis the Menace took over as from the following week.Retired in the early 1980s, by which time it had been reduced to a single line of four pictures, the strip came back in 1993 as 'Biffo' and the format had changed to three or four frames over a page with no words, just pictures drawn by
Sid Burgon . More recently Biffo was seen in a four-part special leading a group of retired characters,Pansy Potter ,Keyhole Kate andDesert Island Dick , to returnThe Beano to an earlier form (specifically, the 1960s, the logo from that era was used in the story). More recently, in 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'. Biffo the Bear made a guest appearance in the 70 years Beano drawn by David Sutherland.External links
* [http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/exh_gfx_en/ART23449.html A Century Of Comic Capers For Kids At Dewsbury Museum] - includes a low-resolution scan of a Biffo the Bear comic strip on the front of Beano comic from 1956
* [http://www.militantesthetix.co.uk/punk/Comic%20Marxism.htm Comic Marxism] - scans of a Biffo the Bear comic strip appear about two-thirds of the way down the page
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