The Bash Street Kids

The Bash Street Kids is an ongoing comic strip featuring in the British comic The Beano. The strip was created by Leo Baxendale under the title When the Bell Rings, and first appeared in The Beano in issue 604, dated 13 February 1954. It became The Bash Street Kids in 1956 and since then, it has become a regular in the comic, featuring in every issue. Since 1961 David Sutherland has drawn the strip, and has drawn roughly 2100 strips.

Strip History

Creation & Concept

Like many long-running UK comic strips, The Bash Street Kids is anachronistically frozen in the era in which it began. It portrays Class 2B of Bash Street School, Beanotown, where the teacher and headmaster still wear mortar boards and gowns and pupils sit at wooden desks with inkwells. They are taught by a stereotypical teacher, who is known as Teacher (his wife is called Mrs Teacher). The characters were inspired by the view from the D. C. Thomson & Co. office windows, overlooking the playground at the High School of Dundee. Leo Baxendale remarks: "In fact, the catalyst for my creation of Bash Street was a Giles cartoon of January 1953: kids pouring out of school, heads flying off and sundry mayhems. Straight away, I pencilled a drawing of 'The Kids of Bash Street School' and posted it from my home in Preston to R. D. Low, the managing editor of D.C. Thomson's children's publications in Dundee. I received an offhand response, a dampener. It was only after I'd created Little Plum (April 1953) and Minnie the Minx (September 1953) that the Beano editor George Moonie travelled to Preston on 20 October 1953 and asked me to go ahead with Bash Street (he gave it the provisional title of 'When The Bell Goes'; when it appeared in The Beano in February 1954, it was titled 'When The Bell Rings')." As time wore on, Bash Street School's wide range of pupils slowly shrank to the trademark ten it is now famous for.

Politically Correct Make Over Controversy

In 1994 (The Kids' 40th Anniversary), it was revealed that The Bash Street Kids would go through a major revamp in order to appeal to a more politically correct and modern audience. Major changes included Danny's trademark school hat to be replaced by a top hat, Fatty to become fit and muscular and Tom-boy Toots to act more feminine. The school itself was to be replaced by a technologically advanced 'academy' and teacher was to be sacked in favour of a robot. A public outrage was sounded with petitions and publicity stunts coming from all over Britain to return the characters make to their old selves. However, all proved to be a public hoax when the story introducing the new and improved Bash Street Kids saw them evidentally return to their old ways. The then editor Eaun Kerr was estatic by the fan reception citing the publication 'even got death threats!'.^[1]

In fact, the story was so widely received an animated adaption was produced not long after featuring as a segment in the STV film The Beano Video Stars.

Feature Length Strips

By 2000, The Bash Street Kids had reached such a heightened popularity they were all featured in feature length strips taking up a whole Beano comic. These were often drawn by Mike Pearce and Kev F. Sutherland though in the late 00's they were moved into the comic's sister publication BeanoMAX where they were drawn by Nigel Parkinson.

These feature length strips allowed more detail and depth to go into each character's personality, introducing traits from characters who rarely had speaking lines. For example, Spotty was revealed to be a rather sarcastic and aggressive pupil, as well as Plug to be the more sympathetic and arguably most emotionally prone member. The strips also detailed a more intense rivalry between the kids and the comic's cover star Dennis the Menace.

Characters in the strip

The strip centres around Class 2B, which contains ten pupils:

• Danny - The leader, with the soul of a pirate. Wears a skull and crossbones sweater which his grandma knitted for him and a floppy red school cap, which indicates his rebellious nature. He is quite crafty, with a unique intelligence. He was appointed leader very early on in the strip, after he gave each kid a wine gum. He is one of the central characters in The Beano Interactive DVD alongside Dennis, Gnasher, Minnie the Minx and Roger the Dodger. His real name has been revealed in The Wizard to be Daniel Deathshead Morgan.^[2] Singled Out has called him 'Deathshead' in the title header recently.

• Erbert - A short-sighted boy who struggles to see, even with his spectacles. The rest of the class (excluding Cuthbert) have great fun swapping his thick-rimmed spectacles for others in the class and watching the resultant mayhem. In older strips the character is sometimes referred to as Herbert instead of Erbert. 'Erbert is sometimes considered to be the 'least' mischievous student^[3] and is often referred to as being like a human mole.^[4]

• Fatty - A fat boy who can never stop eating. Being called Fatty does not bother him - in fact, he likes it. It is only in the later strips that Fatty has been made fun of for his weight, to which he usually just reacts in trying to prove the others wrong. According to the wizard comic his surname was Brown^[2]

• Plug - A hideously ugly pupil who uses his face defensively; he is so ugly that when he pulls a face, he becomes handsome. He has an impish sense of humour. His name derives from the term plug-ugly. He later appeared in his own comic, called simply Plug (1977–1979), which starred him and his two pets, Pug from Pup Parade and Chunkee the Monkey.^[5] This strip was later incorporated into The Beezer comic. Plug's "real name" was revealed as "Percival Proudfoot Plugsey" on the cover of Plug. This name is only occasionally referenced to in the Beano most recently in Singled Out, he was addressed by his full name by Teacher.^[6] Plug was originally known as Pug. The Beano claims the "l" was added when classmate Smiffy had one to spare, having mis-spelt "silly".^[7] Plug has been shown to have two sisters named Plugella and Plugena^[8] who look just like him but wearing women's clothes. In the longer Bash Street Kids Adventures stories drawn by Kev F. Sutherland, Plug is softer than the other Bash Street Kids in being the only one with a girlfriend.^[9]

• Sidney - Toots' twin brother and the keeper of a zoo's worth of animals. He wishes to become a vet when he grows older, because he knows more about animals than anything else. Sidney has spiky hair resembling a chimney sweep's brush in which he takes pride.

• Smiffy - The naive, somewhat stupid pupil who often confuses genders and nouns. For example, when Teacher calls the register and he is supposed to say 'Present, sir', he says 'Gift, miss' instead. He can sometimes be very kind and aware of things on an emotional level, similar to an idiot savant, but most of the time he cannot remember what colour the sky is. In his brief involvement in The Wizard, he was given the name 'John Smith'.^[2]In 1985^[10] Smiffy has appeared in two spin-off strips the first called Says Smiffy, which ran from 1971-1972, and the second called Simply Smiffy, which ran from 1985-1987, where he starred alongside his brother Normal Norman. In 2008Smiffy gained a pet pebble called Kevin, this character even had his own feature in the Beano issue 3604 entitled Where's Kevin. It first appeared in a Singled Out story in 2008 and also in a Bash Street Kids story in 2010. He has appeared far more in 2011.

• Spotty - Originally called Jasper, a short character who is often compared to a Christmas pudding. He is proud and protective of the multitudinous black spots that cover his face; any attempts to remove them are chased off. He is quite handy when he wants to be, with his attire (his extraordinarily long tie) often helping the kids out of tough situations. In the 1981 Beano Book, it was revealed that Spotty has 976 spots.^[11] He is often sarcastic and insulting towards his peers.

• Toots - Sidney's twin sister, the only girl in the class and the youngest. A tomboy who can be as bossy as Danny when she wants to be, but has more of a heart than any of her friends. She is very tough and the boys have no problem letting her join in their games. Loves music and can often be seen with a "boogie box" (a CD-player) towing behind her or listening to headphones rather than teacher. In a recent issue, Toots claims she fancies Dennis the Menace and fires a Valentines card at him, using a toy rocket;^[12] this strip was drawn by Nigel Parkinson. A recent strip has shown all the boys (except obviously Sidney) hoping to dance with her or get a Valentine's card from her, only for her to choose Winston the cat instead.

• Wilfrid - A thoughtful, introspective boy, whose thoughts are hidden behind the depth of the green jumper that goes all the way up to his nose. He resembles a tortoise and has a mystery concerning his neck, which is never seen: whenever he takes off his jumper, all we see is a vest as high up as his jumper. However below his jumper has been revealed but his neck was covered by Wilfirds huge chin.^[13]

• Cuthbert Cringeworthy - The brightest child in the class, and a teachers' pet who tends to be bossy, rude, spoilt and ostracised by the others. He has a name for every letter of the alphabet. First appearing in 1972, he looks quite like Teacher in miniature (a play on the DC Thomson comics' tradition that pets look like their owners — e.g. Dennis the Menace and Gnasher — and his status as teachers' pet) and Walter the Softy of the Dennis the Menace strip. Danny's first comment on Cuthbert was 'He reminds me of someone I don't particularly like'. Cuthbert's character appears to have changed slightly in recent years; he is still seen as a swot and is still as bright as ever, but (particularly in longer strips by the likes of Mike Pearse and Kev F. Sutherland) he is sometimes shown to be 'one of the gang' and occasionally appears as part of the Kids' 'team' (contrary to earlier strips where he never seemed to like the other kids), sometimes coming up with intelligent plans to aid their cause or save the school. It should be noted that Cuthbert does not appear in all the strips; he appears in fewer strips than any other pupil.

• An eleventh pupil, Wayne was introduced following a competition held by BBC's Blue Peter to find a new Bash Street Kid.^[14] The winning entry was announced on March 14, 2007 and revealed to be "Wayne's 'in' pain". Wayne has fat, puffy cheeks, hair like a dandelion and a problem with standing. He is also said to be very talkative. He constantly wears a plaster cast and sling and is supposed to suffer comical misfortunes like Calamity James. Wayne has never been in a Singled Out story or any of Kev F Sutherland's Bash Street Kids' Adventures stories. So far, however, his lack of involvement since his inception has been widely noted. After a year, Wayne disappeared. Cuthbert and Wayne have only appeared three times in the same strip, including two in the 2009 Beano annual. However, these had probably been drawn when Wayne was appearing in the weekly comic and so it was probably his last appearance.

Other characters of the strip include:

• Teacher - Class 2B's long-suffering teacher, who is called 'Teacher' in the strip. However, his name was revealed to be Algernon in a 1970's summer special.^[15] He always wears a mortar board and has a domineering wife, 'Mrs Teacher'.

• Headmaster (Headward Headington-Hail/Chocilus Bicius) - The pompous and portly school headmaster. He is very fond of tea and biscuits, and permanently wears his academic gown and mortar board. Teacher spends much of his career toadying to Head.

• Janitor - The school's fat caretaker. He hates litter and pupils who break the rules. He enjoys bossing Winston about, but is lazy himself.

• Winston - The school's cat. Anthropomorphic, he is often seen mopping the floor alongside Janitor. Winston is crafty and often concocts his own schemes when Janitor frustrates him. He is always seen wearing the same hat as Janitor.

• Olive - The school cook (and Beano office tea lady), who first appeared in the strip in 1981. Everyone hates her food, as the ingredients for it include items such as old books.^[16] On the other hand, she has a high opinion of her cuisine, which is a constant source of worry to the school's pupils and staff. Due to the inedible and frequently disgusting meals she serves, industrial-sized boxes of indigestion remedies have occasionally been seen on the canteen tables. However, in a recent edition, she bought the best quality food from a market and raced off to her kitchen to put it in the freezer to keep it fresh; but she accidentally lost control of her bike on the way and was spinning for 23 days, so when she got to her kitchen, she had rotten food and was too dizzy to put the food in the right bowls. As her disastrous cooking had an explanation, she was forgiven.

• Mrs Teacher - Teacher's overbearing wife, who bears an uncanny resemblance to him, and is almost always shown to be very assertive, bossing Teacher around while he is at home and yelling at the Kids during a memorable strip, wherein she took over the class as a supply teacher. In another issue, she was seen injuring the pupils in a break-dancing competition, because they had injured her husband.

• Techno - A science teacher who appeared in the strip during the mid-1990s and was actually a robot in the form of the cartoon Inspector Gadget with gadgets around his body. Techno proved so popular that he was awarded his own strip for a limited run and appeared in The Beano Book of Amazing Facts. He returns in the Bash Street Kids Annual 2008.

• The Blob Street Kids - A group of schoolchildren from a nearby school, who became rivals of the Bash Street Kids. Each member of the Bash Street Kids has a direct rival from the Blob Street Kids. A similar sort of rivalry is seen in The Bash Street Pups.

• The Posh Street Kids - A group of rival schoolchildren from a school much posher than Bash Street.^[17]

Some characters are named after their occupation: Teacher and Head, for example. This is typical of eccentric British humour and even borders on surrealism. Teacher's wife is called Mrs Teacher, the headmaster's brother's name is Mr Headsbrother and the children's parents (who look almost exactly the same as their children) are called Plug's Dad and such, even in flashbacks when they are themselves children.

In the earlier years, it was not clear how many pupils there were. The maximum ever was 17, including:

• Teddy - A stereotypical teddy boy who appeared mainly in the 50's.
• Ella - One of only two girls (the other is Toots).
• Jimmy - A boy who looks like Smiffy, but wears a cap.
• Gasbag - A curly haired boy.^[18]

The same characters also appeared in one-page stories (not comic strips) in The Wizard in 1955, entitled "Bash St. School" and featured in the full-page cover cartoon on 23/7/1955.

Artists

Leo Baxendale drew it until 1962, when David Sutherland replaced him, initially using a similar drawing style to Baxendale, but simplifying it later in the decade. Sutherland has drawn the majority of the strips since then, except for a period from 1998 to 2000, when Nigel Parkinson took over the strip, drawing it in a style similar to how David Parkins was drawing Dennis the Menace by that point (the strips have had closely connected visual styles since the early 1970s, when Sutherland started drawing them both). At the time it appeared that Sutherland was heading towards semi-retirement, but Parkinson moved over to drawing Dennis the Menace in 2000, and Sutherland returned as artist.

The strip has also had a number of ghost artists through its lifetime, including Gordon Bell in the early 1970s, John Sherwood later on in the 1970s, Keith Reynolds in the 1980s and Tom Paterson in the early 1990s. In recent years, Mike Pearse and Kev F. Sutherland (no relation to David Sutherland) have also occasionally drawn the strip, particularly in long stories.

Other appearances and spin-offs

The strip has had various spin-offs over the years, including Pup Parade, Simply Smiffy, Plug, and Singled Out. The Bash Street Kids Annual was originally published bi-annually (as The Bash Street Kids Book in those days) but is now out every August and summer specials also used to be printed annually during the 1990s. These featured solo stories for the kids and are therefore a forerunner to the Singled Out strip. Most of these strips were drawn Tom Paterson, who later drew the Singled Out strip itself.

Between 1968 and 1972, The Beano ran a similar series entitled The Belles of St. Lemons, which featured many similarities to The Bash Street Kids.

The Dandy has run two similar series firstly Whacko a strip about a teacher who always taught in a suit of armour and taught very unruly kids who always attempted to beat up their teacher but ended up being caned repeatedly which ran in the 1970s. Secondly between 1998 and 2000 a strip entitled P5, which also featured a class of schoolchildren and their long-suffering teacher. P5 was reprinted in 2006 under the title of Class Act.

In Other Media

Video

• The Bash Street Kids appear in two segments of 'The Beano Video' released in the late '90s. In the first, a new music teacher is hired for the school. After attempting and failing to teach the kids, he resolves in simply listening to Winston the Janitor's Cat's warbling citing it 'music to his ears' after listening to The Bash Street Kids singing. The next segment involves the head master's attempt to make Plug handsome after his hideous looks have become a major ridicule of the school. He sends Teacher and the kids off to the Himalayas where the meet a group of Monks. After stopping for a horrible dinner than making up for it in a expensive Burger place, they finally find 'the keeper' whom claims can make anyone beautiful provided they bathe in his lake. However, instead of bathing Plug, the monk pushes the other kids into the lake. Here, they all begin to morph into plug-like creatures. It is then revealed that the monk also looked like Plug and claimed that the entire class needed a makeover 'accept Plug, of course'. The last segment features Spotty accidentally falling into a pot of Olive the cook's pea soup. Incedentally, this causes him to look like an extra-terrestrial giving Danny an idea for a prank. They fool teacher into believing that Spotty is an alien and a rubbish bin outside is his space ship. All goes array, however, when Teacher finds out he has been tricked and punishes the pupils by making them stay behind after school and paint the class room ceiling.

• The Bash Street Kids make yet another appearence in The Beano Video-Stars, however, their only segment is one based from their controversial make over in 1994. They do, however, feature in two songs during the film such as 'The Beano Rap' and the finale song of their segment 'We're the kids from Bash Street School...'

Theme Parks

• Before Beanoland was turned to Wild Asia in the UK theme park Chessington World of Adventures, The Bash Street Kids had their own ride 'The Bash Street Bus'.^[19] They were also featured in the theming of the water balloon segment of the park, as well as images and standees posted around in various places.

Video Games

• Only Plug makes an appearence as a playable character in the PCgame Beanotown Racing, driving a rubbish bin themed cart. However, Bash Street School does feature as a race track.

Toys and Games

• Robert Harrop has designed various figures based on the Bash Street Kids comic strips, as well as statues and ornaments. There was also a target practice game featuring the characters, as well as a Mcdonalds happy meal toys featuring a number of the Bash Street Kids.

References