Rare Beano book to go under the hammer
- Published
The rare annual is expected to fetch more than £1,200 at auction
A rare copy of the first Beano annual, published before the appearance of Dennis the Menace, is to be auctioned.
The 1940 Beano Book was issued around the outbreak of the World War Two in 1939.
It came a year after the weekly comic was first brought out by Dundee-based DC Thomson in July 1938.
The annual is expected to sell for between £1,200 and £1,500 when it goes under the hammer at an auction house in Norfolk later this month.
It is the first of 79 Beano annuals published to date and features comic strips, stories and illustrations - but does not include mischief-maker Dennis the Menace, who made his first appearance in 1951.
His pet dog Gnasher was introduced in 1968.
The annual was published in 1939, a year after Dundee-based DC Thomson put out the first weekly comic.
Robert Henshilwood, head of books for Keys Fine Art Auctioneers in Aylsham, said: "Beano is the archetypal kids' comic, and it has been published without a break for 80 years.
"It is very rare to see a copy of the first ever Beano Annual, especially in such good condition, and we are expecting a lot of interest from collectors from right across the UK and beyond."
He said the annual had a small print run.
It is one of a number of comics and children's books to be auctioned at the two-day book sale at Keys, which takes place on Thursday 30 August and Friday 31 August.
The Beano annual will be auctioned on the first day of the sale, which also includes a series of Rupert the Bear annuals dating from the 1930s onwards.
The first edition does not include the Beano's most famous character, Dennis the Menace, as he did not make his first appearance until 1951.
According to DC Thomson, the word Beano is a shortened version of bean feast, meaning a rowdy jollification.
The comic was reduced to 12 pages per fortnight during World War Two due to paper shortages, and after the conflict the Beano editor's name was discovered on a Nazi assassination list for "gross disrespect".