Home of Dennis, Gnasher, Minnie, the Bash Street Kids and many more, the Beano comic has been entertaining generations of children since 1938. This summer, we celebrate our 85th birthday and there’s never been a better time to grab an issue!

Here’s 10 awesome reasons why Beano is good for you, like carrots or a crunchy apple!

1. Beano is available every week!

Beano has been a kid’s favourite for 85 years and is available in all good newsagents and supermarkets around the UK. A fresh issue comes from the Beano HQ, piping hot and ready to devour every Wednesday! If you subscribe to the comic, it’ll come through your letterbox – sometimes a couple of days before anyone else! You can check out what’s in the latest issue here.

2. The comic is packed with your favourite characters!

Beano is full of amazing stories and awesome characters, like Dennis and Gnasher, Minnie, Bananaman, Roger the Dodger, Harsha and many more. There’s never a dull moment in Beanotown, it seems!

3. The jokes are hilarious!

Thanks to the Beano team’s squad of brilliant writers and cartoonists, every joke hits like a well-struck free kick! They’re peppered throughout each story, and they’re even printed along the bottom of the pages and there’s a dedicated joke page. This means there’s plenty to memorise and tell your friends and family like professional comedian!

4. Beano is great for your imagination!

By relaxing with your favourite comic every week, you’re transported to a different world – in this case, Beanotown – and it’s like you’re inside each character’s life. It’s not hard to let your mind drift and make up your own stories involving your favourites!

5. Beano gets you into the good habit of reading regularly!

Reading is a magical thing and the more you do it, the easier it becomes. Many of the adults in your life will have have grown up reading Beano – it’s just a fact – and became a habit which they’ve carried through their life. You’ll learn new words, story structures and even technical stuff like grammar without even realising. We’re sneaky like that.

6. It gets you off your screen!

Sure, screen time is fun and a privilege earned through doing chores for your grown ups. Right? Just checking. And while it’s fun to play stuff like Minecraft, watching your favourite YouTubers or taking quizzes and playing games on Beano.com, it’s good practice to put them down for a while and give your eyes a rest from those pixels. Beano comic is the perfect alternative and you don’t need to worry about it running out of power.

7. Your parents will have a sneaky read!

Remember when we mentioned that the grown ups in your life probably grew up reading the Beano. Here’s a little secret. Some of them haven’t stopped, especially when you leave your copy on the sofa to go to school or play outside with your mates. It’s like catnip for grown ups who haven’t quite grown up and they’ll read the latest issue to see what Dennis and Gnasher are up to.

8. You can enter amazing competitions!

Every week, Beano offers you the chance to enter competitions to win awesome prizes, whether they’re games or toys. They’re always free to enter and everyone has an equal chance of winning. So, you’ve got to be in it to win it, so if something catches your eye, get your entries in! We must point out there are no current plans to make a potato available as a prize. Or a pie, come to think of it.

9. Stuck for prank ideas? We’ve got your back!

Pranking is a way of life in Beanotown and there’s always a fun practical joke to learn, especially thanks to Harsha and her family. Did you know they own the best practical joke shop in town? So, if you’re in a mischievous mood and need to freshen up the jokes in your pranking portfolio, Beano is always here to help!

10. YOU could appear in the Beano!

Sure, we’ve got a whole mob of amazing characters which appear in the comic every week, but there’s also a new star who appears every week – one lucky reader! – who gets to star in their own strip! Plus we have a weekly round up of readers showing of their amazing Beano collections!