The Beano, cover date 8 December 1973

Shameless promotion of its own wares by DC Thomson here. Biffo the Bear's strip is just an extended advert. But who cares? It’s good-looking art by David Sutherland, and it's always fun to see in-strip references to newsagents and printers.

This issue came with a four-page pull-out on Financial Times pink-coloured paper bigging up the publisher’s annual offerings – and yet another annual ad later in the comic. There was a huge profit margin in annuals so there was little holding back on the promotions.

This issue was packed with the usual familiar names, including Minnie the Minx (artist Jim Petrie), Lord Snooty (Jimmy Glen), The Bash Street Kids (Sutherland) – gross racism sadly par for the day – and Billy Whizz (Malcolm Judge).

Dennis the Menace and Gnasher (Sutherland again) were still on the back page in 1973 (he booted Biffo off the front the following year). Contrast Biffo being nice to an elephant to Dennis training Gnasher for a street brawl … it’s pretty clear which strip had more bite.