EPIC Magazine facts for kids

EPIC Magazine is a super fun monthly comic magazine from the UK. It's published by D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd and is packed with funny stories and characters. This magazine actually started out as a spin-off from the famous UK comic, The Beano. Each issue usually has 40 pages, full of adventure and laughs!

The very first issue came out on 15 February 2007. It was a special edition to help Comic Relief. Over the years, the magazine has changed its name a few times. It was first called BeanoMAX. Then, in June 2013, it became 100% Official Dennis the Menace and Gnasher Megazine. A year later, it changed again to Dennis and Gnasher's EPIC Magazine, and finally, in 2016, it got its current shorter name: EPIC Magazine.

Discover EPIC Magazine!

This section tells you all about the awesome comic strips and fun features you can find inside EPIC Magazine.

Awesome Comic Strips Inside!

EPIC Magazine is famous for its amazing comic strips. Many of these strips also appeared in the weekly Beano comic. Some even started in The Beano but then moved to EPIC Magazine to continue their adventures!

Current Comic Strips

Here are some of the comic strips that regularly appear in EPIC Magazine:

• Beano All Stars
• Bananaman (these are often older stories, called reprints)
• Dennis the Menace and Gnasher
• Fight My Monster (this one later moved to the weekly Beano)
• Wallace & Gromit (this also moved to the weekly Beano)

Past Comic Strips

Many other cool comic strips have been featured in EPIC Magazine over the years:

• Auntie Clockwise (reprints from The Dandy)
• Baby Face Finlayson
• The Bash Street Kids
• Billy Whizz
• Calamity James (reprints from the early 2000s)
• Derek the Sheep
• Doctor Beastly's Tales of the Slightly Unpleasant (reprints)
• Football Earth (a unique strip about Mother Nature playing football)
• Gnasher's Bite
• The Legend of Little Plum (reprints from the 1990s)
• Max (one of the first strips that only appeared in EPIC Magazine, not The Beano)
• Meebo and Zuky
• Meebo and Zuky's History of Violence
• Minnie the Minx (sometimes as a reprint)
• The Neds
• The Numskulls
• Roger the Dodger (a special photo strip appeared in December 2008)
• Super School (stories from The Beano)
• The 3 Bears (reprints from the 2000s)
• Evil Edgar
• Willy Nilly

Strips from the Megazine Era

When the magazine was called 100% Official Dennis the Menace and Gnasher Megazine, it featured these strips:

• Dennis the Menace and Gnasher
• Pie-Face (later moved to the weekly Beano)
• The Adventures of Paul the Potato (also moved to the weekly Beano)
• Angel Face

Fun Features and Activities

Besides comics, EPIC Magazine also includes lots of exciting features and activities to keep you entertained!

Regular Fun Pages

Here are some of the fun pages that often appeared in the magazine:

• CSI Beanotown: This half-page feature shared profiles of villains from Bananaman stories. It came with a longer Bananaman comic story.
• Gee Whizz: A page all about amazing records from Guinness World Records, featuring the super-fast character Billy Whizz.
• Gnasher's Deadliest Animals: A two-page spread showing dangerous animals with funny comments from Gnasher.
• W&G Pull-out: An 8-page special section about Wallace and Gromit. It included a three-page comic strip, a page of cool inventions, and a "Where's Shaun" puzzle.

Past Fun Pages

Over the years, the magazine also had these cool features:

• The Lowdown: This was usually at the beginning of the magazine and included the contents list.
• Fashion Victims: A funny look at different fashion styles, like goths or nature lovers.
• The Arcade: This section featured reviews of video games by someone called 'The Game Hunter'.
• Game Gurus: An even bigger game feature that gave out cheats and hints for games. It was written by two boys, Jamie and Josh.
• Pull-out Poster: Sometimes, the magazine would include a cool poster that you could pull out and keep!
• Puzzle Pages: These pages had puzzles that matched the theme of the issue. For example, a "Wild Creatures" issue might have "Creature Conundrums" puzzles.
• MAX-imum: Two pages where readers could win free prizes by calling in.
• Information about how to subscribe to the magazine and join the Beano Club.

The Magazine's Look: Logos Over Time

The magazine's logo has changed a few times, but it always used a mix of the old Beano logo (from 1977–1998) and the word "MAX" in a cool, graffiti-like style.

At first, the Beano logo was just like it was on the weekly comic, with "MAX" slightly overlapping it. Later in 2007, the "MAX" part of the logo started to get much bigger, sometimes almost twice as tall as the Beano logo!

In the summer of 2008, for three issues, the logo changed so that "MAX" was the main part. The Beano logo was turned on its side, standing vertically next to "MAX", which was on a diagonal bar. After these three issues, the logo went back to how it looked in late 2007. Then, in 2009, the logo changed again, with the Beano logo placed directly above the "MAX" logo.