The Four Color Media Monitor

One of the UK's most famous comic strip magazines has fallen victim to the same sources that turned out woke changes to Roald Dahl's children's books, according to the Scottish Daily Express. The primary example to undergo this sad alteration is a series that began in the mid-20th century:

Comic book legends The Bash Street Kids have been given a 'woke' makeover as they celebrate their 70th birthday. The move is an attempt to make them "more representative of modern Britain".

Consultancy firm Inclusive Minds, which helped to re-write Roald Dahl's books and got rid of supposedly offensive content, was involved in the transformation of The Beano which this year celebrates its 85th birthday

New characters brought into the Dundee publisher DC Thomson’s famous comic book were even "vetted" by children's digital groups.

The Bash Street Kids, which has been running for 70 years, will now have five new politically correct classmates called Harsha, Mandi, Khadija, Mahira and Stevie Starr to promote diversity.

And famous and legendary characters once named Fatty and Spotty have been renamed Freddy and Scotty to ensure young people with freckles, weight problems or acne are not laughed at by their peers.

Mike Stirling, the comic’s creative director, insisted The Beano was not afraid of being branded “woke” following the changes.

He told The Sunday Times: “We have never seen that as a pejorative term. It’s awareness and being awake to things. What would be easy to do would be to sleepwalk and keep The Beano the way it had always been done for ever.

“When we make a new character, (Inclusive Minds) connect us with an ambassador who advises us. That allows us to get the details right in terms of clothes they are wearing and cultural celebrations their family might get involved in.”

Teachers and parents have also received makeover, from strict disciplinarians, to woke "nurturing figures" who help young people with their problems.

One can only wonder if those "nurturers" will turn out to be something like LGBT advocates, and certainly something like left-wingers. It's just sad how lacking in confidence these modern publishers are, and have no ability or talent to convince the public why these classics are worth their time even today without resorting to PC in order to get anything across. And it's another sad example of Orwellian approaches now employed for classic storytelling, instead of developing something new in which to star the new PC characters.

But surely the most aggravating part of all is how western publishers of serial fiction just don't know when to quit, and retire the original strips on the best possible note. It's definitely not the case here.

Labels: censorship issues, comic strips, Europe and Asia, msm propaganda, politics