The Perishers
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The Perishers is a British comic strip about a group of urban children and a dog. It began in the Daily Mirror in the late 1950s and has been written for most of its life by Maurice Dodd (born October 25, 1922). It was drawn by Dennis Collins until his retirement in 1983, since when it has been drawn by Dodd and later by Bill Mevin.
Whilst superficially The Perishers have been dismissed as nothing more than a clone of Peanuts, its elements of eccentric British sense of humour, combined with its detailed art style (in its heyday, Collins produced some of the most finely-detailed artwork ever seen in a daily strip), sets it apart.
Many Perishers strips are polyptychs - a single continuous background image is divided into three or four panels and the characters move across it from panel to panel. The story is set in the fairly drab fictional town of Croynge (sometimes spelled Crunge), which is apparently a south London borough - the name is derived from Croydon and Penge. However, visually the location often resembles an industrial Northern town.
Thematically, the strip draws upon nostalgic childhood experiences, and often has a static, almost limbo-like atmosphere, in a similar manner to its companion strip, Andy Capp. The main characters largely exist independently of 'the real world', and adults are rarely seen; for example, every year the Perishers go on holiday but always get thrown off the train home, forcing them to walk and arrive home several weeks late (a pun on how a short scene in comic book time can take several weeks when told in daily installments), yet with seemingly no repercussions.
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Main Characters
Wellington
An orphan boy who lives with his dog, Boot. In the early days of the strip they lived in an approximately 10-foot (3-metre) diameter concrete pipe section in a seemingly abandoned builder's yard. In 1966 he and Boot moved into a small railway station that had been closed by the Beeching Axe, and they have lived there ever since.
Wellington is quite an intellectual and given to philosophical trains of thought. He can also be quite resourceful - he appears to support himself by selling hand made wooden buggies and pilfering food from sympathetic local shops, or convoluted schemes to create sudden crowds in order to celebrate his birthday on October 25. Wellington can also be something of a worrier, always concerned that the world is going to rack an' rooney (rack and ruin). Over the years he has worried that the world is becoming clogged up with dirt, that people might get crushed by the weight of air above their heads, and that each new year might be the same old year recycled to save money. Actually there might be something in that; Wellington has noticed that he and his friends never seem to get any older! On those rare occasions when he cheers up a small raincloud usually appears to dampen his spirits.
Boot
An Old English Sheepdog who lives with his boy, Wellington. Boot is a generally affable and mellow character, given to flights of fancy and daydreaming. Boot is also convinced that he is in fact an 18th century English lord enchanted into a dog by a gypsy wench (as he puts it, I knew I should have bought those damn clothespegs!) - the strip gives occasional hints that this is actually true as opposed to another fantasy. As a lord, he demands to be treated with resect, and often tells Wellington so to his face. Unfortunately Wellington only hears barking. Wellington thinks Boot is lazy and should help out with the household chores, but Boot usually manages to find some way to "accidentally" mess things up in the hope that he won't be asked again. He hates taking baths, and his bathtime struggles with Wellington usually turn into epic battles.
Boot was originally drawn with a short tail (on one occasion he met a bob-tailed sheepdog, and on hearing the name decided to call his own tail Fred), but Maurice Dodd later discovered that real Old English Sheepdogs' tails are docked, and so over the course of several years Collins drew his tail shorter and shorter until it vanished altogether - Boot still appears completely white, rare for the breed.
A cat
In recent years Wellington and Boot appear to be sharing their home with a cat.
Marlon
Marlon is not very bright, but this has not dampened his ambitions. He once tried his hand at inventing. The fact that all of his inventions - fire, the wheel, the horse and cart and so forth - had already been invented by someone else did not deter him, because he felt he was slowly catching up. One of his culinary inventions did make a splash - literally: the inch-thick ketchup sandwich. The splash in question occurred whenever he bit into one, caused by a huge dollop of ketchup hitting whoever happened to be standing nearby. The sandwich is used as a recurring gag, occasionally replaced with other types of filling for Marlon's variety.
Marlon also dreams of becoming either a brain surgeon, or a bloke wot goes down sewers in big rubber boots - he considers either career to be equally prestigious. In the meantime he spends his pocket money on Wellington's buggies, which usually results in a battle between Wellington's persuasion skills and Maisie's desire for him to spend the money on her.
Maisie
An adorable little girl - at least according to her. In fact she is somewhat unfeminine and has a tendency to become violent if she doesn't get her own way, with a scream that can stun woodworm. She is scared of insects and spiders; on one occasion when Wellington tells her that the field they are walking through may contain thousands of hidden insects she is too terrified to move. She is in love with Marlon and continues to pursue him despite his continual resistance - their relationship has been described as a one sided love triangle. She imagines herself and Marlon as the heroine and hero of a romantic novel - he bold as a hawk, she soft as a dove. In reality, of course, she is as tough as nails.
Baby Grumpling
A toddler. In the early days of the strip he did not speak, because he knew that once he started he would be expected to keep talking all the time. When he finally began to speak he did so in lower case letters. In the early days of the strip he was not related to the other characters, but was later revealed to be Maisie's little brother (a retcon - in an earlier strip Maisie had referred to Baby Grumpling's parents as if they were not her own). He enjoys causing mischief by digging holes in the garden (which he always blames on worms or moles) and by putting insects into Maisie's underwear drawer. He used to think that school was a kind of prison from which the older Perishers were temporarily released each evening. He often discusses philosophy with the new baby (an unseen character in a pram).
Recurring characters
The Crabs
The crustacean inhabitants of a seaside rock pool, visited by Boot every year during the Perishers' summer holiday. Some of the crabs believe that Boot's eyes peering down at them are a mystical visitation - "The Eyeballs in the Sky" - and this belief is exploited by a preacher crab who uses their appearance as an excuse to extort money from his congregation. His efforts are always opposed by a scientist crab who continually attempts to invent a device to break through the surface and see what the Eyeballs really are, despite the preacher's protests that he will rend the fabric of the pooliverse. The conflict usually ends up in a full-scale crab fight, and Boot is left none the wiser as to crustacean behaviour.
- Plain Jane: a friend of Maisie's, often seen selling potions and tonics from a home-made stall.
- Fiscal Yere: a millionaire's son who always complains about the problems of being rich.
- Fred Beetle and the Caterpillar: a pair of insects often encountered by Boot. Fred is a socialist who seems to be modelled on Fred Kite from I'm All Right, Jack. The Caterpillar's chain-smoking habit has stunted his growth and prevented his metamorphosis into a butterfly. This is just as well since he doesn't like heights.
- Adolf Kilroy: a tortoise shaped like a World War I German helmet. He thinks he is the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler and speaks in Fraktur. He often teams up with Fred Beetle and Caterpillar in an attempt to overthrow Boot, but the fact that Boot is much bigger always defeats them.
- B. H. (Calcutta) Failed: an Indian bloodhound who lost his sense of smell in an unfortunate incident involving an elephant filled with curry - which exploded in the noonday sun. B. H. literally bumped into Boot one day, and they have been friends ever since despite B. H.'s frequent attempts to steal Boot's meat bones.
- Tatty Oldbitt (the Sailors' Friend): an amorous female dachshund who likes to chase sailors - although just what she intends to do if she catches one is probably best left unexplored. She also chases Boot from time to time, but since he considers himself a lord she never gets very far with him, and often ends up going off with B. H. instead.
- Dirty McSquirty: the dirtiest boy in town, always accompanied by a cloud of flies.
- Cousin Worsoff: an unseen character. Dirty McSquirty's cousin, he is the proverbial "person who is worse off than you". He lives in the sewer, and Dirty speaks to him through drain covers.
- Poor girl: a girl who harasses Wellington with constant tales of poverty, despite wearing a fur coat and claiming to have a household full of equally impoverised staff.
- Beryl Bogey: a large girl, or possibly gorilla, whose presence on Maisie's netball team gives them the ability to break down the opposition...literally. Her idol is King Kong.
- The cat: an unnamed cat recently adopted by Wellington, much to Boot's annoyance. The cat and Boot are engaged in a permanent battle of wits.
- The goldfish: another new pet of Wellington's. Contemplates philosophy while swimming around in his tiny bowl.
Animated version
In the 1970s, an animated version of The Perishers appeared on BBC One. Leonard Rossiter provided the voice of Boot.
Reprints
Over the years there have been a number of cheaply-printed reprint collections in paperback, all of which went out of print quickly. Given the quality of Collins' artwork, and the strip's extreme longevity, it is unfortunate that there are no archive collections available.
External links
- An unofficial Perishers page (http://www.shadowgallery.co.uk/perishers.html) - This has some useful descriptive material, but poor quality images.
- Maurice Dodd's Official Perishers Website (http://www.theauthenticperishers.co.uk/)