The Perishers

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. Until the late 1970s it was drawn by Dennis Collins. Since then it has mostly been drawn by Dodd.

Considering the subject matter it would be easy to dismiss The Perishers as nothing more than a clone of Peanuts, but in fact its uniquely 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.

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 train station that had been closed by the Beeching Axe, and they have lived there ever since.

Wellington is 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. A more concrete worry is that Bully Bloggs (an unseen character) might beat him up - which he usually does. 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 convinced that he is in fact an 18th century English lord who was enchanted into a dog by a gypsy wench (just because he wouldn't buy her lucky heather). 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 don't have tails, and so over the course of several years Collins drew his tail shorter and shorter until it vanished altogether.

Detail on Marlon, Maisie and Baby Grumpling to follow

In the 1970s an animated version of The Perishers appeared on BBC ONE. Leonard Rossiter provided the voice of Boot.

Given the quality of Collins' artwork, and the strip's extreme longevity, it is unfortunate that there are no archive collections available.

This is a stub. much more detail on characters and situations to follow; until then, follow the link below for more information.

External links

• An unofficial Perishers page (http://www.shadowgallery.co.uk/perishers) - This has some useful descriptive material, but poor quality images.