Beau Peep
Encyclopedia
Beau Peep is a popular British
comedic
comic strip
written by Roger Kettle and illustrated by Andrew Christine. The strip features the misadventures of the eponymous lead character, Beau Peep, an inept and cowardly British man who joins the tough and hardy French Foreign Legion
in the deserts of North Africa
to escape his terrifying wife Doris back home. There are also numerous insane supporting characters.
The Kettle and Christine team also produce the popular cowboy strip "A Man Called Horace" which is featured daily in The Daily Mirror and Daily Record. This strip was commissioned in 1989 by Mirror Group Newspapers in an attempt to lure the Beau Peep fan base from the Daily Star.
Roger Kettle also scripts Andy Capp
for the Daily Mirror. The strip is drawn by Roger Mahoney.
Beau Peep was originally intended as a parody
of Beau Geste
, a 1924 adventure novel
by British author P. C. Wren
, which has itself been adapted for the screen several times, and again parodied even more. However Beau Peep grew to have a distinctive character and identity in its own right and is perhaps the most famous of these parodies of Beau Geste, still retaining a large fan base.
On the forum of the official Beau Peep website, writer Roger Kettle also claims to have been inspired by the American
comic strip Peanuts
by Charles M. Schulz
, in that like Schulz's creation Charlie Brown
, Beau Peep is a "loveable loser."
anthologies
of Beau Peep were published every year between 1980 and 1998. A total of 20 books were published, including, in 1987, a special 'Colour Collection'. These have been done through various publishing houses, most notably by Pedigree Books, and have become available in most parts of the world. They are widely available through internet auction sites such as eBay
and amazon.com, and some comic strips are available for viewing online on the Beau Peep official website.
The strip was dropped from the Daily Star in December 1997, as part of a cost-cutting exercise. This resulted in a huge sales loss for the paper and demands from fans for Beau Peep to be brought back. The strip eventually returned in March 1999, and continues to the current day.
Reprints of the strip have been in the Sunday Express and Sunday People and currently appear in the Sunday Mail, and the Daily Star Sunday.
In Italy the strip is called "Beep Peep".
in the Sahara desert
because he believed it was the one place Doris couldn't reach him. He changed his name to Beau and has been stuck in one fort ever since.
Beau is cowardly, underhanded, incompetent, and inept. His colleagues view Beau as an annoyance, his superiors view him as a loser without hope of promotion, having failed his sergeant's exam no fewer than eighteen times. This Beau puts down to a "slight lack of composure" during moments of stress. On one occasion, when confronted with a difficult question, he ate the exam paper. According to his file, which Beau secretly reads while supposedly cleaning up the sergeant's desk, he is an "utterly brainless idiot" and suffering from "terminal ugliness". Beau does however view himself as a brave, gallant, witty, handsome, intellectual, and cultured individual, and does appear to be more clever than the majority of people in the fort. When he was young, Beau wanted to be a concert pianist, or a great conductor, and often attempts to escape the confines of his dreary existence by going down to the saloon
at the local casbah
and getting blind drunk.
ic Arab
does not actually reside in the fort, but alone in the desert, and is never named. He was exiled from a local Tuareg tribe for 'nicking' (stealing), and will not be allowed back unless he proves himself by presenting the head of an enemy warrior. For this reason, the Nomad occasionally tries to take over the fort, often failing for stupid reasons, such as forgetting his ladder, forgetting that there is only one of him, or attempting to infiltrate the fort using ridiculous disguises. Beau Peep has outwitted the Nomad on numerous occasions, meaning he has become a mortal enemy of the Nomad. However the Nomad is fond of singing and dancing, and loves sweeties. He still believes that the Earth is flat
.
He also has the nickname "Bobby Brains, the desert whiz kid". He harbours an unshakable belief that he is a best-selling author waiting to be discovered. His quest for publication began with his autobiography Sand in my Y-fronts. It was rejected by his own mother, as were Sand in my Y-fronts II and Sand in my Y-fronts - The Musical.
He also believes he is a talented golfer (he calls himself Tiger Nomad) and has many times tried to be elected as an MP (slogan: "Vote for me or I set the dogs on You").
caravan
selling all manner of goods. He is best known in this strip for selling unremarkable, ordinary and everyday items to the slow-witted Dennis at exorbitant prices by claiming the items to be special. He also cheats the Nomad numerous times, such as selling him a rubber duck
which Abdul claimed was an "enemy detector."
. Bidet has a distinct loathing of the cowardly and useless Beau Peep, whom he regrets ever taking on in the first place and has since had to endure for the past twenty years. Bidet has often considered shooting Beau and ending his "nightmare." He often sends Beau out on dangerous and even suicidal missions, which usually causes Beau to break down in tears. When Beau survives by either fleeing from danger or by pure chance, rather than skill or ability, the Sergeant often breaks down in tears himself, due to the fact Beau has survived yet again and Bidet knows he must endure Beau Peep's stupidy forever.
or cook
of the fort, and is beyond being described as unhygienic and unclean, as his habits are downright psychotically revolting. Egon is depicted as being covered in filth, constantly having flies buzzing round his head, keeping rats and cockroaches as pets in his kitchen, and keeping his feet warm in dishes such as fish pie and soup which he then feeds to the soldiers. All his recipes have mince
as the main ingredient, including the so-called vegetarian ones, and his one great ambition is to open a classy Parisian
restaurant
called "Monsieur Mince." Egon also appears to be an alcoholic. He loves the drinks cooking sherry and vodka
. He also has a bad temper, once holding Beau over the wall of the fort by the ankles because he made a joke about Egon's cooking. Egon does however get on with Beau better than most people in the fort and even sometimes comes to Beau for advice on certain subjects, and to consult Beau on his mediocre cooking skills, which are yet still superior to Egon's.
) he chooses to ignore it. He shot his shrink and falls in love with his tablets, believing them to be small women. The only person the colonel goes easy on is his son, who occasionally visits the fort and gets an easy ride whilst there.
and stripper
at the local saloon, the men at the fort go crazy for her, especially Dennis, who is madly in love with her. Dennis' advances usually end up with him receiving a punch in the mouth, yet still Dennis fantasizes about Vera every day and counts down the days until he can see her again.
soldier at the fort, whose accent is so thick nobody can understand him except when they are themselves drunk. Hamish joined the Foreign Legion when his beloved Dundee United lost a cup-tie to Arbroath F.C.
and he could take it no more, and had to get out of Scotland. He often talks of "the wild and rugged Glens" of his homeland - the Glens being the family who lived in the opposite tenement. He has adapted his favourite song, The Campbells are Coming, to suit his new environment. Expect to hear The Camels are Coming in a future Eurovision Song Contest
where Hamish intends to enter it. He gets on quite well with Beau.
, named after a famous aeroplane
. Sopwith is seemingly intelligent and understands what Beau is saying to him, and Sopwith stubbornly refuses to obey any command given to him. Sopwith will often deliberately throw Beau off his back, or spit in his face whilst Beau is attempting to talk down to the animal. After such acts, Sopwith can often be seen with a smirk on his face.
Astro the Soothsayer, a fortune teller with a tent in the desert.
"Headline" Harry, a journalist always looking for a scoop.
Sergeant Dirk B. Slaughter, a violent replacement when Sgt Bidet is on leave.
Llandudno Jones, an intrepid Welsh explorer.
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
comedic
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
written by Roger Kettle and illustrated by Andrew Christine. The strip features the misadventures of the eponymous lead character, Beau Peep, an inept and cowardly British man who joins the tough and hardy French Foreign Legion
French Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...
in the deserts of North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
to escape his terrifying wife Doris back home. There are also numerous insane supporting characters.
Origins
Beau Peep was first published in the launch issue of British newspaper The Daily Star on 2 November 1978, and is still published in the paper today.The Kettle and Christine team also produce the popular cowboy strip "A Man Called Horace" which is featured daily in The Daily Mirror and Daily Record. This strip was commissioned in 1989 by Mirror Group Newspapers in an attempt to lure the Beau Peep fan base from the Daily Star.
Roger Kettle also scripts Andy Capp
Andy Capp
Andy Capp is a British comic strip created by cartoonist Reg Smythe , seen in The Daily Mirror and The Sunday Mirror newspapers since 5 August 1957. Originally a single-panel cartoon, Smyth later expanded it to four panels....
for the Daily Mirror. The strip is drawn by Roger Mahoney.
Beau Peep was originally intended as a parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of Beau Geste
Beau Geste
Beau Geste is a 1924 adventure novel by P. C. Wren. It has been adapted for the screen several times.-Plot summary:Michael "Beau" Geste is the protagonist. The main narrator , by contrast, is his younger brother John...
, a 1924 adventure novel
Adventure novel
The adventure novel is a genre of novels that has adventure, an exciting undertaking involving risk and physical danger, as its main theme.-History:...
by British author P. C. Wren
P. C. Wren
Percival Christopher Wren was a British writer, mostly of adventure fiction. He is remembered best for Beau Geste, a much-filmed book of 1924, involving the French Foreign Legion in North Africa, and its main sequels, Beau Sabreur and Beau Ideal Percival Christopher Wren (1 November 187522...
, which has itself been adapted for the screen several times, and again parodied even more. However Beau Peep grew to have a distinctive character and identity in its own right and is perhaps the most famous of these parodies of Beau Geste, still retaining a large fan base.
On the forum of the official Beau Peep website, writer Roger Kettle also claims to have been inspired by the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
comic strip Peanuts
Peanuts
Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward...
by Charles M. Schulz
Charles M. Schulz
Charles Monroe "Sparky" Schulz was an American cartoonist, whose comic strip Peanuts proved one of the most popular and influential in the history of the medium, and is still widely reprinted on a daily basis.-Early life and education:Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Schulz grew up in Saint Paul...
, in that like Schulz's creation Charlie Brown
Charlie Brown
Charles "Charlie" Brown is the protagonist in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz.Charlie Brown and his creator have a common connection in that they are both the sons of barbers, but whereas Schulz's work is described as the "most shining example of the American success story", Charlie...
, Beau Peep is a "loveable loser."
Publication history
As well as daily appearances in The Daily Star, paperbackPaperback
Paperback, softback or softcover describe and refer to a book by the nature of its binding. The covers of such books are usually made of paper or paperboard, and are usually held together with glue rather than stitches or staples...
anthologies
Anthology
An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...
of Beau Peep were published every year between 1980 and 1998. A total of 20 books were published, including, in 1987, a special 'Colour Collection'. These have been done through various publishing houses, most notably by Pedigree Books, and have become available in most parts of the world. They are widely available through internet auction sites such as eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
and amazon.com, and some comic strips are available for viewing online on the Beau Peep official website.
The strip was dropped from the Daily Star in December 1997, as part of a cost-cutting exercise. This resulted in a huge sales loss for the paper and demands from fans for Beau Peep to be brought back. The strip eventually returned in March 1999, and continues to the current day.
Reprints of the strip have been in the Sunday Express and Sunday People and currently appear in the Sunday Mail, and the Daily Star Sunday.
In Italy the strip is called "Beep Peep".
Beau Peep
The central character of the strip, Bert Peep, is a short, mustachioed, bespectacled British man who originally fled Britain to escape his terrifying, overbearing and ape-like wife Doris over two decades before the beginning of the strip. Doris followed him, and so Bert joined the French Foreign LegionFrench Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...
in the Sahara desert
Desert
A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...
because he believed it was the one place Doris couldn't reach him. He changed his name to Beau and has been stuck in one fort ever since.
Beau is cowardly, underhanded, incompetent, and inept. His colleagues view Beau as an annoyance, his superiors view him as a loser without hope of promotion, having failed his sergeant's exam no fewer than eighteen times. This Beau puts down to a "slight lack of composure" during moments of stress. On one occasion, when confronted with a difficult question, he ate the exam paper. According to his file, which Beau secretly reads while supposedly cleaning up the sergeant's desk, he is an "utterly brainless idiot" and suffering from "terminal ugliness". Beau does however view himself as a brave, gallant, witty, handsome, intellectual, and cultured individual, and does appear to be more clever than the majority of people in the fort. When he was young, Beau wanted to be a concert pianist, or a great conductor, and often attempts to escape the confines of his dreary existence by going down to the saloon
Bar (establishment)
A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...
at the local casbah
Casbah
The Casbah ) is specifically the citadel of Algiers in Algeria and the traditional quarter clustered around it. More generally, a kasbah is the walled citadel of many North African cities and towns...
and getting blind drunk.
Dennis Pratt
Dennis is the extremely slow-witted best friend of Beau, the only person who has any patience for him, and vice-versa. Dennis is a very simple-minded soul, vulgar, and a bit of a womanizer, although he is actually one of the comic's most likeable characters. Being very dense, Dennis has an inability to grasp the simplest of everyday concepts, and is very childlike. He enjoys attempting to do magic tricks, which he is famously bad at. He has a brother named Hector, who is equally dim and visits the fort occasionally, and a sister called Mavis, which is also the name of his first girlfriend. Dennis is rather brave, but this is down to his stupidity rather than nerve. Dennis likes to be read stories before bed, and is apparently aware of his own stupidity. He wishes to be smart like Beau, because he often doesn't understand what Beau means.Doris
Beau Peep's estranged wife Doris is never actually seen in the comics, although her speech bubbles are seen in various strips with Doris herself just out of view. Doris is described as very ugly, having many chins, a large frame, an ape-like stance, short legs, and generally terrifying. Her knuckles drag on the floor when she walks. She is madly in love with Beau, and follows him everywhere, even into the desert, although has not found him at the fort yet in the twenty years Beau has been there. Beau is in constant fear of being discovered by Doris, who is the reason why Beau joined the Foreign Legion in the first place. Doris can be aggressive, and she threatens to punch the Nomad many times. The Nomad is, however, perplexingly madly in love with Doris.The Nomad
One of the most significant supporting characters of the comic strip, this nomadNomad
Nomadic people , commonly known as itinerants in modern-day contexts, are communities of people who move from one place to another, rather than settling permanently in one location. There are an estimated 30-40 million nomads in the world. Many cultures have traditionally been nomadic, but...
ic Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
does not actually reside in the fort, but alone in the desert, and is never named. He was exiled from a local Tuareg tribe for 'nicking' (stealing), and will not be allowed back unless he proves himself by presenting the head of an enemy warrior. For this reason, the Nomad occasionally tries to take over the fort, often failing for stupid reasons, such as forgetting his ladder, forgetting that there is only one of him, or attempting to infiltrate the fort using ridiculous disguises. Beau Peep has outwitted the Nomad on numerous occasions, meaning he has become a mortal enemy of the Nomad. However the Nomad is fond of singing and dancing, and loves sweeties. He still believes that the Earth is flat
Flat Earth Society
The Flat Earth Society is an organization that seeks to further the belief that the Earth is flat instead of an oblate spheroid. The modern organization was founded by Englishman Samuel Shenton in 1956 and was later led by Charles K...
.
He also has the nickname "Bobby Brains, the desert whiz kid". He harbours an unshakable belief that he is a best-selling author waiting to be discovered. His quest for publication began with his autobiography Sand in my Y-fronts. It was rejected by his own mother, as were Sand in my Y-fronts II and Sand in my Y-fronts - The Musical.
He also believes he is a talented golfer (he calls himself Tiger Nomad) and has many times tried to be elected as an MP (slogan: "Vote for me or I set the dogs on You").
Honest Abdul
Honest Adbul is a travelling salesman in the desert and the owner of a merchantMerchant
A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
caravan
Camel train
A camel train is a series of camels carrying goods or passengers in a group as part of a regular or semi-regular service between two points. Although they rarely travelled faster than the walking speed of a man, camels' ability to handle harsh conditions made camel trains a vital part of...
selling all manner of goods. He is best known in this strip for selling unremarkable, ordinary and everyday items to the slow-witted Dennis at exorbitant prices by claiming the items to be special. He also cheats the Nomad numerous times, such as selling him a rubber duck
Rubber duck
A rubber duck is a toy shaped like a stylised Yellow-billed Duck , and is generally yellow with a flat base. It may be made of rubber or rubber-like material such as vinyl plastic...
which Abdul claimed was an "enemy detector."
Sergeant Bidet
Described as having a quality that no one else in the comic has - sanitySanity
Sanity refers to the soundness, rationality and healthiness of the human mind, as opposed to insanity. A person is sane if they are rational...
. Bidet has a distinct loathing of the cowardly and useless Beau Peep, whom he regrets ever taking on in the first place and has since had to endure for the past twenty years. Bidet has often considered shooting Beau and ending his "nightmare." He often sends Beau out on dangerous and even suicidal missions, which usually causes Beau to break down in tears. When Beau survives by either fleeing from danger or by pure chance, rather than skill or ability, the Sergeant often breaks down in tears himself, due to the fact Beau has survived yet again and Bidet knows he must endure Beau Peep's stupidy forever.
Egon
Egon is the chefChef
A chef is a person who cooks professionally for other people. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who cooks for a living, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation.-Etymology:The word "chef" is borrowed ...
or cook
Cook (profession)
A cook is a person who prepares food for consumption. In Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Canada this profession requires government approval ....
of the fort, and is beyond being described as unhygienic and unclean, as his habits are downright psychotically revolting. Egon is depicted as being covered in filth, constantly having flies buzzing round his head, keeping rats and cockroaches as pets in his kitchen, and keeping his feet warm in dishes such as fish pie and soup which he then feeds to the soldiers. All his recipes have mince
Mince
Mińce is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Choroszcz, within Białystok County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland....
as the main ingredient, including the so-called vegetarian ones, and his one great ambition is to open a classy Parisian
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
called "Monsieur Mince." Egon also appears to be an alcoholic. He loves the drinks cooking sherry and vodka
Vodka
Vodka , is a distilled beverage. It is composed primarily of water and ethanol with traces of impurities and flavorings. Vodka is made by the distillation of fermented substances such as grains, potatoes, or sometimes fruits....
. He also has a bad temper, once holding Beau over the wall of the fort by the ankles because he made a joke about Egon's cooking. Egon does however get on with Beau better than most people in the fort and even sometimes comes to Beau for advice on certain subjects, and to consult Beau on his mediocre cooking skills, which are yet still superior to Egon's.
Mad Pierre
The fort's resident bully, Pierre is a towering hulk of a man, completely unhinged, and whom nobody will dare call "mad" to his face. Not a man to mess with, he uses violence as a first resort. He once beat up Beau Peep for "using a sentence which contained an uneven number of vowels." Pierre's interests include smacking Beau in the mouth, and cracking his knuckles. Seems to leave Dennis alone, because hitting Beau is too much fun. Beau has come to a compromise with Pierre at times, and has also tried flattery, but this doesn't last long before Beau's face comes back into contact with Pierre's fist.Colonel Escargot
The highly eccentric fort commander. His bizarre grip on the real world can be summed up by his belief that "those warmongers of Switzerland" have declared war on him. He is totally unsuitable for the job as he is completely and totally insane, often ordering Beau to perform ridiculously stupid tasks. Is receiving psychiatric help, but as he is oblivious to his insanity (and because he is the COCommanding officer
The commanding officer is the officer in command of a military unit. Typically, the commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latitude to run the unit as he sees fit, within the bounds of military law...
) he chooses to ignore it. He shot his shrink and falls in love with his tablets, believing them to be small women. The only person the colonel goes easy on is his son, who occasionally visits the fort and gets an easy ride whilst there.
Vera of the Seven Veils
An exotic belly dancerBelly dancer
A belly dancer is one who performs a belly dance. The phrase may also refer to:*"Belly Dancer" , a single by R&B singer Akon*"Belly Dancer" , a hip hop song*The Belly Dancer, a 2001 Turkish drama film...
and stripper
Stripper
A stripper is a professional erotic dancer who performs a contemporary form of striptease at strip club establishments, public exhibitions, and private engagements. Unlike in burlesque, the performer in the modern Americanized form of stripping minimizes the interaction of customer and dancer,...
at the local saloon, the men at the fort go crazy for her, especially Dennis, who is madly in love with her. Dennis' advances usually end up with him receiving a punch in the mouth, yet still Dennis fantasizes about Vera every day and counts down the days until he can see her again.
Hamish
A ScottishScottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
soldier at the fort, whose accent is so thick nobody can understand him except when they are themselves drunk. Hamish joined the Foreign Legion when his beloved Dundee United lost a cup-tie to Arbroath F.C.
Arbroath F.C.
Arbroath F.C. are a Scottish football club currently playing in the Scottish Second Division. They were founded in 1878 and currently play their home matches at Gayfield, Arbroath, Angus. They play in maroon strips, and are nicknamed "The Red Lichties" due to the red light that used to guide...
and he could take it no more, and had to get out of Scotland. He often talks of "the wild and rugged Glens" of his homeland - the Glens being the family who lived in the opposite tenement. He has adapted his favourite song, The Campbells are Coming, to suit his new environment. Expect to hear The Camels are Coming in a future Eurovision Song Contest
Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union .Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition...
where Hamish intends to enter it. He gets on quite well with Beau.
Sopwith
Beau's camelCamel
A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as humps on its back. There are two species of camels: the dromedary or Arabian camel has a single hump, and the bactrian has two humps. Dromedaries are native to the dry desert areas of West Asia,...
, named after a famous aeroplane
Sopwith Camel
The Sopwith Camel was a British First World War single-seat biplane fighter introduced on the Western Front in 1917. Manufactured by Sopwith Aviation Company, it had a short-coupled fuselage, heavy, powerful rotary engine, and concentrated fire from twin synchronized machine guns. Though difficult...
. Sopwith is seemingly intelligent and understands what Beau is saying to him, and Sopwith stubbornly refuses to obey any command given to him. Sopwith will often deliberately throw Beau off his back, or spit in his face whilst Beau is attempting to talk down to the animal. After such acts, Sopwith can often be seen with a smirk on his face.
The Vultures
A father-son duo where the generation gap has never been wider. The father, a traditionalist, adheres to the vulture anthem, "we eat dead camels and any other mammals". The son is a vegetarian who started a band for punk vultures or "Punctures" for short. Actually the term "generation gap" doesn't do this relationship justice. This is a "generation Grand Canyon".Minor Characters
Other characters occasionally appear in the strip and include:Astro the Soothsayer, a fortune teller with a tent in the desert.
"Headline" Harry, a journalist always looking for a scoop.
Sergeant Dirk B. Slaughter, a violent replacement when Sgt Bidet is on leave.
Llandudno Jones, an intrepid Welsh explorer.
External links
- Official Beau Peep website - maintained by the creators of the strip and includes articles on the strip, numerous downloads, and Beau Peep-related goods and merchandise to purchase. There are also forums in which the creators of the strip frequently post.
- Article at ROK comics
- Article on the strip at Toonhound
- Anthology collection