The Perishers: No. 24

by Maurice Dodd, Dennis Collins

96 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1980

Reviews

[Andrew Ives · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've had this book since 1980 when it was released. 40yrs ago, I was a little kid who coloured in the first few pages as he read it. All these years later, I still remembered much of the dialogue and many of the panels, so I must've quite enjoyed it back then. Nowadays, I see some strong parallels with Peanuts - Maisie is almost exactly like Lucy, Wellington & Boot are clearly similar to Charlie Brown & Snoopy, Marlon is rather like Linus, and even the artwork is not dissimilar. Aside from that, Baby Grumpling, Fiscal, and the general 1980s Britishness of the goings-on make The Perishers seem like some kind of spin-off series. I found this book, no24, to be just a slice out of the Daily Mirror's strips, not really reading like a book per se with a start, a middle and a finish. No24 ends rather abruptly on the tiresome rock pool scene. The scenes with the two caterpillars and the German tortoise are novel, but similarly tiresome. I like the artwork though, especially the way the dog Boot is drawn, it's nostalgic and I guess it's mildly amusing in a newspaper funnies kind of way. I wouldn't mind reading another one. 3/5