One of the most refreshingly funny comic strips of modern times, Beau Peep was the creation of writer Roger Kettle and artist Andrew Christine. Beau, a distinctly comical figure (real name Bert), joined the Foreign Legion to escape his brutish wife, Doris, but proved to be an incompetent soldier and a liability to his colleagues. The strip became instantly popular amongst the Star's readers and 20 softback Beau Peep anthologies collecting the strips were published between 1980 and 1998.
"About three weeks ago, Andrew and I were informed that Beau Peep would be cut from The Star. The news arrived just over a year after The Mirror dropped our Horace strip and the reasons given are exactly the same. The newspaper industry is in deep financial trouble and anything that isn't considered "essential" is being sacrificed. Rather than the editorial staff, the money men are behind all these decisions and, to be honest, I wasn't surprised when the letter arrived. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't sad---the strip has been the dominant factor in my life. I was 24 years old when I came up with the idea and 27 years old when it was first published. If you'd told me then that it would remain in print until I was a 65 year old pensioner, I'd never have believed you. I am HUGELY fortunate and HUGELY grateful for the career I've had. In total, my Horace and Beau Peep strips have lasted for 64 years and, when you throw in my 11 years of writing Andy Capp, I simply have no grounds for even the mildest of complaints. I must admit that I find my current situation extremely weird. For a long, long time, my life has been consumed with thinking up daft ideas for daft, little cartoon characters. Overnight, this has come to an end and it's been more than a little difficult to adjust. As I think I've mentioned, I've been writing a book for some time so this will allow me to get my head down and finish the damn thing. I'd also (look away, Mince) like to write some stuff for football magazines. On top of that, me and Tarks will, hopefully, continue to produce material for an American website.
I'm not sure of the exact date but I'm led to believe that Beau Peep will end at the beginning of December. Of course, something might happen and those daft, little cartoon characters may reappear somewhere else---but I doubt it.
Thank you a million times for your support. I will miss that silly bugger."
http://www.cameldung.co.uk/index.php?topic=3219.0
The loss of Beau Peep is yet another blow for comic strips in this country. We all know that comics are struggling, but so are newspaper strips. It does seem that the golden age of newspaper strips is over, with only a few hanging on now. (Half of the Daily Mirror's strips are reprint, for example, and newer papers such as i and The New European don't feature any strips.)
Personally, I think it's a mistake for the bean counters to consider comic strips unimportant. They add character and variety to a paper, and are more popular than they might think. Perhaps they should consider that during World War Two, when paper rationing reduced the Mirror to 8 pages, the editors considered the strips so important to morale that it still had one full page of new strips, plus Jane on another page, and a huge political cartoon on another. Admittedly we now live in an age of mass entertainment and many people seem more amused by sharing badly designed memes than reading strips, but I'm sure Beau Peep still had a large following.
My thanks to Rob Baker for bringing this to my attention.
Visit the Beau Peep website:
http://www.beaupeep.com
