Wee Peem

Wee Peem was a British comic strip character in The Beano, first written and designed by James Jewell.[2] He starred in two comic strips between 1938 and 1957, and would get up to various forms of mischief in a similar way to later Beano strips such as Dennis the Menace and Minnie the Minx.

Wee Peem
Character from The Beano
Publication information
Star of
  • Wee Peem (He's a Proper Scream) (1939–1940)
  • Wee Peem's Magic Pills (1951–1952)
  • Wee Peem (1956–1957)
First appearance
  • Issue 1
  • (30 July 1938)
Last appearance
  • Issue 3945
  • (25 July 2018)
Appearance timelineIssues 1 – 89, 714 – 765, 486 – 507, 3945[1]
Author(s)Uncredited
Illustrator(s)
  • James Malcom
  • Charles Grigg
  • Hugh Morren

Synopsis

Peem is a little boy with a large, round head with long limbs, usually dressed in a stripy jumper, shorts, and a strip cap too small for his head. His stories would be about his misbehaviours irritating and angering adults. His name is "Little James" in the Scots language.

Character history

Peem debuted in Wee Peem (He's a Proper Scream) in The Beano's first issue[Note 1][4] with Lord Snooty and His Pals, Helpful Henry, Morgyn the Mighty, The Adventures of Tom Thumb, and Big Eggo.[5] The Beano magazine contained two types of children's fiction: comic strips and adventure prose stories; Wee Peem was the former, inspired by the funny pages of American newspapers.[5] When it ended in issue 89,[6] DC Thomson reprinted some of the Wee Peem strips in The People's Journal, along with some new stories by James Malcolm.[2]

A similar character in both appearance and mannerisms appeared in the first Dandy Monster Comic under the name Dipper the Dodger.[7]

Peem returned to The Beano a decade later in issue 486's Wee Peem's Magic Pills,[8] a 21-issue series by Charles Grigg about Peem and his mischief after finding a bottle of tablets (named B-Pills)[9] that fell from Dr Quack's medicine truck.[10] Peem made his first Beano Annual appearance in 1940.[11]

In 1956, the Wee Peem strip got rebooted by Hugh Morren[12] for 51 stories between issues 714 and 765.[13][14] As of 2021, it was the last time Peem had a Beano series, although he would make appearances for the 80th anniversary in both the 2019 Beano Annual[15] and the 80th-anniversary issue.[1]

References

Notes
  1. Named The Beano Comic at this time.[3]

Bibliography
  • The History of the Beano. Dundee, Scotland: D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. 2008. ISBN 978-1-902407-73-9.
  • Anderson, John, ed. (2018). Beano: 80 Years of Fun. D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. ISBN 9781845357023.

Citations
  1. Auchterlounie, Nigel; Parkinson, Nigel (25 July 2018). Walliams, David (ed.). "The Big Birthday Horror!: A Beanotown Adventure". The Beano. No. 3945. D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd.
  2. History of the Beano (2008), p. 305.
  3. History of the Beano (2008), p. 315.
  4. Jewel, James (30 July 1938). Moonie, George (ed.). "Wee Peem". The Beano Comic. No. 1.
  5. 80 Years (2018), p. 11.
  6. Jewell, James (6 April 1940). Moonie, George (ed.). "Wee Peem". The Beano Comic. No. 89. D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd.
  7. Dandy Monster Comic No. 1. Dundee, Scotland: D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. in conjunction with Aurum Press Ltd. 2006. pp. 54, 86, 127. ISBN 1-84513-217-3.
  8. Grigg, Charles (10 November 1951). Moonie, George (ed.). "Wee Peem's Magic Pills". The Beano. No. 486. D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd.
  9. Gifford, Denis (1987). Encyclopedia of Comic Characters: Over 1200 Characters!. Harlow: Longman. p. 237. ISBN 0582892945.
  10. History of the Beano (2008), p. 317.
  11. "Archive: Beano Annual 1940 - The Very First Beano Book | Archive Annuals | Archive on Beano.com". Beano. Archived from the original on 23 January 2021.
  12. History of the Beano (2008), p. 322.
  13. Morren, Hugh (24 March 1956). Moonie, George (ed.). "Wee Peem". The Beano. No. 714. D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd.
  14. Morren, Hugh (16 March 1957). Moonie, George (ed.). "Wee Peem". The Beano. No. 765. D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd.
  15. Anderson, John, ed. (2018). Annual 2019 Beano. D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd.
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