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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

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.

Synopsis

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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

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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

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Notes

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

Bibliography

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  • 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

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  1. ^ a b 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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b 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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