Review by Frank Plowright

By these daily strips from 1964 and 1965 it can be noticed that Maurice Dodd is introducing new ideas rather than relying on the well written standby jokes that had seen The Perishers through to date. The likes of Boot being mystified by human behaviour, poetic conversations staring at the full moon, Marlon’s stupidity and Maisie’s underhand tactics when it comes to elections for the school May Queen remain. Now, though, we have driving jokes set in an abandoned wrecked car, actually still looking very stately as drawn by Dennis Collins, and more scenes mentioning school.

For all the new themes toyed with, only two stay the course, both involving Marlon. Dodd would frequently construct gags around Marlon’s certainty he could become a brain surgeon, and this is the collection in which he invents the inch-thick ketchup sandwich. That had years of mileage, and gets off to a good start. The ending is always that whoever’s in Marlon’s vicinity is going to be covered in ketchup as soon as Marlon bites into his sandwich, yet the real joke is the inventive variations of Dodd setting up the punchline.

Due to Dodd’s departure from formula not striking gold every time out, this is a slightly lesser selection than Playtime With the Perishers, but not by much, and although that’s the case, there’s page after page of perfect cartooning from Collins. He’s starting to feature panoramic conversations more often, and his characters are gloriously expressive whatever they’re doing, and that filters down to the beetle who sometimes turns up.

Some of these strips also feature in the first Perishers Omnibus, but more are found in the second, and the series continues with The Perishers Pop Up Again.