• Hoppity-Hop, Boppity-Bop, Who's Next for the Chop? by Tim Roll-Pickering

Hoppity-Hop, Boppity-Bop, Who's Next for the Chop? by Tim Roll-Pickering 5/10/98

This strip is best remembered for Beep the Meep, a wonderful character superbly drawn by Dave Gibbons who is perfect for the comic strip. Not even an average fanzine artist could screw up drawing Beep due to his so simple design, and in the hands of Dave Gibbons, he comes off perfectly. It would be impossible to feature a Meep on television as successfully--it would either be an obvious white costume or an ugly product of CGI animation. But in the medium of the comic strip, Beep comes accross as cute and loveable.

But the artwork doesn’t stop there. The Wrarth Warriors are an equally memorable creation, with their wonderful tongues that can grab things, again allowing Gibbons the chance to perform miracles with the artwork, whilst Fudge and Sharon look realistic, in contrast to the fantastic elements in the storyline. The only real quibble with the artwork is K9--Gibbons draws him much smaller than the actual prop, but as K9’s contribution to the story is small, this isn’t so noticeable.

Pat Mills’ script for the story is just as good, with every character well defined and believable. At first it appears to be a standard fugitive story--a hideous oppressor relentlessly pursuing a defenceless solitary survivor, determined to eradicate them at all costs, but in a wonderful twist, the motives of both the Wrarth Warriors and Beep become clear.

There are lots of little nice touches, such as the bus conductor refusing to let the Doctor Sharon and Beep escape on his bus unless the ‘pet’ is on a lead, or the bus passenger worried they’ll sit next to them--emphasising how believable even the extras in this story are. Blackcastle (what a name!) is a realistic town, and, again demonstrating the limitless budget for the comic strip, a change from London and the Home Counties.

The story heads at perfect pace for a wonderful climax with many twists and turns, and rightly deserves all the praise and acclaim that has been heaped upon it over the years (apart from the American reprint that colored Beep blue!). This story is a rightful classic. 10/10