The Perishers is not an expletive from a plumber who has absentmindedly dipped his fingers into a ladle of molten lead, or a description of somewhat suspect goods which have lingered to long on the shelf. It's a wry noun for a bunch of children and a large hairy dog whose adventures are chronicled daily in strip form in the Daily Mirror.
The strip was the brainchild of the then Mirror cartoon editor, Bill Herbert. Scripted by Ben Witham and drawn by Dennis Collins, it first appeared in the Manchester edition of the Mirror in February 1958.
Alas, the strip did not thrive and Bill enlisted the aid of advertising artist/writer Maurice Dodd. Maurice didn't work in the usual way of producing a written script from which the artist worked, but worked out his own ideas in rough pencilled layouts with action and dialogue in situ. While Dennis continued to execute finished drawings for the script - Ben Witham moved on to write gags for the popular single frame cartoon Useless Eustace.
The Collins - Dodd combination was successful and the Perishers moved down to London, and into the national editions, in October 1959. The partnership lasted until Dennis retired in 1983. Maurice then took on the complete execution of the strip, from idea to finished artwork, until 1992, when he once again went into partnership, this time with Bill Mevin who now executes the finished work.
