Desert Fox
   
                             
    A leftover from the - er - "good old days" of WWII, this jolly
    romp featured a canny critter living in the North African desert
    in 1942 in the middle of the War. Our hero was always on the
    scrounge for food (especially sausages - slurp!) and would
    procure provisions from any army in the vicinity be they British
    or German, ally or enemy.

    Fate played a large part in the strip's outcome, as Mr Fox
    would invariably find that his filching would undermine some
    German plan, or foil some dastardly mission. The allies
    thought foxy was a true Gerry-basher, but all he was actually
    thinking about was his ever-hungry tummy. And indeed,
    once or twice he actually helped the Gerry's to
    outsmart the Brits:

     

    The strip was toying with the very real history of Erwin Rommel,
    of course. His shenanigans in WWII, where he ended up fighting
    for both sides, earned him the original Deset Fox title...

    The strip actually included a surprising amount of incidental
    detail each week - references to NAAF, concert parties, etc.
    And all the war-time activists were featured at some point
    including:

     

    The British Eighth (ShSh #30)
    The Highlanders (ShSh #31)
    The Afrika Corps (ShSh #52)
    The Anzacs (ShSh #65)
    even the local Arab population (ShSh #51)

    Amazing, eh? - This kind of thing was still appearing in our
    comics in the 70s, thirty years after the war ended, with
    swastikered Gerries spitting pidgin Eenglish. Well, perhaps
    it's too easy to deride this creation'. The historical detail
    in the strip shows that this was intended to be a respectful
    homage to the desert campaign. Remember too, that this
    was the era of "The Guns of Navarone" and "It Ain't Half
    Hot Mum', when gung-ho War films and series weren't
    deemed particularly offensive...

     

    Our foxy friend appeared in Shiver & Shake from issue #1,
    but he didn't quite make it to the end of its run. He was
    dropped from the comic in September '74 - just two or three
    issues before  the merger with Whoopee!...