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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!...
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