By Donna Barr (Mu Press)
No ISBN, ASIN: B0006DK6PA
Donna Barr is one of the comic world’s most singular graphic raconteurs. She always constructs impeccable, fully realised worldscapes to house her stories and tells them with a style and voice that are definitely one-of-a-kind. Her most perfect creations are Stinz Löwhard, the Half-Horse and The Desert Peach, the outrageously “outâ€, homosexual brother of legendary Ideal German soldier “the Desert Fox†and the star of this effervescent assemblage of sly, dry wit, raucous drollery and way out military madness.
Set in World War II Africa and effortlessly combining hilarity, absurdity, profound sensitivity and glittering spontaneity, the stories describe the daily grind of Oberst Manfred Pfirsich Marie Rommel; a dutiful if unwilling part of the German invasion force of 1940-1943. However, although as capable as elder sibling Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, the gracious and convivial Peach was a man who loathed harming anybody physically or emotionally and thus spent his days with the ever-so-motley crew of the 469th Halftrack, Gravedigging & Support Unit of the Afrika Korps, trying to remain stylish, elegant and non-threatening to the men under his command.
He applies the same genteel courtesies to the sundry natives inhabiting the area and the rather tiresome British – not all of whom are party to a clandestine non-aggression pact Pfirsich has in place with his opposite numbers in the amassed Allied Forces…
The romantic fool is also wildly in love with and engaged to Rosen Kavalier: handsome Aryan warrior and manly Luftwaffe ace…
The Desert Peach ran for 32 intermittent issues via a number of publishers and subsequently collected as eight graphic novel collections between 1988-2005. A prose novel – Bread and Swans – and a musical and an invitational collection by other artists entitled Ersatz Peach were also created during the strip’s heyday. A larger compendium, Seven Peaches, collects issues #1-7 and Pfirsich’s further exploits continue as part of the Modern Tales webcomics collective…
Perhaps the real star of these fabulous comedy epics is the Peach’s long-suffering, unkempt, crafty, ill-mannered, bilious and lazily scrofulous orderly Udo Schmidt, whose one redeeming virtue is his uncompromising loyalty and devotion to the only decent officer in the entire army.
This criminally rare second softcover collection reprints issues #4-6, opening with ‘Is There a Nazi in the House?‘ wherein maniacally patriotic, self-appointed political officer Leutnant Kjars Winzig is once more trying to get Udo – or indeed anybody in the mangy collection of rejects comprising the 469th – to read his beloved Führer’s bible of hate Mein Kampf…
Pfirsich steps in before calamity and carnage breaks out but the entire camp is thrown into an even greater tizzy when official notice arrives that a party from Berlin is en route to inspect the Battalion and meet all the devout, card-carrying members of the Nazi Party. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that the vile inner-circle elite are looking for a way to embarrass the Peach’s brother: the Fox is an outspoken and vociferous critic of Hitler’s vile crew of toadies and backstabbers…
It seems the Nazi bigwigs have planned well; Pfirsich can’t find a single Party member in the entire camp… even the fanatical Winzig wasn’t dedicated enough to spring for the membership dues…
Last minute salvation comes from a most unlikely source as the least likely individual in Africa admits his shameful secret and impresses the jodhpurred pants off the visiting dignitaries… it appears he joined the Nazi Party in its earliest hours when recruiters were buying beer for anybody who would listen…
This hilarious comedy of errors is followed by the supremely delightful, action-packed ‘Flight of Fancy’ wherein Pfirsich’s personal pilot Von Drachenberg gets in big trouble for secretly re-arming our hero’s peach-coloured reconnaissance plane – the junior Rommel doesn’t approve of guns…
Nevertheless he concedes they have their uses when the plane is involved in a uniquely absurd and breathtaking aerial dogfight with a less than sporting Englishman in a Spitfire. Of course, he far less happy about having to refit the machinegun in mid-flight, thousands of feet above the desert with British bullets whistling about his well-formed pearl-bedecked ears…
Luckily the Peach’s beloved fiancé Rosen Kavalier is also prowling the war-torn skies and this magnificently clever yarn still has plenty of controversy and surprises in store…
‘A Day Like any Other’ concludes the comicbook reprints with a powerfully intriguing moral dilemma for the German misfits when a British sniper takes up lethal residence and begins shooting Pfirsich’s men in disdainful contravention of the non-aggression agreement. Soon the 469th are starting to remember that they are – ostensibly, at least – soldiers with a duty to kill Germany’s enemies and this unwelcome situation is further exacerbated by the arrival of abrasive, militant new medical officer Oberstabsartzt Viktor Eddsel, dumped with the Battalion of Battlefield Embarrassments because he is a specialist in the banned “Jewish science†of psychiatry…
The procession of baroque, bizarre characters and incomprehensible relationships he observes in his first few hours has Eddsel reaching for extra case-history notebooks and good, stiff drinks before the urbane Oberst Rommel takes him tellingly to task…
Also included in this enchanting monochrome compendium is a spectacular new adventure ‘Outfoxed’ relating some character-building episodes in the life of Perfect Warrior Erwin Rommel; such as the momentous day he taught his very young son Manfred how to ride a horse, jump off the high-diving board and dismantle a motorcycle.
Of course, it might have better for all concerned if all these lessons hadn’t been specifically against his beloved Frau Rommel’s orders and objections…
This captivating compendium is completed by another cut-out paper-doll page starring Pfirsich’s airborne inamorata Rosen Kavalier and his assorted uniforms…
Referencing the same vast story potential as Sgt. Bilko, Hogan’s Heroes, Oh, What a Lovely War! and Catch 22, the Desert Peach is bawdy, raucous, clever, authentically madcap and immensely engaging. These fabulous combat fruit cocktails were some of the very best comics of the 1990s and still pack the comedic kick of an embroidered landmine, liberally leavened with situational jocularity, accent humour and lots of footnoted Deutsche cuss-words for the kids to learn.
Illustrated in Barr’s fluidly seductive wood-cut and loose-line style, this book is a must-have for any history-loving, war-hating fun seeker. All the Desert Peach books are pretty hard to find these days but if you have a Kindle, Robot Comics have just begun to release individual comicbook issues for anybody who can get the hang of all this verdammte science stuff…
© 1990-1991, 1992 Donna Barr. Introduction © 1992 D. Daniel Pinkwater. All rights reserved.