By Donna Barr (Aeon/Mu)
ISBN: 978-1-89225-325-5 (TPB Director’s Cut)
We can’t let another Pride Month go by without plugging again one of the earliest, best and most ingenious Gay comics icons ever conceived. Moreover, as he and his companions first appeared in 1988 (published by Thoughts and Images) we can wish him a resplendent 35th Anniversary too!
The Desert Peach is the supremely self-assured and eminently efficient gay brother of Erwin Rommel, the legendary German soldier universally hailed as “the Desert Fox”.
Set primarily in Africa during World War II, this priceless lost gem of a series effortlessly combines hilarity, absurdity, profound sensitivity and glittering spontaneity in stories describing the dalliances and daily tribulations of Oberst Manfred Pfirsich Marie Rommel. This younger sibling also dutifully served his fatherland, albeit as an unwilling and reluctant cog in the iniquitous German War Machine: one determined to remain a civilised gentleman under the most adverse and unkind conditions.
However, although in his own ways as formidable as his beloved brother, the caring, gracious and genteel Peach is a man who loathes causing harm or giving offence. Thus, he spends his service commanding the dregs of the military in the ghastly misshapes of the 469th Halftrack, Gravedigging & Support Unit of the Afrika Korps, always endeavouring to remain stylish, elegant, polite and ever-so-patient with and to the assorted waifs, wastrels and warriors on both sides of the unfortunate all-encompassing conflict.
It’s a thankless, endless task: the 469th harbours the absolute worst the Wehrmacht has ever conscripted, from malingerers and malcontents to useless wounded, shiftless conmen, screw-ups and outright maniacs.
Pfirsich unilaterally applies the same decorous courtesies to the sundry natives inhabiting the area as well as the rather tiresome British and Anzac forces – not all of whom are party to the clandestine non-aggression pact Pfirsich has covertly agreed with his opposite numbers in the amassed Allied Forces. In fact, the only people to truly annoy the peace-loving Peach are boors, bigots, bullies and card-carrying Blackshirts…
The romantic fool is also passionately in love with and engaged to Rosen Kavalier: handsome Aryan warrior and wildly manly Luftwaffe Ace, but arguably the true star of these fabulous frothy epics is the Peach’s long-suffering, unkempt, crafty, ill-mannered, bilious and lazily scrofulous orderly Udo Schmidt.
This is a man (we’re at least assured of that!) of many secrets, whose one redeeming virtue is his uncompromising loyalty and devotion to the only decent man and tolerable officer in the entire German army.
This eccentric aggregation of extras, excerpts and exotica was first released in 1993, collecting extraneous material from a variety of sources and covering the period 1987-1993: as much an affectionate art-book as delicious dose of non- or mis-canonical hi-jinks.
The entire package was subsequently re-released in 2006 in a Director’s Cut edition which added issue #25 of the sporadic series: a WWI Transylvanian Hammer-Horror pastiche entitled ‘Beautiful’ to the mix and includes reminiscences, background commentary and creator-kibitzing regarding all the esoteric tales and titbits.
The gloriously engaging affair begins with an Unused Pin Design and splendid Badge Design taken from the San Diego Comic-Con 1989, after which a quartet of stunning and bizarre Beer Labels (for ales created by micro brewer Wendell Joost in 1988) precedes ‘Peach on Earth’ (from A Very Mu Christmas 1992) – one of the very best Christmas stories ever produced in the notoriously twee and sentimental comics biz.
Set in the harsh December of 1945, it follows demobbed and repatriated Pfirsich as he wanders through his broken and occupied homeland: avoiding trouble and American troops but not the gnawing starvation and freezing snows which would kill so many returning, defeated German soldiers. On the verge of despair and death, the Peach is brusquely adopted by a strange, brittle and utterly fearless little boy who has only known the Fatherland in the throes of decline, but still looks eagerly to a brighter tomorrow…
This is followed by a rather risqué Rosen Kavalier pinup from 1991’s Paper Phantasies and an unused strip commissioned by Rip Off Press, after which ‘Whipping Boy’ offers a full-on adult escapade of unconventional lovers, as is ‘I Am What I Am… (I Think)’. This was a “Desert Peach Pitt Stop” that languished unpublished until this collection preserved it.
Bits ‘n’ Pieces was a short-lived self-published magazine the indefatigable author used to disseminate assorted works which never made it into the regular, normal-length Desert Peach title, and ‘The Veteran’ comes from the first issue in 1991. It returns focus to the motley cast of the hapless 469th for a pleasurably philosophical foray starring a most peculiar and innocent warrior named Thommi, whilst – following a frolicsome Desert Peach pinup from the 1989 Amazing Heroes Swimsuit Special – ‘Hindsight’ (Bits ‘n’ Pieces #1) dips into personal politics before ‘Reflections’ (BnP #3, 1991) offers a few New Year’s observations on the cast and stars from Barr herself.
1991 San Diego Comic-Con’s booklet provided another beguiling Pinup before ‘Udo and the Phoenix’ (Xenophon#1, 1992) relates another tale of the spirited Arab horse accidentally owned by Udo and cared for by the equally magnificent Pfirsich.
Next, ‘Reluctant Affections’ (BnP #1 before being redrawn as ‘Pigeonholed’ for Gay Comics #16) explores a tender, fragile moment and adorable chink in the macho armour of uber-Mensch Rosen…
‘The More Things Change’ comes from 1992 benefit book Choices, debating the abortion issue with characteristic abrasive aplomb, after which ‘Sweet Delusions’ (Wimmin’s Comix #16, 1991) gets down to the eye-watering nitty-gritty of Rosen & Pfirsich’s love life and ‘Wet Dream’ (Bits ‘n’ Pieces #3) follows up with more of the same in a hilariously wry maritime moment.
Barr’s creations are never far from always internally consistent flights of extreme fantasy, as observed in glorious diversion ‘The Oasis’ (Centaurs Gatherum 1990) with Pfirsich and brother Erwin finding a strategically priceless waterhole with a fantastic secret and forced to spend a truly outrageous time trapped as hybrid half horses…
This captivating chronicle concludes with a selection of ‘Peach Pits’ miscellanea: illustrations, roughs and small press items culled from the Desert Peach Musical books, T-shirts and posters. There’s some fascinating rough layouts from the aforementioned ‘Peach on Earth’, an unused page from DP #17 (the superb ‘Culture Shock’ as seen in The Desert Peach: Marriage & Mayhem and assorted stuff from Zine Zone #13, 1992. Even more extras include covers from Germanophilic Amateur Press Association magazine “Krauts”, and shirt designs before the whole outrageous escapade ends well with an implausibly “true tail” starring half-horse Stinz Löwhard, Pfirsich and Erwin in a ‘Character Revolt’ from 1987’s Fan-toons #19.
Desert Peach adventures are bawdy, raucous, satirical, authentically madcap and immensely engaging: bizarre (anti) war stories which rank amongst the very best comics of the 1990s. Even now they still pack a shattering comedic kick and – if you’re not quite braced – poignantly emotional charge.
The Desert Peach ran for 32 intermittent issues via a number of publishers and was collected as 8 graphic novel collections (1988-2005). A prose novel, Bread and Swans, a musical and an invitational collection by other artists (Ersatz Peach) were also created during the strip’s heyday. A larger compendium, Seven Peaches, collected issues #1-7 and Pfirsich’s further exploits, as part of the now much-missed Modern Tales webcomics collective.
Illustrated in Barr’s fluidly seductive wood-cut and loose-line style, this book is an absolute must-have item for lovers of wit, romance, slapstick, high drama and belly-laughs as well as grown-up comics in general.
All the collections are pretty hard to locate these days but if you have any facility with the digital world they can still be found. There’s also chatter that Robot Comics will be re-releasing the entire saga digitally sometime soon. Let’s hope so…
© 1987-1993 Donna Barr. All rights reserved. The Desert Peach is ™ Donna Barr.