Bully Beef and Chips

' ''YAROO! OOYAH! HELP!

'these were but three of the milder exclamations yelped out by BULLY BEEF, after recieving his just dessertsusually in the posterior, after his brawny misdeeds backfire on him, after the usual diet of dirty tricks have been unleashed on all-round nice guy CHIPS''' in the opening frames.

BULLY BEEF and CHIPS is without doubt one of the major long-running success stories within Dandy's history, it's universal premise of a bullying baddie being perhaps all-too-familar to many readers of all ages. Bully Beef [or 'Beefy' as he is often 'lovingly' dubbed'] was an oddly sadistic specimen, who delighted in the often brutal---and always unprovoked--treatment and tauntings of the undeserving Chips, and the slapstick encounters invariably ended up with the tables being turned on the anti-social Beefy, with a typical final frame depicting a laughing, triumphant Chips giggling harmoniously, as painful, but justifiable [in the context of the cavortings] punishment is dished out to Bully Beef as stars of pain fly from his rump-end.

Beefy had parents that definately 'gave birth' to him: his dad is a middle-aged version of the young Beefy, but with a pot-belly and Friar Tuck-like hairdo. Even Beefy's mum resembles an older version of the young bully in drag [!] Chip's dad was clearly more refined-looking than Beefy's, which possibly accounts for young Chip's more easy-going nature. Chips' mum did look a bit different to the other family members, however.

This strip debuted in the June 19, 1967 edition, and was boldly rendered by Jimmy Hughes, who apparantly operated out of a large caravan in his garden, which doubled as his art studio. Although his cartoonery was solid and workmanlike, some loftier critics have unfairly derided his artistic abilities, and even within the hallowed halls of D.C. Thomson itself, there were editors who claimed that they 'wouldnae gie him hoose-room',: indeed OINK! comic put out a less-than-wholesome satire regarding Jimmy's style in the late 80s: not that Jimmy needed to worry: his work overall [and this strip in particular] was massively successful, and it's no exaggeration to say that BULLY BEEF and Chips is still familiar to millions, and even to casual comic-fans who are aware of who these characters are, over two decades after the original [and probably best] incarnation ceased.

In Dandy polls, this original version of the strip almost always came out second in popularity : Desperate Dan was so far out ahead in front, that the comic never bothered counting his votes] which gives some indication of how widely-known [and loved] this classic strip was.