The Six-armed Image

Comic strip animal favourites of the 1920s continue their epic animated adventure around the world

Were you in the Wilfredian League of Gugnuncs? Pip the dog, Squeak the penguin and Wilfred the rabbit were comic strips stars of the 1920s and beyond. Bertram Lamb and A.B. Payne’s characters appeared in the Daily Mirror from 1919 to 1956, and in 1921 they featured in an animated series produced by Lancelot Speed.

Here they disembark an airship to land on the mysterious Island of Anchovy, escape the clutches of a mysterious idol, board a steamer to Calcutta and reach the top of Mount Everest. That this is all squeezed into one episode (number 11 of perhaps 25) shows how epic their journey was. Sadly only a handful of episodes survive, but see Popski’s Early Life also on the BFI Player.