Derek the Sheep is a fictional character and

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

in the

British comic A British comic is a periodical published in the United Kingdom that contains comic strips. It is generally referred to as a comic or a comic magazine, and historically as a comic paper. British comics are usually Comics anthology, comics antho ...

'' The Beano''. He first appeared in issue 3214, dated 21 February 2004. The strip is set on a farm and was about Derek's endless problems with the other animals. Derek the Sheep was created by

Gary Northfield Gary Northfield is a British cartoonist, most famous for his ''Derek the Sheep'' comic strip published in DC Thomson's ''The Beano'' and ''BeanoMAX''. Northfield graduated from Harrow College University of Westminster with a degree in Illustratio ...

and appeared occasionally in the comic, however, since the Beano re-vamp Derek has not been seen, but appeared regularly in monthly BeanoMAX until June 2011. Gary Northfield both writes and draws for the character. Derek has been published in France by Actes Sud/Editions De L'an2 and a collection the first thirteen strips was published in bookform from

Bloomsbury Publishing Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. It is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index. Bloomsbury's head office is located in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a U ...

in September 2008. The character is known as Norbert Le Mouton in French. Three further collections were published by Bog Eyed Books in 2018; named: Let's Bee Friends, The First Sheep in Space and Danger is my middle name.

Characters

*Derek the Sheep *Lenny the Sheep: He is Derek's friend. Appeared less in the last couple of years *Cecil the Bee: Another one of Derek's friends. *Doris the Bee: Cecil's sister. Has a crush on Derek. Normally quite sweet-natured, but dangerous when angry. *Nobby the Hedgehog *Kevin the Rabbit: Generally took over as the second character in the last couple of years. *Big Baz: Derek's worst enemy. *Mad Nigel: Derek's second worst enemy. Hasn't been seen since the last part of Sold Out, when he was given to the zoo in place of zebras. *Rodney the Bull: *Bernard the Goat: *Bingo the Goat: Seen only in the strip "Sold Out". *Farmer Jack: Mentioned quite a lot, but rarely seen. *Alan the Horse: *Benny the Sheep: Derek's nephew, who always said "Beep!". *Dave Carrot, who was Derek's companion when he became stranded on an island. *Bert Worm, mentioned on the weblog, although never seen in the comic. *Alan Chicken: A chicken who has wonky legs, who has also only been mentioned on the weblog. *

Gnasher Gnasher () is a fictional comic strip character that appears in the British comic magazine ''The Beano''. He is the pet dog of Dennis the Menace, who meets him in 1968's issue 1362, and is also the star of three spin-off comic strips. Gnasher i ...

, Dennis the Menace's dog, has appeared in the 2007

Beano Annual ''The Beano Annual'' is the current name of the book that has been published every year since 1939, to tie in with the children's comic ''The Beano''. there have been 84 editions. The annuals are traditionally published in July or August, in t ...

episode. * Walter The Softy also appeared in that story. *Vera Cow: The only girl on the farm, during the last few years. *Barry Chicken: Derek doesn't like him.

References

Beano strips Comics characters introduced in 2004 Fictional sheep 2004 comics debuts 2011 comics endings British comics characters Comics about animals Comics about sheep DC Thomson Comics strips Male characters in comics {{comics-char-stub