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Pope Adrian VI Pope Adrian VI ( la, Hadrianus VI; it, Adriano VI; nl, Adrianus/Adriaan VI), born Adriaan Florensz Boeyens (2 March 1459 – 14 September 1523), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 January 1522 until his d ...

.'' Adrian the Barbarian (later Olaff the Madlander) was a comic strip in the comic

The Beezer ''The Beezer'' (called ''The Beezer and Topper'' for the last three years of publication) was a British comic that ran from (issues dates) 21 January 1956 to 21 August 1993, published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. Comic strips in ''The Beezer' ...

, and later the merged Beezer and Topper, first introduced in 1989. It featured a boy who dressed as a

barbarian A barbarian (or savage) is someone who is perceived to be either Civilization, uncivilized or primitive. The designation is usually applied as a generalization based on a popular stereotype; barbarians can be members of any nation judged by som ...

with a magical sword. He lived in a very strange world where almost anything could happen, whether it be good or bad. Many

inanimate Animation is the interpolation of dissimilar frames over a finite period. Animate may also refer to: * Animate noun or animacy, a grammatical category * Animate (retailer), a Japanese anime retailer * "Animate" (song), by Rush * "Animate", a so ...

objects gained life in the strip, for example a pile of coal for the fire turned into a man called Old King Coal. He appeared in The Beezer annual until the last one dated 2003. In July 2008, as of issue 3441, ''Adrian the Barbarian'' was reprinted in

The Beano ''The Beano'' (formerly ''The Beano Comic'', also known as ''Beano'') is a British anthology comic magazine created by Scottish publishing company DC Thomson. Its first issue was published on 30 July 1938, and it became the world's longest-runn ...

under the new title of ''Olaff the Madlander''. An explanation was written at the top of the page saying that Olaff and his mum had just moved to the Madlands, but should have been going to the

Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...

. This strip was not the first of them, but new speech bubbles indicated that it was (Adrian/Olaff is walking through the door one morning and his mum asks him how he was after the move. This was not in the original, as it is taken from a random issue of the Beezer and Topper – no. 49 to be exact). Olaff the Madlander has only ever appeared in The Beano as reprints, never as new strips. ''Olaff the Madlander'' replaced fellow Beezer and Topper reprint,

Fred's Bed Over the years ''The Beano'' has had many different strips, ranging from comic strips to adventure strips to prose stories. Prose stories were the first to go, being phased out in 1955. Adventure strips were phased out in 1975, with the last on ...

. The two strips have never appeared in the same issue together. However, when the Beano received a revamp in issue 3454, (18 October 2008), Fred's Bed returned to the comic, and Olaff has not appeared since. The first few strips were drawn by

Nigel Parkinson Nigel Parkinson is a British cartoonist who works for D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd and mainly draws for ''The Beano'' and ''The Dandy''. Biography Parkinson is the official artist for Dennis the Menace in ''The Beano''. His career in comics began ...

, but his version of the character was disliked by the comic's staff, and so for the most part

Sid Burgon Sidney William Burgon (3 October 1936), better known as Sid Burgon, is a British comics artist. After working as a mechanic and drawing as a hobby he was encouraged by coworkers into furthering his artistic interests. He gave up his job in 1963 an ...

was the strip's artist, with occasional strips also being drawn by

John Geering John Keith Geering (9 March 1941 – 13 August 1999) was a British cartoonist with a distinctive, occasionally flamboyant style, most famous for his work for DC Thomson comics including '' Sparky'', '' The Topper'', '' Cracker'', ''Plug'', ''Nut ...

. After a year, the character started appearing on the cover of the comic in addition to his appearances on the inside. These cover stories were drawn by Robert Nixon.

References

British comics British comics characters British humour comics 1989 comics debuts Comics characters introduced in 1989 Child characters in comics Male characters in comics Fantasy comics Comics about children Comics set in the United Kingdom DC Thomson Comics strips {{comic-strip-stub