Lesley Presley Pretend is a fictional character in a

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

(Les Pretend) in the UK

comic a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicat ...

The Beano ''The Beano'' (formerly ''The Beano Comic'') is a British anthology comic magazine created by Scottish publishing company DC Thomson. Its first issue was published on 30 July 1938, and it published its 4000th issue in August 2019. Popular and ...

'' with the byline "the Little kid with the big imagination". Originally drawn by John Sherwood, he first appeared in issue 2493, dated 28 April 1990. In each issue, Les pretends to be something and dresses up like it, beginning with a

martian Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, has appeared as a setting in works of fiction since at least the mid-1600s. Trends in the planet's portrayal have largely been influenced by advances in planetary science. It became the most popular celes ...

in his debut. His dad is called Des (and is thus one of the few Beano parents to be given a name rather than 'mum' or 'dad'), an

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...

fan and

impersonator An impersonator is someone who imitates or copies the behavior or actions of another. There are many reasons for impersonating someone: *Living history: After close study of some historical figure, a performer may dress and speak "as" that ...

, hence Les' middle name of Presley. Recurring features of the strip are the feasibility of Les' (often improvised) costumes, and the readiness with which Des accepts things like the appearance of a giant creature, and attempts to deal with it in a rational and unfazed way. Sherwood continued to draw the strip until his death in late 2003. The strip then disappeared from ''

'' for a short while, as it was originally planned to retire the character. Eventually, though, it returned to the comic drawn by Trevor Metcalfe, who drew it for about a year between 2004 and 2005, though Steve Bright also drew a few episodes in early 2004. The strip again disappeared before returning a couple of years later, this time drawn by Laura Howell. This was a one off, and showed Les beating a real

Dalek The Daleks ( ) are a fictional extraterrestrial race of extremely xenophobic mutants principally portrayed in the British science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who''. They were conceived by writer Terry Nation and first appeared in th ...

in a Dalek fancy dress competition, and appeared in Beano issue 3402 dated 13 October 200

A Johnny Bean from Happy Bunny Green strip by the same artist followed this up with everyone dressed as vegetables in another fancy dress competition. Les wasn't seen again for nearly a year after that strip until the comic started to run reprints of John Sherwood strips from the 1990s. Laura Howell also drew Les's strip for the 2010 and 2011 Beano Annuals. Sometime shortly before Mike Stirling became editor, Les Pretend was dropped. Les Pretend returned to The Beano in the Funsize Funnies in #3660 drawn by Laura Howell once again. Les also appeared back into the Beano 2016 annual twice, drawn by Laura Howell. he dresses up as his mum and orders pizza, then Des starts to prefer Les for a mum than the actual mum so Les' mum dresses up as Les. Les also dresses up as a cat, which his Dad uses on his Elvis Presley website to attract more people.

References

External links

* on ''The Beano'' official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Les Pretend Beano strips 1990 comics debuts 2020 comics endings Gag-a-day comics Comics about children Pretend, Les Pretend, Les Pretend, Les Pretend, Les Comics set in the United Kingdom