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Wednesday 10 November 2010

Bought Any Donna Barr? Oh,You Simply Must!

I personally do not believe Donna Barr gets all the internet mentions she ought to!  And, because I’ve been a big fan since the 1980s I thought it worth re-capping for those who missed this before:

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If you have never read an issue of Donna Barr’s wonderful comic masterpiece,The Desert Peach,I feel really sad for you.  Seriously.

Back in the day [they KEEP saying that but which day??] I used to take all the latest Desert Peach books to the Westminster Comic Mart to show around to other creators [it was our "catch-up" time].  There was never ever a negative comment about DP.  Lots of staring closely at the artwork and I know a few people purchased copies [hey I had a DP pin and a t-shirt!].

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These classic books,with extra new stuff,are all available at Indy Planet:
http://www.indyplanet.com/store/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=desert+peach&osCsid=a0vptcs00qa9rh7pdgndoo04b4

But here is what you’ll find in the first three [TEN issues are currently available].

The Desert Peach #1[4142_30803] 
$3.75     
Written and Illustrated by Donna Barr
Standard Comic
Black & White
Page Count: 36
POD

“Love, Honor, Death and Tea” – the perfect description for the life of The Desert Peach, the Desert Fox’s younger, gay brother. Based on the stranger – but too often true – side of World War Two, this classic series has changed lives and scrambled minds for two generations.

The Desert Fox’s pretty younger brother, the Desert Peach, takes him on a picnic, where they are interrupted by those rude boys from the British 8th Army. Shards of fine porcelain and bullets will fly!

The Desert Peach TM and © Donna Barr. All rights reserved.
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The Desert Peach #2[4142_31023]  $3.95 
Written and Illustrated by Donna Barr
Standard Comic
Black & White
Page Count: 36
POD

The Desert Peach and his orderly drop into the local bar for a nice, cool beer, where they discover that prejudice must always be struggled against. The episode features some of the most beautiful fight scenes between two muscular men anywhere in the series, including one of the most fearsome kicks, and some nasty work with a table.

“Love, Honor, Death and Tea” — this sums up the life of The Desert Peach, the Desert Fox’s gay brother. The classic series swings wildly from tragedy to belly-laughs, as World War Two flaunts itself at its weirdest.
The Desert Peach  TM and © Donna Barr. All rights reserved.
dp003.jpg
The Desert Peach #3[4142_31082]  $3.99   
Written and Illustrated by Donna Barr
Standard Comic
Black & White
Page Count: 36
POD
The Peach uses a recent prisoner, from Hawaii, to talk his high-ranking brother into surfing for submarines. The Afrika Korps — including Desert Fox Erwin Rommel — in historically correct Afrika Korps bathing costume — nothing and their hats. Donna Barr takes on the fear of nudity that is rampant in America by letting another people who is not so immature about the natural and normal take it all off. Sun, sand and coffin-lids; it never got funnier or weirder in the entire series.

“Love, Honor, Death and Tea” — the life of the Desert Peach, the gay brother of The Desert Fox, Germany’s famous WWII Field Marshal, Erwin Rommel. All 30 issues of the original classic will publish be available from Ka-Blam.

The Desert Peach TM and © Donna Barr. All rights reserved.

And the other item in case you missed it,folks:

Donna Barr,that doyenne of the Independent comics world is still alive,kicking and publishing! When I interviewed Donna back in 1989/1990 for Zine Zone International,MU Press were still publishing The Desert Peach and then there was the half-man-half-horse,Stinz.  So,apart from slating that great British theatrical and later radio creation of two coconut halves =horses hooves,what has Ms Barr to offer us today?

   LOTS!


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Firstly,Donna is now her own publisher so no messing around.  The Desert Peach is currently up to issue #12 and can be found at Indyplanet:

http://www.indyplanet.com/catalog/index.php?osCsid=a55bf6ef2366202a46ea3cdb37f1256b&manufacturers_id=1090&osCsid=a55bf6ef2366202a46ea3cdb37f1256b

Long url but worth it.

Years after first reading The Desert Peach,I still look through them and find a smile [or a tear –“tear” as in crying not ripped pages!].  The art style is pretty much unique and though you might not like war comics you ought to like these and if you do enjoy war comics this is for you!  Sheer brilliance.
You can take a look at the book in its online format at:

http://www.desert-peach.com/


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And then there is Stinz.

AN INSUPPOTRABLE LIGHT
An Insupportable Light is the original Stinz novel, featuring Donna Barr’s half-horse hero back when she thought of him as having two legs instead of four. The story begins at the end of one war, with the hope of peace. Then one small incident after another, building and combining like pebbles tossed down a slope, become an avalanche of misunderstandings, broken hearts, fury and revenge. It’s about how wars start: nobody wants them, nobody can see them coming and nobody can stop them. “This is not so much a story about a war as it is a portrait of human folly at its most resplendent. It is as poignant and relevant today as it was when humanity first formed civilizations; as it will be so long as we exist.” — Carlos F. Chancellor, Tales from the Cold; The Comic Art of the Northwest.

But there really is more! You can check out all of Donna’s books at her lulu.com storefront at:

http://www.lulu.com/desertpeach

There is also After Dead.  What’s it about?

AFTERDEAD 1.2 — A Beautiful Death

This book is the first 64 pages after the original AFTERDEAD. “A Beautiful Death” tells the story of the Desert Peach in an afterlife completely unlike anything he’d expected. In the AfterReich, the black centaur stallion Stinz has been chosen for the honor of breeding for the Reich. He wants the Desert Fox’s gay brother to accompany him for moral support, especially against his own wife, who is SO PROUD of him. Pope Rosen takes on the Mormon breeding-farm commandant. A roller-derby queen and company officer is invited to her brother’s prisoner wedding — with him as the wife. The Peach brings plenty of hankies. “A Beautiful Death” is the full-color version of the black and white version, originally published as “The Desert Peach Crosses Over.” That version is out of print.


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Now I really do think this is a book I have to buy! Missed out on it completely!

Support original comic book genius!  Support Donna Barr and she’ll keep delivering great books!

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