Robbie Rebel

Robbie Rebel premiered in The Beano comic in February 2001. Based extensively on Robbie Williams, who at that time was very popular, his creators aim to make him the Dennis the Menace of the 21st Century: his adventures are set in a contemporary world of mobile phones, computers and music videos.

His first appearance showed him being born 'seven years ago', and being smacked on the bottom by the nurse to start his breathing. Instead of crying, he giggles. This sets the tone of the strip: Robbie is a rebel who does nothing he is told (although he occasionally does as he's told if he can make a job hard for his parents or anyone else (for instance scrapping a whole kitchen for a compost heap, when his dad told him to find scraps in the kitchen for the heap)). His appearance was a breath of fresh air to The Beano, long jeans, school shoes and a t-shirt, usually with an animal motif on it giving the wrong sound for the animal (so the silhouette of a Duck going 'moo' etc) and has "No way" written on the back of all of them. A few strips later we were introduced to his dog, Defido, who, like his Master, is a rebel.

Robbie has had two girls going after him, both competing to make him their boyfriend. They are called Kylie Geriwall and Geri Minogue (a mix-up from the singers Geri Hallewall and Kylie Minogue) and Kylie won (eventually, seeing as he always rejected them).

Robbie is drawn by Desperate Dan artist Ken H Harrison, and his clean drawing style immediately cemented the strips'popularity. Because of Ken's continuing work on Desperate Dan, Robbie has not appeared as regularly as other characters such as Roger the Dodger or Billy Whizz. With Desperate Dan's revamp when the Dandy got a facelift in September 2004, both were drawn in the same style (as opposed to the 'old' Desperate Dan where Ken drew things more detailed).