Derek the Sheep is a fictional character

Fictional character

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 and comic strip

Comic strip

A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....

 in the British comic The Beano

The Beano

The Beano is a British children's comic, published by D.C. Thomson & Co and is arguably their most successful.The comic first appeared on 30 July 1938, and was published weekly. During the Second World War,The Beano and The Dandy were published on alternating weeks because of paper and ink...

. He first appeared in issue 3214, dated 21 February 2004. The strip is set on a farm

Farm

A farm is an area of land, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibres and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single...

 and revolves around Derek's endless problems with the other animals.

Derek the Sheep was created by Gary Northfield

Gary Northfield

Gary Northfield is a British comic artist and writer, most famous for his comic character, Derek the Sheep published in DC Thomson's The Beano and BeanoMAXGary graduated from Harrow College University of Westminster with a degree in Illustration in 1992...

 and appeared occasionally in the comic, however, since the Beano re-vamp Derek has not been seen, but appeared regularly in monthly BeanoMAX

BeanoMAX

The BeanoMAX is a monthly British comic published by D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd It is a spin-off of the UK comic, The Beano. Each issue has 44 pages and costs £3.50.The first issue was published on February 15, 2007 and was a Comic Relief special.- Strips :...

 until June 2011. Gary Northfield both writes and draws for the character.

Derek is the only Beano character with his own weblog http://derekthesheep.blogspot.com/ and message board .

Derek is known to be DC Thomson's first ever completely author owned content and has been published in France by Actes Sud/Editions De L'an2 and has a collection of early stories coming out in bookform from Bloomsbury Publishing in September 2008, reprinting the first thirteen strips in The Beano.

Characters

• Derek the sheep
• Lenny the sheep (One of Derek's Friends). Appeared less in the last couple of years
• Cecil the bee (Another 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 (Another of Derek's friends).
• 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 episode "Sold out").
• Farmer Jack, The farmer mentioned quite a lot, but rarely seen.
• Alan the horse
• Benny, Derek's nephew, who has a catchphrase: BEEP! he also has small ears.
• Dave Carrot, who was Derek's companion when he became stranded on an island.
• Bert worm, mentioned on the webblog, although never seen in the comic
• Alan chicken who has wonky legs, who has also only been mentioned on the webblog
• Gnasher, Dennis the Menace
  Dennis the Menace (UK)
  Dennis the Menace, later called Dennis the Menace and Gnasher and now Dennis and Gnasher, is a long-running comic strip in the British children's comic The Beano, published by D. C...
  
  's dog, has appeared in the 2007 Beano Annual
  The 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 73 editions They are traditionally published in August, in time for Christmas, and since 1965 they have had the date of the following year...
  
   episode.
• Walter The Softy
  Walter The Softy
  Walter the Softy, or Softy Walter as he is sometimes called, is the fictional antagonist of Dennis the Menace in the British children's comic The Beano. He made his first appearance in the Beano in 1953. He is a prime target of Dennis and his friends...
  
  also appeared in that story.
• Vera cow. The only girl on the farm, during the last few years.
• Barry chicken. Derek doesnt like him.