The Desert Peach
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- This article is about the comic book series. Plants that are sometimes called "desert peach" include Prunus andersonii and Quandong.
The Desert Peach is a comic book created by Donna Barr chronicling the adventures of The Desert Fox General Erwin Rommel's imaginary pretty younger brother, Manfred Pfirsich Marie Rommel---the Desert Peach (Peach=Pfirsich). Barr has said that she got the idea originally from seeing an office she was working in painted a horrible half-pink, half-tan color, and deciding that this color was "desert peach." Since 1989, the history of Pfirsich Rommel in life, hell and afterlife is told in now 32 comic book issues.
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[edit] The 469th
Oberst (colonel) Pfirsich Rommel is the commander of the 469th Halftrack, Gravedigging and Support Unit---a catchall place where the Afrika Korps can send its misfits. It lies in a non-fighting area on an escarpment at the sea (so they have the opportunity to go for a swim or go surfing). Among the never-do-wells under Pfirsich's command are his orderly, Udo Schmidt, an early member of the Nazi Party (there are two stories how he joined) - a dirty, hairy and unshaved little guy who claims that he looks like "that" because his mother is Italian and who is circumcised - for medical reasons, so he says; Leutnant Kjars Winzig ("the human swastika"), a would-be political officer who was too cheap to join the Party despite his great admiration for it; his tent-mate and buddy, the American prisoner of war Jeff Holz who is harmlessly occupied by editing the camp newspaper because he's the only one who can write German good enough; Corporal Doberman, a drug-addled head injury patient with his pet landmine Fridl; the mute radio operator Kristof Falbe; a runaway Kossak and a black Morrocain. Furthermore, the reader gets to know the good-looking, always smoking Catholic Field Bishop Stange, the Medical Officer Dr. Eddsel ("the shrink"), the loyal Major Alemar Rauschling, Pfirsich's pilot Hauptmann Zeichner von Drachenberg and his peach-colored reconnaissance plane, the cook Krüger, Leutnant Zachs, Feldwebel Mögen and many more sweating, unwashed and mostly unshaved would-be soldiers.
Not to forget Pfirsich's fiancée, Oberleutnant (Senior Lieutenant) Rosen Kavalier, a sexy Luftwaffe officer, with his officially non-existing Stuka, the "Wandering Ju". While Pfirsich is modest and old-fashioned, the much younger Rosen seems to be quite the opposite: he's irresistible charming, a skirt-chaser, mannerless, rude, without any sense for respect, decency or being discreet. He loves "The Peach" truly, but separates between love and sex (which he sees as his "favorite recreation"). Many people wonder what Pfirsich sees in Rosen. Pfirsich's answer is that "Love is blind. - And, in my case, deaf". They share a love which is rare between people whichever sex they might be. It was love at first sight - in Paris. You can't help that. "Rosen Kavalier" is a pseudonym, his name is actually Melvin Gonville Ramsbottom. He claims that his father was English and settled down in Hamburg, so he surely had reasons to conceal his given name, but Udo suspects it is in part simply because his old name was ugly. Like most pilots, he values two things. His watch is smaller...
[edit] Manfred Pfirsich Marie Rommel
Some would say he’s a faggot, some would say the gentleman is a lady, he prefers the expression „human being“: Pfirsich is, with his peach-colored scarf (Not pink. Pink is tacky.), the pearl earring and his effeminate behavior, obviously queer; he’s aware that he can only act openly this way because all the surveillance of both society and politics doesn’t exist in the desert. And his men get used to him. Or just forget about his totally unimportant sexual orientation. He’s brave and doesn’t think about his own safety or life. People he’s in charge for come first and he’d do anything to protect them. He is awfully pretty and handsome, an able officer, a good combatant (although he avoids fighting when possible and despises weapons) and he's deeply respected and loved by (most of) his men. He is decent, loyal and solves nearly every human problem with a cup of tea or a good meal (as meals in the army go). He knows that it's more difficult being nice than being mean and killing each other and he knows that the only way to get his men through war alive is keeping them out of combat (or out of Germany). Which he sees as his duty as an officer. Being mostly gentle and polite, you wouldn't want to be on the wrong side when he looses his famous family temper. He tries to be a good person, and who would be one, if not him? Pfirsich appears to be of a naive innocence, so he's often underestimated, but he is intelligent, smart and sensible. Pfirsich goes through hell on earth after the defeat of the Afrika Korps, but he keeps a little light of his innocence deep inside him. Netherteless, he finds himself in his very own hell after death because he can't forgive himself. At least not for 6000 years. In the afterlife as Official Dead he is a gardener in a city of "The Reich". He loves his country but doesn't, for obvious reasons, agree with the political ideas of his time. General Erwin Rommel is said to be honest and fair in the dirty business of war (for what he's still respected). His brother Pfirsich's unit is an oasis of humanity in the wasteland of insanity, hate, violence and racism of the Third Reich.
He has a son, Manfred Erwin Mohammed Marie Oiseau, but that wasn't his idea. Definitely not. The story of the 469th includes a marriage, too. And an Arab horse, Phoenix. Furthermore, there are the darling ladies of an establishment named "The Cedars", native tribes of Touareg, Berber and Arabs and lots of camels. The street-wise orphan Hans is part of Pfirsich's family after 1945.
The famous Rommel brothers aren't so different as you would think at first glance. They love each other and get along fairly well. Erwin is the only one of the family Pfirsich trusts enough to tell about him being what they call a "jewel". Erwin always hopes that his younger brother will "staighten out" one day. But that has no effect on the brothers' respect for each other. Pfirsich is partly in the army to avoid prosecution, partly because he wants to look after his politically naive older brother. He's one of the few people who knows how Erwin Rommel really died.
[edit] About the Desert Peach series
The series is not only comedy. Although it includes, besides other gags, men in drag, an apricot-coloured poodle and an exploding officer's latrine, it deals with more serious issues: The Afrika Korps is located in Africa, but it is part of the Wehrmacht and so the Rommels have to face SS and worse coming from Nazi Germany at various times. There’s always a hint of the doom of future days, but hope, too. Rumour about concentration camps and the Final Solution soak through and get verified. The Rommel brothers aren’t the ones to ignore such horrible things. They’re the ones to do something against it. But with the end of the Afrika Korps comes the hard time which leads to death, guilt and finally hell.
The saga of the Desert Peach and Erwin Rommel is also the subject of a novel by Barr, Bread and Swans.
A Desert Peach musical was produced in 1992. A CD was recorded and is available for sale.
[edit] Bibliography
Some of the issues are sold out.
- At MuPress/Aeon http://www.mupress.com:
- The Desert Peach #1: Who is This Man?
- The Desert Peach #2: The Bar Fight
- The Desert Peach #3: A Day At The Beach
- The Desert Peach #4: Is There A Nazi In The House?
- The Desert Peach #5: Flight Of Fancy
- The Desert Peach #6: A Day Like Any Other
- The Desert Peach #7: Spoiled Friut
- The Desert Peach #8: Dressing Down
- The Desert Peach #9: Scourge Of Love
- The Desert Peach #10: Two-Timers
- The Desert Peach #11: Straight and Narrow
- The Desert Peach #12: Child Of The World
- The Desert Peach #13: Nobody
- The Desert Peach #14: Surprise, Surprise
- The Desert Peach #15: The Triangle Trade
- The Desert Peach #16: Plight Of The Phoenix
- The Desert Peach #17: Culture Shock
- The Desert Peach #18: Musical Program (totally sold out)
- The Desert Peach #19: Self-Propelled Target
- The Desert Peach #20: Fever Dreams
- The Desert Peach #21: The Good Uncle
- The Desert Peach #22: Lady Luck
- The Desert Peach #23: Visions
- The Desert Peach #24: Ups And Downs
- The Desert Peach #25: Beautiful
- The Desert Peach Collection: Beginnings (issues 1 - 3)
- The Desert Peach Collection: Politics, Pilots and Puppies (issues 4 - 6)
- The Desert Peach Collection: Foreign Relations (issues 7 - 9)
- The Desert Peach Collection: Baby Games (issues 10 - 12)
- The Desert Peach Collection: Belief Systems (issues 13 - 15)
- The Desert Peach Collection: Marriage and Mayhem (issues 16 - 19)
- Ersatz Peach
- Peach Slices (first edition - sold out)
- A Fine Line Press (available at mupress till #30)
- The Desert Peach #26: Miki
- The Desert Peach #27: New And Different
- The Desert Peach #28: Tongue
- The Desert Peach #29: Out Of The East
- The Desert Peach #30: Headaches
- The Desert Peach #31: Pithed
- The Desert Peach #32: Keeper
- Peach Slices (second edition, with additional artwork and Desert Peach #25)
- Seven Peaches contains the first seven Desert Peach issues
- Bread and Swans, the Desert Peach Novel
