The sincerest form of flattery?

Not too long ago, a UK correspondent brought our attention to an obscure British newspaper strip titled Benny, because he felt it resembled Peanuts more than a little. He sent along a few examples, and he definitely had a point.

As it happens, those “few examples” were pretty much the only Benny strips readily available on the Web. That’s likely because the feature appeared in only one newspaper: London’s Daily Herald, from July 27, 1959, through October 14, 1961. Information about the strip’s creator — Derek Chittock, who hid behind the pseudonym “Droc” for Benny — also is rather thin.

Thanks to the British Newspaper Archive and newspapers.com, we were able to assemble all but a few dozen of the strip's entire run. Now armed with so many examples, it quickly became obvious that Benny was a deliberate attempt to mimic Charles Schulz’s popular strip. Unlike Peanuts, though, Benny appeared only Monday through Saturday; there were no Sunday strips ... undoubtedly because the Daily Herald didn't publish on Sundays.

But let’s begin with some background on Chittock.

He was born on February 21, 1922, and — after five years at London’s Slade School of Art — became an excellent artist and painter strongly in the Norman Rockwell tradition, as this magazine cover demonstrates. His work belonged in the Socialist Realism style, and he’s known to have exhibited at the Royal Academy and New English Art Club. He also was active with the Communist Party of Great Britain for roughly a decade — and was an art critic for its Daily Worker newspaper — until he resigned his membership following the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. Be that as it may, those leanings remained evident in Benny, which often was openly political during its entire run. Chittock died on his birthday, in 1986; he was 64.

In addition to the artistic style Chittock employed for Benny — which strongly evokes Schulz — the two strips share these traits:

• Both involve children who are wise beyond their years, and appear to be roughly the same age ... although the only time age is mentioned in a Benny strip, the character says that she’s 5, whereas the Peanuts characters are a few years older.

• Both strips have characters who often break the fourth wall, to address the reader directly.

• Both feature a blend of one-off gag strips and longer “serials” that run a week or more.

• Both occasionally name-check real-world events and individuals. Characters in Benny cite (among others) Austrian biologist Hans Haas, U.S. President Kennedy, jazz musician Johnny Dankworth, and orchestra conductor Malcolm Sargent.

• No adults appear in either strip.

• Both feature dog companions who “talk” — usually to the reader — via thought balloons. That said, the pooches in Benny are just-plain-dogs, and don’t have anything approaching Snoopy’s fantasy escapades.