Real Name: Peter Piper

Identity/Class: Normal human armed with magical pipes

Occupation: School boy

Affiliations: Various statues and pictures he brings to life

Enemies: Bullies

Known Relatives: Unidentified father

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Unspecified

First Appearance: Magic #1 (D.C.Thomson, 22 July 1939-40); Sparky (1965-77), Topper (1986)

Powers/Abilities: Peter could animate statues and pictures with his pipes. He even brought the tiny figures on coins to life at one point. The beings he animates have all the abilities associated with whatever they represent - in other words, birds can fly (even if made from stone), dragons can breathe fire, and the fictional time traveller Dr. How's time and space telephone box can actually travel through time and across space. They also have their own will, and while they frequently are friendly and happy to help Peter, this isn't always the case - when he animates a movie poster's "Dreaded Robots" (Dalek), they immediately attack him. Additionally, his "aim" is imprecise - in the last example, he only intended to animate the friendly aliens in the poster, not the robots, but instead awoke both. The animated beings eventually resume their original forms after a variable amount of time, but any damage or injuries sustained remains - thus when Peter fights a boyhood portrait of his father, the portrait subsequently sports a black eye and ripped clothing.

History: When bullies accosted young Peter Piper in the park one day, the statue of Pan was woken by the ruckus. Deciding that two-against-one wasn't fair odds, Pan used his magic pipes to wake the statue of Samson to deal with the bullies, then gifted the pipes to Peter, which he tested by rousing Cupid's statue to shoot arrows at the fleeing thugs. From this point on, Peter would bring statues or images around him to life, to fight on his behest, help him solve problems, or just to play pranks.

Comments: Created by Dudley Watkins. Peter's appearance changed over the years. Most of the images here are of the Magic version (who resembles Watkins' more famous creation Oor Wullie), but The Sparky's initial version is shown left, and the later Sparky/Topper version at the top of the page.

CLARIFICATIONS: None

Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.

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