The Perishers his bathtime struggles with Wellington usually turn into epic battles. Boot's favourite food appears to be links of sausages, and his attempts to consume these in advance of Wellington provide the basis of many episodes. Boot was originally drawn with a short tail (on one occasion he met a bob-tailed sheepdog, and on hearing the name decided to call his own tail Fred), but Maurice Dodd later discovered that real Old English Sheepdogs' tails are docked, and so over the course of several years Collins drew his tail shorter and shorter until it vanished altogether – Boot still appears completely
The Cartoon History of the Universe History of the Universe"'s publication. "The Cartoon History" is illustrated in a black-and-white cartoon style. Gonick occasionally uses crosshatching and other realistic drawing techniques, but he primarily draws with a lively brush-and-ink squiggle that resembles Bill Watterson's "Calvin and Hobbes", Walt Kelly's "Pogo", and René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo's "Astérix". Occasionally, as in the sequences on India in the second book, he mimics Gilbert Shelton's style from "The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers". His tribute to "Asterix" is explicit. When Gauls are depicted, not only do they often resemble Goscinny and Uderzo's characters Asterix and Obelix, but when Gonick treats the