This was artist Leo Baxendale's first strip for The Beano, and remained the character he was most fond of. It was taken over by Ron Spencer in 1962.

It ran from 10th October 1953 (issue 586) to 18th October 1986 (issue 2310), and also appeared in the Beano books for 1956-1988 and 1990.

After his last weekly appearance, Plum occasionally turned up in the 1987 feature "Reader's request". There were also reprints in the 1988 feature "Old Masters". There were two one-off appearances in issues 2436 and 2470 (1989), and then nothing until 1999 when there was a short run drawn by Tom Paterson.