Peter Pye was the cartoon strip running along the bottom of the children's page the same day as the previous item.Peter, it has to be said, was an Oor Wullie look-a-like, but dressed in medieval clobber and a chef's hat.
There was a good reason for the likeness, however, he was drawn by Wullie's creator, the one & only, Dudley D Watkins, who's now a bit of a legend in the world of cartooning.
Peter Pye's first appearance was in The Dandy way back in the 40's, but was a very short-lived cartoon strip and never cropped up in The Dandy again, so I'm guessing it's reappearance in the 1972 Tele would have been only it's 2nd showing since the original.
Dudley wouldn't have seen the re-run though, because he died in 1969 and is buried in Barnhill Cemetery.
Click on the strip to read the large version.
Photo by JG.
I grew up being amazed at the detail and skill of Dudley D Watkins. His style was a huge influence and contributed in no small way to my career as a cartoonist/illustrator. Dundee was a brilliant place to grow up in if you had any kind of arty ambitions as the whole illustrative thing is a huge part of the history of Dundee. DC Thompsons, Dandy & Beano, now the computer games industry etc . . .
ReplyDeleteThe City council should have DDW's headstone restored asap
ReplyDeleteI agree... shame to see his grave so humble and in poor repair. Watkins was one of our greatest graphic artists, a real genius. Unbelievably prolific.
ReplyDeleteAnd still -- bizarrely -- largely unsung by DC Thomson & Co.
The only cartoon I can remember from the late 60s/early 70s Tele was "Louie", which I assumed was a syndicated US strip. Funnily enough(!), there's a blogger page here:
ReplyDeletehttp://allthingsger.blogspot.com/search/label/Harry%20hanan
I was too young to appreciate them at the time, but the cartoons shown in the link page have aged quite well and can still raise a chuckle, or at least a wry smile of sympathy for the downtrodden hero. Most of the strips seem to date from the early 1950s. The Tele might have been running a bit behind.
Another page reveals that the cartoonist was a Briton who emigrated to the US just after the war. This might explain the tone of the strips, which seem to undermine the usual American optimism.
The children's page (corner) seemed very patronising to me, even long before I became a teenager. They couldn't get away with publishing that sort of stuff today (I hope).
JimW
Re: the headstone
ReplyDeleteThe plants in front are annuals, so the grave was still being tended (by family?) when the photo was taken.
The photo was taken in the mid 90's.
ReplyDeleteThe headstone right next to Dudley's is Robbie McIntosh's!
I know a couple of people who want to be buried in-between the two!
could be wrong but was not Dudley and Leo Baxendale the only artists allowed to sign there work at D.C Thompson's ? Sure they still did not have creative rights that was a battle fought by Alan Moore and Frank Miller years later at DC comics- not DC Thompsons
ReplyDeletemike
Def. going to go visit that grave next time I'm in Dundee, I didn't know Watkins was buried in Barnhill! For a cartoonist (and big Dudley D. fan, natch) it's a bit like a rock'n'roll fan finding out that Elvis is buried in the local boneyard!
ReplyDelete