Oor
Wullie artists:
Dudley Watkins / Ken Harrison appearances:
8th March
1936 - present
weekly in The Sunday Post
1940
- present
biannual
editions, published
by
DC Thomson
"Guid
night, sleep tight,
An'
dinna let the bugs bite!
An' dinna miss oor wee mite
In yer Sunday Post... a'right?"
Indecipherable to many southerners, but an icon
to those north of the border, that
young Scottish loon Wullie has been scuffing
around the backstreets of Dundee
since 1936. Wullie and his associates The
Broons were born in the studios of
DC Thomson, and they first appeared in the pages
of 'The Sunday Post' before
branching out into biannual publications. Both
the weekly strips and the annuals
are still published today, 60+ years on. And
you can also get your hands on
tie-in calendars and more.
Wullie is a snotty-faced kid, always bored, always
skint, and always looking for
something to do, some way to cause mischief or get
out of a family gathering, or
some way to get rich quick. Every Wullie strip opens
with the lad perched on his
upturned bucket, or on occasion, just the bucket
on its own because Wullie's
'awa' playin' or 'awa' tae school...' or something
similar.
Wullie and his family reside in Dundee, or possibly
Glasgow. The precise setting
isn't identified, but the location is clear and instantly
familiar to anyone who has
grown up in a Scottish town. Wullie spends far too
much of his time dodging
the local bobby, PC Murdoch. His best friends
are his pets, Harry the terrier and
'Jeemy' his mouse. The appeal is in the simplicity.
It's only when you travel to
Scotland that you realise just how iconic Wullie
is. It seems that everyone
knows him, and better still, everyone knows someone just
like him. Why, he's
as Scottish as a fish supper and a can of Irn
Bru!
Like 'The Broons', Wullie was originally drawn
by the masterful Dudley Watkins.
After his death in 1969 the publishers made do with
reprinted strips until 1979
when other artists were drafted in, principally Ken
H Harrison. The strips are
faultless. Panels feature full-figures, in the
classic style. But the current strips
aren't locked in some olde worlde timewarp;
Wullie now embraces modern fads
and fancies, as required, like computer games
and their ilk...
That's
Braw http://www.thatsbraw.co.uk Gavin's Oor Wullie pages
are a treat and include a strip history
and
cover scans presented amidst a
pleasant purple surround with tartanised
buttons. Gavin's done the
same thing for the Broon family, too, and he
includes a fab biography of the
late, great artist Dudley Watkins...
Oor
Wullie homepage http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~painless/... This
one's not been updated for yonks, but it was the first online back
in '98. A 'clunky' page now, with
some large Wullie scans all off-set against
a dizzying tartan background. Be
patient - those strips take time to load...
Oor
Wullie http://www.oorwullie.tk/
And here's Richie's shrine
now. This one features an animated splash
page, a profile page and a collection
of panel scans to make us titter...