Dudley Dexter Watkins

• Born: 27^th February 1907, Manchester, England
• Died: 20^th August 1969, Broughty Ferry, Dundee, Scotland
• Biography adapted partly from the text of Colin Stuart (found at INTERCOM's web site), but substantially expanded using information from articles by George Rosie, Ray Moore, Tom McCready, D.C. Thomson's own publications and my own sources.

From the earliest days of British comics, starting around the late 1800's, most British comic artists laboured in anonymity. Comic papers were aimed entirely at the children's market, and were viewed with contempt by adults. While some artists were permitted to place a discreet set of initials on the pages they drew, others sought ingeniously to sneak their signatures past their editors concealed in the detail of their work, while still others were happy to keep their association with this despised medium as quiet as possible.

One reason for the enforced anonymity of British comic artists was that publishers preferred to treat them as interchangeable cogs. Artists could never be permitted to assume greater importance than the characters whose exploits they portrayed, week in week out.

One exception to the rule was Dudley D. Watkins, His first signed drawing - as a professional artist - appeared on the title page of The Broons annual published on 17 November 1939 and was signed simply 'WATTY' but it was still some time before he was permitted to sign his work on a regular basis. From September 1946 onwards, his full name appeared in neatly lettered block capitals at the foot of thousands of impeccably drawn pages, in billions of printed impressions. It was a privilege which made him undoubtedly the best known British comic artist of his time, and perhaps of all time; it was also a privilege richly deserved.

Dudley Dexter Watkins was born in Manchester, England on 27 February 1907, the eldest of three children. In 1910, when he was three years old, his family moved to Nottingham, where his grandfather worked as a designer in the Nottingham lace industry. The son of a lithographic print artist, he showed early artistic talent. At the age of six, it is said, he drew a ceremonial scene on the classroom blackboard entitled ‘The Coming of the Mayor’ and the local education authority was so impressed it dubbed him "an artistic genius for his age". At the age of 12, four paintings he produced of the Nottingham Historical Pageant were included in an exhibition in Nottingham Castle. The local newspaper 'The Nottingham Guardian' declared him a "schoolboy genius". Soon afterwards in 1919 with the help of this parents he attended evening art classes at the Nottingham School of Art.

In the early 1920's, Dudley took a part-time job working in the Window Display Department of the Boots Pure Drug Company, Nottingham, and in March 1923 his first published artwork appeared in Boots' staff magazine, The Beacon; a two page drawing entitled "AS THE TWIG IS BENT____ ____SO THE TREE INCLINES" on the subject of stock control and accountancy - drawn when he was only 15. Over the next few months he went on to contribute several cartoons/illustrations to The Beacon including a full page painting printed on the front page of the August 1923 issue. During this time Dudley continued to study art at evening classes and in 1924 he left Boots to study art on a full time basis on a scholarship at Nottingham School of Art.

It is unclear how exactly he came to the attention of the Dundee publisher DC Thomson but it has been said that during his time at Nottingham School of Art, he was introduced to a representative of DC Thomson who offered him a job on the spot. In 1925, he moved to Dundee and took up the job as a staff artist providing illustrations for D.C. Thomson's story papers. The job was initially offered as a six-month trial period but lasted longer.

The city of Dundee, it is said, was built on "jam, jute and journalism", and the last part of this trinity was embodied by the family firm of D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. The company was founded in 1905 by wealthy Tayside shipping boss William Thomson after he picked up some publishing and printing interests, as a way to make money, and decided to do something with them. With his two sons, Frederick Thomson and David Couper Thomson and their respective wives, Clara, Jessie and Margaret, they formed D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. From the outset the Thomsons spotted the potential at the lower end of the publishing market and aimed their newspapers and magazines unashamedly at that market. E.S. Turner observed: "Its newspapers and weekly journals had a down-to-earth, forthright quality; they made no pretence at aiming at a highbrow public." Couthy homespun philosophy, rather than intellectual rigour, was the formula for success.

In 1921, the huge British market for boys' story papers was dominated by Lord Northcliffe's vast London-based Amalgamated Press. Thomson moved into this territory with the launch of a new and brash weekly, Adventure; Amalgamated responded with Champion (1922), which quickly reached an impressive weekly sale of 500,000 copies. Nothing daunted, the Thomsons promptly riposted with Rover and Wizard (both 1922), and later Skipper (1930) and Hotspur (1933). Collectively Thomson's weeklies came to be known as the "Big Five", and enjoyed tremendous success - at its peak around 1937, the Wizard reportedly sold about 800,000 copies every week, and a 1940 survey found that the Big Five were more popular than any of their competitors among boys aged between 12 and 14.

Dudley Watkins went to work on these boys' papers in 1925, working under the department head and managing editor Robert D. Low. For several years he was just another hand at the drawing board. During his early years there he boosted his salary by teaching life drawing at Dundee Art School. His colleagues of the time recall him as a rather silent but witty character, who made occasional religious pronouncements, and as a snappy dresser with a penchant for bowler hats.

He was called upon to illustrate title blocks and to provide illustrations for huge range of adventure stories. He became the cover artist for the Rover and contributed many illustrations to Thomson's weekly Topical Times. It can be difficult identifying some his early illustration work but examples can be seen in 1930's story papers such as The Rover and The Hotspur and also on the covers of various books and supplements given away free with Thomson's Big Five boys story papers.

R.D. (Robert Duncan) Low was the Managing Editor and Head of Boys Story Papers and he was largely, if not wholly, responsible for the launching and subsequent success of DC Thomson's 'Big Five' story papers through the 1920's and their peak years in the 1930's.

The boy's story papers were full of action and adventure stories. Some short stories, some serialised. Generally the only artworks inside were occasional illustrations to grab the attention of the reader and some short comic sets and cartoons to relieve the text heavy pages. There were some serialised picture stories where an illustration was accompanied by a block of text below it but speech balloons were rare. Although these papers were hugely popular they tended to look rather dark and text heavy, this seems even more pronounced looking back on them now.

It was around 1935 that RD Low had an idea to produce a new styled comic paper. He wanted to compete with Thomson's publishing rivals the Amalgamated Press who were enjoying a post first world war comic boom but was unsure if he would have an audience. He decided he could test the market with a comic supplement that could be given away free inside The Sunday Post newspaper.

RD Low

During development of the new comic supplement RD was keen to keep a degree of realism about the comic characters and encouraged Dudley to base his cartoon characters on real people. It has been said that many of the characters were based on RD's own family members. I have noted below the reported source for the character of Paw Broon but it has also been suggested quite credibly that RD based Maw and Paw Broon on his own Maw and Paw. RD's parents allegedly looked just like the famous Broons with Paw Low rarely being seen without his bunnet and pipe. They even lived in an upstairs flat. Maggie Broon was said to be modeled on RD's own sister and most famously, Oor Wullie was modeled on RD's own son...........

It was in 1935 as RD and Dudley were in a meeting, working to bring their new comic characters to life. They had established the idea for The Broons family but struggled with an identity for their other new character. At some point late in the day, RD's 8 year old son, Ron (Ronald Watterston Duncan) Low walked into his fathers' office to ask when his father would be home for tea. As he stood there, wearing dungarees and carrying a bucket of potatoes from the family allotment, the men looked at each other and knew they had something. RD sent Dudley and young Ron to another room were Dudley sketched the boy sitting on his upturned bucket and Oor Wullie was born.

Watkins' skillful artwork brought the characters to life but as the journalist George Rosie wrote "He (Watkins) never wrote any of the scripts he worked on, he simply drew to order. Albert Barnes or Harold Cramond would send him down the latest adventure of Snooty or Dan, Watkins would sketch it out and promptly return it. "He drew in pencil in a kind of inspired shorthand," says one artist and Watkins admirer. "He could draw so fast it was like writing a letter. He never did his own inking. Someone in the art department did that."*

* I would like to add to the above and say that although Watkins was primarily a painter, he was also known for working well in pen and ink. The instance cited by a 'Watkins admirer' above may have been an isolated instance or time period or more likely a misunderstanding. The story I know is that the editors at DC Thomson sent the cartoon scripts out to Watkins' house. Watkins would draw up a quick draft in pencil and have it taken back to the editors for comment. The editors' comments would be added to the paper borders around the artwork. The drawing would be sent back to Watkins for revision then returned to the editor again for approval. Once approved the drawings would be inked up and I am fairly sure Watkins did his own ink work.

R.D. Low unashamedly steeped 'Oor Wullie' and 'The Broons' in the Scots vernacular and had his characters walk the same Loans and Closes as the readership he wanted to attract. Realism was important to Low and he even suggested that Watkins model certain characters on members of the D.C. Thomson editorial staff.

Pride of place went to Thomson's chief editor at their Glasgow office, A.C. 'Archie' Brown who, both in name and physiognomy - with his sparse, 'swept-across' hairstyle and walrus moustache - was the living embodiment of Paw Broon himself.

The success of the strips, which were created by managing editor R.D. Low and Watkins, encouraged D.C. Thomson to prepare a weekly comic paper, to be sold through the whole of Britain, not just Scotland. The result, on 4 December, 1937, was the first issue of The Dandy Comic, and Watkins was brought in to illustrate three of its features - "Our Gang" (licensed from the Hal Roach film series), "Smarty Grandpa" and "Desperate Dan".

The last of these was to become a classic of British comic art, and Watkins' most famous character. Initially just half a page long, the strip was quickly promoted to two-thirds of a page, and by the end of 1939 it was a full page long. Again, Watkins would continue to draw the strip until his death.

On his debut, Desperate Dan was a rough, tough, bad-tempered cowboy, strong enough to carry a horse on his back and break a tree trunk in half with a punch. However, he soon mellowed into an amiable if none too bright character gifted with super-human strength and invulnerability. Barrel-chested and lantern-jawed, he was so tough he had to use a blow torch to shave.

Over the years, Dan picked up a regular supporting cast, including his Aunt Aggie, nephew Danny and niece Katey (both of whom were also super-strong, though not to the same extent). Recurring gags too, including his favourite meal, cow pie (basically an entire cow in a giant pie dish, tail hanging over the edge, horns protruding through the pastry crust).

The Dandy was an immediate success, prompting Thomson to release The Beano Comic (1938) and The Magic Comic (1939). Both titles featured contributions by Watkins from the start - "Lord Snooty and his Pals" (the adventures of an aristocratic juvenile delinquent - full name 'Lord Marmaduke of Bunkerton' - and his distinctly proletarian kid gang), destined to become another comic classic in The Beano, "Morgyn The Mighty" (who had previously appeared in The Rover drawn by another artist) and "Peter Piper" in the Magic.

The outbreak of war with Germany in September 1939 brought an abrupt reversal to the expansion of D.C. Thomson's comics line. Restrictions on paper and print supplies meant that both Dandy and Beano were cut back from weekly to fortnightly publication, and the Magic quietly expired with its eightieth issue in January 1941. There was, however, no diminution in Watkins' output. In addition to his regular assignments on Oor Wullie, The Broons, Desperate Dan and Lord Snooty, he was drawing numerous other features, including "Gulliver", "Dick Whittington", "Danny Longlegs", "Tom Thumb", "The Shipwrecked Circus", "Jimmy and his Magic Patch" and "Strang the Terrible". Some were short-lived, some he passed on to other artists after a few instalments, others continued intermittently for years.

During the war, Thomson convinced the authorities that Watkins was too vital an asset for them to lose, and as a result he was excused from any war service which took him away from Dundee. Instead he became a War Reserve Constable working in the Kincardine-on-Forth area of Fife between 1939 and 1945. This allowed him to continue his work for Thomson without interruption. During his time as a Constable he met and worked alongside a PC. Sandy Marnoch who is believed to be the inspiration for Wullie's 'adversary', PC. Murdoch.

By the late 1940s, Watkins' style had fully matured. His humour strip work was distinctive, economical and assured, and his adventure illustration combined the rich cross-hatched texture of the traditional British style with the dynamism of American comics. His mastery of expression, gesture and storytelling was complete, and he had proved his ability to cope with anything his editors threw at him, no matter how weird the concept or outlandish the storyline; the 1947 Dandy feature, "Our Teacher's a Walrus!", was perhaps the ultimate proof of this. By now he was quite invaluable to the Thomsons, and his style defined the look of their whole comics line.

It is reported that in the late 1940s another publisher made strenuous efforts to woo Watkins away from Thomson. However, he remained loyal to the firm and it was perhaps in recognition of this that he became, in September 1946, the only Thomson artist permitted to sign his work. He was also paid handsomely, well enough to be able to build himself a large house, which he named Winsterly, at the small seaside town of Broughty Ferry near Dundee. It was there, in a first floor room, that he worked, often late at night, at a big leather-topped desk, churning out a stream of brilliantly drawn and immaculately inked cartoon characters.

Besides assigning him the new front cover feature of the Beano, "Biffo the Bear", in 1947, Thomson now found yet another avenue for Watkins' talents in a series of adaptations of classic adventure novels. Serialised in the weekly People's Journal, they included Stevenson's Treasure Island, Kidnapped and Catriona, Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Dumas' The Three Musketeers, and several others. These were successful enough that several were reprinted in book form as part of the 'Told In Pictures' series, and again in Thomson's first new comic launch following the relaxation of paper restrictions, The Topper (1953). In addition to the classic serials, reprinted in colour on the back cover, Watkins also drew the new tabloid's front cover feature, "Mickey the Monkey". The Topper front page mast head had Oor Wullie as a mascot, complete with top hat.

The Topper proved to be another solid success, and it was duly followed in 1956 by a second weekly tabloid, The Beezer. Yet again, Watkins was assigned the front cover feature, "Ginger".

He had planned to spend his retirement painting and walking the countryside (which was one of his chief pleasures) but he never made it to retirement.

On the morning of August 20th,1969 his wife found him dead at his desk. Aged only 62, he died of a heart attack with a half-finished Desperate Dan strip on his desk.

It is worth noting that The Dandy to which Dudley Watkins, Robert D. Low and Albert Barnes made significant contributions is now officially the longest running comic in the world and is listed in the Guinness Book Of Records. A complete Dandy Comic No.1 (dated 4 December, 1937) recently sold for an amazing £20,350. Not bad for a comic that cost 2d. when new and could have been purchased for around £20 in 1985.

It is perhaps a measure of the scale of Dudley D. Watkins' achievement that after his death his work on Oor Wullie and the Broons was reprinted every week in the Sunday Post for seven years before a replacement was found; in the case of Desperate Dan, it was a full fourteen years before new hands took on the weekly task. To achieve this 'sleight of hand' some older strips were revamped by toning down some strong Scots vocabulary and by adjusting some of the artwork to give it a more modern look and feel. (See examples on my Spot The Difference Pages.).

My understanding is that various artists including Tim Lavery, John Polland, Peter Davidson, Bob Nixon and Ken H. Harrison have worked on the strips from the mid 1970s to present. The current artist, Peter Davidson, worked on the strips from the late 1970's to the mid 1980s, then Bob Nixon from the mid 1980's into the 1990's then Ken H. Harrison took over on a permanent basis.

Ken H. Harrison did a lot to keep to The Broons and Oor Wullie alive by supplying consistently fine artwork while maintaining the style of Dudley Watkins. We also have Ken to thank for enhancing Maggie Broon's sex appeal (which ultimately led to Maggie being voted the No.1 in a list of the 100 Sexiest Places, People & Things In Scotland). When Ken H. Harrison stopped working on the strips around 1995, Peter Davidson returned and has been drawing the strips ever since. The strip artwork has remained in the style of Dudley Watkins although some modernisation of the scripts and storylines has occurred - the plotlines in particular have become a lot 'tamer' in keeping with our politically correct times.

David (Dave) Donaldson is managing editor of D.C. Thomson's comics division and is the current guardian of The Broons and Oor Wullie. The story scripts, which had always been produced by D.C.Thomson's own editorial and scriptwriting staff, were taken over by an 'outsider' BBC Scotland broadcaster and journalist Tom Morton when he was commisioned to write the scripts starting in January 2005. It was too much for Tom and he quit as scriptwriter in 2006 saying it was the hardest job he had ever done. Dave Donaldson is the current scriptwriter.

Cheers to DC Thomson and The Sunday Post for 70 years of these great Scottish comic characters and thanks too to Dave Donaldson, Tom Morton and Peter Davidson for keeping them alive.