Spot The Difference

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The Oor Wullie and Broons strips were first published in The Sunday Post Fun Section about the time they were created. After about five to six years had passed, they were compiled and reprinted in the annuals.

Watkins drew his last strips in 1969 but D.C. Thomson managed to use his work in the annuals right up to the 1978 Oor Wullie and the 1979 Broons books. To continue using Watkins' work in this way, Thomson were required to recycle some older strips, mainly from the 1950s.

To update these 1950s strips, which were then about 25 years old, Thomson chose to 'modernise' the language in the speech ballons by removing some of the braw Scots banter and replacing it with pleasantly polite English. Occasionally the artwork itself was adjusted in subtle ways.

The wording was adjusted on the original artwork by white painting over the old Scots text and sticking on small strips of paper with the new text.

I have created two pages of selected frames and strips to demonstrate these changes.

If you spot any significantly altered strips in the books, particularly were artwork has been changed, you can let me know the details and I may include them in future.