Dudley D. Watkins gallery launched as Courier revamps web site

By John Freeman on July 7, 2010

(with thanks to Lew Stringer and the Forbidden Planet International blogs who spotted this first): DC Thomson has just revamped its web site for its Scottish newspaper The Courier – and included a fantastic gallery of comic work by Dudley D. Watkins.

Considered an icon of Scottish culture, Watkins amazing talents are forever linked with DC Thomson, working on comics, newspapers, books and more from 1925 right up until his death in 1969, gving life to unforgettable characters such as The Broons, Oor Wullie and Desperate Dan.

The paper presents a gallery of his work, drawn from the huge DC Thomson comics archive, much of it not been seen since it was first printed, so many decades ago, including strips from annuals, religious images from a 1957 Beezer book (Watkins was a devout Christian and it’s thought he was given rein to create these images in order to persuade him to do other work).

Offering some fine examples of the artist’s range and offers the chance to see different versions of some of the most famous characters “Watty” created, with very familiar faces from the Sunday Post.

• View the gallery on The Courier web site

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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.