Oor Wullie

Oor Wullie
Author(s)	Dudley D. Watkins, Ken H. Harrison Peter Davidson
Current status / schedule	Weekly, The Sunday Post
Launch date	8 March 1936
Publisher(s)	D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd
Genre(s)	Humour

Oor Wullie is a Scottish comic strip published in the D.C. Thomson newspaper, The Sunday Post. It features a boy named William, known as Wullie (Oor Wullie is Our Willie in Scots). His trademarks are spiky hair, dungarees and an upturned bucket, which he often uses as a seat. Indeed, most strips since early 1937 begin and end with a single panel of Wullie sitting on his bucket. The earliest strips always ended with Wullie complaining ("I nivver get ony fun roond here!") and featured little dialogue. The artistic style settled down by 1940 and has changed little since. A frequent tagline reads, "Oor Wullie! Your Wullie! A'body's Wullie!" (Our Willie! Your Willie! Everybody's Willie!).

Created by D.C. Thompson editor R. D. Low and drawn by cartoonist Dudley D. Watkins, the strip first appeared on 8 March 1936. Watkins continued to draw Oor Wullie until his death in 1969, after which the Post recycled his work into the 1970s. New strips were eventually commissioned from Tom Lavery, followed by Peter Davidson. Ken H. Harrison then drew the strip from 1989 until 1997 when Davidson resumed duties. Between January 2005 and 2006, storylines were written by broadcaster Tom Morton from his home in Shetland,^[1] and subsequently they were written by Dave Donaldson, managing director of D. C. Thomson's comics division.^[2] The current writer is former Dandy editor Morris Heggie.

Characters and story

Wullie's hometown is an amalgam of Dundee and Glasgow^{[citation needed]}. It is unnamed in the original Watkins strips, but it has been called Auchenshoogle since the late 1990s. In the original Watkins scripts, the dialect unquestionably placed the action on Scotland's east coast,^{[citation needed]} probably D.C. Thomson's hometown of Dundee.^{[citation needed]} In 1970s annuals, which reprinted earlier strips, Watkins' dialogue was Anglicised somewhat, and the current scripts feature Scots dialect of a more generic kind.

Wullie's adventures consist mostly of unrealistic get-rich-quick schemes that lead to mischief, to the despair of his parents Ma and Pa (Dave), and the local policeman, P.C. Joe Murdoch. Wullie's friends are Fat Boab (Eng: Fat Bob), Wee Eck (Eng: Little Alec), and Soapy Soutar, and he is the leader of their gang, a position which is frequently disputed by the others. He used to have another friend called Ezzy, who stopped appearing in the strips, along with Wullie's little brother. He owns a pet mouse named Jeemy and a pet hedgehog named Hamish, and in later years has gained a Highland Terrier named Harry and a "sometime-girlfriend", Primrose Patterson. Characters from The Broons occasionally feature, particularly Granpaw and the seductive Maggie Broon. Noticeably, in the change of artist, Wullie likes Primrose more and Harry and Jeemy are rarely seen. Wullie is nine years old, and his height has been specified at four feet, six inches tall. His catchphrases consist of "Jings", "Crivvens","braw"and "Help ma Boab".

The Oor Wullie strips are presented in a bi-annual with every other year being given over to The Broons. A series of compilation albums have been published over the years featuring The Broons and Oor Wullie on alternate pages.

William Ross, Baron Ross of Marnock, Secretary of State for Scotland 1964-70 and 1974–76, was occasionally depicted in political cartoons seated on a bucket as Oor Wullie.

In March 2006, BBC Scotland documentary Happy Birthday Oor Wullie celebrated the character's 70th anniversary with celebrity guests including Karen Dunbar, Sanjeev Kohli, Kaye Adams, Iain Robertson, Tony Roper, Tam Cowan, Stuart Cosgrove, Dominik Diamond and was narrated by Lord of the Rings star Billy Boyd.

When The Topper launched in 1953, Oor Wullie appeared in the masthead, although not as a story in the comic. He often appeared sitting on his bucket, though other poses were used as well. The pose on Topper no. 1 had him wearing a top hat. He had the top hat in one hand and the other hand pointing at the Topper logo.

Early annuals were undated, so this information is to help identify them. The annuals alternated years with The Broons annuals. Prices are in shillings and (old) pence with one shilling equal to 12d. Later annuals had the copyright date inside them. Annuals were printed in the autumn in time for Christmas. Wullie's gang meet in a caravan called Holly Rude and consists of Wullie, Fat Bob, Wee Eck, Soapy Soutar and Primrose Petterson, an annoying girl who Wullie often doesnt want to be in the gang.

See also

Children's literature portal

• List of DC Thomson publications
• The Sunday Post
• The Broons
• Scots language

References

1. ^ Gilchrist, Jim. "Help ma boab... Oor Wullie's 70 - Scotsman.com Living". Living.scotsman.com. http://living.scotsman.com/books/Help-ma-boab-Oor-Wullies.2757442.jp. Retrieved 2009-09-21. 
2. ^ "Gavin Brightwell's history of Dudley Watkins' work". Thatsbraw.co.uk. http://www.thatsbraw.co.uk/Biog/DDW-Page.htm. Retrieved 2009-09-21. 

External links

• Great Scots - Our loveable spiky-haired loon - The Scotsman newspaper
• Ron Low story
• Ron Low story follow up
• Picture of a lifesize model of Oor Wullie