- Flook (cartoon)
"Flook" was a cartoon strip by "Trog" in the
Daily Mail newspaper, which ran from1949 to1984 . The main characters were a young boy called Rufus and his animal friend, Flook. They inhabited a satiricalfantasy -world populated by larger-than-life characters, most of whom bore a striking resemblance to leadingpolitician s and celebrities. Many of their adventures also starred jailbird Bodger, his witch-like sister Lucretia (cf.Lucretia Borgia ) and a mad retiredcolonel ."Trog" was the pen name of
Wally Fawkes of the jazz group "Wally Fawkes and the Troglodytes ", who drew the strip. Storylines were written by many different people, including the singer and writerGeorge Melly , the comedianBarry Took , the musicianHumphrey Lyttelton , and the film criticBarry Norman .It should be noted that Flook had a spell in the opposite end of the British press'
political spectrum - the "Daily Mirror " and "Sunday Mirror " also ran the strip on their cartoon pages for a few years. The papers were, and still are, diametrically opposed to the "Mail"'s right wing stance.Books
* "The Amazing Adventures of Rufus and Flook" 1949
* "Rufus and Flook v. Moses Maggot" 1950
* "Rufus and Flook at School" 1951
* "Flook" 1958 (collection of 3 stories)
* "Flook - Flook's Eye View of the Sixties", with an introduction by Laurie Lee, 1970 (collection of 4 stories)
* "Flook and the Peasants' Revolt" 1975
* "Trog: Forty graphic Years" 1987 (features one complete “Flook” story)
* "I, Flook – An Autobiography" by George Melly, 1962 (not a strip collection)
* "Trog at 30 : a celebration", Centre for the Study of Cartoons and Caricature, University of Kent at Canterbury, 1979 (catalogue accompanying an exhibit, with essays by most of the writers of “Flook” up to date)
* "The Pataphysical Flook" 2007 (an essay about George Melly’s use of references to the works of Alfred Jarry in "Flook")
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