.....I like Bill's comic strips..the sausage gag is great..works great even without words..
It sounds as though Bill must have had a soft spot for dogs as, along with the long-running adventures of Bunty's black Scotty Dog 'Haggis', he also drew a strip called 'Top Dogs' for the story paper Wizard during the early 1960s in which a different cartoon dog appeared every week: Thanks to philcom55
My mate Steve sometimes has to buy bulk lots of comics off ebay just to get a few issues he doesn't have, lucky for me I get the doubles. He gave me a bundle of Hotspurs, Wizards and Nikkis last Saturday. In the Hotspur no. 618 dated 21/8/71 there was this reprinted Bill Ritchie. The other reprints of this strip were by a different artist. This looks like late 50s Ritchie, anyone know when it first appeared? Thanks to stevezodiac for the imkage
That Uncle Windbag strip would indeed be from the 50s, in The Beano. The third series was done by Ritchie and appeared from issue 744 (20/10/56) to 763 (2/3/57).
The reprints you say are by a different artist are probably from the second series, drawn by Charles Grigg, from issue 579 (22/8/53) to 596 (19/12/53).
The first series was back in 1938, in the first 20 issues, drawn by Charles Holt. Thanks for the answer Digifiend
Thanks MMi for the photo of the Scotty dog..
My father-in-law was very good friends with Bill and my wife considered him, very much, as an uncle. When she came back from the funeral it reminded her of a bit of sculpture he did for her when she was a child. Now proudly sat pride-of-place in our living room.
As you're all a fan of his talents, I could take a photo of it.. MMi
Its great seeing new Bill Ritchie work and even a sculpture done in his comic style.
All from the comicsuk forum post..
http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=127&t=3350&start=60
