THE BROONS... BANNED! "JINGS, CRIVVENS, HELP MA BOAB!"

Images copyright D.C. THOMSON & Co., Ltd



Here is The BROONS strip that was "banned" and never saw print until its appearance in The SUNDAY POST, March 13th, 2011 - around 75 years after it was first created.

It's thought that it was vetoed because the word "lover" in the second panel was perhaps considered far too racy for a kids' strip in a family newspaper in 1936.  Morris Heggie, comics expert and current writer of The BROONS and Oor WULLIE, thinks that not only is it one of the earliest Broons strips in existence, but may even be the first one that artist DUDLEY D. WATKINS ever drew - the 'pilot' episode, in effect.

The Broons (The Browns) and Oor Wullie (Our William) celebrated their 75th anniversary in yesterday's Sunday Post, with a special pull-out souvenir section devoted to Scotland's loveable and long-running characters. 

Created by Robert Duncan Low (Managing Editor of D.C. THOMSON's children's publications) and Dudley Dexter Watkins, both strips first appeared in The Sunday Post FUN SECTION on March 8th 1936.  For many years Dudley was the only DCT artist allowed to sign his work, such was the esteem in which his employers held him.  The policy of other artists' enforced anonymity was only relaxed long after Dudley's death in 1969, one exception being Allan Morley, who started signing his work from 1947.

Original Broons & Oor Wullie artist, Dudley D. Watkins

For those that missed it, back issues of the newspaper are no doubt available from D.C. Thomson & Co., Ltd.  Get on the trail of that collectors' item classic while you can.  The Broons and Oor Wullie books continue to appear on alternate years on the run-up to Christmas, and a special hardbook book reprinting classic episodes of both strips as drawn by Dudley D. Watkins is published every year, and has been since 1996.

Above, the first appearance of Oor Wullie and The Broons, and below, for completists, the covers of the very first Broons and Oor Wullie books.

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