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In Glasgow's leafy Woodlands Road sits a statue of three Scottish legends; namely Lobey Dosser, his horse El Fideldo, and bad boy villain Rank Bajin. Every Glaswegian of a certain age will doubtless have heard of Lobey, even if they've never read any of his cartoon strips. That's because the appellation is used to describe anyone of a dishevelled appearance seemingly of no fixed address. Apparently the name originated from homeless transients who'd sleep (doss down) in a tenement's 'lobby' when they had nowhere better to stay.
So it would seem that the name existed before Bud Neil, a Scottish cartoonist and poet, appropriated it for the star of his comic strip which was a huge hit in its day. It could be slightly surreal at times, but was always funny - as I discovered only recently when I acquired the two collected editions on view in this post. Of course, I'd heard of Lobey decades ago, but was unaware that these two books existed, the first of which I acquired in a charity shop and the second via eBay. Thank goodness I did, as I haven't stopped chuckling over them since.
I don't want to spoil you, so I'll show you just one example from the contents (after the covers). Even if you're not a Glaswegian, you're bound to enjoy Bud Neil's comic creation, though this small sample presented here can hardly do it justice. For more info on Bud, read the back cover below. (Click to enlarge.)
Below is the statue in Woodlands Road, across from which (and along a bit) was the late Neil Craig's comics shop by the name of Futureshock.
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