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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 Neill, 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 Neill'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. (Hard to believe it's been over 10 years since he died in July 2014.)
Tell you what, let's make that four Scottish legends, shall we? See photo below.
The horse seems to have only two legs - was there a reason for that? And I notice the characters speak in a Glasgow accent despite the strip being set in the Wild West.
ReplyDeleteYes, the reason is that's the way Bud Neill wanted it. (The horse comes from a rare breed of two-legged horses.) As for the Glaswegian accent, the strip was for a Glaswegian (and Scottish) readership (in the main). Honest, it's very funny, CJ. One strip has a cannibal called Hannibal, and his wife Annabel. Mental.
ReplyDeleteThis is superb and just the sort of thing I would have purchased in an instant had I found it in a charity shop. Sad to say I haven't heard of Bud Neill or Lobey Dosser, so I presume it never crossed the border into England. Did Bud do any comic work (other than newspaper strips)? I have to say when I first saw the back cover it reminded me of Roger Kettle and Andrew Christine's 'A Man Called Horace', possibly where the inspiration for that strip came from. It also reminded me of Don Martin's MAD work.
ReplyDeleteI really like newspaper strips like Kettle and Christine's 'Beau Peep' but my favourite is 'Bunion' by George Martin. Have you heard of that, Kid? It was widely syndicated so you may know it as another name. I managed to get a book from Spain 'Las Tiras De Bunion' along with another strip book called 'Stimey' also by George Martin. 'Bunion' is a superbly funny strip, usually 3 or 4 frames with no words, mainly slapstick humour. It was the first thing I looked for in my Grandad's paper.
I'll definitely be getting Lobey Dosser's books, thanks for the recommendation. Did anyone else notice the horse has only 2 legs?
https://www.archive.cameldung.co.uk/index.php?article=99
https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=127401923%40N05&view_all=1&text=Bunion
https://www.lastdodo.com/en/items/1588729-las-tiras-de-bunion
https://comicsuk.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7945
Don't know whether Lobey ever crossed the border, M, and I don't know too much about Bud Neill. The books' intros probably supply further info, but I only sped-read them, so I'll have to re-read them to remind myself of what they said. (Was too eager to get into the strips.)
ReplyDeleteBeau Peep and Horace are favourites of mine, too, and I have a collected edition of Beau somewhere that I got decades ago. (Might have one of Horace too, can't recall.) Very familiar with Bunion as he used to appear (might still do in the form of reprints, not sure) in the Evening Times, and I have a feeling he appeared in the Evening Citizen before that.
I feel certain that you'll enjoy Lobey if/when you manage to track these books down. Beware, though - the second book was first published with one adventure appearing twice, and a corrected edition was issued, actually saying in the indicia that it was a corrected edition. (I have both of them, but the first printing is merely a curiosity, nothing more.)
Keep the heid.
There is also a statue of the character G.I Bride ( from Lobby Dosser) at Patrick station and an excellent mural ( I have a pic I took of it somewhere) near there as well . Lobby was surreal to say the least, but it was excellent stuff. I read these when the Glasgow Evening Time reprinted them in the mid/late 1980s. I saw this book in a charity shop in EK recently.
ReplyDeleteYes, I remember when the Evening Times reprinted them back then, but they never seemed to grab me. I couldn't have been paying proper attention, McS, which is probably why I didn't fall under their spell at the time. If that charity shop is the one near Iceland, that's where I got the first one from.
ReplyDeleteKid, there was an interesting documentary on BBC Radio 4-Extra the other day about Jackie magazine (originally broadcast in 2003 only 10 years after Jackie had ceased publication). I remember my sister reading Jackie around 1982 and it's the daft photo love-stories with word balloons that I mostly recall of the magazine (if magazine is the correct description - obviously it wasn't a comic but it wasn't really a magazine either).
ReplyDeleteI never bought an issue of Jackie at the time, CJ, but around a couple or so years ago, I acquired a facsimile issue - along with several other facsimile comics (Beano, Dandy, Whizzer & Chips, etc.,) given away with a newspaper around 10 or 11 years back. Don't think I've read it yet.
ReplyDelete