Oor Wullie

Oor Wullie (English: Our Willie) is a Scottish comic strip published in the D.C. Thomson newspaper The Sunday Post. It features a character called Wullie; Wullie is a Scots nickname for boys named William, equivalent to Willie. His trademarks are spiky hair, dungarees and an upturned bucket, which he uses as a seat: most strips since early 1937 begin and end with a single panel of Wullie sitting on his bucket. The earliest strips, with little dialogue, ended with Wullie complaining (e.g., "I nivver get ony fun roond here!"). The artistic style settled down by 1940 and has changed little since. A frequent tagline reads, "Oor Wullie! Your Wullie! A'body's Wullie!" (Our Willie! Your Willie! Everybody's Willie!). Created by Thomson editor R. D. Low and drawn by cartoonist Dudley D. Watkins, the strip first appeared on 8 March 1936. Watkins continued to draw Oor Wullie until his death in 1969, after which the Post recycled his work into the 1970s. New strips were eventually commissioned from Tom Lavery, followed by Peter Davidson and Robert Nixon. Ken H. Harrison drew the strip from 1989 until 1997, when Davidson resumed duties. Between January 2005 and 2006, storylines were written by broadcaster Tom Morton from his home in Shetland, and subsequently they were written by Dave Donaldson, managing director of Thomson's comics division. Former Dandy editor Morris Heggie took over as editor and main writer on Donaldson's departure, and continued to write the strips until 2022. In more recent years writers have included Georgia Battle, Kate Dewar, Gerard Dignan, Craig Ferguson, Hector Mac, Daniel McGachey, and others, with writer and artist credits now appearing alongside the strips in The Sunday Post. Between 2016 and 2017, artist Diego Jourdan Pereira filled in for Peter Davidson on Wullie, The Broons and Wee Harry. Jourdan Pereira also provided illustrations for the 2017 Annual and official merchandising. Since Peter Davidson's retirement, Oor Wullie has been drawn by Mike Donaldson, who also took over art duties on The Broons and wee Harry strips, as well as PC Murdoch Mysteries on the retirement of Ken Harrison in 2023. Occasional strips have been drawn by Gary Welsh.