Bud Neill
Growing up there, the young Neill would spend his Saturdays at the local cinema, and was particularly enthralled by the adventures of silent movie Western star William S. Hart.
When not watching the stars of the silver screen, Neill would often be found at the local stables where he bartered some mucking out and grooming duties in return for the opportunity to ride the horses.
They frequently featured "wee wifies", in the early cartoons gossiping about the war ("They tell me yon yin Hitler's a richt bad rascal an' a'...") and victory ("if ye ask me, they'll never catch him.
) and went "doon the watter" on Clyde steamers for their holidays: one irritating a smartly dressed man in yachting blazer and officer's cap by quizzing him "Yaffayat?
The strip was extremely popular with Glaswegians and it merged the adventurous style of the silent era western movies with traditional Glasgow stage humour, particularly pantomime.
Bride frequently featured in the pocket cartoons, and became a long running character in the Lobey Dosser series, always standing in Arizona with her "wean" in her arms (her baby, prophetically called Ned), invariably trying to thumb a ride with plaintive cries like "Ony o' youse blokes goin' the length o' Pertick?".
The compliment was repaid in the early 1950s when a Lobey sketch was included in a production of Little Red Riding Hood at the Citizen's Theatre in Glasgow.
Other characters include: The immense popularity of Neill's work led to the Lobey Dosser stories being published as small one shilling booklets and, a decade after the strip ended, he was still getting enquiries from around the world from fans desperately trying to purchase one of these increasingly rare volumes.
The Lobey legend has proven to be Neill's enduring legacy to Glasgow, and has been marked by the erection of a bronze statue in Woodlands Road, across from The Finsbay Flatiron Bar.
[5] As part of the events for Homecoming Scotland 2009, Strathclyde Passenger Transport (in conjunction with a private sponsor) commissioned a bronze statue of the G.I.
Glaswegian author Christopher Brookmyre made reference to some of Bud Neill's characters, as well as the statue, in his 2001 novel A Big Boy did it and Ran Away and again in his 2008 novel A Snowball in Hell.
Simon Darcourt, the main antagonist in both books is a terrorist who is known to the Police as The Black Spirit and leaves "calling cards" bearing the image of Rank Bajin at the scenes of his massacre Also in 1992, Ranald MacColl published Lobey's the Wee Boy!
This book was followed by Bud Neill's Magic!, again with biographical notes, and with a selection from the many pocket cartoons, showing their changing subjects and styles over the years.
These stories are patchy in style, including some where more realistically drawn characters mix with his cartoon figures, but give more examples of Neill's quirky humour and fine touch with pen and lamp-black ink.
