Robert Duncan Low (25 August 1895,

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

– 13 December 1980) was a Scottish comics writer and editor. Employed by D. C. Thomson & Co., he was responsible for their line of comics, and, as a writer, co-created ''

Oor Wullie ''Oor Wullie'' ( en, 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 the familiar Scots nickname for boys named William, equivalent to Willie. ...

'' and ''

The Broons ''The Broons'' (English: The Browns) is a comic strip in Scots published in the weekly Scottish newspaper ''The Sunday Post''. It features the Brown family, who live in a tenement flat at 10 Glebe Street in (since the late 1990s) the fictiona ...

'' with artist

Dudley D. Watkins Dudley Dexter Watkins (27 February 1907 – 20 August 1969) was an English cartoonist and illustrator. He is best known for his characters ''Oor Wullie'' and ''The Broons''; comic strips featuring them have appeared in Scottish newspaper The Su ...

. The son of Alexander Brown Low, a

jute mill A jute mill is a factory for processing jute. The first jute mill was established in Dundee, Scotland. The world's largest jute mill was the Adamjee Jute Mills at Narayanganj in Bangladesh. It closed all operations during 2002. Jack London worked ...

mechanic, and Maggie Wilson Low, he joined DC Thomson as a journalist in 1913 as an 18-year-old trainee and rose to become managing editor in charge of the children's publications department eight years later.John Anderson (ed.), ''Beano: 80 Years of Fun'', D.C. Thomson, 2018, p. 14 Having launched the "big five"

story paper A story paper is a periodical publication similar to a literary magazine, but featuring illustrations and text stories, and aimed towards children and teenagers. Also known in Britain as "boys' weeklies", story papers were phenomenally popular ...

s ''

Adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

'' (1921), '' The Rover'' (1922), ''

The Wizard Wizard, the wizard, or wizards may refer to: * Wizard (fantasy), a fictional practitioner of magic * Wizard (supernatural), a practitioner of magic Art, entertainment and media Fictional characters * Wizard (Archie Comics), a comic book super ...

'' (1923), ''

The Skipper The Skipper is the title and nickname of Jonas Grumby, a fictional character from the 1960s situation comedy '' Gilligan's Island''. Played by Alan Hale Jr., the Skipper (the character's actual name was rarely mentioned after the show's pilot epis ...

'' (1930) and ''

The Hotspur ''The Hotspur'' was a British boys' paper published by D. C. Thomson & Co. From 1933 to 1959, it was a boys' story paper; it was relaunched as a comic in October 1959, initially called the ''New Hotspur'', and ceased publication in January 19 ...

'' (1933), he developed a comic supplement for the weekly newspaper ''

The Sunday Post ''The Sunday Post'' is a weekly newspaper published in Dundee, Scotland, by DC Thomson, and characterised by a mix of news, human interest stories and short features. The paper was founded in 1914 and has a wide circulation across Scotland, N ...

'', the "Fun Section" (1936). It included two comic strips in Scots vernacular he had co-created with

, a staff illustrator on the story papers: ''

'', about a working-class Scottish family, and ''

'', about a mischievous young boy (based on Low's son Ron), alongside ''Auchentogle'', drawn by Chic Gordon, and strips by

Allan Morley Allan Morley ( Scarborough, North Yorkshire, Great Britain, 29 April 1895 - Thanet, Kent 5 September 1960) was a British comic artist. He first worked for DC Thomson in 1925, drawing a number of comic strips for the ''Sunday Post'' and for DC Th ...

including ''Nero and Zero'' and ''Nosey Parker''.Gavin Brightwell, , That's BrawGavin Brightwell, , That's BrawHelensburgh Heroes: Ronald Waterson Low
/ref> In 1937, as managing editor, he oversaw the launch of DC Thomson's first comic, ''

The Dandy ''The Dandy'' was a British children's comic magazine published by the Dundee based publisher DC Thomson. The first issue was printed in December 1937, making it the world's third-longest running comic, after ''Il Giornalino'' (cover dated 1 Oct ...

'', edited by Albert Barnes, followed by ''

The Beano ''The Beano'' (formerly ''The Beano Comic'', also known as ''Beano'') is a British anthology comic magazine created by Scottish publishing company DC Thomson. Its first issue was published on 30 July 1938, and it became the world's longest-runn ...

'', edited by George Moonie, in 1938. ''

The Magic Comic ''The Magic Comic'' was a British comics magazine. It was the ill-fated third comics magazine from DC Thomson (after ''The Beano'' and ''The Dandy''). It was aimed at a younger audience, with more emphasis on picture stories. The first issue wa ...

'', for slightly younger readers, followed in 1939 but folded in 1941 due to paper shortages. The next comic launched was '' The Topper'' in 1953. Also in 1953, Low co-created "

Roger the Dodger Roger "the Dodger" Dawson is a comic strip character from the comic magazine ''The Beano''. He first appeared in his eponymous comic strip in 1953, and is one of the longest-running characters, known for his tactics of avoiding responsibility a ...

", with artist Ken Reid, for ''The Beano''.Peter Hansen,

References

1895 births 1980 deaths People from Dundee Comic book editors Scottish book editors Journalists from Dundee Scottish comics writers Writers from Dundee Scottish male writers {{UK-comics-creator-stub