Bill Ritchie (1 August 1931 – 25 January 2010) was a Scottish cartoonist. He is known for work on comics published by D. C. Thomson.

Biography

Born in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

, Ritchie attended the

Glasgow School of Art The Glasgow School of Art (GSA; gd, Sgoil-ealain Ghlaschu) is a higher education art school based in Glasgow, Scotland, offering undergraduate degrees, post-graduate awards (both taught and research-led), and PhDs in architecture, fine art, an ...

, where he learnt little about cartoons or comics; instead, he taught himself by practising from local comics artists Jack Lindsay,

Bud Neill William "Bud" Neill (5 November 1911–28 August 1970) was a Scottish cartoonist who drew cartoon strips for a number of Glasgow-based newspapers between the 1940s and 1960s. Following his death, his work has attained cult status with a wor ...

, Jimmy Malcolm, Harry Smith and Bill Tait. It was Malcolm who suggested he try to draw comics for D. C. Thomson in Dundee. While serving in the army in

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

, he submitted his first cartoons to the publisher, which were printed in ''

The Weekly News ''The Weekly News'' was a British national newspaper founded in 1855 and published every Wednesday by the Dundee newspaper chain DC Thomson. Billed as "the paper with the feelgood factor," it contained news and features on a broad range of su ...

''. His first comic strip was '' Clumsy Claude'' in ''

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-run ...

'', and for many years he drew ''

Baby Crockett ''Baby Crockett'' was one of the longest running comic strips that ran from ''The Beezer ''The Beezer'' (called ''The Beezer and Topper'' for the last three years of publication) was a British comic that ran from (issues dates) 21 January ...

'' in the '' Beezer''. Between 1957 and 1964 Ritchie drew the illustrations for "The Glad Mag" an annual magazine produced by students of Queen's College, Dundee as part of their charities campaign. Copies of these magazines are held by

University of Dundee , mottoeng = "My soul doth magnify the Lord" , established = 1967 – gained independent university status by Royal Charter1897 – Constituent college of the University of St Andrews1881 – University College , ...

Archive Services. After his retirement in the 1990s, his comics were " ghosted" by other artists. He died on 25 January 2010.

Bibliography

Comics work includes: * ''

'' in the '' Beezer'' * '' Barney Bulldog'' in '' Sparky'' – the third cover strip, similar to ''

Biffo the Bear Biffo the Bear is a fictional character from the British comic magazine ''The Beano'' who stars in the comic strip of the same name, created in 1948 by Dudley D. Watkins. He was the mascot of The Beano for several decades. Background Biffo's c ...

'' * '' Clumsy Claude'' in ''

'' * '' Dicky Burd'' in the ''Beezer'' * '' Hungry Hoss'' in ''Beezer'' – an ever-hungry horse, owned by Joe the cowboy robber * '' Smiffy'' in the ''Beezer'' * '' Supporting Life'' in '' Plug'' * '' Sweet Sue'' in ''The Beano'' – running from 1978 to 1980, the strip featured Sue, a sweet and inoffensive young girl who always got the better of school bullies Harriet and Mabel. She had a dog called William. * ''The Moonsters'' in ''Sparky'' * ''Toots'' in ''

Bunty ''Bunty'' was a British comic for girls published by D. C. Thomson & Co. from 1958 to 2001.Gibson (2003)p. 91/ref> It consisted of a collection of many small strips, the stories typically being three to five pages long. In contrast to earlier ...

Notes

References

*Interview in '' Psychopia'' *Encyclopedia of Comic Characters by

Denis Gifford Denis Gifford (26 December 1927 – 18 May 2000)Holland, Steve, Obituaries: Denis Gifford', ''The Guardian'', 26 May 2000. was a British writer, broadcaster, journalist, comic artist and historian of film, comics, television and radio. In h ...

, 1987.
Bimbo page at Britishcomics.com

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ritchie, Bill 1931 births 2010 deaths Alumni of the Glasgow School of Art Artists from Glasgow Scottish cartoonists The Beano people