Charles Grigg more commonly known as Charlie Grigg (23 November 1916 – 4 December 2013) was a British comic artist for

DC Thomson DC Thomson is a media company based in Dundee, Scotland. Founded by David Couper Thomson in 1905, it is best known for publishing ''The Dundee Courier'', ''The Evening Telegraph'' and ''The Sunday Post'' newspapers, and the comics ''Oor Wull ...

. He was the artist of ''

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 ...

'' cover strip ''

Korky the Cat ''Korky the Cat'' is a character in a comic strip in the British comics magazine The Dandy. It first appeared in issue 1, dated 4 December 1937, except for one issue, No. 294 (9 June 1945) when Keyhole Kate was on the cover. For several decad ...

''. He also drew

Desperate Dan Desperate Dan is a wild west character in the now-defunct Scottish comic magazine ''The Dandy'', and became its mascot. He made his appearance in the first issue which was dated 4 December 1937. He is apparently the world's strongest man, ...

after the original artist, Dudley Watkins, died. In ''The Topper'' comic he drew ''

Splodge The Topper was a long running anthology comic which ran from 1953 to 1990. Mergers with two other comics, Buzz and Sparky in 1975 and 1977, respectively, added characters from those comics to The Topper's roster. The Topper eventually merged ...

'', ''Willy Nilly'', ''Foxy'' and ''Shorty Shambles''. Completely self-taught as an artist, Grigg grew up in Langley,

Oldbury, West Midlands Oldbury is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, West Midlands, England. It is the administrative centre of the borough and one of its six constituent towns. At the 2011 census, the ward of Oldbury had a population of 13,606, w ...

, in the

Black Country The Black Country is an area of the West Midlands county, England covering most of the Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall. Dudley and Tipton are generally considered to be the centre. It became industrialised during its ro ...

. Steven Grigg said his father was largely unappreciated while he was alive and would have been "very proud" of the honour. A self-taught artist, he never lost his love of drawing even in his later years. Grigg swiftly became the definitive ''Korky the Cat'' artist, when he took over the artistic duties from James Crighton on the cover of ''The Dandy'' in the early 1960s. Immediately making Korky a friendlier looking figure, his covers for the weekly, and the Dandy Summer Specials and annuals, were some of the finest pieces of humour art DC Thomson were producing at that time. DC Thomson chose him to draw ''Desperate Dan'' for the specials and annuals following original artist Dudley Watkins' death in 1969. Grigg was also adept at illustrating "light adventure" stories for the publisher, with his most memorable sixties strips being ''The Red Wrecker'' and ''The Umbrella Men'' for ''The Dandy''. When Grigg retired from regular comics work in 1983, he turned his hand to illustrating saucy

seaside postcard A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare. There are novelty exceptions, such as wood ...

s for Bamforth. These British curiosities were hugely popular decades ago, and could be found on

spinner racks A spinner rack is a rotating merchandise display, usually placed on a retailer's floor or counter. Often used to display magazines, paperbacks, greeting cards, postcards, hats, or seeds, the spinner rack is closely associated with the comic book ...

outside shops in every seaside resort. However, by the time Grigg entered the field, the popularity of such postcards was in decline. Today, Bamforth saucy postcards are considered a 20th-century collectible (supplanted by holidaymaker's text messages), although some shops do still have old stock. Suffering from

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

, Grigg died on 4 December 2013 at the age of 97."Dandy illustrator Chas Grigg gets blue plaque,"
BBC (21 May 2017).

References

1916 births 2013 deaths British comic strip cartoonists British comics artists The Dandy people {{comic-strip-creator-stub

See also

References