Ian Robertson Gray (1938–2007) was a British comics writer and editor. Born on 31 March 1938 in

Arbroath Arbroath () or Aberbrothock ( gd, Obar Bhrothaig ) is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the council area of Angus, Scotland, with a population of 23,902. It lies on the North Sea coast some ENE of Dundee and SSW of Aberdeen. The ...

Angus, Scotland Angus ( sco, Angus; gd, Aonghas) is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland, a registration county and a lieutenancy area. The council area borders Aberdeenshire, Dundee City and Perth and Kinross. Main industries include agr ...

, the son of a newspaper reporter for D. C. Thomson & Co., he joined the firm himself at the age of 17. Managing director

R. D. Low Robert Duncan Low (25 August 1895, Dundee – 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'' and ''The Broo ...

assigned him to comics, working under editor George Moonie, where he immediately began writing scriptsMartin Plimmer
Obituary: Ian Gray
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 27 October 2007 for three new cartoonists, Ken Reid (

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 ...

Leo Baxendale Joseph Leo Baxendale (27 October 1930 – 23 April 2017) was an English cartoonist and publisher. Baxendale wrote and drew several titles. Among his best-known creations are the ''The Beano, Beano'' comic strip, strips ''Little Plum'', ''Minnie ...

(

Little Plum Little Plum (full name revealed to be Little Plum Stealing Varmint) is a British humoristic western comics series about a little Native American, originally created by Leo Baxendale and published in the magazine ''The Beano''. Concept The epon ...

Minnie the Minx Minnie the Minx, whose real name is Hermione Makepeace is a comic strip character published in the British comic magazine ''The Beano''. Created and originally drawn by Leo Baxendale, she first appeared in issue 596, dated 19 December 1953, ma ...

The Bash Street Kids ''The Bash Street Kids'' is a comic strip in the British comic magazine ''The Beano''. It also appeared briefly in The Wizard as series of prose stories in 1955. The strip, created by Leo Baxendale as ''When the Bell Rings'', first appeare ...

), and

Davey Law David Law (1908 – April 1971) was a Scottish cartoonist best known for creating '' Dennis the Menace'' and ''Beryl the Peril'' for Dundee publishers D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd . Life Law was born and raised in Edinburgh and educated at Edinbur ...

( Dennis the Menace); in 1968 he co-created Dennis's dog

Gnasher Gnasher () is a fictional comic strip character that appears in the British comic magazine ''The Beano''. He is the pet dog of Dennis the Menace, who meets him in 1968's issue 1362, and is also the star of three spin-off comic strips. Gnasher i ...

with Law.

Paul Gravett Paul Gravett is a London-based journalist, curator, writer, and broadcaster who has worked in comics publishing since 1981. He is the founder of ''Escape Magazine'', and for many years wrote a monthly article on comics appearing in the UK magaz ...

Obituary: Ian Gray
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 20 September 2007 In 1977–79 he edited ''

Plug Plug, PLUG, plugs, or plugged may refer to: * Plug (accounting), an unsupported adjustment to an accounting record * Plug (fishing), a family of fishing lures * Plug (horticulture), a planting technique * Plug (jewellery), a type of jewellery wor ...

'', a weekly comic starring the eponymous Bash Street Kids character. From 1982 he edited '' The Beano Comic Library'' and ''The Dandy Comic Library''.Alan Clark, ''Dictionary of British Comic Artists'', Writers and Editors, The British Library, 1998, p. 67 He became chief sub-editor 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 ...

'' in 1989, where he wrote scripts for

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, ...

, drawn by

Ken H. Harrison Ken H. Harrison ( 1940) is a British comic artist best known for his work for DC Thomson. His credits include Robbie Rebel, Big Brad Wolf and Lord Snooty for ''The Beano'', The Hoot Squad for ''Hoot'' (later reprinted as The Beano's The Riot Squad ...

. He retired early in 1992. Outside comics, he played guitar and wrote songs. He performed in skiffle groups Der Skorpions and the Folk and Blues Sextet in the 1950s, was involved in the Arbroath folk music scene in the 1960s, and was well known locally for performing his comic songs. He also raced pigeons and trialled sheepdogs. He died of a heart attack in

Forfar Forfar ( sco, Farfar, gd, Baile Fharfair) is the county town of Angus, Scotland and the administrative centre for Angus Council, with a new multi-million pound office complex located on the outskirts of the town. As of 2021, the town has a p ...

, Angus, on 6 September 2007.

References

1938 births 2007 deaths British comics writers Comic book editors People from Arbroath The Beano people {{UK-comics-creator-stub