Lobey Dosser

 Back in September I posted about a book my mum had helped collate and type back in the 1950s...Arnhem by Major General Urquhart.

It seems only fair to share a book that my dad had a connection to and I recently picked up a copy.  Not a book as such, this is a collection of comic strips, and he didn't have a hand in it's creation, but he loved the strip and used to talk about it incessantly, so although I'd never read it, it seemed very familiar to me.  

The comic strip is probably unknown to most people outside of Glasgow and to anyone under about 80 (unless they had a parent who banged on about it!) but it has a bit of a following and, indeed a statue to the main character was erected in the 1990s in the city.  It began in 1949 in the pages of Glasgow's Evening Times newspaper and ran for several years in the 50s.

The strip is Lobey Dosser, the adventures of the Sheriff of Calton Creek... a wild west town populated by suspiciously Glaswegian characters.  His arch enemy is Rank Bajin who only ever appears as a black silhouette apart from his eyes and teeth.  The dialogue and the humour is very Glaswegian... lots of weegie colloquialisms and puns that rely on a passing acquaintance with the dialect.  For example a Lobby Dosser is someone who would doss in the hallway of a Glasgow tenement and a rank badjin is someone who is very bad or evil.

Actually it holds up pretty well and is a funny, entertaining read, although I'm conscious I may be viewing this through rose tinted spectacles!

Lobey and Rank Badjin riding El Fideldo, Lobey's 2 legged horse.

As a loose link to wargaming, my cowboy games rake place in the town of Calton Creek... I must get a town sign made up!