EFTERWIRD
Peter Watson an The Lang Walk Hame fin theirsels, richtly, in the braw company o cairtoonists an comic craitures wirkin wi the raw material o the soons an language heard the hale lenth an bridth o Scotland.
Nearhaun aw Scots comics makkars, be they born here or haen taen their time tae fin their wey tae jyne in, hae a lug fir oor Scots language an are jist gart tae smuggle it in tae their warks. Fae the creation o the warld’s first comic, Glasgow Looking Glass (1825), Scots dialogue an rhyme is there.
Aw throu the nineteen hunners in the papers we’v cairtoonists an cairicaturists uisin their ain dialects o Scots the heich watter merk here bein, oot o Glesga, Bud Neill’s surrael Lobey Dosser an, hailin fae Dundee, The Broons an wir spikey heidit treisure, Oor Wullie.
Throu the 1980s there a wheen o Scots scrievin awa at comics wi Alan Grant & John Wagner, aften wi Cam Kennedy, in particular pittin Scots wirds an jokes aw throu Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, The Punisher an Batman. In the run up tae the Glesga city o European culture they produced ane o the comics wi the maist Scots an Scottish humour tae date, The Bogie Man.
O coorse, there the mair coorse side o Scots cairtoonin Peter is in wi an aw here. Fowk lik Dave Alexander, Frank Quitely, an Jim Stewart wurnae agin giein us chairacters thit’s a bittie fu in Electric Soup an Northern Lights.
O late full comics in Scots is comin tae the fore wi Grant & Wagner‘s Kidnappit & The unco case o Dr Jekyll an Mr Hyde, ma ain Scots manga owersettin Gie ma regairds tae Jock Dhu, an baith Asterix an Tintin available in Scots. An A’ve the pleisure o wirkin wi a wheen o Scots indie creators tae pit oot the first Scots language anthology Scrieve!
The Lang Walk Hame is baith in the grang tradition o comic Scots verse an a braw addition tae this cannon o Scots comics. Whit rerr!
M
Dr Michael Dempster, the Scots Scriever, is author o Scots in Comics & translator o Jock Dhu (jockdhu.scot), Scrieve! anthology (mindyerlanguage.bigcartel.com) an the forthcomin An Táin.