This building was created in 1904-6 for the company D.C. Thomson, by then a roaring success in the print world. The Thomson family originally made their money from shipping, and started investing in publishing when they bought the Dundee in 1886. This was the more right-wing paper in Dundee, a rival to the left-leaning People’s Journal and Dundee Advertiser, at that time still published by Leng & Co. in Bank Street (look for the lettering above the shop fronts next time you are there.) These titles were also later incorporated into the Thomson empire.
Among their most iconic creations are cartoon characters Oor Wullie and the Broons, who made their debut in 1936. These characters were originally designed by the cartoonist Dudley D Watkins. Watkins was born in 1907 in Prestwich in Lancashire, and was encouraged by his father to take extra art classes at school. His artistic career had a roundabout start – his first published drawings were in the staff magazine of Boots the Chemist, while he worked there in the 1920s. He moved north to attend the Glasgow School of Art, where the principal saw his artwork was a clear fit for DC Thompson, and recommended they employ him. His original employment as one of many illustrators saw him teach life drawing at Dundee Art School to supplement a small salary, but as his editors picked up on his talent as a cartoonist, Dudley’s workload picked up.
Oor Wullie and the Broons were born when he met the writer Robert Duncan Low, who had grown up in Dundee, the son of a jute mill mechanic. Low was born in 1895 and by his mid-twenties he had become a formidable force within DC Thompson, creating the popular boys’ story papers Adventure, The Rover, the Wizard and the Hotspur – all focused on empire, guns and war! – and soon being promoted to head of children’s publishing. The rebellious Oor Wullie was allegedly inspired by Low’s son Ron. The comics were printed in a special ‘fun supplement’ in the Sunday Post, following an American publishing trend. They are still published in the Sunday Post today, as well as having alternating annual collections. Oor Wullie has recently found new fame through the Oor Wullie Bucket Trail, where artists designed hundreds of different Oor Wullie statues, which were displayed in cities around Scotland and sold at auction to raise money for childrens’ hopsitals.
We will continue on to the far side of Albert Square, and head north up Meadowside. On your left we will pass the next point of interest, Kandahar House.
