shewhomust (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shewhomust) wrote2006-01-02 10:55 am
shewhomust) wrote2006-01-02 10:55 am
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Maurice Dodd
2005 still had one last sting in its tail, it seems: Maurice Dodd, for many years writer of The Perishers, died of a brain haemorrhage on the evening of New Year's Eve. He was 83.
For almost half a century, The Perishers strip cartoon appeared daily in the Daily Mirror newspaper, written and sometimes drawn by Maurice Dodd. The strip chronicled the lives of a group of children, an Old English sheepdog and associated hangers-on, with a mixture of realistic detail and surreal invention which was quite unlike anything else. The characters were depicted without sentimentality, their traits exaggerated to the point of burlesque - no boy was ever quite as stupid as Marlon, no girl ever quite as domineering as Maisie - but with an affectionate respect. The artist (especially during the tenure of Dennis Collins) contributed hugely to the appeal of the strip, but the original scripts and the layouts were Dodd's, and many of the best gags were purely verbal, fragments of dialogue where the visuals were no more than ornamental - Baby Grumpling, for example, addressing the New Baby forever invisible in its pram. One of the first essays I posted on my Shadow Gallery web site was about The Perishers, and it is still the one that brings in most mail. It is by no means Maurice Dodd's only work, but it is one that has given me, personally, many years of pleasure, for which I remain deeply in his debt.
I cannot claim to have known him, but one of the delights that the internet has given me is that we did once speak on the phone.
The Perishers came late to the internet (when I first posted my piece about them, I was astonished how little other material I found to link to), but eventually Maurice Dodd was prevailed upon to set up The Authentic Perishers site. I e-mailed, requesting a link, and received a friendly reply, suggesting we speak "preferably by old fashioned telephone". When we did so, he was courteous, and disconcertingly receptive to suggestions about his web site: where I had regarded myself as the fan, thrilled that the creator of the work had not only read my critique but was prepared to speak to me about it, I found myself consulted as an expert in this new-fangled medium.
For almost half a century, The Perishers strip cartoon appeared daily in the Daily Mirror newspaper, written and sometimes drawn by Maurice Dodd. The strip chronicled the lives of a group of children, an Old English sheepdog and associated hangers-on, with a mixture of realistic detail and surreal invention which was quite unlike anything else. The characters were depicted without sentimentality, their traits exaggerated to the point of burlesque - no boy was ever quite as stupid as Marlon, no girl ever quite as domineering as Maisie - but with an affectionate respect. The artist (especially during the tenure of Dennis Collins) contributed hugely to the appeal of the strip, but the original scripts and the layouts were Dodd's, and many of the best gags were purely verbal, fragments of dialogue where the visuals were no more than ornamental - Baby Grumpling, for example, addressing the New Baby forever invisible in its pram. One of the first essays I posted on my Shadow Gallery web site was about The Perishers, and it is still the one that brings in most mail. It is by no means Maurice Dodd's only work, but it is one that has given me, personally, many years of pleasure, for which I remain deeply in his debt.
I cannot claim to have known him, but one of the delights that the internet has given me is that we did once speak on the phone.
The Perishers came late to the internet (when I first posted my piece about them, I was astonished how little other material I found to link to), but eventually Maurice Dodd was prevailed upon to set up The Authentic Perishers site. I e-mailed, requesting a link, and received a friendly reply, suggesting we speak "preferably by old fashioned telephone". When we did so, he was courteous, and disconcertingly receptive to suggestions about his web site: where I had regarded myself as the fan, thrilled that the creator of the work had not only read my critique but was prepared to speak to me about it, I found myself consulted as an expert in this new-fangled medium.
no subject
What a good painter he was. I had no idea!