Comments on: Ramshackle Cot, the Garden Plot and Acres Twenty-Three

By: Miguel

Miguel — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 10:54:13 +0000

Curly Wee was published in the Melbourne Age in the fifties and probably earlier.

A story that sticks in my mind is when Mr Fox – backed by the rats, portrayed as a criminal sub-culture, as others have noted – attempted to steal the general election from the Count. The Count’s politics were somewhat confusing, combining a sort of fiscal libertarianism – he wanted to abolish income tax (‘I vote we cut it out’) – with improvments in social welfare – he wanted better public housing, including for rats. The rats, as usual, were ungracious: “Ugh, I don’t call this a house, it’s far too neat and clean’.

By: Oliver Murray

Oliver Murray — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 14:36:16 +0000

Very interesting discussion. I am 74 and grew up with the Curly Wee strip in the Irish Independent. I was astonished, coming back from France last week and buying a copy of the Indo on the plane, to see it was still being published. Even as a child, and very familiar with American comics etc,, I thought Curly Wee was something of a curiosity – the verse commentary, the fact it seemed (as I thought) exclusive to an Irish paper as I had not seen it anywhere else (yet in no way Irish) and am intrigued to learn it originated in the Liverpool Echo, and was published in Madras, Bulawayo etc. as well. Weren’t Browne and Nolan who published the annuals an Irish firm?

Thanks for the research, fustar!

By: Ms Avery

Ms Avery — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 15:43:02 +0000

Huh, I think I still have what must be the 1990 reprint… bought for me by my mum, who was a big fan of CW in the fifties.

By: Nicholas Morrison

Nicholas Morrison — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 19:54:50 +0000

Clark’s strip added to 1004 and probaly to 1008 being published in Bulawayo among other places.

By: nick clibborn

nick clibborn — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 17:54:14 +0000

Just to stoke your fires. Roland Clibborn was my grandfather, he was born in Philadelphia, his father having emigrated to the US in 1875, and became a celebrated cartoonist working on the Liverpool Echo after many years as an import/export merchant. Maud Budden asked him to draw the pictures to demonstrate the CW text. Curly Wee itself is a mountain (more of a pimple really) in Scotland. At one point the strip was syndicated to over 300 newspapers, mainly in the old ‘empire’ countries. The essence was morality tales for children, and in the context of the day they were well crafted. The originals of most of the drawings were lost when my father’s house had a catastrophic fire in which he lost his life. This was in 1993. Roland’s other claim to fame was as a portraitist and caracturist, and his work is well known.
CW is still aired – Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode (Radio 5 Friday pm) are occasionaly referred to as Curly wee and Gusie Goose.

Nick Clibborn

By: Isobel Langhorst

Isobel Langhorst — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 15:09:31 +0000

Can’t believe this – I have just Googled Curly W etc for the insane purpose of trying to relate the outline of this cartoon in Italian (homework for a Senior brain) and found this amazing blog. As a small child I used to wait for my father to come home from work every evening, when his first task was to read the next instalment from his Liverpool Echo. The routine was that I would greet him at the front door, relieve him of the Echo and then sit waiting for him to read that day’s instalment. Must have driven him nuts after a time but he never once refused. Think I vaguely recall Pointed Fang but no details. That was the late Forties and early Fifties. Thank you all for this blog and rekindling good memories and Good Luck Nicholas with your project.

By: Aruna

Aruna — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 09:52:56 +0000

I found this fascinating blog through a Google search. I remember reading the Curly Wee annuals my aunt had collected as a child, who’d have thought he’d still be around today! The only story I recall is of Larry Lamb and a friend being kidnapped by Pointed Fang who was a kind of desert dog. I remember there was a herd of stampeding bison, and Curly Wee punched one of them in the nose. Does anyone else remember that episode? I would also be very interested in Nicholas Morrison’s website when he sets it up, is there any way to subscribe?

By: Nicholas Morrison

Nicholas Morrison — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:49:24 +0000

Thanks to another collector it has been established that the series illustrated by Clark extended to at least 1004.

By: Nicholas Morrison

Nicholas Morrison — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 07:52:26 +0000

When in Birmingham to carry out some copying I discovered that they had published one further story in 1969/1970 extending Clark’s run from 720 to 816.Birmingham had taken up the series at 4015,but although behind the Liverpool by about 450, when Clark started to draw the cartoon they did not complete the Clibborn series.The last story had a Jet Aeroplane showing that the series went with the times.Recently a 1946 Irish published Annual came up for sale although it carried the same stories as the annual published in England it was called “Curly Wee Again”,also it was bound like the 1944 and 1945 with a slightly different picture.

By: Nicholas Morrison

Nicholas Morrison — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:09:20 +0000

I must apologise for a description error re the 1947(Longer) Annual.It is Ginger Dick shaking hands with Curly on the cover.My thanks to Martin Smith for the correction.
The Annuals are probably becoming less expensive on E Bay the seven on Abebooks seen stuck by the prices raised last year.

By: fústar

fústar — Tue, 13 May 2008 00:09:05 +0000

To whomever it was that left a message here in the last couple of days RE: Curly Wee – I apologise. I accidentally deleted your comment rather than approving it. Please pop it in again.

By: Y. Zalman

Y. Zalman — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 03:43:30 +0000

Curly Wee ran for years on page 3 of the Johannesburg Star, at least through the early 60′s. I followed it slavishly as a kid, along with the weather, and the time of sunrise and sunset, with no obvious ill effect. I can’t remember why.

By: Kathy van Vuuren

Kathy van Vuuren — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 18:17:53 +0000

I remember curly wee. We had a copy of it that my grandfather must’ve got up in North Africa during the war. I have the dust jacket, but alas, not the book. I would give anything to get hold of a copy.

By: Nicholas Morrison

Nicholas Morrison — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 12:48:56 +0000

I just wish to correct an error I made,the gap in numbers was 900 being 1100-1999 and Roland Clibborn years were 1879-1969 being 90 and three quarters years old.Apologies for this.
Nicholas

By: alun hughes

alun hughes — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 12:39:32 +0000

I have parts of a couple of the annuals and was brought up on them being the baby of the family born in 1955. I have loved verse ever since they were read to me and like others little snippits come out in reminisences. The verses were funny and the style contributed to this sense of not being taken seriously but they were not strained and I think looking back that they had something for the adults in the subtlety. I believe that they were based around current events and for that reason alone should be preserved which is why I typed into Google and found this. I would love to get hold of the colour versions and have them to read to my new grandaughter. There should be a Curley Wee website for devotees with downloads. My favorite recollections are Count Curly diving to an Elizabethan shipwreck to search for his ancestors lost traesure, His climb to the top of Mount Neverest (wasn’t that of its time) and the wagon train to “Them thar hills”. Holiday Island in one of the stories was supposed to be Hilbre Island off Wirral. Its upsetting to read that the original artwork was lost in a fire. I hope some way can be found of making the stories accessible once again.