Oor Wullie Turns 80

Comic-strip star Oor Wullie celebrates birthday

Published 8th Mar 2016

He might look fresh-faced but comic-strip star Oor Wullie is celebrating his 80th birthday.

The “mischievous scamp” first featured in a cartoon strip in the pages of the Sunday Post on March 8, 1936.

Since then, he has spent eight decades appearing weekly in the paper getting up to no good with his pals Fat Bob, Wee Eck and Soapy Soutar, and dodging his nemesis PC Murdoch in the fictional town of Auchenshoogle.

To mark the 80th anniversary of his debut, a bronze statue of the spiky-haired schoolboy in his classic pose sitting on a upturned bucket has been unveiled in Dundee, home of Sunday Post publisher DC Thomson.

Former editor Morris Heggie said: “The adventures of Oor Wullie have delighted Scots for eight decades. In that time the mischievous scamp has become a much-loved national treasure.

“We are used to seeing Wullie in the black-and-white world of print but here he is in 3D - in his own fabulous bronze statue. A magnificent tribute to Dundee's cheeriest son.

“Oor Wullie himself would be delighted that the bronze catches him about toembark on his legendary capers.”