Robert Duncan Low (25 August 1895 – 13 December 1980) was a Scottish comics writer and editor. Employed by D. C. Thomson & Co., he was responsible for their line of comics, and, as a writer, co-created ''

Oor Wullie ''Oor Wullie'' () is a Scottish comic strip published in the D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd, D.C. Thomson newspaper ''The Sunday Post''. It features a character called Wullie; Wullie is a Scots language, Scots nickname for boys named William, equival ...

'' and '' The Broons'' with artist Dudley D. Watkins.

Biography

Low was born in

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

. The son of Alexander Brown Low, a

jute mill A jute mill is a factory for processing jute. There is evidence of jute fibre extraction dating back to the Han dynasty, with a fragment of jute paper being discovered in Dunhuang, in the Gansu Province. The first known mechanical jute mills are b ...

mechanic, and Maggie Wilson Low, he joined DC Thomson as a journalist in 1913 as an 18-year-old trainee and rose to become managing editor in charge of the children's publications department eight years later.John Anderson (ed.), ''Beano: 80 Years of Fun'', D.C. Thomson, 2018, p. 14 Having launched the "big five"

story paper A story paper is a periodical publication similar to a literary magazine, but featuring illustrations and text stories, and aimed towards children and teenagers. Also known in Britain as "boys' weeklies", story papers were phenomenally popula ...

s ''

Adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

'' (1921), '' The Rover'' (1922), '' The Wizard'' (1923), '' The Skipper'' (1930) and ''

The Hotspur ''The Hotspur'' was a British boys' paper published by D. C. Thomson & Co. From 1933 to 1959, it was a boys' story paper; it was relaunched as a comic in October 1959, initially called ''The New Hotspur'', and ceased publication in January 19 ...

'' (1933), he developed a comic supplement for the weekly newspaper ''

The Sunday Post ''The Sunday Post'' is a weekly newspaper published in Dundee, Scotland, by DC Thomson, and characterised by a mix of news, human interest stories and short features. The paper was founded in 1914 and has a wide circulation across Scotland, U ...

'', the "Fun Section" (1936). It included two comic strips in Scots vernacular he had co-created with Dudley D. Watkins, a staff illustrator on the story papers: '' The Broons'', about a working-class Scottish family, and ''

'', about a mischievous young boy (based on Low's son Ron), alongside ''Auchentogle'', drawn by Chic Gordon, and strips by Allan Morley including ''Nero and Zero'' and ''Nosey Parker''.Gavin Brightwell, , That's BrawGavin Brightwell, , That's BrawHelensburgh Heroes: Ronald Waterson Low
/ref> In 1937, as managing editor, he oversaw the launch of DC Thomson's first comic, ''

The Dandy ''The Dandy'' was a Scottish children's comic magazine published by the Dundee based publisher DC Thomson. The first issue was printed in December 1937, making it the world's third-longest running comic, after '' Il Giornalino'' (cover dated 1 Oc ...

'', edited by Albert Barnes, followed by ''

The Beano ''The Beano'' (formerly ''The Beano Comic'') is a British anthology comic magazine created by Scottish publishing company DC Thomson. Its first issue was published on 30 July 1938, and it published its 4000th issue in August 2019. Popular and ...

'', edited by George Moonie, in 1938. ''

The Magic Comic ''The Magic Comic'' was a British comics magazine. It was the ill-fated third comics magazine from DC Thomson (after ''The Beano'' and ''The Dandy''). It was aimed at a younger audience, with more emphasis on picture stories. The first issue w ...

'', for slightly younger readers, followed in 1939 but folded in 1941 due to paper shortages. The next comic launched was '' The Topper'' in 1953. Also in 1953, Low co-created "

Roger the Dodger Roger the Dodger is a comic strip character from the comic magazine '' The Beano''. He first appeared in his eponymous comic strip in 1953, and is one of the longest-running characters, characterised by his tactics for avoiding responsibility a ...

", with artist Ken Reid, for ''The Beano''.Peter Hansen,

References

1895 births 1980 deaths People from Dundee Comic book editors Scottish book editors Scottish humorists Journalists from Dundee Scottish comics writers Writers from Dundee Scottish male writers {{UK-comics-creator-stub