Dudley D. Watkins - Private Life

Private Life

He was a devout Christian and an enthusiastic supporter of the Church of Christ in Dundee (where he met his wife). On his desk he had a huge Bible on a stand in which he made copious notes in the wide margins. He used to deliver Christian chats to children which he illustrated with quick drawings on a blackboard. He contributed artwork for mission calendars, and from 1956 he produced (free of charge) the comic strips William the Warrior and Tony & Tina - The Twins for The Young Warrior, a children's paper published by the WEC Publications. These strips, filled with quotations from Scripture, were collected into a series of booklets. Watkins also illustrated some Biblical features for Thomson annuals in the 1960s. It was his ambition to adapt the Bible into illustrated format, but that dream was never realised. In March 2008 a watercolour by Watkins depicting The Crucifixion was discovered in a house in Lochgelly, Fife.

Watkins and his wife built a substantial house in Broughty Ferry, which he named Winsterly. He continued working with D. C. Thomson for the rest of his life. On 20 August 1969 he was found dead at his drawing board, victim of a heart attack.

It is a testament to Watkins' work that D. C. Thomson continued to reprint Oor Wullie and Broons strips in The Sunday Post for seven years before a replacement was found. Watkins' Desperate Dan strips were reprinted in The Dandy for fourteen years.

In a 2006 BBC documentary marking 70 years of Oor Wullie, it was claimed that, due to his frequent mocking of Axis leaders in his comics before and during World War II, Watkins' name was on a list of enemies of the Third Reich.