Angus Og, the wily highlander created by cartoonist Ewen Bain for the Daily Record in 1960, was warmly welcomed home to Skye… and he brought a few famous faces with him!
At a very special event in Staffin Village Hall, Scotland’s leading comic artist Frank Quitely and Professor Laurence Grove, Professor of French and Text/Image Studies at the University of Glasgow joined local musicians and young people in an evening designed to celebrate the Angus Og collection of cartoons held at Skye and Lochalsh Archive Centre. Frank Quitely is a Glasgow-based comic book artist of international renown. He works predominantly with Scottish comic book writers Mark Millar and Grant Morrison and has created work for major titles and household names such as ‘Judge Dredd’, Marvel’s ‘X-Men’ and DC Comics’ ‘Superman’ and ‘Batman’.
Professor Laurence Grove is Director of the Stirling Maxwell Centre for the Study of Text/Image Cultures, President of the International Bande Dessinée Society, and Vice-Président of Les Amis de Tristan L’Hermite. He is the general editor of Glasgow Emblem Studies, and co-editor of European Comic Art.
The event was organized by Skye and Lochalsh Archive Centre as a way of bringing back the cartoon collection to the community that helped inspire it’s creation more than 60 years ago. Angus Og was created by cartoonist Ewen Bain, and his adventures were based on the fabled Isle of Drambeg in the Utter Hebrides. Ewen Bain was born in Maryhill, Glasgow in 1925 and was the youngest of three children of John and Flora Bain from the Isle of Skye. His father was from Waternish and his mother from Staffin. They moved to Glasgow in 1912 and the family would return to spend every summer in Staffin, an island community that undoubtedly influebnced Drambeg. Gaelic was spoken as the family’s first language and elements of Gaelic and Scots feature throughout Ewen Bain’s work. Angus Og began in the Bulletin and was published in the Daily Record from 1960 through to 1989. There were 158 Angus Og adventures, and the collection of original strips has been kindly donated by Ewen Bain’s family to the Skye and Lochalsh Archive Centre.
Professor Laurence Grove said ‘this collection is of national, indeed international importance and its value as part of the history of storytelling and cartoons in Scotland and Europe cannot be over estimated’.
Frank Quietly said ‘Ewen Bain was creating real art that went beyond the 2 dimensional depictions so often found in cartoons. Seeing someone from Scotland succeeding in this field made me feel that I too could pursue this art as a career and I hope some more young people have been similarly inspired by the collection and the conversation this evening’.
Rhona Flin, Ewen Bain’s daughter said ‘what a fantastic event on Thursday night with Laurence and Frank, plus all the superb dancing, singing and musical performances. My father would be blown away to see so many people gathered together in Staffin to share his work’.
The Angus Og cartoons offer an engaging insight into Scottish social history with many of the stories reflecting topical and national issues that still affect our communities today. The event in Staffin showcased a few extracts from the collection and it was wonderful to see the community come together to share some laughs and reminisce about the Bain family and the many adventures of the residents of Drambeg. The evening also featured performances from local clarsach player Willow Ferguson, piper Lachlann MacLeod, Gaelic singer Jonathan MacDonald, Highland dancer Cynthia Mulvenny and the SEALL Culture Colllective Neach an Taighe, Louis Barabbas.
Archives Project Officer, Katharine Macfarlane said ‘The Angus Og Cartoon Collection is a valuable resource for all Highland and Island communities providing a safe, engaging format for exploring some of the topical issues affecting island life. They are also visually inspiring and incredibly funny! We hope this event in Staffin will be just the first of many events reflecting on island life and futures through the lens of Angus Og.’
The conservation and digitisation of the collection has been supported by the Scottish Government’s National Island Plan which has been awarded to all Scottish local authority areas with island populations and seeks to support the development of cultural and historic resources encouraging Island residents to engage with, and participate in, arts and culture. The funding will also allow High Life Highland to develop an accessible Angus Og collection exhibition which will showcase at the Archive Centre in Skye, and thereafter tour the Islands with workshops, readings, and discussions. The strip will also be made available online through the Am Baile website and there are plans for the collection to tour venues across the Highlands and Scotland.
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