Wally (Trog) Fawkes 1924 - 2023

British editorial cartoonist and jazz musician Wally Fawkes, who used the pen name Trog, has died at the age of 98. He died peacefully on Wednesday, March 1st. 

Via The Daily Cartoonist:

Newspaper illustrator, comic strip artist, and political cartoonist Wally Fawkes was also a renowned musician.

From the BBC in 2005 on the occasion of Wally retiring his cartooning career:

"In a society increasingly categorised by lists of the Top 10 Greatests, perhaps one day everyone might be the best in the world at something.

"It will always, however, take something special to be Number One in two quite separate categories.

"Depending who you talk to, Wally Fawkes is either Britain’s greatest living cartoonist or one of its greatest living jazzmen."

 

Via Lambiek:

 

"Wally Fawkes is well known in the United Kingdom for two – as he put it himself – 'minority pursuits': jazz music and cartoons. He was a clarinetist in several British jazz combos, among them Wally Fawkes and the Troglodytes. The latter group also inspired his pseudonym as a cartoonist: "Trog". For 62 years, Fawkes was also active as a political cartoonist. His sharp and left-wing cartoons sometimes went directly against his papers' official ideology. The same could be said about his most well known work, 'Flook' (1949-1985). The adventures of a little boy and his furry animal friend started out as a children's comic, but eventually evolved into something that appealed more to mature readers. Storylines made frequent allusions to current events and both British as well as international politics. In this sense it provided a veritable time capsule of three decades worth of post-war events. 'Flook' is also praised for its extensive portrayal of London. Nearly every street and location has been captured in Fawkes' poetic drawings. Naturally 'Flook' has always remained a British phenomenon, despite efforts to translate it to other countries. While the series is overly reference overdosed, highly dated in some aspects and never made available in its entirety, 'Flook' is nevertheless fondly remembered by many British newspaper readers."