Scottish illustrator and comics artist David Sutherland, "cartoonist for the Beano whose artwork encapsulated the mayhem of the Bash Street Kids for more than 60 years," died January 19, the Guardian reported. He was 89. The comic's current editor, John Anderson, described Sutherland as "the single most important illustrator in Beano history."
Sutherland was the artist behind "some of Beanotown's topmost tearaways, his brush responsible for 30 years of Dennis the Menace and more than 60 years of The Bash Street Kids. An unassuming and gentle man, Sutherland let anarchy reign in his artwork, with Dennis and his spiky hound Gnasher creating chaos for all around them," the Guardian wrote, adding that the Beano's publisher, DC Thomson, "knew that the wilder and more chaotic the characters, the more the readers loved them."
Sutherland's first Bash Street Kids strip, appearing in 1962, was also the first to be published across two color pages. He went on to draw some 3,500 episodes. In 1972, Sutherland added a third major strip, Dennis the Menace, to his weekly output, adopting different styles for each of them. Sutherland also created the Bash Street Pups (1966, later spun off to their own strip, Pup Parade), Cuthbert Cringeworthy (1972) and Olive the School Cook (1981).
Although he officially retired in 1998, Sutherland continued to draw the Bash Street Kids strip. Even in his 80s, "he kept up his weekly schedule, using a tray as a drawing board and working on half a page at a time while sitting in his living room watching TV," the Guardian noted. His final strip carried the byline David Sutherland OBE, to mark his receipt of the award last month.
Comic strip creator, artist and writer Andy Fanton tweeted: "I consider it one of the biggest honours of my life that I got to write the Bash Street scripts for him every week for the past few years. Working in collaboration with the man who had been behind so much I'd enjoyed as a child was mind-blowing, and a complete thrill....
"His work remained as accomplished and as funny as ever, his clear love for it always shone through. He told me once that he was 'amazed' at how the strip came together so well every week, which I think showed a humble side of an artist who had such incredible skill.... I'm glad that he received his OBE and a fresh wave of appreciation this year, and hope he knew precisely how much his work was enjoyed, and the immeasurable delight he brought to so many childhoods."