Carl Giles (1916-1995) was a
cartoonist for the
Daily Express for many decades. He drew half page single cartoons of great detail that showed ordinary people affected by the events of the time.
Although the cartoons were topical they were largely unaffected by the politics of the newspaper, which was generally rightwing.
He produced over 7500 cartoons officially for the paper as well as many other private sketches.
Most of the cartoons were done from the perspective of a large family of whom the most memorable character was
Grandma, who was a fearless
battleaxe of a woman with a wicked sense of humour.
There was also a
skeletal teacher which appeared in many of the strips to which the teacher in
Pink Floyd's
The Wall bears a marked resemblance.
He received an
OBE in 1959 and in April 2000 topped a poll of over British 1000 cartoonists and enthusiasts as cartoonist of the 20th century.
A good tribute site to
Giles can be found here: http://giles.clickhere2.net and
http://www.zort.co.uk/giles/giles.asp
There are lots of cartoons and descriptions of the characters there.
Characters that regularly appeared in the Giles cartoons (mostly from the family described above):
Grandma
Father
Mother
Chalkie - the skeletal teacher described earlier
Stinker - little boy with a big grin and huge black mop of hair
Vera - friend of Grandma, always sniffling into a hankie
George - Vera's husband
Ernie - friend of the family
Butch - family dog
Bridget - schoolgirl, normally grinning widely
Anne and the twins - daughter
Carol - another daughter