Scotland Correspondent Issue 39

Page 68

Arts - Fun and laughter wi Glesgae patter

Fun and laughter wi Glesgae patter

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here was a time when Sam the Skull*, as sung by Alastair McDonald, was the only famous Glasgow cat but now there’s a new pride in town. The Wildcats is a comic strip by artist Catherine Neville that’s helping educate people around the world about some of the legendary Glasgow patter. Since she started drawing caricatures of her and a friend’s three domestic felines almost 30 years ago, and giving them human personalities, Catherine’s

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cartoon cats have developed a life of their own. “Sometime around the early 1990s I was sharing a flat with my friend Mo and three cats. For amusement I started to draw them and imagine the kind of things they’d get up to if they were human based on their characters,” said Catherine. “Droos was clever and bossed the other two about, Bogey was laid back and loved food and when Moss arrived all hell broke lose. Moss seemed to be the rebel and was always getting up

to all sorts, including throwing a hissy fit when anyone new walked in. Visitors were usually wary!” The self taught artist, who specialises in drawing iconic Scottish buildings, found her talent for cartoons could be used to help promote her other passion for the Scots language. Over time Catherine, developed a number of story lines she could use to illustrate some of the words and phrases she grew up hearing in the east-end of Glasgow.


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