Ian Gray

Sep 21 2007 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

Ian Gray

IF A guitar-strumming minst-rel, with a hint of smoked haddock on his whiskers, was the father of an Abyssin- ian wire-haired trip hound, you might hazard the guess that he would not by calling have joined the weights and measurements department on the local council.

And you would be right, for the man was a script-writer on The Beano, where he gave us that hound, known throughout the uncivilised world as Gnasher, loyal companion of Dennis the Menace.

Beyond that he was a pigeon-racer, a sheepdog handler, an admirer of cats and a skiffler, who, on hearing the young Billy Connolly’s patter at a folk club, suggested that he should stick to the banjo.

Ian Gray was born in Arbroath, a town renowned for its smoked haddock and a football team whose name is stalked by “nil”.

Anyway, he acquired his nickname of Smokie from the fish and briefly considered life as a country vet, but his failure at maths, physics and chemistry thwarted this ambition.

However, his father was a journalist with DC Thomson newspapers in Dundee, which also published comics.

So it was in 1955 that Gray found himself on the Beano writing stories, which would be illustrated by Davey Law (Dennis), Leo Baxendale (Little Plum, Minnie the Minx and the Bash Street Kids) and Ken Reid (Roger the Dodger).

In his leisure hours, Gray, then cultivating his magnificent moustache, played in skiffle groups, which would lead to his profound enthusiasm for folk music and storytelling.

His career was broken by two years’ National Service with the RAF at the end of the 1950s. In addition to his crazy scripts, peppered with gags, Gray and Law co-created Gnasher. “Draw Dennis’s hairstyle, legs on each corners and eyeballs at one end,” was Gray’s succinct advice to his esteemed colleague.

Gray left the Beano in 1977 to edit Plug comic, before starting the 64-page Beano booklets. In 1989, he was appointed chief sub-editor on The Dandy, giving him a chance to work with the illustrator Ken Harrison on Desperate Dan, the Cactusville cowboy and devourer of cow pies.

Gray, who retired in 1992, was married with four children. He continued pursuing his hobbies and quite recently came third in the Scottish pigeon-racing championship.

His heart attack robbed Scotland of a fine character.

Ian Gray, comic writer; born March 31, 1938,September 6, 2007.