Семейство Браунов: История шотландского комикса

Scottish comic series

The Broons (English: The Browns) is a comic strip in Scots published in the weekly Scottish newspaper The Sunday Post. It features a Brown family, which lives in a tenement flat at 10 Glebe Street (since the late 1990s) in the fictional Scottish town of Auchentogle or Auchenshoogle. Created by writer/editor R. D. Low and artist Dudley D. Watkins, the strip made its first appearance in the issue dated 8 March 1936. Since its inception, The Broons have had their own biennial, alternating each year with Oor Wullie. No annuals were published during 1943 and 1944 due to paper rationing in World War II, but jigsaws were created instead. Following the 80th anniversary in 2016, an additional annual of The Broons was issued for 2017, breaking from the biennial pattern.

The family surname Broon is the Scots for Standard English "Brown", as indicated by the nameplate that occasionally appears on the front door of their flat. Also, when a family member is addressed by a non Scot (i. e. an Englishman or an American), he or she is addressed as "Mister (or Mrs or Miss) Brown". Early strips written in the 1930s featured less dialogue and the pictures told the story. This was more common in Oor Wullie strips. However, occasional Broons strips did this too. During the 1970s, stories drawn by Tom Lavery, another character named Dave MacKay was regularly featured. Dave was Maggie's long term boyfriend and later her fiancé, although the latter aspect only featured in the original Sunday Post strips, with all mentions of the engagement removed for the annual reprints. Although his father was an old school friend of Paw, his mother was upper–middle class, much to the chagrin of Paw and Maw. Despite the Broons' perpetual deference to their social 'betters', many comical premises were built on the family's attempts to impress members of the landed gentry, or the clergy. Many storylines featured Paw bringing shame on the family by being seen wearing torn trousers or working clothes by the 'Meenister' (Church of Scotland minister). Maggie's character also changed during this time, becoming more posh. Unlike the rest of the Broons, she spoke Standard English rather than Modern Scots. When Peter Davidson took over from Lavery, the character was dropped without explanation. suggests he was using his own immediate environment. (He lived in Broughty Ferry.) He worked in Dundee and the Broons' dialect is mainly Dundonian. Since the 1990s, however, The Broons has been set in the fictional town of Auchenshoogle. The Broons own a small cottage, called the but and ben, somewhere in the Highlands but within a relatively short distance of their home. They enjoy weekends away there, although the younger Broons show some reluctance to go there. In a 1940s strip, the house is shown to be on a hillside on the east side of the River Ness and an arrow also points to Auchentoogle being located on the northern bank of Loch Ness near Dores. The house was referred to as being in a secret location in "The Broons Days Oot" travel guide published in 2009. In Still Game's 2007 Hogmanay special, "Hootenanny," Jack compares Joe's Highland cottage to "the but 'n ben out of the bloody Broons", as a comical way to comment upon how shabby it appears.

Although the Broons and Oor Wullie started in 1936, annuals were not published until 1939, starting with "The Broons". since then the annuals alternate years with Oor Wullie, another D. C. Thomson product. Books pre 1965 were not dated. After that they had a copyright date with annuals normally published in Autumn. The early editions of The Broons annual are highly sought after collectors' items, fetching in excess of four figure sums at auction. A facsimile of the very first Broons annual was released on 25 November 2006. Watkins drew the strip from his Broughty Ferry home until his death in 1969. For five years after Watkins' death, D. C. Thomson recycled old strips in the newspaper and annuals, fearing no adequate replacement could be found to match Watkins' unique style. In these repeated strips, some particularly Scots words were replaced (e. g., 'ahint' became 'behind') and the pre decimal coinage was updated. Mike Donaldson is the current artist, succeeding Peter Davidson. BBC Radio Scotland presenter Tom Morton was the scriptwriter until 2006 when Dave Donaldson took over. Morris Heggie, former editor of The Dandy is one of the current writers, however credits are now attributed when published in The Sunday Post.

The Broons were portrayed in a sketch on the BBC Scotland comedy show Naked Video. Tony Roper was cast as Paw, Gregor Fisher played Maw, Elaine C. Smith portrayed the Bairn, Jonathan Watson appeared as Joe, and Louise Beattie appeared as Horace, with the other family members (and Oor Wullie) mentioned in passing. The sketch revolved around Paw's naivety in the modern world and his inability to move with the times, not even realising that his entire offspring are the product of an affair Maw was having with a farmer. In December 2005, the BBC Scotland documentary Happy Birthday Broons celebrated the family's 70th anniversary with celebrity guests including Muriel Gray, Ford Kiernan, Sanjeev Kohli, Eddi Reader, Elaine C. Smith, Ricky Ross, Tony Roper, Tam Cowan, Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely and was narrated by Ewan McGregor. The programme was made by Angel Eye Media and was nominated for a Best Documentary BAFTA. It was followed by Happy Birthday Oor Wullie.