R. D. Low

Low was born in Dundee. The son of Alexander Brown Low, a jute mill mechanic, and Maggie Wilson Low, he joined DC Thomson as a journalist in 1913 as an 18-year-old trainee and rose to become managing editor in charge of the children's publications department eight years later.^[1] Having launched the "big five" story papers Adventure (1921), The Rover (1922), The Wizard (1923), The Skipper (1930) and The Hotspur (1933), he developed a comic supplement for the weekly newspaper The Sunday Post, the "Fun Section" (1936). It included two comic strips in Scots vernacular he had co-created with Dudley D. Watkins, a staff illustrator on the story papers: The Broons, about a working-class Scottish family, and Oor Wullie, about a mischievous young boy (based on Low's son Ron), alongside Auchentogle, drawn by Chic Gordon, and strips by Allan Morley including Nero and Zero and Nosey Parker.^[2][3][4]

In 1937, as managing editor, he oversaw the launch of DC Thomson's first comic, The Dandy, edited by Albert Barnes, followed by The Beano, edited by George Moonie, in 1938.^[1] The Magic Comic, for slightly younger readers, followed in 1939 but folded in 1941 due to paper shortages. The next comic launched was The Topper in 1953.^[2] Also in 1953, Low co-created "Roger the Dodger", with artist Ken Reid, for The Beano.^[5]