Flook was a British comic strip which ran from 1949 to 1984 in the Daily Mail newspaper. It was drawn by Wally Fawkes, who signed the strips as "Trog". It was the first newspaper comic strip to be published by the New Zealand newspaper Otago Daily Times, where it ran from 1952 to 1979.
Characters and story
The central characters were a young boy called Rufus and his magical animal friend, Flook. According to the strip 'The Coming of Flook', which forms part of the cartoon bookRufus and Flook v. Moses Maggot, we learn that Flook, who vaguely resembled a furry pig walking on his hind legs, was a creature from the age of the dinosaurs whom Rufus, in a dream, rescued from cavemen and who then came back to waking reality with him. Flook was able to talk and was blessed with a fine sense of irony with which to temper Rufus' innocence and enthusiasm. He was also able to change shape into all manner of objects, though not much was made of this power after the first couple of years of the strip. They inhabited a satirical and socially-perceptive fantasy world not unrelated to contemporary Great Britain, populated by larger-than-life characters, mostly bearing a striking resemblance to leading politicians and celebrities. Many of their adventures starred their principal adversaries, the villainous Moses Maggot and his sidekick the gaolbird Douglas Bodger, whose sister – the overweight teenage witch Lucretia Bodger, with her cat, Gobstopper – also appeared quite frequently, as did a mad retired colonel.
Scripts
Storylines were written by the singer and writer George Melly, the comedian Barry Took, the musician Humphrey Lyttelton and the film criticBarry Norman. In 1953 some were written by Compton Mackenzie. Several book-length episodes and compilations were separately published, and the Daily Mail also marketed a Flook toy. The ironic and bohemian ethos of the strip was notably at variance with the conservatism of the Daily Mail, which finally discontinued it after some 10,000 episodes, reportedly because the editor David English objected to its repeated jabs at the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, and the strip's covert criticism of the Mails championing of the cause of Zola Budd. After it was dropped by the Mail, Flook ran in the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror in 1984–85, scripted by Keith Waterhouse. Flook was adopted as a mascot by 831 Squadron, Fleet Air Arm, and the character was painted on the squadron aircraft.
