It was up to us to make Toxic! work as a team effort and we didn’t. Freelances have to get used to working without supervision and knowing how to collaborate.
Shit the Dog was Wagner and Grant together, I believe. I don't know how much of this is true (I suspect there may have been some embellishment), but the story I read is that it came about when they were working for a Scottish newspaper, writing horoscopes and other bits and bobs. The editor asked them for a funny animal strip in the mould of Snoopy in Peanuts. As a joke, they came up with this utterly unpublishable (in that paper) strip about a dog that shits everywhere.
That sounds about right. John, Alan and myself all worked for D.C.Thomson and a job they always gave trainee journalists was to write the horoscopes. So I have fond memories myself of writing horoscopes - as a wannabe Jonathan Cainer!
Wonder if Shit the Dog pre-dates Spit the Dog, puppet from Saturday morning TV Tiswas in the 80s and if Spit might have been the Saturday morning friendly version of what Bob Carolgees wanted to call his puppet? After these last chapters I’ll have to dig out my old issues of Toxic!
Shit the Dog was Wagner and Grant together, I believe. I don't know how much of this is true (I suspect there may have been some embellishment), but the story I read is that it came about when they were working for a Scottish newspaper, writing horoscopes and other bits and bobs. The editor asked them for a funny animal strip in the mould of Snoopy in Peanuts. As a joke, they came up with this utterly unpublishable (in that paper) strip about a dog that shits everywhere.
That sounds about right. John, Alan and myself all worked for D.C.Thomson and a job they always gave trainee journalists was to write the horoscopes. So I have fond memories myself of writing horoscopes - as a wannabe Jonathan Cainer!
Wonder if Shit the Dog pre-dates Spit the Dog, puppet from Saturday morning TV Tiswas in the 80s and if Spit might have been the Saturday morning friendly version of what Bob Carolgees wanted to call his puppet? After these last chapters I’ll have to dig out my old issues of Toxic!
I rather think it does, because it sounds like John came up with it in the early 70s. I'm wondering if he was inspired by our dog!