Giles family

The Giles Family in "Power Cut", Daily Express (January 15, 1963). Clockwise from the left: Ernie, Bridget, George Jr, Vera, Mother, Father, Grandma, Carol, Ann and the twins, plus dogs under the table and cat behind Grandma's chair. Missing are George and the parrot.

The Giles family is a fictional British family created by cartoonist Carl Giles at the end of World War II, appearing first on 5 August 1945.[1] Much of Giles's World War II work had been cartoons featuring Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and the typical British Tommy, but he felt the need to expand after the War, hence the family. The format was a single-panel cartoon, published daily in the Daily Express and Sunday Express newspapers from 1945 until 1991. An annual collection was published each Christmas.

Characterisation

The family belongs to the better-off British working class and is usually seen living in a semi-detached house. The scenes in which they are depicted usually comment on a topic headlining the news of the day. The Giles family is patriotic but suspicious of authority. The ages of the family members remained the same throughout the 46-year run of the cartoon series, but their home, their hobbies and their dress reflected the changing British fashions and standard of living.

The Giles family consists of the following:

Cultural legacy

Statue of Grandma in Queen Street, Ipswich

There is a statue of Grandma in Queen Street in Ipswich, England where she stands looking up at the newspaper office window where Carl Giles used to work. Grandma made a cameo appearance in DC Comics' Superman: True Brit and Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier. The appearance of Mrs. Henriot-Gulch in the comic Cerebus is closely based on Grandma.

In the 1980s the family appeared in television cartoon advertisements for Lyons Quick Brew tea, one of which included Grandma racing around on her motorbike.[3]

References

  1. Blain, Max (2006-03-03). "Cartoon collection scoops originals from the hilarious world of Giles: Laughter Box". Canterbury Adscene (UK local newspaper). pp. 6–7.
  2. Giles, Carl (1981). Giles Cartoon Annual. 35th. Daily Express Publications. ISBN 0-85079-115-4.
  3. Lyons quick brew tea bags Giles advert from 1985 on YouTube

Sources

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 4/16/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.