The Broons - D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd.
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The Broons
The Broons and Oor Wullie are cartoon strips that appear every week in the Sunday Post newspaper. Both strips have achieved legendary status and in 2016 they celebrate their 80th anniversary!
In the Sunday Post’s The Broons strip, the family is billed as being ‘the happy family that makes every family happy’ and this phrase sums them up perfectly. Though they are ten in number, the family enjoys staying together in the small tenement flat of 10 Glebe Street, Auchentogle.
The family is made up of Paw and Maw Broon who are parents to eight children! Maw is the homemaker in charge of all household affairs. The Broons family features two older sons, Hen and Joe, and two grown-up daughters, Daphne and Maggie.
The younger children are Horace, who is the brains of the family, and the Twins (identical boys) plus the Bairn, a cut down version of Maw and wiser than her years. Last, but by no means least, is the roguish Granpaw Broon. Granpaw and the Bairn form a formidable partnership that can usually outsmart the other members of the family.
The marvellous artwork and well observed storylines means that everyone recognises a little of themselves in these classic tales. The strips often feature celebrity appearances and the famous faces that appear in The Broons or Oor Wullie see it as a great honour.
In 2016, The Broons celebrate the 80th anniversary of their first appearance in the Sunday Post.
The Broons family, the happy family that makes every family happy, live at 10 Glebe Street in the fictional Scottish town of Auchentogle and comprise the following;-
Maw – the formidable mother of eight who has to run every aspect of the household and keep her husband, Paw, in check.
Paw – a working man who occasionally tries to keep enough back for a bit of “baccy” (tobacco) and a bet on the horses.
Granpaw – lives in a cottage near Glebe Street but when he is not with his family he can be found sitting on a park bench with his cronies or on his allotment.
Hen – the eldest, a lanky, awkward guy who rarely gets the girl.
Joe – the good-looking and sporty one who loves boxing.
Horace – the brains of the family, a bookish and bespectacled teenage schoolboy forever trying to learn French or poetry
Daphne – always playing second fiddle to her beautiful sister Maggie on double dates but every now and again strikes it lucky when the double dates get mixed up and she gets Maggie’s man.
Maggie – the beautiful, glamorous daughter with blonde hair and fashionable clothing.
The twins – they are usually referred to collectively, with the exception of Granpaw calling them “ae twin” and “the ither twin”
The Bairn – the youngest of the family at seven years of age, she is essentially a smaller version of Maw, getting in her share of indignant moral pronouncements and pointing out the foolishness of the male Broons.