- Wally Fawkes
Wally Fawkes (born 1924 in
Vancouver ,Canada (left in 1931 for England)) is a British-Canadianjazz clarinetist and, until recently, a satiricalcartoonist . As a cartoonist, he generally worked under the name of 'Trog ' until failing eyesight forced him to retire from cartooning in 2005 at the age of 81 to concentrate solely on his clarinet playing.He was a founder-member of the original
Humphrey Lyttelton revivalist jazz band in the late 1940s, and stayed with the band until 1956, by which time it had evolved from "revivalism" into "mainstream" - not that Fawkes minded that: his own bands from then on could be broadly described as "mainstream". He has re-united with Lyttelton periodically ever since, and, though highly talented on his instrument, remains (in the best sense of the term) an "amateur". He has never lost his admiration for the playing ofSidney Bechet (with whom he recorded, as part of Lyttelton's band, in 1949); but he has always been his own man on the clarinet, and not just a Bechet clone. He played withGeorge Melly andJohn Chilton in the Feetwarmers band in the early 1970sHis most famous work as a cartoonist was 'Flook' - the unlikely and increasingly satirical comic-strip adventures of its small and furry
eponym ous hero, the most notable adventures occurring during the 1960s.Fawkes's role was chiefly as illustrator, and he had a strong team of collaborators on the scripts for Flook over the years, including
George Melly ,Barry Norman ,Humphrey Lyttelton andBarry Took .There is a panel from Flook and another short biography of Fawkes at http://www.lambiek.net/artists/t/trog.htm
He married the journalist
Sandy Fawkes in 1949 and they had four children, three surviving. In 1965 he married Susan Clifford and they had two children.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.