Ginger (comics)

Ginger, a mischievous young boy dressed in school jumper, tie and shorts and with a blaze of red hair was The Beezer's cover star from its first issue until 1961. "Pop, Dick and Harry" took over the cover for a few years afterwards, but Ginger returned to the front cover in the late 1960s (no later than 1967, as a Beezer front cover with Ginger from that year appears in Classics From the Comics #146, June 2008) and remained there until the Topper merger, when he was replaced by Geezer. Unusually, Ginger actually grew older as the strip went on, though only until he became a teenager, which he remained as for the rest of the strip's life.

He was originally created by Dudley D. Watkins, who drew the strip until his death in 1969. Bob McGrath then took over, drawing it until 1985, when he in turn was succeeded by Jimmy Glen, who drew the strip until the Beezer merged with the Topper. Ginger's appearances in the combined "Beezer and Topper" were somewhat more sporadic, but he did make occasional appearances until the "Beezer and Topper" ended in 1993. A few of Ginger's final strips were drawn by John Geering, but for the most part Glen remained artist in these later days. Nick Brennan drew the last few Beezer Annual stories.

Each of Watkins' Ginger strips started with Ginger getting out of bed, and ended with him getting back in it at the end of the day. This detail was dropped when McGrath took over, and while Jimmy Glen occasionally made use of this device, it tended to be more in relation to the storyline rather than a visual device.

The character was last seen on the covers of D.C. Thomson's monthly Classics from the Comics, issue # 134 (May 2007) and issue #141 (January 2008), in brand new artwork by Ken H. Harrison.