Ern Shaw’s comic strip cartoons

Comic strip cartoons take a variety of formats. The joke strip is a complete story in four or five panels and the serial strip which carries on the story from day to day and may be published over a considerable period of time.

Ern Shaw created the serial strip cartoon Mr.Mrs.Dillwater for the Answers magazine in 1923. He recorded the squabbles and adventures of the little henpecked husband and wife and ran for many years.

Another serial strip cartoon drawn by Ern Shaw was Dr. Gnome of Gnomesland. The adventures of Dr. Gnome and the panda Miss Ming ran in the ‘Woman’s Illustrated’ magazine for over 21 years. The character Miss Ming was based on a real panda called Ming brought over from China to be bred at London Zoo and in 1940 was adopted by the Woman’s Illustrated’ to help pay for her upkeep. Ern Shaw thought that such a lovable animal would be a nice friend for Dr. Gnome so he introduced the character into the strip and they had lots of adventures together.