Trog, Wally Fawkes (1924 - 2023)

Wally Fawkes Trog original cartoon artwork.

Wally Fawkes 'Trog' once said he specialised in two “minority pursuits”, jazz and cartooning. A talented musician as well as artist he took the name Trog from one of his early jazz bands, The Troglodytes. Fawkes got his artistic break when he entered a competition and his work caught the eye of Leslie Ilingworth. Ilingworth helped him get a job at the Daily Mail in 1945, aged 21. For the next 60 years, until he gave up cartooning in 2005 because of failing eyesight, Fawkes’ produced cartoons and caricatures for a range of publications including Punch, Private Eye and The Observer. He drew the Flook cartoon strip for 35 years, initially at the Daily Mail and then for The Mirror and Sunday Mirror. Flook started out as a children’s cartoon but Fawkes, along with writers like Keith Waterhouse and Barry Norman, turned it into social and political satire aimed at adults. In 1979 Margaret Thatcher called Flook “quite the best commentary on the politics of the day”. At The Observer Fawkes became known not only for his big political cartoons but for the Mini-Trogs he drew for the front page.