(cover to the first Bodley Head edition of Captain Pugwash by John Ryan, pic borrowed from the Gregory & Company author’s agent site)

The BBC reports the sad news that cartoonist John Ryan, creator of Captain Pugwash, has passed away at the age of 88. The cartoon pirate captain of the Black Pig was created by Ryan while he was an art teacher and first saw publication in 1950′s Britain, the same year (as the BBC article notes) which saw the birth of the Eagle. The first animated series hit the BBC in 1957 and Pugwash and his inept piratical companions would appear and re-appear on children’s television many times throughout subsequent decades, meaning its fairly simple and basic animation style would, like other classic kid’s animation such as the Clangers or Bagpuss, become embedded in the minds of generations of delighted children -- and then embedded in a warm, cosy blanket of nostalgia for those self same children when they became adults. Goodbye, John Ryan; your creation made many children smile and that’s a wonderful thing to be remembered for.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ibjTaAjQU0