| David Sutherland | |
 | |
| Full Name | David Sutherland |
| Gender | Male |
| Born | 4 March 1933 |
| Died | 19 January 2023 |
| Job | Artist |
| Strips Drawn | Various, including The Bash Street Kids, Dennis the Menace and Gnasher & Biffo the Bear |
David Sutherland OBE (4 March 1933 - 19 January 2023) was a Scottish illustrator and comics artist with DC Thomson. He was most famous for drawing The Bash Street Kids (1962–2023) and Dennis the Menace and Gnasher (1970–1998), although he provided artwork for a wide variety of other Beano stories during his long career.
Sutherland's initial work for The Beano was on adventure stories, including Danny on a Dolphin and The Great Flood of London. He then became artist for The Bash Street Kids in 1962, taking over from Leo Baxendale. At this time, the strip was moved to the two pages in the centre of the comic. He would go on to draw these pages for over six decades and would draw over 3000 episodes, the highest number for any Beano artist on a single strip.
In 1967, Sutherland returned to drawing adventure strips, providing artwork for the first series of Billy the Cat. In 1969, after the sudden death of Dudley D. Watkins, he took over art duties for cover star Biffo the Bear. One of his first tasks as the strip's new artist was to ink the unfinished Biffo story left on Watkins' drawing board at the time of his death. Less than a year later, from issue 1464 (8th August 1970) he replaced David Law as Dennis the Menace artist. This meant that Sutherland was now responsible for drawing the strips on the front and back pages of the comic in addition to the middle two pages. In 1974 Dennis replaced Biffo as cover star, with the latter strip relegated to the inside pages. Sutherland continued to draw both strips, in addition to his work on The Bash Street Kids, but would relinquish the less popular Biffo later in the decade.
From 1977 Gnasher gained his own page, titled Gnasher's Tale, which was drawn by Sutherland. In 1986, after Gnasher's disappearance and subsequent return, this story was replaced by Gnasher and Gnipper which Sutherland continued to draw until 1993. Dennis' pet pig Rasher would also receive his own strip in 1984, again with artwork by Sutherland. In 1988 this was replaced by a new strip by Sutherland, The Germs, although his other commitments meant his run on this story was comparatively short, with Vic Neill replacing him as artist after a couple of years.
Sutherland regularly contributed artwork for the front and back covers of the The Beano Book, with the 1963 Beano Book being the first edition to feature his artwork on the covers. For a period of nearly three decades starting from the 1967 Beano Book, he became the sole cover artist, providing artwork for the front and back covers on all editions up to and including the 1996 Beano Book. His final cover artwork was for the 1998 Beano Book.
Shortly after ''The Beano'' celebrated its 60th birthday in 1998, Sutherland stopped drawing Dennis the Menace after a run of 28 years, with David Parkins taking over as the new artist. However, he would continue to contribute to the Dennis annuals for a number of years after this. He also continued to draw The Bash Street Kids and would remain the strip's artist until the beginning of 2023. In the early 2000s, he also drew the second version of Jak for The Dandy.
Sutherland's artwork featured very prominently in the 70th birthday issue of the comic in 2008. In addition to drawing The Bash Street Kids, he also contributed a Biffo the Bear story and an extended Fred's Bed story featuring Nick Park, the creator of Wallace and Gromit and ''Beano'' fan. The latter story featured Fred meeting Nick as a boy with the pair travelling through time to meet a number of classic characters from the history of the comic. He would go on to draw this strip on a regular basis between 2009 and 2012, sharing art duties first with Tom Paterson and later with Nigel Parkinson.
Sutherland has occasionally included self-portraits in his comic strips, for example in the Biffo the Bear story in The Beano Annual 2010 where he makes an appearance as Biffo's neighbour.
Sutherland was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to illustration.