I've long been fascinated by the syndicated cartoon Horace and Doris. I first came across these antiquated gags in the pages of the Sunderland Echo, where it appears daily on the letters page. After some scouring I've found Horace is published in thirteen UK local and regional papers and its creator, John Morris, a Midlands 'career cartoonist', died in 2000. However, Morris was an old-school pro and drew 6,000 H & D cartoons at a rate of 40 per week(!), so there are still plenty left to publish.


The rather slapdash drawing style puts Horace in an earlier, non-ironic era of say, Larry newspaper cartoons and the subject matter is equally stereotypical. Horace is a long-suffering hen-pecked husband and Doris is a money wasting battle-axe of the Peggy Mount school. Does anyone else enjoy reading these anachronistic sketches? Perhaps its time has already run out because I managed to buy (via an Amazon seller) the 2003 Northern Echo collection of Horace & Doris strips for a mere 1p !