Sporting Sam, Sunday Express
Reginald Clifford G. Wootton was born in Wolstanton, Staffordshire, on 13 December 1908, the son of Thomas Edward Wootton, a glass engraver, and his wife Ethel. He was a keen sportsman from his schooldays, playing cricket, football and rugby. He started work as a cartoonist at the Daily Express in 1931. In 1933 he created Sporting Sam for the Sunday Express, which ran for over thirty years. In 1949 he created "Sporty" for the Amalgamated Press's comic Knock-Out, which became a regular feature and transferred to Valiant following a merger in 1963 until 1972. He also drew "Tubby the All-Round Sportsman" for Buster in 1967-68. He died in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, in the second quarter of 1995.
References[]
- Alan Clarke, Dictionary of British Comic Artists, Writers and Editors, The British Library, 1998, pp. 192-193
- Denis Gifford, Encyclopedia of Comic Characters, Longman, 1987
- Denis Gifford, The history of the British Newspaper Comic Strip, Shire Publications, 1971
- Steve Holland, Reg Wootton, Bear Alley, 28 July 2007
