NEW May un Mar Lady Book 2009 - 2010 Cartoons by Dave Follows, Includes cartoonists dialect phrase book Volume one
A message about ‘May un Mar Lady’ from Dave Follows' family
The recent article in the Sentinel { Saturday, April 07, 2012} ‘Genius comic creation couple have stood the test of time’ was a lovely tribute to the brilliance of ‘May un Mar Lady’ creator Dave Follows’ cartooning genius, it also presented an opportunity for the Sentinel to review opinion regarding the relevance of this iconic cartoon couple with todays readers.
‘May un Mar Lady’ was first published - July 8, 1985 (hear Dave talking about the cartoon and its early beginnings) and Dave crafted a new ‘May un Mar Lady’ cartoon everyday for over 18 years until his untimely passing in October 17, 2003. To the families delight The Sentinel decided to re-run the full 18 years over 7,000 strips daily as of April 19, 2004 these were republished in the Sentinel entitled ‘May Un Mar Lady Revisited’. The recent news from the Sentinel’s editor Mike Sassi who has since decided the time is right to cut short this re-run and to stop publishing the ‘May un Mar Lady’ cartoons by Dave Follows because “by now most of our readers will have seen the majority of Mr Follows' work” is very sad to hear.
The ‘May un Mar Lady’ re-run brought a great sense of pride and joy to all who knew and remembered Dave and his humor. For Dave’s wife Audrey the re-run was more than a tribute to her late husband it was also a chance to sit back and enjoy Dave’s work for the first time, Audrey said “I never really had chance to sit down and fully enjoy Dave’s work when it was first published as we we’re both always so busy with three children and both working all hours. In a way now that I’m retired for the first time I’ve been able to enjoy the ‘May un Mar Lady’ cartoons as if for the first. I can actually say I’ve learnt and understand potteries dialect by reading the cartoons”. The Sentinel was a great way of delivering this experience on the door step to all, but yesterday marked the end of an era, or is it?
Of course this would all be totally irrelevant if not for the readers of the Sentinel and the good people of North Staffordshire as it’s they who have embraced this cartoon couple and made it their own and will be its future. The feedback from the hundreds of tweeter mentions on the ‘May un Mar Lady’ twitter page https://twitter.com/#!/May_un_Mar_Lady and the newly formed Facebook support page http://www.facebook.com/SaveMayUnMarLady seems to indicate there is still a great deal of interest and support for ‘May un Mar Lady’, one encouraging tweet reads “I will personally make sure this S-O-T heritage lives on! Watch this space!” Many many thanks for all your kind thoughts, the May un Mar Lady family are well chuffed at your response.
‘May un Mar Lady’s’ extended family will do their very best to ensure ‘May un Mar Lady’ lives on, it may not be in printed form but as the ‘May un Mar Lady’ twitter community has shown it may have a new home in the digital domain? The ‘May un Mar Lady’ digital community is a local and global community and we see more and more contact for the SOT expats who like to keep in touch with their roots. Although this is an exciting future which was already beginning to happen anyway, the reality is there’s many a ‘May’ and a ‘Lady’ out there like Audrey who are not in the digital domain and will no longer be able to enjoy ‘May un Mar Lady’ any longer and there the real losers.
Dave Follows' family would like to extend a very special thank you to all the good people of North Staffordshire, The Sentinel readers, its staff and its past Editors who have worked with Dave and supported his work throughout.
