A FORMER teacher who wrote stories for some of the most famous characters in children’s comics has died, aged 87.

John Robertson contributed to titles produced by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd, giving voice to characters like the most anarchic class of pupils in comic history, The Bash Street Kids.

He always insisted he drew inspiration from a real class at Bellahouston Academy where he taught—and the mayhem in that classroom would be the stuff of nightmares to teachers of today.

He also taught at Dumbarton Academy and lastly Clydebank High, combining his talents as a teacher with writing, producing and directing school shows.

It was his writing talent that led him in the early 50s to work on characters for the house of fun in Dundee, where he also wrote adventures for the gritty athlete Alf Tupper, known as the “Tough of the Track,” who lived on fish and chips and slept on a mattress in his aunty’s kitchen.

His battles with the snooty Three As athletics organisation and university toffs of the track were the stuff of legend, but Alf, powered by his supper wrapped in a newspaper, invariably saw them off.

Mr Robertson also wrote Wee Bandy, a footballer allegedly based on Wee Willie Henderson of Rangers, and Gorgeous Gus, a preening prima donna of a player who could still produce the goods when it mattered.

He wrote hundreds of stories for titles including Rover, Wizard and Hotspur, but was also able to turn his hand to scripts which featured girls in the Bunty and Judy comics.

He retired from Clydebank High in 1984.