Illustrated Chips. London: 24 Tudor Street [Harmsworth Bros.]. Vol. 17, no. 422 (new series). 1 October 1898.
Tom Browne created the tramp duo Weary Willie (sometimes Willy) and Tired Tim for Illustrated Chips in 1896. Before working on the above set, he may well have seen or recalled an earlier tramps-stealing-a-statue strip (Comic Cuts, 6 May 1893). After Browne himself left British comics around 1900, possibly as early as the summer of 1899 (Harding 20), a number of artists were commissioned to draw the adventures of Willie and Tim, until Percival James (Percy) Cocking took over the task in 1909, thereafter drawing the two tramps for some 44 years (Gifford 1987: 237). When the series ended with the demise of Chips on 12 September 1953, after a career of 57 years, “the world-famed tramps” were still the page-one attraction. On the back page of the above 1898 number there is another tramp, Fagged-out Fred, possibly another Browne creation. For further Willie and Tim items, see B4–B8, C9, C23, D6, D7 and F1.
