On December 4th 1937 cartoon character Desperate Dan first appeared in the "Dandy" comic. on it's launch day.
Originally a two-line strip, within a year he had expanded to a full page. Early tales portrayed him as a genuine desperado, a heavyweight cowboy without respect for the law — and with superhuman strength, shown in the debut strip by a horse being unable to carry him. By 1939 he had grown into the character we know today, gaining a posse of friends along the way, among them Aunt Aggie, who cooked his famous "Cow Pie"
Dan is arguably the strongest and toughest man in the world. Examples of his strength have been lifting whole buildings and using a crane to fish. He also uses a blow torch and chisel to shave. Dan is now immortalised in the town that he was created, with an 8 foot bronze statue of him, with his pet "dawg" followed by fellow Dandy character Minnie the minx, "gutties" at the ready. For those outwith Scotland gutties are a catapult.