MAY UN MAR LADY – AND MEGAN!
Designs show off iconic cartoons
A PIECE of iconic Stoke-on-trent artwork has been given a new lease of life.
Dave Follows’ popular ‘May un Mar Lady’ comic strip – which first appeared in The Sentinel in 1985 – has been taken on by Stone-based designer Megan Poxon, of Megan Rose Design.
The ‘Dave Follows x Megan Rose’ collection is the result of a collaboration between the Follows family and Megan Rose Design, with the hope of preserving this classic piece of Stoke-on-trent history.
During its run in The Sentinel, 7,000 May un Mar Lady comic strips were released daily and have been re-printed several times.
Dave died in 2003, but his memory lives on through the iconic artwork he created.
So far four prints have been released, which feature May un Mar Lady in a variety of Potteries settings such as the Middleport Pottery Weeping Window
Poppies and Longton Market. They can even be seen catching a First bus.
Marketing and communications manager for Megan Rose Designs, Terry Bossons, said the collaboration was a way of ‘keeping Stokie heritage alive’.
“Megan loves May un Mar Lady, we all do,” explained Terry. “We were talking and thought it would be great to do something with the original design.
“So I contacted Steve Follows, Dave’s son, and showed him some of Megan’s designs. He loved it and thought she had a real talent for it, and was keen to have a proper collaboration.
“The Follows family want a new generation to see the designs and fall in love with them like we all have. Megan Rose Designs have taken them on and brought them up to date in a new setting for a new audience to see. The main thing is to preserve this bit of Stokie heritage for a new generation.” Megan, Terry and the team sat down to brainstorm design ideas, keen to keep the essence of the original comic at the forefront of each piece.
Terry continued: “The original comic featured so many really funny Stokie stories, they were brilliant, and something that people in Stokeon-trent really loved. I think for a lot of us, the characters reminded us of our own loved ones, such as our grandparents. There was so much love in the original designs. They were always bickering, for example if he wanted to go to the pub and she said no, but there was so much love too.
“We took the original designs and placed them into Megan’s work. Some of them were original for the collaboration and some were older designs that we’ve done before and have been popular.
“Megan will completely take an idea and just run with it. She did so many designs and really got into it, so we are hoping to release more designs and products soon. Steve suggested cards, and there’s so many other things we could do.”
Steve Follows, Dave’s son, said the collaboration was a ‘really exciting’ way of keeping the May un Mar Lady legacy alive.
“It brings together the old and the new,” said Steve. “Dad loved the Potteries, he loved the dialect, and this way we can keep that going for a new, younger generation.
“I saw the pieces and just thought, ‘wow’. Megan is so talented and has done such a good job at putting her own spin on the original work. We are really excited to see where it all goes from here. My mum, Audrey, was also so excited about the collaboration. When she saw them, she had a really big smile on her face and was just over the moon to keep the memory alive of not only the designs, but dad too.”
■ You can see the May un Mar Lady collection on the Megan Rose Design website.
■ ‘Take a look at my new book (not buck) duck’:
THIRD time is a charm for author and DJ Terry Bossons who has released the latest installment of his Stokie book series this week.
Terry, of Wolstanton, says his books are a way of preserving Potteries culture - including the humour and dialect.
His latest read, Look Not Luck, is a lighthearted look at the Potteries entertainment scene with poems, stories, jokes and a few famous faces.
It follows Book Not Buck and Cook Not Cuck.
“This is my third book,” said Terry, who is also the marketing and communications manager for Megan Rose Design.
“The first one focused a lot on the Potteries dialect, the second was all about Stokie food like oatcakes, and this one includes a lot of comedy and of course, some coronavirus stuff too.
“It’s very light-hearted, and I really took the time to speak to local people to get as many stories as possible. There’s a lot in there about the entertainment scene in Stokeon-trent and venues such as The Place and Jollees nightclub.
“I was a bit too young to go to Jollees in the 70s and 80s, but back then they had so many household names performing. It was the equivalent of Ed Sheeran being in Longton!” Also featured in the book is Terry’s Stokie dictionary – Pottersaurus – which he has managed to fill with even more words and phrases. He explained: “I get so many messages from people telling me things that I have missed out - some of which even I’ve never heard of!
“One of my favorites is ‘I ‘onna bein’ whatsit, like’, which of course to us Stokies means, ‘I’m not being funny’. We should all be advocates for the city and protect it as much as we can. My hope with my books is to preserve our heritage and culture as much as possible.”
■ Look Not Luck is out now and is available on the Megan Rose Design website and ebay.