Korky The Cat artist Charles Grigg dies aged 97

West Bromwich-born Charles Grigg, who also drew more than 200 saucy postcard designs, penned the adventures of Korky for the comic from 1962 right through until 1982.

A son of a railway fitter and born in 1916, Mr Grigg lived in Barnford Crescent, Oldbury, for many years from 1960 with his wife Margery before moving to Halesowen.

Beginning his working life as a woodworker apprentice at the age of 14, he began selling his cartoons to the Oldbury Weekly News before he was put in touch with DC Thomson, publisher of the Beano and Dandy.

His first comic creation, Sooty and His Shooter, appeared in the 500th issue of the Dandy in 1951, before he became a full-time artist for both comics.

As the artist for the famous cat, drawing the weekly strip, Mr Grigg was told by one editor that he had created the definitive Korky.

His longest running strip, Foxy, made its debut in the first issue of Topper in 1953, but went on to become a full-page strip and was included in the comic until 1976.

After retiring from his full-time work with The Dandy and The Beano aged 65, Mr Grigg restricted himself to the albums.

In an interview with the Express & Star, aged 70, Mr Grigg said: "I would say that without exception I have done the album covers for more than 20 years.

"I think I have added my own character to what was already an established character but I can't define Korky. It's just part of what I do.

"I am quite an ordinary person. A lot of people remark on it and my answer is that it's a job, a profession, something I love doing but nothing more than a job.''

Signing his name as 'Chas', Mr Grigg also drew saucy postcards for Bamforth and Co for more than 50 years, with some of the jokes reportedly being supplied by his wife.

Stephen, his son lived and looked after him for the last four years of his life, said: "It was my mum who would often come up with the ideas for the dirty postcards. He was often more concerned about the artwork but he did have a good sense of humour.

"He was a very modest man. He never had a bad word to say about anyone.

"It was brilliant growing up being his son, I would tell everyone at school what my dad did. We used to get all these free comics which was great, I remember them arriving and reading them in my bedroom. It was always magical and special looking at what dad had done."

He added that his father, a life-long Albion fan, had once considered a career in football and even played for the Aston Villa Reserves during the Second World War, but decided to stick with his drawing working as an engineer at Henry Hope's in West Bromwich. He still loved to paint and draw and I encouraged him to keep it up to help him with his dementia.

All you had to do was put a piece of paper in front of him and he would doodle," added the 64-year-old. His earliest published works were for two local papers, 'Rufus Rabbit' for the Oldbury Weekly News in 1945, and 'Billy Bone' for the Smethwick Telephone. Despite suffering from vascular disease later in life, causing him to have problems with his short-term memory, Mr Grigg wrote down his life story which he would read through regularly, and look through artwork in more than 400 copies of The Dandy which he kept.

Charles, whose wife died in 2008, leaves his two sons Stephen and Roger.