'May un Mar Lady' is a retrospective exhibition of three decades of the work of local, but also internationally renowned cartoonist Dave Follows. The exhibition has been curated by Mr Follows's family as a tribute to him and his work. Here we see art work and materials, cartoon strips and all sorts of memorabilia. The exhibition area was buzzing with animated and excited people of all ages. There was a huge TV showing excerpts from a new cartoon called 'The Hungry Hamsters' to be show on TV soon, with voice overs by people like Brian Blessed, Harry Hill, Jack Davenport and Alice Cooper. It looks quite sophisticated in humour so adults would enjoy it as well as children.
Crowning glory of the exhibition were the life size models of 'May un Ma Lady', characters in the popular cartoon featured in the local newspaper The Sentinel. The cartoons ran in the paper until Mr Follows's death in 2003 and are still running now as 'May un Mar Lady Revisited'. The cartoons have to be read with a local accent and there was, to help, a video of people speaking in a Potteries accent. As we were watching this a man came and joined us and told us that even the Potteries accent is diverse and that at one time people living in the north of the city, say in Tunstall, wouldn't understand the accent of those in south of the city in Longton. I asked a museum attendant if I could take a photo of 'May un Mar Lady' and was told I could so here they are:-
The exhibition runs until 29th June at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Hanley, it's free entry and, if you live not too far away, very well worth a visit.
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