Stephen McGinty: A spirit revived by Dudley Watkins's Easter miracle

DUDLEY D Watkins died at his drawing board. The life-force that had animated his hand, and allowed him to create Oor Wullie and the Broons, two cartoon families who still accompany us to this day, shut down suddenly. And so, on 20 August, 1969, the artist fell still and went, one hopes, to his eternal reward ushered with the words: "Today you will be with Me in paradise."

Those words, spoken by Christ on the cross to the crucified thief, came to my mind when looking at Dudley Watkins's representation of the Crucifixion which has been unearthed after 50 years.

It is a work that contains a curious power and that I f...