The author of the famous 'Andy Capp' cartoon strip was born and went to school in Hartlepool. He seems to have spent time in Sunderland before going to London in 1936. He served with the Northumberland Fusiliers in World War II, and was working as a clerk in a London post-office when he sold his first cartoon to Everybody's. The Daily Mirror offered him a job as a full-time cartoonist in 1954, and two years later, asked him to produce something with a regional flavour for their northern editions. Andy Capp appeared in 1957, and astonishingly for a cartoon so specifically based, became the most popular cartoon strip in the world: it is translated into 14 languages for 3000 papers in 50 countries.
Smythe styled Andy on his father and the long-suffering Flo on his mother Florence. He himself described Andy Capp as: 'A work-shy, beer-swilling, wife-bashing, pigeon-fancying, soccer-playing, uncouth cadger, setting an appalling example to the youth of Britain.' For understandable reasons there is no 'Andy Capp' country, and the little waster does not appear in Teesside publicity brochures. In 1976, Smythe returned to Hartlepool and lived quietly in Caledonian Road, occasionally frequenting the Seaton Arms.