Archive of newspaper artist Malky McCormick saved

“I had known Billy for a few years through the folk clubs and we promised each other we would do this strip together,” he told BBC Radio Scotland in 1981.

The collaboration sparked interest from other newspapers including the Glasgow-based Sunday Mail.

“It was a colour tabloid with a much bigger audience so a much better vehicle for the Big Yin strip,” he recalled.

“It was the big break for me, no question about it.”

The first strip was published in 1975 and Malky and Billy began to map out a future for their creations.

They’d meet on a Monday, either at Billy’s home in Drymen or Malky’s home in Ayrshire, as Billy Connolly recalled.

“It was a strange affair to explain to people, doing a strip cartoon in two different towns,” he says.

“He used to turn up at my house on his motorbike. He would be flabbergasted that I hadn’t done anything. I was supposed to be writing the Big Yin.

“I never sat in when it was being drawn. I loved being part of it, but he did his bit and I did my bit – him in Ayrshire and me in Drymen.

“He would turn up on his motorbike fed-up and I would say ‘come on we’ll go for a pint’, so we would go for a pint and talk about stuff, roaring and laughing and I would say ‘that’s this week – yeah, we’ll do that’.”