Ewen Campbell Bain was born in Maryhill, Glasgow on 23rd June, 1925, the youngest of the three children of John and Flora Bain from the Isle of Skye. His father (from Waternish) and his mother (from Staffin), moved to Glasgow after their marriage in 1912. Gaelic was the family's first language and every summer was spent in Staffin.

 

Ewen attended Woodside Senior Secondary School and then Glasgow School of Art. He was called up during his first year and trained as a coder for the Royal Navy, spending most of the Second World War sailing between Gibralter and West Africa on convoy-escort minesweepers. When he was demobbed, he returned to Glasgow School of Art (graduating 1950) where he met fellow art student, Sheila Hunter and they were married in 1950.  Their daughter Rhona was born in 1955.

 

Ewen trained as an art teacher at Jordanhill College of Education and taught in Glasgow schools until he left in 1969 for a full time career as a cartoonist. He had started drawing cartoons as a student and by 1959, his single cartoons were appearing in different newspapers and magazines. His first cartoon series, based on extra-terrestrial creatures called 'The Bleeps' was published in the Bulletin. Advised by a features editor to try a strip cartoon, Ewen created 'The Adventures of Angus Og' based on the mythical island of Drambeg in the Utter Hebrides which first appeared in the Bulletin in 1960 and after it ceased publication, Angus Og was published in the Daily Record and later (as single colour cartoons) in the Sunday Mail, until Ewen's untimely death from influenza in December 1989. 

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There were 158 Angus Og adventures (see Og Logs for details) and the collection of original strip cartoons has been donated to the Skye and Lochalsh Archive Centre in Portree.

https://www.highlifehighland.com/skye-and-lochalsh-archive-centre/

Ewen also drew political cartoons which were mainly published in the Scots Independent https://www.electricscotland.com/culture/features/bain/intro.htm