By Sam Hawcroft
Poster prints featuring Withernsea’s Pebble Poet Dean Wilson and sponsored by the Gazette are now available to buy.
Inspired by the famous Skegness Jolly Fisherman poster, which was created by John Hassall in 1908 and featured the tagline, “Skegness is SO bracing,” the new Dean Wilson poster depicts the self-described “second-best poet in Withernsea” skipping along the town’s beach with the words, “Withernsea is SO poetic.”
The poster was the brainchild of Hull-based writer, director and filmmaker Dave Lee, who commissioned Viz magazine illustrator Lee Healey and brought the Gazette on board to help get the project off the ground.
Dave said: “I was at Skeggy a couple of months back and was reminded of the classic poster. I thought it’d be great to update it and do a modern version, and then the thought of Dean and Withernsea popped up.
“It seemed such an obvious thing to do, once I’d thought of it. We’ve just done an animated film of Dean’s poem Jiggery Blokery with Lee Healey, so we asked him to handle the illustration and he’s done a sterling job.”
Dean, whose pebble poems featured in the Gazette for more than two years – and he is working on a new beach-related series for the paper – said: “It’s such an iconic image, that Skegness poster, that I’m thrilled we’ve done a With version.
“Lee’s illustration is amazing, the way he’s captured the Pier Towers and the groynes. I hope people around With and Holderness like it.”
A4 prints are now available for £5 from the Gazette office in Seaside Road, Withernsea, or online at deanworld.org/product-page/withernsea-art-card for £8 including P&P.
