Smythe's development of the work-shy, beer-swilling, rent-dodging pigeon fancier was condemned by feminists but acclaimed in equal measure as a breath of fresh air by the critics. Colleagues yesterday paid tribute to the work of Smythe, who died in Hartlepool on Saturday of cancer.

Ken Layson, cartoon editor of the Daily Mirror, where Andy Capp made his first appearance, said: "He was a one-off. Reg was so prolific, there is at least a year's supply of cartoons left. He will be sadly missed all over the world, but especially in the North-East."

Capp was first commissioned by the Daily Mirror in August 1957 as a strip just for its northern readers, but within six months it was in every edition. Syndication took the strip to more than 50 countries and soon Andy Capp had his own fan club in the United States. For the benefit of foreign readers he was renamed "An'Dicap"(Ghana), Kasket Karl (Denmark) or "Jan met de Pet" (Holland).

In the late Eighties, he became the subject of a stage musical and a television adaptation by Keith Waterhouse starring James Bowlam.