Fred Basset has been published in the United Kingdom newspaper Daily Mail and more recently The Mail On Sunday from 1963 to the present. Alex Graham, the creator and cartoonist based Fred on his own dog Frieda and drew over 9000 comic strips. Alex Graham died on 3 December 1991. Fred's cartoon strips are renamed as Wurzel in Germany, Lillo il Cane Saggio (Lillo the wise dog) in Italy, Lorang in Norway, Laban in Sweden and Retu, Pitko or Koiraskoira in Finland.