The Bloghorn is the digital cartoon blog of the UK Professional Cartoonists' Organisation

Blair cartoon from The Times by PCOer Morten Morland

The advent of statistics recording visits to web sites has allowed web publishers to see exactly which pages readers head for. Unsurprisingly, many have embraced this technology to show you – the reader – which pages are most popular.

So, I ask you to go to The Times website. Scroll down. No, you don’t have to get past the Great Pay Wall of Murdoch to do this – no small denomination payments are required. Look at the “Most Read” list of sections which are – as you might guess – the paper’s most popular click-through reads.

Of course, I don’t know when you’re reading this but I bet you that coming in the top three with a bullet will be “Cartoons”. I have checked assiduously for the past several weeks. “Cartoons” has been at or near the top spot for almost all of my visits (many times at Number One).

As I write, I am not chastened by the fact that nestling at number 2 is “Top Ten Chinos”.Well, a chap’s got to look the part while perusing the best of cartoon art online. Standards, you know. (Of course, if you want to actually look at the cartoons, you WILL have to pay at this point).

It’s a subject close to the hearts of us cartoonists. The popularity of The Times’ cartoons is, of course, not unrelated to the fact that they boast two fine cartoonists in Peter Brookes and Morten Morland, together with legend-inna-lifetime Gerald Scarfe at the Sunday title.

But it’s not just that. Readers love cartoons. We know that. It’s such a pity that this simple fact doesn’t prevent culls of cartoonists to cut costs at newspapers facing hard times. It seems counter-intuitive to us. For example the loss of almost all cartoon content from The Observer recently was mourned widely. So Bloghorn says hats off to the wildly good taste of Times readers.

A quick follow-up of stories we’ve covered recently on Bloghorn.

• The Forbidden Planet blog reports on Steve Bell in conversation with Martin Rowson, Gary Trudeau and Alan Moore at Edinburgh International Book Festival (previously).
• New Yorker cartoon editor (and cartoonist himself) Robert Mankoff responds to the recent Kanye West cartoon re-captioning internet phenomenon.
• downthetubes.net has the first review of CLiNT magazine (previously), whilst also informing us that Jonathan Ross and Mark Millar will be signing copies on Thursday 2nd September at 4.30pm at WH Smiths in London’s Victoria station.
• Posy Simmonds is interviewed in the Guardian about the upcoming Stephen Frears’ film adaptation of her graphic novel, Tamara Drewe, which opens in UK cinemas on 10th September (previously).

Bloghorn is pleased to report that this evening’s talk by Peter Firmin, co-creator of Bagpuss, the Clangers, Ivor the Engine and Noggin the Nog at the Cartoon Museum is sold out.

This is a closing event for the Toy Tales exhibition which finishes showing to the public at the end of this week.

Bloghorn says go while you still have the chance. To talk to the museum, call 020 7580 8155

Updated: If you are interested in some of Peter’s back catalogue of work you also enjoy some here

Cartoon Classroom, the project set up by comics artist David Lloyd, cartoon historian Paul Gravett and teacher Steve Marchant to take cartooning into schools, has seen a rise in the number of teachers and schools registering to use its services, following a letter to The Teacher magazine.

However, they are always keen to take on more educational organisations and more cartoonists who are interested in sharing their skills. You can register your interest at www.cartoonclassroom.co.uk or you can contact them directly here.

On the subject, of taking cartoons from the page directly to audiences, Bloghorn’s own Royston Robertson has written a blog report on a cartooning talk which he presented at an arts festival in Ramsgate.

A cartoon by Daryl Cagle which was re-labelled by the user

Any professional cartoonist will tell you it’s annoying when they hear that one of their cartoons has been used without permission, but it’s doubly annoying when the person doing the taking has made ‘‘amendments’’.

So it must have been, er, triply annoying when this happened to US cartoonist Daryl Cagle because the person doing the amending was not some clichéd copyright-infringing college kid, but was retired Air Force Lieutenant General James R. Clapper Jr. He is President Barack Obama’s Director of National Intelligence.

He used the cartoon above in a presentation to staff and added his own caption to the car and labelled Uncle Sam, the visual archetype for the United States, with his own name.

The Washington Post has the story here, and Daryl Cagle vents his spleen here. See the latter for some staggeringly ill-informed comments in relation to copyright law and the licensing of images, which is how reproductions of drawings are traditionally sold.

Bloghorn admires the fact that Lieutenant General James R. Clapper Jr. knows that cartoons are a great addition to any presentation, but does think he might have asked permission first.

If you like a cartoon, you should always ask before using it. There may, or may not, be a fee, depending on the use, but it’s only polite to ask. And as for ‘‘amendments’’, let the cartoonist do those!

PCO member Stevyn Colgan writes:

This year, members of the PCO have once again contributed to the BBC TV series QI and its spin-off book titles. It’s a relationship that has existed ever since the first QI Annual was published in 2008.

The TV show – in which each season follows a letter of the alphabet – was already in its fifth ‘E’ season when it was decided that some sort of annual was in order. True to form, QI inventor John Lloyd (also the man who created The News Quiz, The News Huddlines, Not the Nine O’Clock News, Spitting Image, produced all four series of Blackadder, and co-wrote two episodes of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy with his friend Douglas Adams) sought out the funniest contributors he could find, roping in the likes of Rowan Atkinson, Bill Bailey, Jo Brand, Alan Davies and, of course, Stephen Fry. He also needed illustrations and lots of them. And that’s where the relationship with members of the PCO started.

The annuals have featured work by Jonathan Cusick (cover of the ‘G’ Annual), Adrian Teal (who also painted the cover of the ‘F’ annual), and Stevyn Colgan. This Christmas, the brand new ‘H’ Annual will feature more submissions from Adrian and Stevyn. Also, the first three E, F and G Annuals are being bundled into a softback compilation edition in November with a brand new cover by Stevyn. And, for the first time, artwork by Adrian and Stevyn will be seen on the TV show itself gracing the big screens behind the panellists in the episode on ‘Horses’ and ‘Humans’.

The EFG Bumper Book of QI Annuals and the QI ‘H’ Annual are both published by Faber and Faber on November 4th.

PCOer The Surreal McCoy writes with a short review of  The Illusionist, the new film by Sylvain Chomet.

The perfect antidote to Hollywood’s current obsession with computer-generated 3D imagery, The Illusionist is the latest animated feature from Sylvain (Belleville Rendez-vous) Chomet.

I defy anyone to watch dry-eyed as the poignant story of an ageing magician trying to make a living during the dying days of variety unfolds in glorious watercolour against the backdrop of 1950s Edinburgh.

Based on an unfilmed screenplay by Jacques Tati, Chomet uses hand-drawn images to conjure up an atmospheric and nostalgic film with breathtaking landscapes and city scenes, employing plenty of visual background humour but hardly any dialogue.

I’d argue magicians do exist (you have to see the film to get that reference) and surely Sylvain Chomet is one of the master illusionists.

Bloghorn particularly enjoyed the English garden party (there’s a snippet from it in the video) and the Scottish island. Click the video for a larger version. Our thanks to Surreal for the review.

On Mondays you can rely upon Royston Robertson to be posting news of the UK’s cartoonists here at Bloghorn – but not this week.

After a long struggle, Bloghorn convinced Royston he should allow himself the week off because the Kent-based cartoonist will be giving an illustrated talk about his work at A Summer Squall in Ramsgate on Saturday 28th August.

Royston told us:

The idea is that I’ll show a load of cartoons – mostly published but maybe a few rejected ones as well – read the captions and talk a little about themes covered, the background to the cartoons, the process of coming up with ideas and drawing the cartoons etc. Hopefully it’ll raise a few chuckles and there will be questions and input from the audience.

So, kindly add yourself to the great August bank holiday weekend getaway for a high-quality end to the silly season.

The talk takes place at 2pm at Ramsgate Library on Saturday 28 August. Admission is free but you need to book. Tickets are available at the Custom House, Harbour Parade, Ramsgate, or by calling 07544-971 685.

“Double Dip and Toil and Trouble !!” by Nick Hayes,
from the Guardian’s summer cartoonists showcase.

As previously mentioned in Bloghorn, the Guardian is showcasing six up-and-coming cartoonists whilst regular incumbent Steve Bell is on his summer holidays.

Since the last week of July, the cartoons of Anna Trench, Lou McKeever (aka Bluelou), Ben Jennings, Tanya Tier, Bob Moran and Nick Hayes have been adding their own visual takes on the day’s news. Their contributions haven’t been without controversy, with many cartoons receiving over 100 comments each, including numerous pieces or rebuttal from fellow Guardian cartoonist, Martin Rowson. As Martin says in the comments:

The reason for giving these cartoonists an airing here – including, of course, the opportunity to fail – is that these days it’s almost impossible to undergo that kind of baptism of fire in a national newspaper , and thus hone your native skills.

and on the subject of the comments:

[...] these six debutants have overturned an original editorial decision not to have comments on their work when it appears on this site. I think that’s quite brave of them, so it might be worthwhile some of you repaying the compliment by being constructive in your criticism, rather than just trolling about as usual, beating up this particular bus shelter on the side of the information superhighway with the kind of reckless abandon that seems to come so easily to the heroically anonymous.

On a related note, Steve Bell and Martin Rowson will be in conversation at the Edinburgh International Book Festival this weekend, whilst Steve will also be chatting to American political cartoonist Garry Trudeau and comic book writer Alan Moore.

Here at the Bloghorn we’re always ready to applaud when people do something different with cartoons and comics, and the exhibition Hypercomics, which is at the Pump House Gallery in Battersea, London, appears to do just that.

Subtitled The Shape of Comics to Come, it runs until September 26 and features work on four floors by Adam Dant, Dave McKean and Warren Pleece, above, and Daniel Merlin Goodbrey, below.

The show, we are told, “will explode the narratives in their work from the printed page into the gallery space and beyond”. We’re also told that it “uses the building’s unusual architecture to weave a story whose outcome depends upon how visitors interact and move through the space”.

If any of that sounds confusing, it probably indicates that the show should be experienced, rather than written about. And as the curator of the show is the comics expert Paul Gravett, who usually has his finger on the pulse, it’s sure to be nothing less than intriguing.

Accompanying the exhibition will be a programme of screenings, talks, workshops and events. The newly refurbished Pump House Gallery is in the rather marvellous Battersea Park, so make a day of it and take a picnic! For more information, visit the Pump House Gallery website.