Posts from — November 2008

Bloghorn spotted this great work this week…

One: Dave Brown in the Independent on the Pre-budget Report

Two: Peter Brookes in the Times on the Death of New Labour

Three: Paul Wood in the Spectator: “It’s pretty chilly out. Do you want to borrow a scarf?”

The PCO: British cartoon talent

Kate’s last piece of advice to any aspiring cartoonist is to “have endless perseverance, draw from the heart and be a shameless self-publicist”.

Kate also feels that the internet has opened up many new ways in which cartoonists can now promote themselves. “The digital age also means a lot more choice for us in the way we decide to present our work.”

Bloghorn says T for Taylor
The PCO: Great British cartoon talent

PCOer Royston Robertson writes:

The Forbidden Planet blog has a nice piece to mark six months of The DFC, the subscription-only kids’ comic launched earlier this year. Instead of canvassing the opinions of grown-up comic fans, they’ve interviewed a member of the target audience: Molly, nine.

This was interesting to me as my son, who is six, reads The DFC. He loves it, but of course he only knows about it because his cartoonist Dad wanted to see it. His friends are largely unaware of The DFC because it has such a low media profile. It really needs to get into the shops permanently (it’s currently on a one-week trial at Tesco).

Like Molly in the FP piece, he also goes for the funny ones rather than the more serious, adventure ones. I think I did much the same thing with comics as a child.

Forbidden Planet blog

The DFC

The PCO: Great British cartoon talent

Cartoon by Andy “Gilby” Gilbert. Click to enlarge

Who’s Laughing Now?, a cartoon exhibition by PCOer Andy Gilbert, has been a hit at the Derby Museum and Art Gallery and as a result, selected pieces will be exhibited at the Queen’s Hospital, Burton upon Trent, until December 13.

After that, the full exhibition can be seen again at the Brewhouse Arts Centre, Burton, from January 17 until February 21. Opening times are Mon-Sat 10am-5pm

Andy Gilbert produces artwork for Rainbow Cards and much of the exhibition highlights the gentle humour that he produces for their range.

The PCO: British cartoon talent

From France via The Independent newspaper

The same newspaper also has a comprehensive obituary on the late Les Barton

The PCO: Great British cartoon talent

PCOer Martin Rowson writes…

One way and another I’ve had quite an exciting week. At the Cartoon Awards on Wednesday I got slapped, quite hard, by the celebrated lawyer and serially rebellious Labour MP Bob Marshall-Andrews, who seems not to have liked an interview I did with him for The Spectator this August. Surprisingly enough, I’ve never been hit by a politician before, although Peter Brookes used to whack me every time we met. On the basis that all cartoonists, if they’re giving it out, should be able to take it as well, I took this particular assault on the chin (actually, more the whole left side of my head) and decided honour was satisfied. Subsequently Bob has offered to buy me lunch, so maybe it isn’t over yet.

The other exciting thing is the extraordinary viral life of a feature I illustrated for New Humanist, devised by the comedian Christina Martin. It’s called “God Trumps” and is a series of playing cards depicting representatives of 12 of the World’s leading religions, with marks out of ten in six categories whereby they might trump the other religions (Muslims trump everyone, needless to say, because of the impossibility of making jokes about them). As of Thursday evening, it had, apparently, had over 55,000 hits (as compared to just the one I got from Marshall-Andrews), and the atheistical boys and girls at New Humanist are so excited that, at their non-Christmas party on Thursday night, there was a lot of talk of T-shirts and tea towels and another 12 cards to mop up the religions we left out, like Russian Orthodox and Mormons. With luck this one could run even longer than my feud with the member for Medway! Yippee!

UPDATED: Tuesday 25th November. More news on readership from the New Humanist magazine blog

Bloghorn says click R for Rowson

The PCO: Great British cartoon talent

Bloghorn spotted this great work this week…

One: Peter Brookes in the Times on the BNP list

Two: Tim Sanders in The Independent on “I’m a Celebrity…”

Three: Dave Walker at the Church Times Blog on pubs becoming churches

The PCO: British cartoon talent

Bloghorn asked our Artist of the Month, Kate Taylor, how she started out in drawing;

Since childhood Kate loved to draw and only ever wanted to be an illustrator. She has always worked as a self-employed freelancer, but, with her output always “veering towards” cartooning.

She always admired the cartoons of the late Mel Calman but tells us she tries not “to look at other people’s work too much, because everyone else seems so funny.”

Bloghorn says click T for Taylor

The PCO: Great British cartoon talent

The Cartoon Art Trust Awards were presented last night at The Mall Galleries in London. The trust, which runs the Cartoon Museum in London, has presented the awards annually since 1995. Gag cartoonist Grizelda, left, was among the winners.

PCOer and Private Eye regular Will “Wilbur” Dawbarn was there and sent Bloghorn this personal report:

I was fortunate enough to be invited to join the Private Eye table this year, and what a star-studded occasion it seemed to this small-town boy! I even got my suit out of mothballs for the occasion.

After a brief time spent standing around with no-one to talk to, trying to earwig Ken Clarke’s conversation (for cartoon research purposes of course), scoffing as many canapés as I could get my hands on, and examining some marvellous Giles originals, I soon fell in with the coterie of Eye cartoonists, particularly the garrulous Simon Pearsall (“First Drafts”), who chatted non-stop in my left ear (most entertainingly) during the meal, leaving me only dimly aware of cartoons being auctioned off for thousands of pounds and awards being dished out to the worthy.

In my right ear at the table was Mark Warren, the writer of the Celeb strip. It turns out it’s only Charles Peattie who does both Alex and Celeb – I’d always assumed it was the same writer-artist combo doing both.

I missed a few more awards whilst outside having a fag with Simon P. and Martin Rowson (who was very charming and gracious to the winner of the Under 18 Young Cartoonist of the Year award, telling her to email him for advice and the like – though he bluntly refused me the same courtesy when I enquired …)

The Award Winners

Joke cartoon award: Grizelda of the New Statesman and others

Strip cartoon award: Stephen Collins of the Times

Pocket cartoon award: Jeremy Banks aka “Banx” of the FT

Caricature award: Nicola Jennings of the Guardian

Political cartoon award: Nicholas Garland of the Daily Telegraph

Young cartoonists of the year: Emilia Franklin (under 18) and James Hood (under 30).

The Pont prize for drawing the British Character: Charles Peattie and Russell Taylor of the Daily Telegraph for Alex. The Pont Award was set up five years ago in memory of Graham “Pont” Laidler, whose drew the brilliant series The British Character in Punch in the 1930s and 40s.

Lifetime achievement award: Raymond Briggs. The creator of the acclaimed books The Snowman and When the Wind Blows was responsible for some of the earliest British “graphic novels” – long before the term or the form was generally known. Previous winners of the award have included, Ronald Searle, Gerald Scarfe, Fluck and Law, and Trog.

PCOer Morten Morland has a first person report here as does Christian Adams of the Telegraph has his take on the events here too and Down the Tubes also has a round up.

The PCO: Great British cartoon talent

PCOer Nathan Ariss reports that the Queen’s English Society is launching a book which he has illustrated.

The PCO: Great British cartoon talent