Category — Bloghornery

Cartoon © James Sturm

If you don’t follow the Bloghorn on Twitter (you should: @bloghorn) you may have missed this article that we highlighted recently.

James Sturm, an artist better known for graphic novels, decided to try his hand at gag cartooning for the most competitive, exclusive market there is. He writes about his exploits for Slate magazine here: How hard is it to get a cartoon into The New Yorker?

He tells of how he enjoyed the freedom of gag cartooning, how his meeting went with the magazine’s cartoon editor Bob Mankoff, and how he ultimately didn’t get into The New Yorker. But he did have lunch with lots of cartoonists, so it’s not all bad news.

The Google doodles – the drawings which accompany the advertising company’s ubiquitous search engine – are the most read cartoons in the world.

Bloghorn admires the company’s long-term use of drawn imagery as a piece of business promotion (do visit the archives.) Today they have moved the still cartoon image into a animated video celebrating the memory of the flamboyant leader singer of Queen, Freddie Mercury.

Agree with our view on the most high-profile cartoon in the world? Please have your say in the comments below.

Bloghorn is made on behalf of the UK’s Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation

We’re back after our summer holiday with some good news for the autumn.

We’re moving to a new home alongside all of the portfolios from our membership of professional UK cartoonists.

Packing the boxes will take us a little while but this blog won’t be moving anywhere even though eventually all our new updates will appear at the new, ahem, pad.

Long time readers of Bloghorn may recall we have done this before and we are sure we will get better with the practice.

Keep your eyes here for the updates about progress and in the meantime do check out the membership artwork which is frequently updated.

Bloghorn is made by  Matthew Buck, Royston Robertson, Alex Hughes and Rob Murray.

Rob Murray writes:

Music by The Smiths has inspired a comics collection, Unite and Take Over, due for release in November. Smiths fan Shawn Demumbrum of Phoenix, Arizona has assembled 13 creative teams to interpret songs by the band as comic strips, each three or four pages in length. Demumbrum, who is currently looking for contributions towards printing costs, discusses the project in a promotional video here, and with the Guardian here.

Another rock band, Art Brut, have commissioned a 28-page comic to mark the release of their latest album. The comic features art by Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley, and you can read more about the project here.

Elsewhere, a vintage TV clip of film director and Monty Python animator Terry Gilliam discussing his animation techniques has resurfaced courtesy of Cartoon Brew. The blog points out that, given the continuing interest in animation, it is a shame that such shows no longer exist. Bloghorn agrees, but would also like to see more in-depth coverage of other cartooning formats.

As always, please alert us to anything we might have missed, using the comments below. Thanks.

Bloghorn commends summer reading with the NEW* issue of Foghorn magazine due for publication. It’s the only cartoon magazine made by the cartoonists themselves.

You can try a digital copy and subscribe to six print issues a year for £20 here. Don’t miss it.

* See what we did there?

Rob Murray writes:

A handsome new book about the use of cartoons in early advertising is released this month by graphic novel and comic art publisher Fantagraphics Books. In 128 full-colur pages, Drawing Power spans from the 1870s to the 1940s and features lesser-known work by cartoonists such as Peter Arno, Thomas Nast, George Herriman and Dr Seuss. More information on the book, including a slideshow of many of the cartoons featured, can be found here.

The News International phone-hacking scandal has made headlines around the world, and reminds Vancouver Sun writer Darah Hansen of a classic Doonesbury strip, as she explains here.

Judge Dredd, the iconic star of long-running UK sci-fi comic 2000 AD, is getting a second chance at movie stardom – this time without Sylvester Stallone – in a new film due early next year.

Last but by no means least, the UK Professional Cartoonists Organisation – which runs the Bloghorn – has this week unveiled its portfolio website. Take a look, if you haven’t already. We will be moving to the new site in due course.

Rob Murray writes:

More details are emerging about The Phoenix, a new weekly comic from the former editor of the short-lived DFC that is due to launch in January. The Phoenix blog features an animated trailer for one of its strips, ‘The Pirates of Pangaea’ by Daniel Hartwell and Neill Cameron, while its latest email newsletter provides this interactive teaser for a strip by Dandy cartoonist Jamie Smart.

Saudi Arabia’s lone female newspaper cartoonist, Hana Hajjar, tells CNN about the importance of her role in a male-led society and how her cartoons speak out for women. You can read the interview here (thanks to fellow cartoonist Lou McKeever for spotting the story).

In Malaysia, cartoonist Zunar has been unsuccessful in his attempt to lift a ban on two of his cartoon collections, according to news agency Bernama. Zunar was arrested in September under the country’s Sedition Act for publishing books considered ‘detrimental to public order’. An open letter from Chuah Siew Eng of Malaysia’s Centre for Independent Journalism calls the latest decision disappointing. Zunar intends to appeal.

Timed to coincide with the release of the final Harry Potter film, cartoonist Lucy Knisley has launched a humorous comic that condenses the entire series. Time Out Chicago has the full story, and Knisley’s blog features an incredibly detailed poster to download (but beware of spoilers!).

If there is something Bloghorn really shouldn’t really have missed please add it in the comments below. Thank you.

© Stanley McMurtry of the Daily Mail

Mac of the Daily Mail writes about a low technology joy of cartooning on the road in this travel piece for his employer. It is a nice read and shows, at least to Bloghorn, that many cartoonists are equally comfortable when combining picture and word to make memorable communication.

Seen any other examples of cartoonists who can write? Let the Bloghorn team know…

Rob Murray writes:

French president Nicolas Sarkozy has become the latest real-life subject of a ‘Where’s Wally?’-style puzzle book (others have included Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and Osama Bin Laden). The new book, ‘Où est Sarko?’, takes a tongue-in-cheek view of Sarkozy’s presidency and apparent omnipresence, with the cartoon illustrations depicting memorable scenes from his time in office. You can read more at The Guardian.

The work of a local newspaper cartoonist may get a fresh airing, decades after they were first published. Frederick Terry Frampton’s 80-year-old son John has carefully compiled his father’s work for the Enfield Gazette from the 1930s and is considering publishing them as a book aimed at local history enthusiasts. Read more here.

Over in the US, The Salt Lake Tribune has shown it clearly recognises the popularity of cartoons with a newspaper’s readership. While continuing to publish a variety of comic strips in its print edition, it is also dramatically increasing the number of cartoons it carries online. In a piece announcing the changes, the SLT discusses the importance of cartoon content to a paper’s identity and sales. Bloghorn would like to see more of this sort of thinking from editors. 

Summer is here and our thoughts turn to holidays, so the latest issue of Foghorn, the magazine of the Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation, looks at the behaviour of the British abroad. The cover is by the PCO’s Robert Duncan. The magazine is available to subscribers for the annual price of £20 for six full colour issues.

What’s inside?

Roger Penwill on on a travel adventure worthy of Samuel Beckett.
Rupert Besley on the holidays of his youth, when anything foreign was the subject of deep mistrust.
Clive Goddard on America, and how it is really rather big.
Clive Collins on the freelancer’s fear of taking time off.
And you’ll find a full page of cartoons by Andrew Birch.

Plus lots more: the Critic, the Foghorn Guide, the Potting Shed … and several straining suitcases packed with funny cartoons about what we did on our holidays.

You can read older issues of Foghorn online here, right up to our most recent issue.