Category — UK cartoon events
Private Eye: Looking good at 50
Private Eye celebrates its 50th birthday next month and appears to be in rude health, bucking the downward trend for magazine circulation in the digital age.
The anniversary is October 25 but the celebrations start on Tuesday (September 20) with the release of a new book Private Eye: The First 50 Years, a history of the magazine written by the Eye journalist Adam Macqueen that charts its rise from 300 copies of the first edition in 1961, below, to a fortnightly circulation of more than 200,000.
The book features interviews with key players in the Private Eye story, rare archive material and unseen photos. (There are some “seen” ones too.) And, of course, there is an abundance of the cartoons that are so central to appeal of the magazine.
You can see more of those, including many by members of the PCO, which runs The Bloghorn, when the famously anti-establishment magazine puts on a First 50 Years exhibition at the very establishment Victoria and Albert Museum [Shurely shome mishtake? – Ed]. It opens at the V&A on October 18 and runs until January 8.
Cartoons will be shown in themed sections, on politics, royalty and social observation, and there will be gags, long-running strips and caricatures. The Bloghorn will have more on the exhibition nearer the time.
Ian Hislop, Editor of the magazine, has said of the 50th anniversary: “I do not want anyone to think that this is all just a huge celebration of ourselves. Our 50th year is a chance to look back and take a dispassionate view of how marvellous we are.”
You can read more on how marvellous they are in a Media Guardian article this week and even Vanity Fair is on the case with a piece by Christopher Hitchens. Updates on the 50th anniversary celebrations will appear on the Private Eye at 50 blog.
The Bloghorn is made on behalf of the UK’s Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation
September 13, 2011 2 Comments
Powerful stuff goes on display
Artwork from the political cartoon collection of Jeffrey Archer is to go on show for the first time, at the Monnow Valley Arts Centre, Herefordshire, from Saturday (September 3).
Image of Power will feature 100 cartoons owned by the writer and former Tory MP who has been collecting cartoons for 25 years. They include this early image of Tony Blair, Has Bambi got teeth?, by Peter Brookes of The Times.
The exhibition, which spans three centuries from Gillray to Scarfe, is being curated by the art collector Chris Beetles. It features images of Churchill, Macmillan, Kennedy, Reagan, Nixon, Thatcher and more.
Lord Archer says on his website: “I continue collecting, as there are still gaps to be filled, but it’s my long-term intention to produce an illustrated book on the collection, and to leave the works to the nation. Mind you, finding a home for them may not prove easy. “
The exhibition will be opened by Lord Archer on Saturday at 3pm and runs until October 30.
September 1, 2011 No Comments
Bloghorn: Moving home this autumn
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.
August 31, 2011 No Comments
Foghorn – The magazine by cartoonists
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.
- http://procartoonists.org
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?
August 3, 2011 No Comments
Doctor Who at the Cartoon Museum
Almost as long as Doctor Who has been on — and off — our TV screens he has also been seen in his comics incarnation.
The world’s longest running sci-fi series began in late 1963 and the Doctor first appeared in cartoon form in TV Comic in the following year.
A new exhibition, Doctor Who in Comics: 1964-2011 brings together artwork featuring all eleven Doctors from publications including TV Comic, TV Century 21 and Doctor Who Magazine. Comic-strips were famously one of the mediums that kept the Doctor alive for the fans when the TV show was off the air for 16 years — yes, excepting Paul McGann’s one-off TV film, don’t write in! — between 1989 and 2005.
The show, which materialises at the Cartoon Museum in London on Wednesday, features work by many writers and artists including Brian Bolland, Dave Gibbons, Dicky Howett, Roger Langridge, David Lloyd, Pat Mills, Alan Moore and John Wagner. It looks set to be a family hit for all generations over the summer. Catch it before it dematerialises on October 30.
Artwork above by Paul Grist and James Offredi
July 26, 2011 1 Comment
Cartooning in real-time
Response to printed and digital cartoons is now pretty much instant as this tweet about a drawing by Peter Brookes of The Times shows.
Peter’s colleague Morten Morland (a PCO member) had a swift response below
The standard response of editorial cartoonists to feedback like this is
Or complete silence, but when the controversy crosses the oceans in seconds to other influential commentators…
This speed of interaction between opinion, response and offence pose, in Bloghorn’s view both a challenge and an opportunity to makers of drawings. What do you think cartoonists should do in the social media era?Answers welcome in the comments.
Updated: 2pm
Further response from the internet
Updated: Wednesday 27th July – The Guardian is reporting a letter from seven UK academics complaining about the publication of this cartoon. Read the story here and please comment below if you would like.
July 21, 2011 3 Comments
Obscene postcards? You be the judge
An exhibition of seaside postcards that were banned by local councils in the 1950s opens in Margate this week.
I Wish I Could See My Little Willy named after a postcard by Bob Wilkin, above, enraged the authorities in the prudish post war years. The show is being held at the Pie Factory gallery, opposite Margate’s old magistrate’s court where the publishers of the day would have been prosecuted.
Across the country the authorities confiscated and destroyed thousands of ‘‘saucy’’ postcards as they feared that that the nation’s morals were in decline after the Second World War.
The free exhibition, which opens on July 23 and runs until August 2, is held in conjunction with the British Cartoon Archive, which has been digitising the postcards and putting them online, along with their associated obscene publications index cards, as seen above.
Nick Hiley of the British Cartoon Archive, which is based at the University of Kent in nearby Canterbury, told Bloghorn:
‘‘We are organising the exhibition with the Dreamland Trust in Margate. I will be giving a talk in the magistrates’ court where the cards were condemned — they have a wonderful witness box on casters that I hope to lecture from.’’
The old court is now the Margate Musuem. The talk is at 2pm on July 30. The organisers are hoping to follow it with an airing of the Radio 4 play Getting The Joke by Neil Brand (BBC permission pending). It tells the story of the trial of Donald McGill, acknowledged master of the saucy postcard, in 1953.
July 18, 2011 1 Comment
Rowing goes more merrily, merrily
We can report that the cartoon exhibition organised by the PCO for this year’s Henley Royal Regatta was a big success.
Many revellers mentioned how much they enjoyed the themed cartoons, which where shown alongside a more traditional display of rowing paintings and prints. Around a third of the cartoons on show were sold.
Clive Goddard, who was instrumental in organising the event, tells us that he hopes the PCO will be able to do the same thing at Henley next year.
The organisation is also hoping to bring themed exhibitions to other key events in next year’s social calendar: perhaps tennis cartoons for Wimbledon, floral cartoons for the Chelsea Flower Show, or music cartoons for the Proms.
If you are involved with an event and think a themed cartoon exhibition would be a great addition, get in touch with the PCO here
July 5, 2011 2 Comments
Show: Messing about in boats
Bloghorn cartoon from Henley Royal Regatta © Ken Pyne
One of the displayed cartoons from the membership of the PCO currently exhibiting at Henley-on-Thames.
June 30, 2011 No Comments
Show: Messing about with boats
The Henley Royal Regatta is an essential event in the British social calendar and this year it also includes a quality cartoon show.
© Bill Stott cartoon at thebloghorn.org
Pictures of genteel landscapes and nature studies jostle for position with slightly more than an eights worth of Regatta themed cartoons. Visitors will find a large boatload of terrific jokes punted into position in the hallowed Member’s Enclosure and all providing an irreverent take on a great British institution.
The exhibition, organised by the PCO, will run throughout the week of the Regatta from June 29th. If you are in the area, you may enjoy the work of Ken Pyne, Bill Stott, Clive Goddard, The Surreal McCoy, Royston Robertson, Noel Ford, Pete Dredge, Nathan Ariss, Rosie Brooks, John Roberts and William Rudling.
You can read our full list of membership portfolios here and if you are the organiser of an event seeking something special to add to your big day do get in touch with us here.
June 29, 2011 2 Comments
