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

Rob Murray writes:

The BBC reports on the appropriation by protest groups of the Guy Fawkes mask featured in V For Vendetta – designed by David Lloyd for the 1980s comic strip he co-created with Alan Moore, which was turned into a Hollywood film in 2006. You can read the article here, while elsewhere the Forbidden Planet blog has responded to the report with its own interpretation.

Ahead of the imminent release of Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson’s Tintin movie, Scottish newspaper The Daily Record reports that Hergé’s intrepid young reporter owes his success to Scotland – or, more specifically, to his adventure north of the border.

John Ryan, the creator of Captain Pugwash, is the subject of a retrospective exhibition in his hometown of Rye, opening on 19 November. Pugwash is best known as a children’s animated TV show, but in fact debuted in the very first issue of long-running comic The Eagle. downthetubes.net has more, as does the Rye Art Gallery.

Finally, The Onion’s A.V. Club has an interview with acclaimed US cartoonist Daniel Clowes, in which he looks back on his work in comics over the last few years and discusses his future projects.

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

Ian Hislop and Nick Newman talk cartoons at the Eye © V&A

If you have not yet watched the behind-the-scenes video about Private Eye on the V&A site, you should take a look, particularly if you are in any way responsible for content in newspapers, magazines or websites.

Ian Hislop, Editor of Private Eye, one of Britain’s most successful magazines — which has seen its circulation rise of late, bucking the trend for the industry — reveals one of the keys to its success:

“Cartoons are fantastically popular — people love them. And I think most publications miss a trick …”

Watch the full video here.

The video shows Ken Pyne, a member of the Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation, which runs the Bloghorn, drawing a cartoon. Then one by the PCO’s Alexander Matthews is singled out for praise by Hislop. And when he lauds the benefits of cartoons he shows a page that includes gags by seven PCOers. Get the message? Check out the PCO portfolios here.

After much media hoopla, Private Eye: The First 50 Years opened at the Victoria & Albert museum in South Kensington, London, yesterday. The exhibition will run until January 8.

The free exhibition explores the wealth of artistic talent that the magazine has showcased since 1961 and features original artwork for some of the funniest Private Eye cartoons.

Cartoonist Nathan Ariss attended the private view. He writes:

“According to one insider it was ‘the most fun’ the reverent halls had witnessed in decades. Yes, the PE PV at the V&A was AOK, and deemed a rather fine night indeed.

“A [insert collective noun here] of cartoonists were interspersed with some serious marble statues and seriously well-off people and then somewhat embarrassed by a warm and gracious speech from the Editor, [Is this guy after an OBN? – Ed], Ian Hislop, who paid full tribute to the importance that cartoons have played in the magazine’s success.

“I imagine the exhibition will be equally as enjoyable as all the sparkling repartee and champagne on the night itself, but I’m afraid I became somewhat tired and emoticon as the night wore on. Thankfully the exhibition is still on until the new year.”

National Association of Builders Convention by Ken Pyne

Many cartoonists started their careers at the magazine, and they can be seen in this show, including Gerald Scarfe, Ralph Steadman, Willie Rushton, Barry Fantoni, Nick Newman and Michael Heath

There are lots of cartoons in the show by members of the PCO, which runs the Bloghorn, such as Andrew Birch, Wilbur Dawbarn, Neil Dishington, Pete Dredge, Len Hawkins, Martin Honeysett, Tony Husband, Ed McLachlan, Alexander Matthews, Ken Pyne, above, Royston Robertson, Mike Turner, and the PCO patron Bill Tidy.

The cartoons are in themed sections, on politics, royalty and social observation. There are single-panel cartoons, long-running strips and caricatures.

Hislop has chosen 50 of the best front covers, one from every year the magazine has been published. The exhibition also evokes the atmosphere of the magazine’s Soho office, with a recreation of the Editor’s desk, right, and a messy production table.

Here’s a round-up of some of the many Private Eye: The First 50 Years features you can currently see on the net:

A behind the scenes look at the production of the Eye, including a video of how a Ken Pyne cartoon progresses from idea to page, can be seen on the V&A site.

The Private Eye blog has a piece on putting the exhibition together.

Fifty years of Private Eye as seen by The Wall Street Journal …

… and by Creative Review.

Ian Hislop takes the BBC’s Will Gompertz on a tour of the exhibition. The site also has political leaders and pundits giving their views of Private Eye

And finally, to coincide with the 50th celebrations, the Chris Beetles Gallery has an online exhibition selling artwork by Private Eye cartoonists.

Rob Murray writes:

Life magazine has compiled a diverse selection of wartime caricatures of Adolf Hitler, and points out that “in the right hands a pen, a paint brush, or a crude puppet can be an effective weapon.” You can see the slideshow here.

A new film has turned to animation to tell the story of the Green Revolution in Iran in 2009. Ali Samadi Ahadi’s The Green Wave animates written accounts that were posted on blogs and Twitter, to to tell the story of the uprising, along with mobile-phone footage posted online. The animation by Ali Reza Darvish provides a unique way of reconstructing a story that emerged via the web, as the regime blocked all media and brutally crushed the protests. For more on this, see: The Green Wave film website.

The Phoenix, a new weekly children’s comic due to launch in January, will feature a strip by The Dandy’s Etherington Brothers called Long Gone Don, as well as The Lost Boy by Kate Brown. The Phoenix is being launched by the former editor of short-lived comic The DFC, David Fickling, and has already announced new strips by Jamie Smart and by Daniel Hartwell and Neill Cameron.

Finally, a competition is offering a fan of The Beano a chance to star in a Dennis the Menace or Minnie the Minx strip, and to visit the comic’s Dundee office. See The Beano’s DC Thomson stablemate, The Courier, for more details.

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

The Kyoto International Cartoonist Congress has organised an exhibition from which proceeds will go to victims of the Japanese tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

The Kyoto International Cartoon Special Exhibition features 300 cartoons from 127 cartoonists in 41 countries, including, from the UK, Martin Honeysett, John Jensen, Ken Pyne and Ross Thomson.

A detail from John Jensen’s drawing has also been used for the cover of the catalogue, above. The caption: “I’ve found our good luck charm. It’s not even cracked.”

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

"Tell me about your Big Society ..."

Hard Times, a new exhibition by the Times cartoonist Peter Brookes, opens at the Chris Beetles Gallery in St James’s, London, today and runs until November 5.

The selling show features more than 120 of Brookes’ most recent editorial cartoons from The Times, and ties in with the launch of his new book, also called Hard Times.

To see the exhibition online, go to www.chrisbeetles.com

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

Another Pair of Underpants, an exhibition of cartoons by Tony Husband, is at Tom’s Chophouse, Cross St, Manchester, until November 10.

It features around 350 pieces — strips, topical gags and sports cartoons — along with a series of large photos of Tony at work by the photographer Wolfgang Webster.

Everything in the exhibition is for sale and the final day will see a charity dinner. Half of the proceeds will go to the Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention Appeal. Prints and originals are for sale, along with books and cartoon placemats.

Tony has been a regular contributor to Private Eye since 1985. He also draws sports cartoons for The Times and the Sunday Express and his cartoons have appeared in many magazines including The Spectator, The Oldie and Playboy.

The exhibition moves to Sam’s Chophouse, 8 South Parade, Leeds, on November 14, where it will run until Christmas. Tony plans to exhibit his cartoons again next year and tells The Bloghorn that the Groucho Club in London has expressed an interest in showing them.

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

Rob Murray writes:

Hergé’s most controversial Tintin book, the infamous Tintin in the Congo, has come under fire again, with a Belgian court being asked to ban the comic book on the grounds of racism.

Political cartoonist and PCO member Steve Bell has been busy on the party conference circuit over the past few weeks for the Guardian, which has posted a selection of his sketches from this week’s Tory get-together in Manchester.

Maus, the Pulitzer-winning graphic novel by underground cartoonist Art Spiegelman, is 25 years old. In a new book, MetaMaus, he tells the story of how he created his epic Holocaust allegory. NPR has a 30-minute interview with Spiegelman here.

US satirical cartoonist Peter Bagge – who received advice from Spiegelman early in his career – has been interviewed by Reason, the libertarian magazine for which he has been a contributor since 2003. Bagge talks about his political views and how they have affected his comics work – watch the video here.

Ahead of an exhibition of magazine illustrations by Edward Sorel at the School of Visual Arts in New York, the cartoonist and illustrator has been interviewed by The Atlantic about his long career. You can read the article here.

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

The Bloghorn is always interested in drawing that makes the presentation of knowledge more fun.

Our friends at The Comics Grid hit both of these nails when they asked Emily Goodhand, copyright and compliance officer at the University of Reading, to review a graphic novel on a subject that can make grown cartoonists scream.

Emily told us:

Copyright is not an easy subject to convey via any medium, given that it deals with intangible (unseen) property rights. So what about using drawing to help people learn about copyright?

Well, we live in a visual world; a picture often says more than a paragraph of text. And the simpler aspects of copyright translate well to images.

It is unlikely though that copyright education could ever be delivered by images alone, but it’s certainly an avenue worth exploring further — especially as it’s high time copyright broke free of its rather dull stereotype.

The Bloghorn says: go read Emily’s review of Bound by Law.

Attributed to Keith Aoki, James Boyle and Jennifer Jenkins under a Creatie Commons Sharealike License

Does anyone want to make a UK version, following the recent Hargreaves review of copyright which we noted here?

You can downaload the full comic from here.

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

An exhibition of Apparently strips from Private Eye, by the cartoonist Mike Barfield, is being held at the City Screen Picturehouse, York.

The free exhibition, of around 100 strips, opens tomorrow (October 5) and runs for a month.

On Sunday 23 October, Mike will be in the gallery from 1pm onwards selling original artwork — along with some of his music CDs. Bloghorn readers may remember that he wrote a World Cup song last year.

Mike will also be available to answer questions on anything you care to ask him, though he’s not hot on languages or geography. Apparently.

The City Screen is at 13-17, Coney Street, York. Call 0871-902 5726. On November 4, Mike will talk about cartoons and writing, and will perform poems and songs at An Evening With Mike Barfield at the Millennium Hall, Helperby, near York. Tickets are £5. Call 01423-360 364

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