Look here and here (scroll down for the button) then read all about it here via Morten Morland of The Times.

Gordon Brown cartoon by Morten Morland

The Political Cartoon Gallery’s Tory Blues exhibition has now closed so, in the interests of balance, attention is turned to the Labour Party.
Browned Off! A cartoon exhibition on the first 18 months of Gordon Brown as Prime Minister, opens at the gallery on Wednesday (January 21) and runs until March 14.

The show will feature Britain’s top political cartoonists, such as Peter Brookes, Steve Bell, Dave Brown, Nicholas Garland and Christian Adams, and include PCOers Martin Rowson, Morten Morland, Andy Davey and Matt Buck.

Gordon Brown cartoon by Andy Davey

The Political Cartoon Gallery, at 32 Store Street, London, is open Monday to Friday 9.30am – 5.30pm and on Saturdays between 11.30am – 5.30pm.

The PCO: Great British cartoon talent
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PCOer Andy Davey writes:

One thing that all cartoonists are very aware of is that the face of publishing has changed. Much of it has been a little scary for established old-media cartoonists, but one of the undoubted benefits of the new trends has been on-demand printing.

While there’s still a need for hard copy (books for fireside, on train, lining impressive bookshelves, in tent up mountain etc), self-publishing sites provide the bridge between the mature and the new by converting digital files into comforting, heart-warming, cuddly books to be held and cherished.

An example, I hear you ask? Oh, if you insist. You could, for example, check out a short cartoon booklet called Bush Combat by UK cartoonist Andy Davey (see it here). This was published, like fellow PCO cartoonist Ger Whyman’s book on the self-publishing site, Lulu.

The book covers the pugilistic adventures of the boy George Dubya, from early spats with the UN, through the horrors of Iraq, right up to his search for a legacy in the Middle East. The time seemed right; it is meant as a last post to his disastrous tenure in the White house. The editorial cartoons all have brief explanations for those with medium-term memory loss; they were mostly published in The Guardian, The Times and The Independent over the last six years. Some are previously unpublished. It’s long on pictures and short on text, so even Dubya himself could order one and understand it … possibly.

The PCO: Great British cartoon talent
Subscribe to The Foghorn – our print cartoon magazine

The time difference between the UK and the USA meant that newspapers here were unable to report the victory of Barack Obama the day after the election. So British cartoonists had another day to gather their thoughts, and we saw the results yesterday.

Two cartoonists noted a certain messianic quality in the President Elect. Peter Brookes in The Times came up with a saintly Obama and Matt in the Daily Telegraph wondered if he could work miracles.

Andy Davey in The Sun saw the election as a new dawn and Paul Thomas in the Daily Express also looked at the notion of new hope for America.

A celebratory tone was notable. Steve Bell in The Guardian depicted a slam-dunking Obama and Dave Brown in The Independent showed his ballooning popularity.

Mac in the Daily Mail had Obama beating racism, to make it to the White House while Matt Buck at Channel 4 News noted how that famous address is changed for ever. Nicholas Garland in The Telegraph took an interesting sideways slant, with a quote from Martin Luther King.

Alex Hughes in Tribune looked ahead to the huge challenges faced by the new President and Patrick Blower, on his Livedraw site, had an animated take on this weight of expectation.

It will be fascinating, of course, to see how cartoonists will react once Obama is doing the job of President, when the news stories are not all positive.

Have you seen any other great Obama cartoons in the UK media? Let us know via Comments below

The PCO: Great British cartoon talent

The PCO is running workshops for all ages at the Big Draw event at St Pancras International Station in London on Saturday (October 18). If you’re interested in cartooning and fancy having a go, come along and get involved.

PCO cartoon workshops at the 2007 Big Draw

The workshop timetable is as follows: Paul Hardman – Who Do You Think You Are? 10am-11.25am; Chichi Parish – Time Travel, 11.30am-12.55pm; Robert Duncan – Drawing Near the Station, 1pm-1.55pm; Tim Harries – Creating First Class Comic Strips, 2pm-3.25pm; Terry Christien – On Track for Drawing Cartoon Characters, 3.30pm-5pm.

The PCO is strongly represented in the Battle of the Cartoonists (3-5pm) where four teams slug it out to produce the best cartoon banner, because not only does it have its own team but there are PCO members on each of the other three teams.

They are: Martin Rowson and Andy Davey (Guardian team), Ken Pyne (Private Eye) and Matt Buck (the Independent).

The Big Draw: Get involved

The PCO: Great British cartoon talent

Here is the last interview answer from Andy Davey our PCO Artist of the Month for August 2008.

Bloghorn asked him what’s the future for cartooning in the digital age?

I’m sure cartoons will thrive and flourish, after they emerge from this difficult period, but in what form they will do this, I have no idea. It may be that animation will provide the extra selling point they seem to need in the rush to digital. It seems many people under 30 now think of animated cartoon art when they hear the word “cartoon”, so the deed may be already be done.

It’s increasingly difficult to get any kind of still, newsprint cartoon published at a reasonable fee, so it may have become less attractive to new entrants and this may lead to a downward spiral in the quality of work. But there are, still, good new people coming in*.

Interestingly, the route to being a cartoonist is usually circuitous or tangential; there aren’t any really useful training schools. This means it still attracts lateral thinkers, oddballs and eccentrics – thank goodness. Long may it do so. Satire and drawn humour are as natural (and enduring) as camel farts. The art-form might mutate but it won’t die.

Can I go now?

Bloghorn says click D for Davey.

* See some of it at this link British cartoon talent

Andy Davey is the PCO Artist of the Month for August 2008.
Bloghorn asked Andy some questions about what he does.

Which other cartoonists’ work do you admire?
Gerald Scarfe’s loose, carefree line, devastating caricature and command of so many styles is still pretty breathtaking. Steve Bell’s ability to nail a politician and produce the definitive image of the hapless soul (Major, Blair, Bush) is unparalleled. Matt’s ability to translate world events into demotic scenes of suburbia. Then there are the others – Robert Crumb for his weird Freudian cathartics. Thelwell for pretty much the opposite. Ken Reid, Tony Husband, Ray Lowry, Ralph Steadman, Larry, Ed McLachlan, Posy Simmonds … oh, and that Bill Stott fellow. There are many others. Anyone who makes me laugh out loud gets a special gold star.

Do you have any tips for wannabe cartoonists?
Oh bejayzus. At present, it looks like it would be recommending someone to train as a cordwainer or a wheelwright. Of course, there are several dozen scribblers making a good living out of it – and even cartoon Forbes-listers (Messrs Bell, Pritchett, Scarfe) but the rest of us live on hope, rejection and frozen peas. BUT, if you love doing something, then you just can’t stop yourself pursuing it – and it would be foolish to do so (as I have demonstrated to myself). So if that’s what you enjoy – DO IT, fer gawd’s sake, or you’ll regret it. Worry about the penury later – when the skinny-dog and pennywhistle combo begins to look like an upward career move.

Bloghorn says click D for Davey.

British cartoon talent

Ever wondered why some newspaper cartoons have so many symbols and badges in them? Let PCOer Martin Rowson explain a little about it in this Radio 4 interview about the symbolism of Russia as a giant bear. Clip from the Today programme.

British cartoon talent

Andy Davey is the PCO Artist of the Month for August 2008.

Bloghorn asked him how he makes his cartoons.

I draw with small pieces of broken china, dug up from the garden, while listening to Bach fugues on the wireless. Well, that’s not strictly true. I use pen and ink too … in fact, almost anything which will make a wet and awkward mark really (excluding live crocodiles).

I have tried computers, but I’ve reverted to the wet sensuous stuff – lovely large sheets of fat white watercolour paper, ink as black as jet, the rich wonderful unpredictable colours of Messrs Windsor and Newton, toothbrushes, nibs, blots, smells and mess – it’s wonderful. I’ve been working larger and larger lately – untroubled by the trivial annoyances of deadlines … or payment. I love the free sweep of a nib across virgin Imperial sized paper. It’s a bugger to scan though, even with an A3 scanner. I’m sure I’m going the wrong way here – everybody tells me the way forward is digital, digital, digital – including you, Mr Bloghorn – but you’re all wrong, I tell you – do you see? – Wrong! Ha ha ha (at this point, Mr Davey was heavily sedated under restraint).

Bloghorn says click D for Davey

It’s British cartoon talent

Andy Davey is the PCO Artist of the Month for August 2008.
Andy’s cartoons and caricatures have appeared in UK publications including The Guardian, The Times, The Sunday Telegraph, The Independent on Sunday, Private Eye, The Spectator, The New Statesman and Prospect. He has wielded his pen for TV too, drawing for the animated satirical cartoon series 2DTV and covering occasional political news events on Channel Five TV News and Sky TV News.

Bloghorn asked him a few questions, starting with a predictable one: What made you become a cartoonist?

First, I’m very embarrassed you asked me, because it’ll look like nepotism (Andy is the chairpersonman of the PCO, which runs Bloghorn – Ed). However, since you’re holding a water-pistol to my head …

The Voice from within made me do it, m’Lud. Hoarse from years of unacknowledged yelling, it shouted from atop a small grassy knoll somewhere in my gullet. It was only when someone asked me what all the shouting was that I took notice. Ah yes; the little noisy chap within.

He’d wanted to be a cartoonist from the age of about eight, seduced by an imagined life where ties were not essential but getting up late and being rather louche were absolutely expected. Although he didn’t know what louche meant. He wanted to draw characters from the pages of Wham! and Beano comics all day, essentially – with short breaks for football on the park – and saw a career in cartooning to represent just that.

My dour, rational self wilfully ignored such fancies and went about the long, long dreary task of establishing a deeply mediocre career in something hard, unrewarding and smelly (research chemistry). But the Voice kept shouting, letting up only while the usual unhealthy distractions of adolescence and early adulthood kept my mind off … well, anything really. Finally, I gave in – albeit far too late to build anything other than the career I have now.

Bloghorn says click D for Davey.

British cartoon talent