Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival kicks off tonight with a drop-in cartoon workshop at the Bear Steps Gallery at 4.30pm, and a talk by Dr Nick Hiley from the British Cartoon Archive on the cartoons of Carl Giles at Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery at 7pm, tickets £5.

In the meantime, the exhibition Personal Bests opened on Monday (also at the Bear Steps Gallery) and features cartoons on the Festival’s Olympic theme, including these:

Bloghorn Shrewsbury 2011 Olympics cartoon © Pete Dredge

Bloghorn Shrewsbury 2011 Olympics cartoon © Chichi Parish

Come back to Bloghorn for coverage of the festival as it happens, or follow the hashtag #shrews11 on Twitter.

Cartoon previews from the Personal Bests exhibition, one of the headline events at this year’s Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival which opens next week.

Personal Bests Exhibition at Bloghorn © Nathan Ariss Cartoon

Personal Bests Exhibition at Bloghorn © Bill Stott Cartoon

Personal Bests Exhibition at Bloghorn © The Surreal McCoy

An exhibition of Carl Giles cartoons has also opened at the town museum.

Carl Giles cartoon exhibition at Shrewsbury 2011 © Estate of Carl Giles

The 2011 Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival is almost upon us and  visitors can expect a packed weekend of activities in the heart of the medieval town.

The main event weekend is April 16th-17th but many shows and exhibitions open in advance  and Bloghorn has attached details to this handy map.

Enlarge the map

The festival has been running since 2004. Please click here to scroll back through some of last year’s activities.

Bloghorn and the membership of the Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation are long time collaborators with the Festival, the local council and its commercial sponsors.

Artist Kazuhiko Hachiya has made an animated short to help explain the ongoing nuclear crisis to Japanese children. The clip’s title character, Nuclear Boy, plays the role of the ill child representing Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.

Reaction to the colorful clip has been mixed, with some folks calling it distasteful and others arguing it makes the situation more comprehensible for worried young children. Please comment below if you would like, Bloghorn does moderate comments if needed.

The Chattoon! cartoon show has released a new interview with Neil Innes of  Rutland Weekend Television and The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band (Princess Anne on Sousaphone).

The featured cartoonist in this episode, Simon Ellinas, told Bloghorn;

Neil and Yvonne Innes invited us out to their house in Suffolk to do this Chattoon! after I met him at an Idiot Bastard Band gig in London. As it was a much longer shoot than the Comedy Store, it was possible to do most of the cartooning on the spot in real time.

You can enjoy the edited highlights above – and  a back catalogue song of Neil’s below. Complete with a fine understanding of the power in good cartoon jokes.

Did you spot a young Rowan Atkinson in the video?

The UK Press Gazette reports today that the Mirror Group Newspapers have signed Simon Tofield, creator of internet cartoon sensation, Simon’s Cat to bring his regular cartoon feature to their products.

There is an interview with the four cat owning cartoonist in the Mirror here. You can also hear the man speaking in this video from the British International Comics Show of last autumn.

Bloghorn offers congratulations to Simon on the excellent news. It’s particularly good to see an internet cartoon finding its way back into a traditional market – and benefitting from its relationship with both forms of publishing.

Congratulations to the winner of our January competition.

Mark Bryant WW2 in cartoons

We hope Stuart Cooper will enjoy his copy of Mark Bryant’s excellent book – World War 2 in cartoons. Stuart correctly answered questions one, two and three and in strictly sequential order those answers were:

Question 1. Careless Talk (profile)

Question 2. Bruce Bairnsfather (profile)

Question 3. Ronald Searle (profile)

The book is now winging its way to our victorious reader in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.

Thanks to everyone who entered and we are sorry there could only be one victor this time.

It is January and the winter blues need chasing away, so cheer yourself with our winter quiz.

Mark Bryant WW2 in cartoons

If you can answer the three questions to come today and over the next two Mondays, you’ll go into a prize draw for a copy of Mark Bryant’s excellent book – World War 2 in cartoons.

Simple as that.

Contestants enter the draw by answering the questions by email to the editor after the last question is posted on 24th Jan. The draw will be conducted in an old paint pot at one of Bloghorn’s many residences and the editor’s decision is final. A winner by the end of the Month.

And here’s question one…

In the Second World War poster campaign created by the Punch cartoonist Kenneth Bird, aka Fougasse, what was said to cost lives?

Question two next Monday.