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.

Response to printed and digital cartoons is now pretty much instant as this tweet about a drawing by Peter Brookes of The Times shows.

What do people think of this cartoon in the Times?: http://lockerz.com/s/122196367

21st July 2011 9:12 am via EchofonReplyRetweetFavorite

@KathViner

Katharine Viner

Peter’s colleague Morten Morland (a PCO member) had a swift response below

Hilariously ridiculous mini-outrage over Peter's cartoon in The Times today. Twitter seem to think NI bosses are telling him what to draw...

21st July 2011 10:32 am via Twitter for iPadReplyRetweetFavorite

@mortenmorland

Morten Morland

The standard response of editorial cartoonists to feedback like this is

Hello @cathelliott @KathViner It's opinion. You may not share it. Offence tending to be in the eye of the beholder. End of. Surely? Rgds, MB

21st July 2011 9:20 am via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@mattbuck_hack

MattBuckHackCartoons

Or complete silence, but when the controversy crosses the oceans in seconds to other influential commentators…

Good God. Murdoch's troops no bounds RT @KathViner: What do people think of this cartoon in the Times?: http://bit.ly/oPeoYQ

21st July 2011 11:02 am via EchofonReplyRetweetFavorite

@jeffjarvis

Jeff Jarvis

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

To ppl insinuating Murdoch's wishes are behind that cartoon - grow up. It's just a bit of Fleet St tribalism, though admittedly ill-advised

21st July 2011 1:02 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@alexwalters

Alex Walters

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.

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.

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.

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. 

Rob Murray writes:

Australian current affairs website Crikey asks whether all physical attributes are fair game for caricature, or whether some may leave the cartoonist facing charges of sexism.

Too soon? In poor taste? Or a reasonable artistic response to world events? Eyebrows are being raised over at the Washington Post about a new graphic novel that interprets the events surrounding the assassination of Osama Bin Laden. Samples from a draft of the book can be seen here.

Scheduled for the last week in September, the Bath Festival of Children’s Literature 2011 is shaping up to be a memorable event for all those with an interest in illustration. The confirmed line-up includes appearances by artists including Axel Scheffler, Lydia Monks and Tony DiTerlizzi. Other highlights are a talk on Hergé’s great creation by Tintinologist Michael Farr, and a chance for kids to have a go at making their own picture book.

Retail news for all those either London-bound or living in the capital: haven for all things cartoony, Gosh! Comics, is moving to bigger premises after 25 years opposite the British Museum. It will relocate to a larger store at 1 Berwick Street in August.

If there is anything you think we should have seen please add it in the comments or write to us here.