Voting has now taken place for the 2009 UK Young Cartoonist of the Year awards. The awards will be presented at the annual Cartoon Art Trust event in central London this evening. The awards are made in two categories, for artists under 18 and 30s years old, and were chosen from more than 200 submissions. The judges panel was headed by Guardian cartoonist and PCO member Martin Rowson. Fellow judge Christian Adams of The Daily Telegraph has written about the process here. Bloghorn will have full coverage tomorrow.

The three-week London-centred comic festival Comica opens today, featuring the usual mix of talks, workshops and exhibitions including the Cartoon Museum‘s 30 Years of Viz celebration (previously on Bloghorn) and a collection of original artwork from American underground comic legend Robert Crumb (previously). Also happening is the small press and self-publisher’s fair, Comiket, this coming Sunday at the ICA. There’s a full program of everything that’s going on here (or in PDF form here). Comica continues until the 26 November at various locations across the city.

Coming later in the month is the Thought Bubble festival in Leeds, happening between Thursday 19 and Sunday 22 November, and features more workshops, talks and exhibitions and incorporates the Thought Bubble one-day comic convention on the Saturday at Saviles Hall, opposite the Royal Armories.

“Many readers would not admit it but the first thing they do with a magazine like The Oldie is to flick through it to look at the cartoons. If that is true, as I think it is, then the cartoons assume enormous importance.”

Richard Ingrams, editor of The Oldie, and former editor of Private Eye, in an intro to The Oldie Book of Cartoons 1992-2009

Read the full piece here

The Oldie is hosting an exhibition at London’s Cartoon Museum from this Thursday, October 1, until December 24, 2009. A selection of cartoons from the new book will be on display.

You can also buy more than 100 original cartoons just around the corner at Abbott and Holder Ltd on Museum Street. See them online here

Margaret Thatcher caricatured by Charles Griffin

The Cartoon Museum in London has a series of talks coming up by Kenneth Baker, John Minnion and Steve Bell, to tie-in with the exhibition Maggie! Maggie! Maggie!

Margaret Thatcher – A Unique Phenomenon takes place on Tuesday 16th June, 6.30pm – 7.30pm. From 1985 to 1990 Kenneth Baker was a minister in Margaret Thatcher’s administrations. He is a collector and writer on cartoons and co-curator of the exhibition.

Where There is Discord: The Mrs Thatcher Show is on Tuesday 23rd June, 6.30pm – 7.30pm. John Minnion, caricaturist for the New Statesman, has put together a presentation using caricatures and music to tell the story of the Thatcher years.

Maggie – the Monster from the Blue Lagoon? takes place on Wednesday 1st July, 7pm – 8pm. Steve Bell began drawing Margaret Thatcher in “Maggie’s Farm” and later in “If…”. He has been the chief political cartoonist on The Guardian since 1990. He talks about his three decades of drawing Margaret Thatcher.

Admission prices: Adults £5, Conc £4, Friends of the Museum £3.50. Booking is essential, call 020-7580 8155. The exhibition runs until July 26. The Cartoon Museum, at 35 Little Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London is open Tuesday-Saturday 10.30am to 5.30pm and Sundays 12pm to 5.30pm.

Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell answers the question ‘What do cartoons mean to you?’ at the recent Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival. He and former Conservative Education Secretary Kenneth Baker have co-curated the Thatcher retrospective exhibition Maggie! Maggie! Maggie! which opens to the public at the Cartoon Museum today.

The UK’s National Cartoon Museum is at 35 Little Russell Street, London WC1A 2HH.

SHREWSBURY UPDATE: Alex Lester, night-time DJ on BBC Radio 2, visited the cartoon festival this year, at the invitation of PCOer Clive Goddard. Here is Alex’s personal account.

Margaret Thatcher caricatured by Charles Griffin

It was 30 years ago today (May 4) that Margaret Thatcher walked through the doors of 10 Downing Street as Prime Minister, quoting the words of St. Francis of Assisi. Opinion is still sharply divided on whether or not she managed to bring harmony where there was discord, or hope where there was despair.

The two contrasting views on the Iron Lady will be represented in an exhibition which opens at the Cartoon Museum in London on Wednesday (May 6) entitled Maggie! Maggie! Maggie! Margaret Thatcher – Mother of the Nation or Monster from the Blue Lagoon.

The exhibition, which runs until July 26, is guest curated by two veterans of the ideological battles of the Thatcher years: Kenneth Baker, who served in the Thatcher cabinet from 1985 until 1990, and Steve Bell, political cartoonist for The Guardian who established his reputation as a fierce satirist during the Thatcher Years. No prizes for guessing which view each curator will be taking.

The exhibition aims to show how Thatcher has been both loved and loathed by politicians, the press and the public. The selection of nearly 100 cartoons by 35 cartoonists from across the political spectrum includes works by Bell himself, Michael Cummings, Stanley Franklin, Nicholas Garland, Les Gibbard, Charles Griffin, Jak, Peter Kennard, Gerald Scarfe, Posy Simmonds and Ralph Steadman.

It chronicles her rise to power, the Falklands war, the miners’ strike, privatisation, the poll tax, Europe, her eventual downfall and her long term impact on both the Conservative and Labour parties.

A fully illustrated 100-page catalogue will be available to accompany the show, it includes contributions by the two curators, along with such diverse types as Lord Carrington, Michael Foot, Geoffrey Howe, Ken Loach, David Owen, David Steel and Norman Tebbit.

The Cartoon Museum, at 35 Little Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London is open Tuesday-Saturday 10.30am to 5.30pm and Sundays 12pm to 5.30pm.

The BBC have a short preview piece available here.

And in the interests of balance, and because you probably can’t turn your computer monitor upside down …

New Cartoon Museum set to open. Angoulême, in the Poitou-Charentes region of western France and home to the recent International Comics Festival (as reported here) is to get a 1,300 sq m museum dedicated to the history and practice of creating cartoons and comics. The museum is planned to open in June, when entrance fees will be €4 (£3.50) for adults to the main museum and €3 (£2.60) for the additional temporary exhibitions. Combined entrance will be €6 (£5.30) per adult.

South Korea to celebrate 100 years of cartoons. Since the publication of the first Korean cartoon (a political cartoon on Japanese efforts to annexe the peninsula) on 2 June 1909 cartoons and comics have blossomed into a industry thought to be worth around US$600 million (over £400 million). The Korean government is also setting aside $96 million (over £60 million) over the next five years to support the industry.

Cartoons used as a ‘medium of social crusade’ in Nigeria. The Spanish Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria is hosting a programme to reinforce and promote the culture of cartooning through a series of workshops, exhibitions and awards, with the aim of encouraging sharing and co-operation between their two cultures.

Cartoon by Stan Eales, owned by the Royal Automobile Club

BBC Radio Four’s Today website has a series of pictures on A Peep into Clubland, the new exhibition at the Cartoon Museum.

There’s more on the show here.

“Very well meant” by H. M. Bateman

A Peep into Clubland: Cartoons from Private London Clubs is the title of an exhibition which runs from February 18 to May 3 at the Cartoon Museum in London.

It is billed as a rare chance to see more than a hundred works from the Athenaeum, Annabel’s, the Garrick, the MCC, Harry’s Bar, the Reform Club, the Sketch Club, Chelsea Arts Club and others.

London’s Private Clubs hold many cartoons, caricatures and prints on a wide range of subjects. They may delight and amuse their members, but they are inaccessible to everyone else, so this show offers the wider public a rare chance to enjoy them.

The show features cartoons by H. M. Bateman (above), Peter Arno, Heath Robinson, Gillray, Thomas Rowlandson, Pont and many more.

The Cartoon Museum, at 35 Little Russel Street, near the British Museum, is open Tuesday-Saturday 10.30am – 5.30pm and Sunday 12pm-5.30pm. Ticket prices: adults £4, concessions £3, students and under-18s free.

Link: The Cartoon Museum website

Everyone likes an online row, and cartoonist Rod McKie has provoked one on his blog with a blast at the recent Cartoon Art Trust Awards. (We blogged it here.)

Rod is an established professional cartoonist, well known for his forthright opinions. In this article he dismisses the entire genre of caricature (“It’s a fairly tired old medium now, isn’t it?”) and all political cartoonists (“They are all cowards who row-in with the ideology of the press barons they work for”). His particular beef against the CAT awards is that they are an “insular, parochial, London-based affair”, and he doesn’t appear to value many of those who won awards. Cartoonists have pitched in on his blog – including one of the award recipients – some agreeing and others disagreeing.

Bloghorn takes the view that anyone who sets up an award and is prepared to pay for the preparations, gets to choose how to judge it. You may not agree with their choices, but isn’t this always the way with awards ceremonies? Look at the grumblings that surround the Oscars every year.

But we are prepared to defend the Cartoon Museum itself, which is run by the Cartoon Art Trust. The museum, which receives no public funding, is among the most popular small museums in the country. There are some visitor reviews available here. Rod says the CAT has “never appeared on my radar” and adds that he knows nothing about the museum, as if that justifies his dislike.

Cartoon Museum workshops cover cartooning in all its forms. Pic: Cartoon Museum

The London museum may seem irrelevant to a cartoonist based in Scotland, but if he did make a trip, he would find that they do some great work, and it’s not all about joke and political cartoons or caricature. Look at the work that cartoonist Steve Marchant does there, running endless workshops and creative classes for young people. These cover comics, graphic novels and manga … the works.

We also take issue with the notion that cartoons that appear in British newspapers and magazines are somehow “parochial”. Rod seems to be of the view that in a globalised economy all cartoons should appeal to the whole world. We argue cartoons should reflect the real lives and experiences of people and any attempt to homogenise them for a world audience would be bad for cartooning as a whole.

Discuss. All comments welcome. Comment moderation is turned on.

Royston Robertson and Matt Buck

Updated at 3pm 9th December 2008:
The Cartoon Museum has kindly sent details of its visitor numbers since Britain’s first dedicated museum to the art of the cartoon opened in February 2006. Curator Anita O’Brien reports that from the time the museum opened in February 2006 until the end of 2006 it had 17,653 visitors. During 2007 this rose to 24,110 and to date in 2008, 27,410.

The PCO: Great British cartoon talent
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