Read more about lots of magic cartoons – and the people who make them appear.

After several years as the plucky underdog, the Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation’s team, this year rebranded as Team Bloghorn, has finally emerged victorious from the annual Battle of the Cartoonists.

Our team came joint first with Private Eye in the Big Draw event in which four teams completed a large banner on the theme of “Now We Are Ten”, celebrating a decade of The Campaign for Drawing. They faced stiff competition from teams from The Sun and The Independent.

A banner year: The Bloghorn team was made up of, left to right, Andy Bunday, Clive Goddard, captain Pete Dredge, holding the cup, who oversaw proceedings, and Nathan Ariss

Work in progress: Clive and Pete get drawing. Click here, to see the full, completed banner

In a post-match interview, Pete told the Bloghorn: “Justice and victory at last for the PCO’s Battle of the Cartoonists’ team, albeit jointly with the Eye (Shurely shome mistake – Ed). What seemed like a clear-cut decision was mysteriously drawn out into a “cheer-off” head-to-head. And even then our clearly louder decibel reading was insufficient for us to be declared outright winners. A big draw indeed!”

Joint winners: The Private Eye team, left to right, Simon Pearsall, Richard Jolley and Ken Pyne, also a PCO member, with MC Andrew Marr, who is a patron of the PCO

But the event is not just about the glory of winning. PCO members Tim Harries, and Cathy Simpson were on hand to run drawing workshops for children and adults at the event, which took place at the Idea Generation gallery in Shoreditch, London.

Drawn to it: Cathy Simpson hosted a workshop for children

The workshoppers were ably assisted by The Surreal McCoy. All photographs here are by Gerard Whyman, who was on hand as the official PCO photographer.

Clive Goddard, Andy Bunday and Nathan Ariss will be representing the PCO in the form of Team Bloghorn at this year’s Big Draw Battle of the Cartoonists challenge on Saturday 12th September, 2-5pm at the Idea Generation Gallery, 11 Chance Street, London E2 7JB (map).

Team Bloghorn is understood to be up against Dave Brown’s Independent and Andy Davey’s The Sun teams with, possibly, Private Eye too.

The Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation previously competed in the Battle of the Cartoonists in 2008 and 2007

Helping mammon soften his image, by Stephen Collins

The Prospect magazine blog continues its Cartoonist of the Month series by firing questions at PCOer Alex Matthews. You can also read interviews on the bog with Nick Downes and Clive Goddard.

Meanwhile, the magazine has also announced a new regular cartoon strip, excerpt above, drawn by Times cartoonist and Cartoon Art Trust award winner Stephen Collins.

Most cartoonists have wondered how they can bypass traditional publication and get their work direct to a paying audience, particularly if they have ever seen rejected drawings and jokes appreciated by the general public.

PCOer Clive Goddard has joined forces with cartoon-merchandise producer Steve Willis to come up with an ingenious solution: a cartoon market stall.

They brushed up on their cheeky stallholder banter and took a spot at Oxford Castle Market this weekend, selling cartoon T-shirts, cards, mugs, key-rings, books, original art and other merchandise. Steve told the Bloghorn: “We certainly felt it was worth continuing. We’ll be at Oxford Castle Market on Saturdays for the foreseeable future.”

The pair are now set to offer free space, for a commission, to a caricaturist sitting adjacent to the stall, as there are always plenty of tourists seeing the sights of Oxford passing by.

Bloghorn wonders how long it can be before we see a cartoon market stall on EastEnders. It would cheer up Albert Square no end.

For the week ending 1st May 2009, we have a Shrewsbury Big Boards Special, a selection of some of the giant cartoons seen at this year’s festival.

One: Steve “Bestie” Best on CO2 emissions

Two: Jacky Fleming’s Mrs Darwin

Three: Kipper Williams looks at a mayfly’s day

Four: Clive Goddard on human resources

Five: Dave Brown’s Frankengordon

Six: Denis Dowland’s not so busy bee

Normal service will be resumed next week.

Subscribe to The Foghorn
The PCO: Great British cartoon talent

Shrewsbury’s venerable Bear Steps Gallery this year houses the Boffination exhibition. The venue is packed to its ancient rafters with high quality jokes on the subject of science and nature which the festival cartoonists will be only too pleased to flog to you for home display.

Prospect magazine has launched a new Cartoonist of the Month feature, as part of its First Drafts blog. And PCOer Clive Goddard is the first to offer an insight into the world of cartooning.

Bloghorn and DFC contributor Clive Goddard writes:

In June last year there was a meeting at Oxford University Press about the launch of a new children’s comic. Being a local, I turned up hoping to find out what sort of thing they were envisaging and, of course, to hob-nob with its creators.

I met publisher David Fickling and realised he was very serious and passionate about what he was attempting but I learned nothing about being a contributor. Even at that stage they had more illustrators and writers than they needed.

The talk was aimed at potential buyers and editors rather than artists. Having taken out a subscription to get an idea of the content I was surprised at its diversity. Dark, bleak, beautifully drawn graphic novel style strips featuring man-eating monsters and dead babies, rubbed pages with naïve, childlike things seemingly aimed at six-year-olds.

Fickling had said at his talk that he didn’t want the DFC to be seen as either a “girl’s or a boys comic” but appealing to all. To me this lack of identity or focus seemed to be its problem. It was trying to please all of the people all of the time. The subscription-based business model was also difficult with the lack of advertising revenue and the need to be mail order to keep the cover cost down.

I wrote, drew and submitted 3 pages (one episode) of an idea, but never found the time or the motivation to submit more, which is now probably just as well. Of course, specialising in one-panel art, I was also not used to how long it takes to make that sort of thing!

I have my fingers crossed, however, that it might continue in some form or other. Not least because I want to find out what happens to Wilbur Dawbarn’s dancing bear.

Laura Howell, another contributor to the comic, said:

It was a fantastic project to be involved with, and should be applauded as the daring idea it was. This world would be a poorer place without people brave enough to take a chance on creating something new and unique.

Comics artist and expert Lew Stringer has a good, perceptive piece of analysis about the DFC  here.