The new issue of Foghorn, the cartoon magazine of the UK Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation, has been published. Featuring a cover by Steve Bright and a back cover by Gerard Whyman, Foghorn is available to subscribers for the modest annual sum of £30 for six full colour issues all delivered to your door.

What’s inside this issue?

Toyshops in my life – Clive Collins reveals how he never got the hang of wrapping up a fully inflated football.

A word to the wise – Chris Madden explains how simplified spelling is quite str8forward.

The Trevelyan Files – Foghorn’s very own rip-roaring adventurer continues his exploits, courtesy of Andrew Birch.

Buildings in the Fog – Roger Penwill dons his architectural trousers and heads to the nearest railway station.

The Potting Shed – Cathy Simpson keeps our resident gardening experts in check. Careful with that strimmer!

A full page of Rob Murray cartoons (described by Michael Heath,  cartoon editor at the Spectator magazine, as one of the “smart new kids on the block”.)

Strips from Wilbur, Andy Davey and The Surreal McCoy.

And of course the fun-packed filler features – The Critic, The Foghorn Guide to, Letters to the Editor, and a fair bucketload of cartoons!

Buy your own annual subscription here.

The new issue of Foghorn, the cartoon magazine of the Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation, has been published. Featuring a cover by the PCO’s Andrew Birch (and a back cover by Higgins), Foghorn is available to subscribers for the modest sum of £30 for six full colour issues delivered to your door.

What’s inside?

Money in the wrong hands – Clive Collins recalls a case of mistaken identity.
This is your caption speaking – Rupert Besley goes back to school to find the trouble with words.
None shall pass! – Neil Dishington writes a short but sweet piece on the perils of online security.
Tickling the ivories – Tim Harries grabs his gold cape and widdly synth. Music lovers beware.
Foghorn guide to… – Bill Stott explains Equestrianism to non-horsey folk the world over. Some of it may even be true.
A full page of Noel Ford cartoons!

Plus…

…all the usual features – Buildings in the Fog, The Critic, The Potting Shed, Andy Davey’s ‘Foggy’ strip and plenty more cartoony random acts of humour.

You can also read older issues of Foghorn online here, right up to our most recent issue featuring a cover by, er, the author of this post Alex Hughes.

A new Foghorn magazine is published. Click the picture to subscribe to a beautiful print copy of your very own if you don’t already pay £30 for six issues a year. You can explore some free digital back copies here. This issue the cover artwork is by Alex Hughes.

What’s inside?

Spitting Image – Royston Robertson finds a cartoon namesake down under, and unearths some suprises.
Cool for Cats – Chichi Parish surfs the internet, stopping off to interview a cat-loving, Harley Davidson-riding nudist.
Yes, you read that correctly.
King of the Roundabout – Gerard Whyman gets behind the wheel for the first time in 21 years, and lives to tell us the tale.
Such Larks! – Foghorn’s resident Critic Pete Dredge takes on Lark Rise to Candleford.

Plus:
A four page preview of Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival featuring more cartoons than you can shake a stick at.
The Surreal McCoy – a full-page spread of artwork!
With Buildings in the Fog, The Foghorn Guide To, The Potting Shed and many more random acts of humour.

So, buy yourself a print subscription here

Teams of participants from the Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation who run Bloghorn will be participating in the annual Big Draw next weekend. Cartoonists Clive Goddard, Andy Bunday, Pete Dredge and Nathan Ariss will be representing the trade in the Battle of the Cartoonists. Colleagues Tim Harries, and Cathy Simpson will also be a running a series of workshops for visitors at the Idea Generation gallery in central London.

UPDATED: 9th September 2009 11.30am. You can also find details of the lots for auction here

In our final talk with artist of the month Kate Scurfield, we asked what she thought about the future of cartooning in the digital age.

E-mail has revolutionised delivery of images, although some editors (young ones) have used it to shorten deadlines. I believe as broadband speeds improve, the system will permit more elaborate websites for cartoonists including animation which is our greatest marketing tool.

My concern lies with plagiarism and electronic copying of our work. We can only reasonably protect our work in the UK and an increasing amount of my work goes overseas. I feel we are always playing catch up with the computer nerds and one day someone will sell a clever tool to remove watermarks at the flick of a switch. I have personally suffered from copyists both here and overseas and it is potentially a big threat. Artists have to think of a better way of protecting their work from being copied.

I dream of owning a Mac and a graphics pad and dig pen, but I will never give up drawing on watercolor paper and using a paintbrush.

Our thanks to Kate and look out for a new Artist of the Month for July next Friday.

No39. published in June 2009 – cover artwork this month is by Steve Bell.

The Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation of the UK publishes the Foghorn six times a year and you may subscribe to a glossy, printed version for a mere £30 by contacting us at this mail link here.

You can download a recent issue as a pdf file to see what it’s all about from here. Please add anything you want to share about what you find in the comments underneath this post.

Inside this issue;
Chris Madden introduces us to a Wallace you may be unfamiliar with.
Tim Harries wonders where all the stylophones went.
The Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival preview offers a plethora of cartoony goodness.
Wilbur Dawbarn gets scientific.
The Foghorn guide to Evolution raises a few eyebrows.
And Pete Dredge takes on Horne and Corden.

Subscribe to our six editions a year print copy from here. Or, try a look at (or download) previous issues here.

Bloghorn freebie: Spot on

Win a pair of tickets to an evening of cartoon, caricature and graphic satire with Posy Simmonds, Steve Bell and Bill Feaver at Kings Place in London.

All you have to do is impress Bloghorn by making the best addition to the following proposition in the comments underneath this post;

Posy Simmonds excels at storytelling because…

If you would rather not post publicly, you can email Bloghorn with your line – please put Posy Simmonds in the title line of your email.

Bloghorn will pick the lucky winner of the pair of tickets on Friday at noon.

Posy, Steve and Bill are talking on Monday 6th April, at 7pm at Hall One, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London, N1 9AG. The nearest Tube station is Kings Cross and Kings Place is 5 minutes walk north on York Way close to Crinan Street.

Cut and paste the N1 9AG postcode into the search Google maps for the exact location.
Google Maps

Win or don’t quite win this time, tickets are also available online for £9.50 at Kings Place.

Chichi Parish finds out what happens when burlesque meets art school at Dr Sketchy’s.
Chris Madden gets scientific for Valentine’s with “Love is a drug.’’
Clive Collins goes a bit historical with “Don’t mention the War.”
Do you know how to spot a “David Low’’ forgery? If not, subscribe to this magazine.
Pete Dredge takes on TV cookery shows in “The Critic”
Roger Penwill turns his gaze to windows in “Buildings in the Fog’’
Plus the usual features, and an extra large helping of jokes.

Following on from Bloghorn’s earlier post that mentioned Scott McCloud’s concept of the Infinite Canvas, it has transpired that Microsoft has released a working demo of a piece of software called (imaginatively enough) Infinite Canvas that allows the cartoonist to tell a story in a way that is unencumbered by the traditional boundaries of the printed page.

In a nutshell, this means that the comic can proceed continuously left to right. Or up and down. Or indeed, diagonally across the screen, forking off at random points, reconnecting with other points in the story or even just crossing it. The comic can be advanced by clicking a frame at a time, or by moving the mouse around, or by zooming out to see the whole strip. Or many, many other possible transitions. The possibilities are, well, infinite…

At the moment, details are sketchy. You’ll need JavaScript turned on in your browser, but you probably have that already. There are a number of sample strips up on the demonstration site, including The Day the Saucers Came by Neil Gaiman (of Sandman and Stardust fame) and Brad’s Somber Mood by Scott McCloud. You can even create your own – I’ve had a quick play myself: The Five Stages of a Blogger’s Life (via the Online Journalism Blog). The tools are a little crude at the moment, but this is a work in progress, and could hold great potential for the future.

(via D’log)