A small but important addition to this year’s Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival is the exhibition of the completed Big Boards on the Sunday.

There is so much activity over the weekend that it’s easy to miss seeing some of the finished boards, but now the public get the chance to see this unique exhibition at their leisure on the Sunday.

The Bloghorn team, along with many other cartoonists and cartoon enthusiasts, have been taking loads of photos throughout the weekend. We’re in the process of getting them together online at Flickr. Expect to see many more throughout the week.

For a nice flavour of the Shrewsbury goings-on, see the piece written by festival patron Libby Purves in Saturday’s Times: Drawing the crowds.

The Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival is under way and recent volcanic news events are providing good material for cartoonists.

Three artists from Australia were invited this year, but only Jason Chatfield, above, was able to make it. Luckily Jason started travelling long before Eyjafjallajokull did its thing.

At the time of writing, 4pm on the Friday, the Big Boards in the market square are starting to take shape. Also to be found in the square are caricaturists and “reverse caricaturing” (you provide the face, seaside-board style, the cartoonists provide the body of your choice!)

Elsewhere there are cartoon exhibitions to be seen, on the theme of Magic, Myths and Mystery. And at the Darwin Shopping Centre, the HuMurals – a collection of single-panel cartoons that form a huge cartoon mural – are progressing.

The good people of Shrewsbury, who are no doubt used to the invasion of cartoonists as this is the 7th year of the festival, all seem to be joining in the fun – and there’s plenty more to come on Saturday and Sunday.

You can see lots more pictures, taken and tweeted throughout the day, at the Bloghorn Twitter feed.

Comedian, TV host and and cartoon fan Phill Jupitus has given his public support to this year’s upcoming Shrewsbury cartoon festival by signing up as a patron of the annual event. Phill and broadcaster Libby Purves will also be joined by BBC Radio 2 DJ Alex Lester.

The Festival’s full programme for 22-25 April is now available online and in a downloadable pdf brochure. You will be able to follow coverage of the event here at the Bloghorn and on our Twitter feed.

The festival, now in its seventh year, also enjoys support from long-time patrons Professor Colin Pillinger (the inspiring scientist from the Beagle 2 Mission to Mars) and TV news pundit Andrew Marr.

Highlights of this year’s event include an illustrated talk by one of Britain’s finest political cartoonists, Martin Rowson. His talk ‘Giving Offence – the Greatest Gift’ is at the Old Market Hall, 12.30pm on Saturday 24 April. Tickets are £5 from the Box Office which you can contact at 01743 281281.

Libby Purves presents an evening of conversation and cartoons with cartoonist Bill Stott at The Lion on Thursday 22 April at 7.30pm. Tickets are also £5 from Bear Steps Gallery , telephone 01743 356511

Full details of the many other free events, workshops, talks and cartooning activities are in the brochure linked above or from the official festival website.

Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival is organised by Shropshire Council, Shrewsbury Civic Society, The Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation, and Agate Design with support from the Arts Council and many volunteers and private sector sponsors. If you would like details of opportunities around this and future festivals you can make contact using the form below.

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Libby Purves, patron of the Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation, which runs the Bloghorn, writes in the Times today about how cartoons help us confront the dark side of human nature:

Cartoon grotesques let us face the real horrors

Above: Libby chats to the Guardian’s Steve Bell, creator of more than his fair share of cartoon grotesques, at last year’s Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival. Photograph © Gerard Whyman

A Telegraph reader praises British cartooning in response to last week’s article by PCO patron Libby Purves.

Bloghorn endorses and approves any comments about how marvellous British cartoonists are, though we would not agree with the Telegraph reader’s view on cartoons in “continental newspapers”, having just returned from the Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival.

An acclaimed exhibition by Czech cartoonist Miroslav Bartak can be seen at the Theatre Severn’s Chapel Bar in Shrewsbury until June 6. More details here.

PCO member Gerard Whyman has posted a selection of photographs taken at Shrewsbury on his Facebook page. Facebook members can view them here.

Libby Purves - friend of cartoonists © John Roberts for Bloghorn

Libby Purves talks cartoons and the Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival in The Telegraph. The annual event which opens this Thursday, 23rd April 2009.

PCO patron Libby Purves raised lots of laughs on Radio 4′s Stand-up With the Stars, as well as raising money for charity.

But sadly she was not the winner – that honour went to fellow Radio 4 presenter Peter White. Listeners decided the winner by a telephone vote. Proceeds from the vote raised money for Comic Relief.

You can read more about the programme and watch videos of the performances on the programme’s website.

With a little over six weeks to go until the start of the Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival, the full list of cartoonists in attendance has been revealed.

British cartoonists taking part this year will include Neil Dishington, Noel Ford, Pete Dredge, Andy Davey, Bill Stott, Martin Honeysett, Steve Bright, Steve Best, Tim Harries, John Roberts, Roger Penwill, Dave Brown, Kipper Williams, Nathan Ariss, Clive Goddard, Will Dawbarn, Andy McKay, John Landers, Janis Goodman, Jacky Fleming, Carol Isaacs, Hunt Emerson, Chichi Parish, Angela Martin, Jed Pascoe, Simon Ellinas, Chris Ryder, Helen Pointer, Terry Christien, Steve Bell, Kate Charlesworth and Gerard Whyman, who will be joined by Festival (and PCO) Patron Libby Purves. From Europe, Miroslav Bartak (Czech Republic), Heinz Pfister (Switzerland) and Michael Kountouris (Greece) will also be joining in the fun.

Royston Robertson, Alex Hughes and Matt Buck will be reporting the events for Bloghorn. Information on getting to and staying in Shrewsbury can be found here.

Update: It turns out we’ve missed Cathy Simpson from the list of attending cartoonists. Apologies, Cathy!

PCO patron Libby Purves made her attempt for competitive stand up comedy glory on BBC Radio 4 and you can watch a clip of her in action here.

“Cartoonists always go cheerfully and happily straight to the heart of the issue, or the trend, or the argument: they are wise, because they have seen the truth about life, which is that at the heart of everything there lies a joke.”

Libby Purves, columnist, broadcaster and patron of the Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival.

British cartoon talent