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

Whilst some other Sunday newspapers are cutting back on their cartoons, the Sunday Times has expanded its cartoon content with the inclusion of 101 Uses for a Celebrity.

The regular  feature will appear in the Style section and is drawn by The Surreal McCoy, a former Bloghorn Artist of the Month and a member of the Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation (the group which makes this web site).

Surreal tells us;

I had originally drawn a cartoon with a couple of old ladies sitting in a car parked in front of Thora Hird who was balanced sideways on 2 traffic cones. One old lady was saying to the other ‘‘Oooh, isn’t that Thora Hird?’’ and the caption read ‘Celebrity Roadblocks’. I soon started wondering to what other uses could celebrities be put? Then to find out who was flavour of the month it was a matter of reading as many celeb magazines I could lay my hands on, whilst using that great excuse ‘‘its for research purposes, no really’’, and drawing them in all manner of undignified poses. This was a few years ago and of course they did the rounds of editors’ desks, dutifully returning each time with the usual ‘‘we really liked your idea but don’t have the money/space/imagination/etc’’ rejection note. Until the art editor at the Sunday Times’ Style magazine had a look at the PCO’s website, chanced upon my portfolio, visited my site and offered me the gig. Joining the PCO has got to be one of my better decisions.

Bloghorn thinks a lot of publications, print and digital, could benefit from the skills, fun and entertainment that people like this can bring to developing and keeping readerships.

The Only Joking! exhibition, a collection of gag cartoons old and new, opened at the Cartoon Museum in London today (Jan 27).

The show is designed to raise spirits in the deep winter with a few much-needed hearty chuckles, though when PCOer Martin Honeysett attended the private view yesterday he found that many people were clearly at home nursing winter colds (like this Bloghorn writer!)

Martin said: “I suppose the sparcity of cartoonists in the pub beforehand should have indicated the smallness of the throng attending. Never mind, all the better to get a good view of the fine work on display, extolling the virtues of this form of comic art and the lack of current appreciation.

“It’s a nice mix of old and new and an opportunity to see some gems from the museum collection. Well worth a visit.”

So, sup up your Lemsip (other cold remedies are available) and get down to the Cartoon Museum in Little Russell Street before the exhibition ends on March 1. For more details visit the website.

An exhibition entitled Only Joking! is at the Cartoon Museum, London, from January 27 until March 1. The show is billed as a collection of joke cartoons old and new designed to raise spirits in the deep winter. Meanwhile, you have until January 24 to catch 30 Years of Viz at the museum. For more, visit the website.

A lecture on the Power of the Cartoon given at the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in London in autumn 2009. The talk is delivered and performed by PCOer Martin Rowson. Editor’s word – this lecture does contain some strong language.

As mentioned previously in the year here on Bloghorn, a team representing the Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation is set to appear on the BBC quiz show Eggheads. The team, comprising Chris Burke, Royston Robertson, Robert Duncan, Graham Fowell, Martin Rowson and myself, Alex Hughes, will air on BBC2 at 6pm on Thursday 29th October. Obviously, we can’t let you know how we did, but you can expect full coverage here on Bloghorn the following day…

Noel Ford’s first Punch magazine cartoon

PCO cartoonist Noel Ford has an exhibition of his work at the Museum and Art Gallery in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, until November 8.

The gallery is celebrating the work of the locally born cartoonist to mark the Campaign for Drawing’s Big Draw month. The show features images spanning Noel’s career, including work from the museum’s own collection alongside recent digital illustrations.

Noel Ford’s cartoons have featured in many national publications, notably Punch magazine, as well as the local Nuneaton Tribune newspaper. The exhibition will feature his early entry to Nuneaton Festival of Arts as well as his later original colour cover artwork for Punch.

The cartoonist will be giving a lunchtime talk on Friday 23rd October, 12.30 – 1.30pm. The talk is free, but booking is essential. Contact the museum on 024-7635 0720

Nuneaton Museum and Art Gallery is open Tue – Sat 10.30am – 4.30pm and Sun 2pm – 4.30pm

Bloghorn spotted this great work during this week ending the 25th September 2009.

One: Peter Brookes in The Times on the special relationship

Two: Nicholas Garland in The Daily Telegraph on
a very public crash

Three: Len Hawkins in The Spectator on paranoid parenting

The PCO: Great British cartoon talent
Subscribe to The Foghorn – our print cartoon magazine

Cartoonists in the UK have much in common with our colleagues throughout the world, and we keep in touch via international competitions and festivals, but what we in the UK are sadly missing, unlike our friends in France, is … a song!

Yes, Feco France have written their own song in praise of the noble art of cartooning. (Feco is the Federation of Cartoonists’ Organisations, of which the PCO, the people behind The Bloghorn, is a member.) The song is très French, but is rather wistful and pleasant. You can listen to it online, complete with animated pencils, here. And you can read about it and check out the lyrics, in French, here.

Sadly, this writer dropped French at O-level and has not a clue what is being sung, other than that the word liberté occurs rather a lot. An online translation does not help, there appears to be a lot of stuff about “mines”. Something has surely got lost in translation.

Anyway, it seems our gallic chums have set us a challenge. How do we UK cartoonists come up with our own song? If anyone out there has any good ideas for lyrics, themes, and the kind of tune we need (no blues songs, please) then add your comments below …

Thanks to PCOer Roger Penwill for the spot.

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.