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Bloghorn is made on behalf of the UK Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation

Following an MP-generated controversy earlier in the year, when the University of Dundee launched the first mainstream postgraduate course in comic studies, student Laura Sneddon has helpfully begun blogging about the MLitt on a weekly basis for Comicbook resources.

Pulitzer-Prize winning US cartoonist Clay Bennett gave a talk this week in which he discussed the ‘best’ piece of hate mail he has ever received, and why “it’s hard to draw good cartoons where people are progressive”. Read more here.

As Steven Spielberg’s motion-capture Tintin film is released in cinemas, Scotsman.com asks how it will be received in Hergé’s Brussels.

Finally, a piece of original artwork by legendary Batman illustrator Jerry Robinson – the cover to Detective Comics #67 from 1942 – is expected to sell for over $300,000 when it comes to auction next month. Click here and get your chequebook ready.

There is also a new set of jokes from the pocket cartoonists we named in yesterday’s post. You can still see the cartoons online, whereas today’s batch can be seen here. The Bloghorn sends congratulations to all those featuring in the finals and encourages you to get to know the best cartoonist folios here.

The Bloghorn is made on behalf of the UK’s Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation

If you have not yet watched the behind-the-scenes video about Private Eye on the V&A site, you should take a look, particularly if you are in any way responsible for content in newspapers, magazines or websites.

Ian Hislop, Editor of Private Eye, one of Britain’s most successful magazines — which has seen its circulation rise of late, bucking the trend for the industry — reveals one of the keys to its success:

“Cartoons are fantastically popular — people love them. And I think most publications miss a trick …”

Watch the full video here.

The video shows Ken Pyne, a member of the Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation, which runs the Bloghorn, drawing a cartoon. Then one by the PCO’s Alexander Matthews is singled out for praise by Hislop. And when he lauds the benefits of cartoons he shows a page that includes gags by seven PCOers. Get the message? Check out the PCO portfolios here.

The original exhibition ran for only ten days but will get a longer run in nearby Canterbury.

Details here and you can read the original report on Bloghorn here.

Following the overthrow of Col. Gaddafi, artistic Libyans have painted caricatures of the dictator on walls throughout the country.

A Swedish cartoonist who has received death threats for depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a dog was the target of a foiled attack last month, according to the Telegraph.

Cartoonist and New Yorker cover artist Chris Ware is embracing new technology, having just released an iPad-only comic.

In some ways, though, the streamlining of technology is making the cartoonist’s job harder. So writes comic artist and illustrator Tom Papparlardo, in an entertaining entry on his blog.

Timed for the Liberal Democrat party conference this week, Gerald Scarfe caricatures Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg in a video clip (we’re promised his impressions of Cameron and Miliband in the weeks to come).

Finally, Irish political cartoonist Donal Casey has appealed for help in recovering a series of framed illustrations that were stolen from a train on Tuesday. TheJournal.ie has more on the story, including the relevant contact details in the event that you can help.

The Bloghorn is made on behalf of the UK Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation

Bloghorn

We also suggest that if you are keen to use cartoon art on your own or, the body of someone else, you pick from a wider menu of options. Take a random option or try the link below.

Bloghorn is made on behalf of the UK Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation

Rob Murray

As the 10^th anniversary of 9/11 nears, around 90 US cartoonists across five different syndicates have come together to produce commemorative editions of their strips. There’s more on the story at The Huffington Post and Voice of America. Meanwhile, Daryl Cagle has also asked some of America’s top political cartoonists to reflect on 9/11.

Here in the UK, the Advertising Standards Authority has banned an advert for mobile phone retailer Phones 4u, which features a cartoon depiction of Jesus, for being ‘disrespectful’. New Statesman weighs in and asks what is more offensive: the cartoon itself or the ASA’s decision to ban it. (Bloghorn is most perturbed by the apparenty lack of originality in the image – which bears remarkable similarity to this parody from the movies)

The Malvern Gazette notes that a plaque to First World War cartoonist Bruce Bairnsfather – creator of Old Bill – is to be unveiled in the village of Colwall in Herefordshire, where he lived towards the end of his life.

Finally, PCO member and fellow Bloghorner Royston Robertson has written about his recent visits to two cartoon exhibitions – both focused on the saucy seaside postcard. You can read his piece here.

Bloghorn is made on behalf of the UK Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation

Bloghorn admires the company’s long-term use of drawn imagery as a piece of business promotion (do visit the archives.) Today they have moved the still cartoon image into a animated video celebrating the memory of the flamboyant leader singer of Queen, Freddie Mercury.

Agree with our view on the most high-profile cartoon in the world? Please have your say in the comments below.

Bloghorn is made on behalf of the UK’s Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation